Category: The Chase Family

The Chase Family: Founding Queen Anne’s Black Churches 150 Years Ago

In 1872, six years after the close of the Civil War, and 8 years after the abolishment of slavery in the State of Maryland, a community of African Americans in Queen Anne’s County made a remarkable transaction that lead to the founding of one of the county’s oldest African Methodist Episcopal churches. Many of these men and women, trustees and grantors, were family intertwined by marriage and blood, and also by the recent bonds of enslavement.

Out of the ashes of the war arose Reconstruction, and African Americans became busy establishing the institutions that would serve as bedrock foundations for the spiritual life, education, and economy of their community for generations to come. It was a time of great contrast. W. P. S. Pinchback became the first African American Governor of a state (Louisiana). Morgan State University opened its doors in Baltimore. President Ulysses Grant won re-election but restored the full rights of Confederate soldiers. All this happened against a tidal wave of black enfranchisement and growth.

The Appeal of Methodism

The black Episcopal Methodists of the Eastern Shore, Kent and Queen Anne’s County (QAC) began numerous schools and churches. While it is unclear where the early black community of my ancestors worshipped (between Sudlersville and Crumpton) between 1864 and 1872, it was likely that enslaved and free people of color previously worshipped in white churches like Dudley’s Chapel built around 1873. Relegated to sit in the upper pews in the “colored” section listening to white preachers, my ancestors and other black Methodists eventually became desirous of their own places of worship and preachers.

African Americans free and enslaved were drawn to Methodism because the denomination treated blacks differently, even calling for the abolishment of slavery and casting out of white members who enslaved blacks. In 1785 the Methodist discipline denied membership to slaveholders (although it was not followed closely), and itinerant preachers actively converted blacks through the early 1800s. It’s safe to say my early Maryland Eastern Shore ancestors (black and white) were Methodists. My third great grandfather Asbury Johnson lived in Queen Anne’s County near Double Creek and is almost certainly named for Francis Asbury, the methodist preacher who toured the area extensively with other circuit riders in the late 1700s. Bishop Francis Asbury ordained Richard Allen a deacon in 1799 and Allen went on to found the African Methodist Episcopal church in 1816.

“The first truly independent black denomination, the Union Church of Africans, was founded in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1813 by Peter Spencer, who was born a slave in Kent County in 1782. In the mid-1860’s Spencer’s church split into two rival denominations, the Union American Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Union Methodist Protestant Church. The most successful move for independence, headed by Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, led to the founding of the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in 1816.”

Historic African American Churches of Kent County, Kent County Historical Society, 2019.

In 1864 the new Delaware Conference began with about 5,000 church members and 34 churches, with black clergy members in the Episcopal Church from New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, and Maryland. Black Methodists promoted education, training teachers and starting schools. Preachers taught, and teachers preached. Thousands of formerly enslaved and free blacks shifted from participating in predominately white churches with white elders, to black churches with black clergy.

“Black local preachers were recruited to serve their congregations, supervised by white elders and annual conferences. Eventually, an ongoing Conference of Colored Local Preachers was organized at Zoar M.E. Church in Philadelphia in 1857 under Bishop Levi Scott.

A Brief History of the Former Delaware Conference

Mt. Pleasant UMC (Pondtown)

An 1877 map of QAC District 2 (Sudlersville, Church Hill, Crumpton) shows at least one “colored church” on the road between Crumpton and Sudlersville next to “School No.2” On the street are the homes of William D. Tarbutton (a justice of the peace), the Cooper brothers (James and John), A. Brooks, and a second school on the crossroads to Sudlersville “School No. 8”. Down Pondtown Road can be found the Doman and Milburn families. All would be instrumental in founding Mt. Pleasant. Nearby are three white Methodist Episcopal Churches including Dudley’s Chapel. The white Goodhand, Tarbutton, and Roberts families are living side-by-side their formerly enslaved who are now free farmers, millers, and even seamen on the nearby Chester River. At this time, my 2nd great-grandfather Walter “Wallis” Johnson is living in Crumpton as a laborer. He would go on to marry my 2nd great-grandmother Sarah Catherine Milbourn, daughter of James Milbourn and Harriet Ann Chase, my 3rd great-grandparents. Emory and Charlotte Chase, my 4th great-grandparents also lived in Pond Town, though I have found no record for their precise dwelling.

