Good Hope Settlement / Hill Top Elementary School

Good Hope Settlement, also, Hill Top Elementary School. Sandy Spring African American Heritage Trail. , Good Hope Settlement , Good Hope was one of a group of rural African American communities that was established after the civil war with the emancipation of slaves in the area. Good Hope was organized as a community from the 1880s-1920, before outmigration, white suburban growth, and regional politics began to encroach or change the community organization and lifestyles of the residents. Like most rural settlements houses were organized in a linear fashion along a major farm road and were settled by families who previously resided on nearby farms. Original families included Adams, Boston, Burton, Crutchfield, Jones, Lee, Powell, Pumphrey, Singleton, Slater, Smith, Stewart, Williams and Wilson. The names of these pioneer residents are marked on the gravestones behind the church. The white landowners in Cloverly and Spencerville were the Stablers, Tysons and Watts., Less than 100 residents settled at Good Hope. Most were employed as farm laborers, domestics and in time developed the economic stability to build their local church which became the center of life in the community. Through the church the residents worshiped, socialized and gathered news and other information about other African American communities via the network of churches and circuit riding preachers., Seven years after the Civil War, the community founded the Good Hope Union United Methodist Church and the associated cemetery. The church served the local communities of Holly Grove/Sandy Spring and Smithville., In the late 40's a new church was established across Good Hope Road, leaving the original church and cemetery at its original site., Unlike other rural community settlements, no public school was attached to this village and students attended school at nearby Round Oak Missionary Baptist Church., Walter "Buddy" Williams, National Negro League Legend , Walter "Buddy" Williams, who pitched a breaking fast curve ball with control was a legend in the Negro League baseball field from 1936-1940. Playing against other legends like Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, and Jackie Robinson, Williams pitched mostly for the Newark (N.J) Eagles, but also for the Birmingham (Ala) Black Barons, and the Atlanta Black Crackers. Williams and other Negro League players are featured in "I will Never Forget" by Brent Kelley, published by McFarland and Company, Inc., Aug 21, 2003 , 89-year-old Walter "Buddy" Williams holds a team photo from when he played the Newark Eagles of the Negro League in 1939. He's quite positive he's in this photograph., The great-great grandson of a freed slave in North Carolina, Williams settled in the Good Hope community where he married and joined the Union Baptist church in 1935. He served in the United States Army from 1940-1945. When he came home from the war, he declined the offer from the baseball commissioner and many players to return to professional ball. "I prefer to stay home with my wife and raise my beautiful family" says Buddy Williams. In 1945 he accepted work installing Venetian blinds and later worked for 33 years for the Montgomery County School Board. Walter "Buddy" Williams remains a legend in Negro League baseball who prides himself in "knowing no enemy anywhere in the world". Walter Williams gave up a professional baseball career to raise a family., Hill Top Elementary School , The most historic building was a three room Rosenwald School house built by black trustees of the area with some assistance from the Freedmens Bureau. Named the Sandy Spring Colored School, Hill Top Elementary school served the community from the 1930s until the 1950s. This three-room school supported Grades 1-8 education, after which students were bussed to Lincoln High School and eventually to Carver High School in Rockville. For a while, Mr. Ross Boddy was Principal at Hill Top.