The Benevolent Order of the Sons and Daughters of Harrison Smith

From the Wilmington paper, February 21, 1889

This story is a little different than most here, because it doesn't really involve Mill Creek Hundred or any specific site elsewhere. It's the story of an investigation I joined in at the request of someone a half a country away, but which may have helped uncover a forgotten piece of African-American Delaware history. Like many great adventures, it all began with a book.

One day out of the blue I received an email from a former attorney and current antiquarian bookseller in Texas named Adam Schachter. The owner of Langdon Manor Books in Houston, Adam contacted me hoping for some assistance with a 19th Century ledger he had acquired. It had belonged to a group called the Benevolent Order of the Sons and Daughters of Harrison Smith (hereafter called, "the group"), and mostly covered the years from 1871-1874. Never heard of them? Neither had I. The only reason Adam found me was that one of the few clues available was that the group had connections to an Ebenezer Church. He found my post about the Ebenezer Methodist Church on Polly Drummond Hill Road, but we both quickly realized it was not the same one. I initially searched, but could not find another Ebenezer Church that fit the criteria.

Although I didn't have access to the whole book, I was told that it specifically mentioned New Castle County, and possibly St. Georges. The only other thing Adam had found at that point was a reference to the group being incorporated by the state in 1889. This is what the article above is detailing. Mr. Maull (Charles H. Maull of Lewes) introduced the bill, and the group was named for Harrison Smith, "a well-known colored man". It was an African-American group organized for the purpose of caring for the sick of their community and burying their dead. Many groups like this from all communities popped up in the later half of the 19th Century, in the days before both health and life insurance were common.

The first step I took was to find out who, exactly, was Harrison Smith, for whom the group was named. After a quick search, I found that Harrison Smith (b.1803) was a well-known black Methodist minister in Delaware. In the 1860's, he was one of the founders of the Delaware Conference, an organization within the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church (I think it would be roughly equivalent to a diocese in the Catholic Church). Smith preached at many churches in the area, including the Ezion Methodist Episcopal Church in Wilmington. Smith and his family are listed in Wilmington in the 1860 Census. I have not yet found where or when he died, which leads into the first of several points of confusion in this story.

If you read the paragraph from 1889, it calls the group "the Benevolent Order of the Sons and Daughters of Harrison Smith, of Georgetown, Delaware." However, it's not clear (to me, at least) whether that means that Harrison Smith was from Georgetown, or if the group was. So, the next step was to try to find any more references to the group from period newspapers. Most of the mentions came from early 1889, when the group was being incorporated because, as the paper said, "...having now a fund of money in their treasury they desire to buy a hall, and hence need corporative powers." This was nice, but didn't tell me anything new.

From the Lewes dispatches in the Wilmington paper, July 31, 1891

The only real record I could find of the group doing anything was the short blurb above, taken from the Lewes dispatches in a Wilmington paper, dated July 31, 1891. There are several things to pick out of this. First, this seems to say that the group described is from Lewes (a small, historic town in eastern Sussex County, for those who might not know -- also my father's hometown). It does say that the band is from Georgetown, which may or may not be coincidental. Georgetown is only about 15 miles west of Lewes. Finally, it says they "...picnicked on the beach at F. C. Maull's pier...". Franklin Charles Maull was the cousin of the Charles H. Maull who helped the group (this group? a related group?) achieve incorporation two years prior. The Maull family (which was white) obviously had close ties to the black beneficent organization.

For the most part, the only other possible references I could find to the group were several mentions of burials at the Harrison Smith cemetery on Pilottown Road in Lewes. All those being interred were noted to be "negro" or "colored". Since the group was specifically stated to be involved in helping with burials, I think it's safe to assume that this "Harrison Smith cemetery" was connected to the group. Although I haven't yet made a firm connection between the two, there does happen to be a 19th Century African-American cemetery on Pilottown Road. It belonged to the St. George AME church, which had been at the site but has since moved up the street. My hunch is that the group partnered with the church to maintain the cemetery.

After getting back to Adam with the information I had uncovered, he sent me an image of one of the pages from the ledger, showing part of what we would these days call the group's Mission Statement. It did specifically say, "We the People of Color of the county of Newcastle in the state of Delaware...", so this particular group was definitely not from Georgetown. I could also just make out the word "Ebenezer" on the next page. I was also, consequently, told that the names Ann and Wesley Caulk were featured prominently in the organization. So, I decided to see what, if anything, I could find of Wesley Caulk.

Boulden Caulk as seen on the 1849 Rea & Price Map

James Wesley Caulk on the 1868 Beers map

As luck would have it, I was able to find out a bit about him. James Wesley Caulk was born in Appoquinimink Hundred in 1840, the son Boulden Caulk (I think Ann was Wesley's older sister). What's interesting is that Boulden Caulk is shown on the 1849 Rea & Price map. I don't think there are any black men shown on any of the 19th Century MCH maps, let alone 1849. And sure enough, James Wesley is there on the 1868 map, on one of his father's farms. Since I am not as familiar with Appo Hundred as I am with Mill Creek, I decided to try to figure out where on today's map Caulk's farm would lie. As you can see on the old maps, he was just a bit southwest of Townsend. As they tend to do (which always fascinates me), the roads on the old maps lined up nicely with the ones on the current aerial view. It didn't take long to find where Wesley Caulk's farm was, which I've circled in red in the view below. The first of two Oh Crap! moments hit me when I looked closely at the name of the road on which Caulk's farm sat...Ebenezer Church Road!