Mt. Pleasant UMC, a few miles south of Crumpton, is listed as “Col’d Church” between the Tarbutton and Cooper homes in this 1877 Mam of Queen Anne’s County.

Emory Chase Senior, my fourth great-grandfather (a previously free man of color and blacksmith), and my third great-grandfather James Milbourn (formerly enslaved) along with several other trustees of the first African Methodist Episcopal church in Pond Town purchased land from two black farming families, Thomas and Mary Gafford, and William and Eliza Holliday. The trustees include George Brown and Joseph Doman, husbands to my third great aunts, Emeline Johnson and Juliette Johnson, respectively. Emeline and Juliette were the daughters of Asbury Johnson (born free about 1823 and died before the church’s founding in 1863). The trustees sought to site and build their church and cemetery next to the Public School on the road to Crumpton. For the sum of $30 they obtained “seventeen parcels” of land on September 27, precisely 147 years ago, making the current church Mt. Pleasant at 1701 Dudley Corner Rd, nearly 150 years old. Mt. Pleasant is now under the United Methodist Church Charge with locations at Millington and Pond Town). 

The entrance to Mt. Pleasant UMC on Dudley Corners Road taken during my 2019 visit.

TRANSCRIPT OF DEED

This Deed made this twenty-seventh day of September in the year one thousand and eight hundred and seventy-two by Thomas Gafford and Mary Gafford his wife, and William Holliday (colored) and Eliza Holliday his wife all of Queen Anne’s County, State of Maryland. Witnesseth that in consideration of the sum of thirty dollars, the receipt hereof is hereby acknowledged, the said Thomas Gafford and Mary Gafford and William Holliday and Eliza Holliday do grant unto Emory Chase Snr., Suel Books, James Cooper, Joseph Doman, John H. Cooper, James Milbourn, George Woodland, and George Brown (colored) all of Queen Anne’s County, State of Maryland (these parties being the Trustees of M.E. African Church at Pond Town) all that contains lot of land in the Second Election District of Queen Anne’s County, state aforesaid, lying on the main road leading from Crumpton to Pond Town adjoining lands of Mrs. Matilda Fowler, Mary Gafford, Reuben Newcomb, and the Pond Town Public School house lot and which may be better known by the following meters and bounds, courses and distances. Viz: Beginning at a Stone on the said main Road at the corner of said School House Lot and running thence South ten degrees west four rods and twenty one links to a Large Stone on same road, thence South eighty six and a half degrees west xxx rods and twenty one links to a Large tree, thence North ten degrees east six rods and twenty links to Reuben Newcomb’s line, thence along and with said Newcomb’s line and the line of said School House Lot South eighty-seven and a half degrees east eighteen Rods and twelve links to the place of Beginning, containing two rods and Seventeen parcels of Land, more or less in the Simple. And the said Thomas Gafford and William Holliday together with their wives do hereby covenant that they will defend the same from all claims and encumbrances that may be brought against it. Witness our hands and Seals the day and date above written.
Test: William D. Tarbutton
Thomas Gafford, seal
Mary Gafford, seal
William Holliday, seal
Eliza Holliday, seal

State of Maryland, Queen Anne’s County, to wit:
I hereby certify that on this twenty seventh of September in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy two, before the subscriber a Justice of the Peace for said County, personally appeared Thomas Gafford (colored) and Mary Gafford his wife and WM. Holliday and Eliza Holliday his wife and did each acknowledged the aforegoing Deed to be true respective acts. Acknowledged before me…William D. Tarbutton J. P. 

The following trustees are listed below with further information from my research. 

