Author: Patrick

Categories
Buchanan

Attack by the slavers

One month after the town began, a local slave trader attacked the settlement, encouraged by a French slave buyer, killing 20 of the pacifistic repatriates and sacking the town.

A militia of 120 men dispatched by boat from Monrovia, along with indigenous allies, retook the town and forced the chief responsible for its destruction to build it at his own expense.

Some survivors of the attack returned to Bassa Cove later that year and were joined one year later by 200 repatriates, bearing food, clothing and arms from the Pennsylvania and New York colonizationists.

Footnote: Cassell, 1970, p. 106-108; Shick, 1980, p 33.

Categories
Buchanan

Census of 1843

When a census was taken in 1843, Bassa Cove was home to 124 persons. Four worked in agriculture, six were artisans, five merchants, 23 semiskilled, and 14 unskilled. There was no professional or appointed office holder.

In 1843, 93 residents were members of two local churches. Forty-four were Baptists and 49 Methodists.

When Liberia declared its independence in 1847, the country contained 11 towns. Buchanan was one of them.

Footnote: U. S., Congress, Senate, U. S. Navy Department, tables showing the number of emigrants and recaptured Africans sent to the colony of Liberia by the government of the United States … together with a census of the colony and a report of its commerce, &c. September, 1843: Senate Document No. 150, 28th Cong., 2n sess., 1845.

Categories
Buchanan

Coffee, arrow-root and ginger

By 1850, some residents of Buchanan were already growing coffee, arrow-root and ginger for export.

In the last half of the 1800s, Liberia became a major exporter of cultivated coffee, which brought significant wealth to individual growers. That revolution was started in Buchanan by Allen Hooper, a freeborn repatriate from New York, who arrived at age 27 in January 1850.

Footnote: J. W. Lugenbeel, “Sketches of Liberia – No. 2,” African Repository, July 1850, p. 207; African Repository, April 1850, p. 26; “Brewerville and the St. Paul’s River,” African Repository, July 1879, p. 55.

Categories
Buchanan

City charter and Court House Square

Buchanan was first incorporated as a city in 1860. Ten years later the national legislature set apart a piece of land in the city to be known as Court House Square.

In 1873, the city charter was repealed in response to petitions from residents against oppressive taxation and unconstitutional conduct by city officials. The charter would not be revived until 1880.

Footnote: Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1873, pp. 13-14.; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1880, p. 4; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1860, p. 68-70; 1860, p. 76; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1870, pp. 14-15.

Categories
Buchanan

Post office and custom house

In 1878, the national legislature voted to establish a post office and a branch custom house in the second ward of Buchanan. By that time, the second ward was already widely known as Lower Buchanan.

In 1883, five hundred dollars was appropriated for opening and constructing a road between Harlandsville and Lower Buchanan.

A resolution restoring Joseph Rice of Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, to the rights and privileges of citizenship.

Footnote: Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1878, pp. 6-7: Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1883, p. 23; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1860, p. 73.

Categories
Bexley

Founding

Bexley sits about six miles from the mouth of the St. John’s River on the northern bank. It was established in 1838 through the efforts of one man, Lewis Sheridan, who was frustrated over the limit imposed by the colonial government on the amount of public land granted each repatriate.

Before emigrating, Sheridan (1793-1843) had served as North Carolina-agent for the Freedom’s Journal, the first black newspaper in the United States. He arrived in Liberia in 1838, at age 50, with his family of five, all emancipated.

Footnote: Gatewood, 1983; J. W. Lugenbeel, “Sketches of Liberia – No. 2,” African Repository, July 1850, p. 207.

Categories
Bexley

Thirty-five tons of merchandise

Having acquired $15,000 to $20,000 from trading in his native North Carolina, Sheridan arrived in Liberia with twenty-five thousand board feet of lumber and thirty-five tons of merchandise to sell.

When the government refused him the acreage he desired, Sheridan acquired 570 acres in the interior of Bassa, and, after clearing some of it, convinced some fellow repatriates to join him. By 1843, Bexley had 135 residents with 1,082 acres planted. Sheridan alone had 45 acres under cultivation with 6,000 coffee trees, yams, potatoes and cassava.

Footnote: Berlin, 1974, p. 169; Cassell, 1970, p. 112; Gatewood, 1983; Shick, 1971a, p. 86.

Categories
Bexley

Census of 1843

When a census was taken in 1843, 50 residents identified their occupations. Twenty-two worked in agriculture, one held appointive office, one was an artisan, one merchant, one professional, 13 semiskilled, and 111 unskilled. Fifty-nine residents were members of two local churches. Thirty-six were Baptists and 23 Methodists.