Location of Wesley Caulk's farm on a current aerial view, circled in red

So I immediately searched for "Ebenezer Church Townsend" and found that, sure enough, there is a small, old African-American Ebenezer Church there. I also found a Facebook page set up for this Ebenezer Church, and photos of it taken by local photographer Desiree Shehan. My second Oh Crap! moment was when I scrolled down and saw that someone had posted as being at the church, and that their last name was Caulk! After a quick search I found that the land where Wesley Caulk's house is shown on the 1868 map is still owned by the Caulk family. There are no longer any structures on the now 3+ acre lot, and I'm not sure how the land owner is related to the Facebook posters or to Wesler Caulk himself. I've reached out to the family in hopes that they may know something about the group that their (presumably) ancestor helped found. I'll update if I hear anything back.

Ebenezer Church, Townsend, DE -- courtesy Desiree Shehan Photography

As far as the Benevolent Order of the Sons and Daughters of Harrison Smith are concerned, there are still many questions to be answered, the most pressing being how the Townsend-based group is related to the Georgetown organization. Secondly, what ever became of it? The last reference I can find to the group is a 1911 obituary of a black woman in Lewes named Mahal Short. It's mentioned that her funeral "...was largely attended by her friends, many of whom belong to 'Sons and Daughters of Harrison Smith Society'." After that only one or two notes of burials at the cemetery within a few years after. It feels to me that the group was a 19th Century organization that didn't last long into the the 20th.

And finally, I'd like to know what exactly the group did, and what other plans they might have had. As the notice at the top of the page says, the Georgetown group was planning to build a hall. Did they? And the Townsend ledger makes mention of plans to open a shop. My guess is that it would have been a second-hand store, selling discounted, used items. It's unclear if they ever did this. The ledger also alludes to claims being presented before a committee which would decide what if any funds would be dispersed to the claimant. It also makes note of other "claims" against people, alleging assault, polygamy, and adultery. It sounds to me like the group may have acted as a sort of arbiter or unofficial court for the community, a place to air grievances.

The relationship between these groups, if they are in fact different as they seem to be, is a bit trickier. Both Adam and I feel that there are at least two different groups, one in the Townsend area based out of Ebenezer and one in Georgetown or Lewes. We think that maybe the northerly group was founded first, with the Sussex county branch coming later. The names are so similar that it's unlikely to be coincidental. They may be branches of the same organization, akin to Moose, Elk, or Masonic Lodges. Whatever the case, it seems like it was a noteworthy and noble group, attempting to fulfill a need that society at large had largely ignored. And being an African-American organization in 19th Century America, I'm not surprised that it didn't get more attention and has been largely forgotten. Perhaps the expert find of a Texas antiquarian can be the first step in righting this Delaware historical wrong.

Some additional thoughts:

When I was first researching this story, I only looked into Smith far enough to establish that he was, in fact, a real person. I determined his profession, year of birth, and that he was in Wilmington later in his life. I didn’t really go much further because the focus of the story was on the group, not him, and further details of his life didn’t seem relevant. I’m now starting to rethink that position.

After reading the story, Donna Peters provided me with some additional details about and references to Smith. For one, she found that he had died in Wilmington, on August 21, 1874. That got me looking again, and I was able to find probate documents for his estate, confirming he did pass in 1874 in Wilmington. Rev. Smith also appears in Wilmington City Directories until 1874, his occupation given as “Presiding Elder”. Since I had assumed he had died at least a few years earlier than that, it got me thinking again.

For one thing, according to the ledger the Townsend group was founded in 1871, while Rev. Smith was still very much alive. That would mean that it wasn’t so much named in honor of him as it was maybe named for an inspirational figure the group (or some people in the group) admired. I did also find Harrison Smith in the 1840 Census, living in St. Georges Hundred, just west of Port Penn. He was probably stationed at the Zion AME Church located about half way between Port Penn and Biddles Corner (where Frightland is today). Perhaps that was enough to make him known in the St. Georges/Appoquinimink area.

All this makes me even more sure that we’re talking about at least two separate groups. The Townsend one based at Ebenezer AME and a later one in Georgetown and/or Lewes. We don’t even know if the first group was still operating when the second was formed, and if it grew out of the first or was inspired by it. Also, for what it’s worth, I’m now not sure if the Annie Caulk who started as the recording secretary and became president was Wesley’s older sister or his brother John’s wife. Sister would have been in her 50’s while the sister-in-law would have been in her 20’s.  Hopefully more information to come.