Property-Owning Pioneers

Property-Owning Pioneers. Henry and Catharine "Kitty" Wilson. Despite beginning their lives enslaved at nearby farms, Henry and Catharine "Kitty" Wilson became some of the first Black property owners in the Galesville region when they bought two acres in 1865. By 1871, they had added 26.5 acres of land to their holdings and built a substantial 2-story frame dwelling house prominently fronting Galesville's Main Street. The Wilsons were leaders of the local Black community-they set a precedent for Black home ownership and sparked the founding of the West Benning Road community in the early 20th century.

Times were turbulent when, in 1828, at the age of 23, Henry Wilson was manumitted by his father, Thomas Wilson Following the Nat Turner Rebellion in 1833, there was societal unrest in the region and intense restrictions for free Blacks like the Wilsons. Despite these obstacles, Henry prospered, working as a farmhand on local plantations. This is likely how he met his future wife, Kitty Neal, who was enslaved. When Kitty was granted her manumission by the Cheston's of Ivy Neck on March 27, 1844, she had a two-year-old son, William.

By 1860, Henry and Kitty had married and lived in the West River area along with 28-year-old William, and three other children, Ellen, Richard, and Joseph Henry--still working as a farmhand had the wherewithal by 1865 to purchase two acres of land for $250 from the nearby Tulip Hill plantation. In 1871, Wilson expanded his land holdings and built a home. Wilson was exceptional-one of only 2,730 freedmen who owned land in Maryland, and of those, one of only 462 who owned a house: Wilson's acreage and fine house were a testament to his success, prosperity, and industry.

In 1920, Wilson's son Richard, realizing the soils were too poor for farming, allowed some of the family's land to be used as a community sandlot ball field. For over 80 years, the Hot Sox sandlot provided weekly entertainment and recreation for Galesville's Black community, forming an important center of community life.

Henry Wilson's property and the ball field represented the western boundary of West Benning Road, Galesville's predominantly Black neighborhood. Here, African American families followed in the Wilsons footsteps, buying land and building houses.

Excerpt from Henry Wilson's 1528 Manumission Papers

"I Thomas Wilson of Anne Arundel County in the state of Maryland for divers good causes me thereunto moving and also for the further consideration of ten dollars current to me in hand paid have released from slavery manumitted and set free and by these present do liberate manumitt and set free negro Henry Wilson my son and slave aged about twenty three years and able to work and gain a livelihood and him the said Henry Wilson I do declare to be henceforth [have released from slavery manumitted and set free]..."

[Captions]:
(Above) Image of the Wilson House as it looked ca. 1875, based on archaeological and archival evidence. Artwork by Barry Gay.

(Above) 1870 Galesville census lists Henry Wilson, aged 42, as a farmhand, his wife Catharine, aged 49, as "keeping house," and two children 8 and 15. Their real estate is valued at "$1,800."

The Wilson homestead and farm, located in the West Benning Road neighborhood, served as a cornerstone of Galesville's Black community. The above 1878 map indicates that "Kate" (Catharine) Wilson was the owner of two houses on the property.