When Liberia declared its independence in 1847, the country contained 11 towns. Bexley was one of them.

Footnote: U. S., Congress, Senate, U. S. Navy Department, tables showing the number of emigrants and recaptured Africans sent to the colony of Liberia by the government of the United States … together with a census of the colony and a report of its commerce, &c. September, 1843: Senate Document No. 150, 28th Cong., 2n sess., 1845.

Categories
Bexley

Home of the Baptist missions

In 1850, Bexley stretched about four miles along the river. It was divided between Upper and Lower Bexley. Located here were the headquarters of both the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions and the Southern Baptist Mission. Several residents were successfully growing export crops.

In 1893, the national legislature granted $1,150 to Bexley, Hartford and Fortsville in Bassa County, to build bridges and throw up causeways.

Footnote: J. W. Lugenbeel, “Sketches of Liberia – No. 2,” African Repository, July 1850, p. 207; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1893, p. 9.

Categories
Bopolu

A natural linguist

A “natural linguist,” Moore reportedly spoke “with ease and fluency” all of the African languages spoken on Liberian territory, including Via, Mandingo, Goal, Kpelle, Dei, Bassa, Kru and even that of liberated Africans from the Congo. He served for many years as interpreter for the national government.

Moore harnessed his language facility and residence in Bopolu to become one of Liberia’s wealthiest traders.

Footnote: Gilbert Haven, “Up the St. John’s,” Christian Advocate, April 12, 1877, p. 225; Tom W. Shick,Roll of the Emigrants to the Colony of Liberia Sent by the American Colonization Society from 1820-1843 [computer file]. Madison, WI: Tom W. Shick [producer], 1973; “Death of Gabriel Moore, Esq.,” African Repository, Jan. 1886, p. 43.

Categories
Arthington

Queen Esther, Pride Temple and small pox

In 1935, the Queen Esther Household of Ruth No. 5743 of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows was formed. Listed as officers were L. N. B. Tyler, past most noble governor; Rebecca Bracewell, most noble governor; Mary Lawrence, right noble governor; L. A. Hill, recorder; G. B. Groove, noble governor and chamberlain; L. B. Turbett, shepherd and usher; W. H. Tyler, treasurer; H. M. Moore, worthy counsel; Hattie Brisbane, right senior steward; and trustees A. E. Diggs, A. E. Gall and P. J. Bracewell.

Two years later, the legislature approved the “Pride of Arthington Temple” No. 137, Sisters of the Mysterious Ten, naming Beatrice A. Tyler, worthy princess; Salomi Moore, worthy vice princess; Lillian Hill, secretary; L. B. Tucker, assitant secretary; W. H. Tyler, worthy treasurer; Lilly Mason, chaplain; Penelope Moore, zilla; Viola Tyes, marshal; Hannah Moore, senior marshal; trustees: June Moore, Willie Moore, Reginald L. Brown, Daniel B. Warner, Major M. Branch; sick committee: Julia A. Warner, Margaret Grove, Cordelia Moore, Lecretia Raynes and Nora Cooper; and members: Louise Mars, Elfreda Witherspoon, Mattie Branch, Harriet Trinity, Beatrice Moore, Eugenia Turkle and Dianah Obey.

In 1938, Attorney General Louis A. Grimes in an arbitration ordered that the sum of $181.60 be paid to resident Charles Vanah Wright as compensation for use by the government of his house and entire premises as a “pest house” in 1929 for housing small pox cases.

Footnote: Acts of the Liberian Legislature, Acts 1935, pp. 38-39; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, Acts 1937, pp. 92-93; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, Acts 1938, p. 64; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, Acts 1938, p. 64.

Categories
Arthington

Clement Irons

Arthington and other St. Paul’s River towns benefited from the technical innovations of the local Muhlenburg Mission, a vocational school led by Rev. John Day. When Edward W. Blyden visited in 1889, the school’s large workshop was being conducted by Clement Irons, who emigrated in 1878 from Charleston, South Carolina.

Blyden noted, “they build carts and wheelbarrows, run steam engines, make farming implements, &c. Mr. Irons has constructed a steamboat for the river of native timber. It was launched from the mission a few weeks ago by the pupils only — 75 of them took hold of it and pushed it from the mission hill down into the water.” He called the school “a model for missions in this country.”

Footnote:”Visit to Arthington, African Repository, April 1889, p. 44.