  • Emory Chase Snr. b. 1810 – 1880 (4th GGF)
  • Suel (Samuel) Brooks
  • James Cooper (brother of John Cooper, freedom papers testified to in 1857 by Col. Lemuel Roberts who on the same day testified on my 3rd GGF Asbury Johnson’s “Certificate of Freedom”)
  • Joseph Doman II or III b. 1817 or 1841 (father-in-law of 3rd great aunt, or husband of the 3rd great aunt Juliette Johnson)
  • John H. Cooper (brother of James Cooper, freedom papers testified to in 1857 by Col. Lemuel Roberts who on the same day testified on my 3rd GGF Asbury Johnson’s “Certificate of Freedom”)
  • James Milbourn b. 1820 (3rd GGF married to Henrietta Chase, my 3rd GGM, daughter of Emory Chase Snr.)
  • George Woodland (may have been related to Charles Woodland of Kent County who founded other M.E. churches around the same time, namely Mt. Pleasant UMC in Fairlee in the 1880s)
Pond Town Colored School erected in 1902, moved to Mt. Pleasant Church grounds in 1926, demolished in 1927.

While whites attended School No. 2, the closest “colored school” was in Beaverdam, several miles to the south according to the 1877 map. Anectdotes suggest a closer colored school existed on the crossroads of Sudlersville Road and Route 290. By 1926, Mt. Pleasant had purchased and placed a colored school on its property.

“Originally built in 1902 at a different location, the one-room schoolhouse was first purchased by Queen Anne’s County Public Schools as an all-white school. It was moved to the northern part of Queen Anne’s County and eventually became Pondtown Colored School in 1926. The school closed in the mid-1950s. In 1956, Mt. Pleasant Church purchased it from the school board for $800. Segregation ended in Queen Anne’s County in 1967. Over the years, the old Pondtown school building fell into disrepair. The Crumpton Volunteer Fire Department was asked to dispose of the building. They burned it to the ground Aug. 6, 2017.”

Former Pond Town School Demolished, MyEasternShore.com

John Wesley Methodist (Millington)

Other area ancestors were involved in the founding of churches in Queen Anne’s County and adjacent Kent County around the same period. The congregation of John Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church in Millington met as early as 1855, under the supervision of white Methodists at Asbury Church. Research shows that the deed for the property purchased in 1863 was processed on December 18, 1877, and the among the trustees listed was Joseph Jeffers, the father-in-law of my 4th great aunt, Mary Jane Chase, the daughter of Emory Chase Snr.

Jeffers Chapel (Sagefield), Boardley AME (Pondtown)

The predominately black Jeffers Chapel of Sagefield in Queen Anne’s County, a small chapel on the crossroads to Sudersville and around the corner from Dudley’s Chapel was presumably built by a QAC ancestor as well in 1894. Johnson’s were also founding members of the Boardley AME Church in Pondtown at the founding in 1903. Both Jeffers Chapel and Boardley AME are still active churches serving their communities today, over a hundred and ten years later.

Jeffers Chapel, founded in 1894.

Price’s Chapel (Sudersville)

On a 2019 research trip to Sudlersville, I found yet another family church. Working with local historian and librarian Lucille Kuntz, we visited Price’s Chapel to explore a lead on a tombstone. The Historical Society had indexed a handful of tombstones at the cemetery behind Price’s Chapel in Sudlersville. One tombstone read “Sarah A Johnson, wife of Asbury Johnson.”

Upon locating the actual tombstone, we learned it read further: “Died May 2st 1921, age 49 years.” Through followup research I learned more: Sarah Annie Brooks, born 1872 in Sudlersville, died 1921 in Chester, Pennsylvania as Sarah A. Johnson. Sarah was married to my 3rd great-grandfather’s grandson Asbury Johnson. Asbury was descended from Lucy Johnson and Isaac Johnson. Lucy was the daughter of my 3rd great grandfather Asbury. Her son, Asbury moved to Chester between 1880 and 1900. Upon examining Sarah Annie Brook’s death certificate it revealed she was removed for burial to Sudlersville.

Tombstone of Sarah Johnson, wife of Asbury Johnson, grandson of Asbury Johnson and Henrietta Johnson, my 3rd great-grandparents.

In 1824, a free black man, James Price, was sold land by Samuel and Hannah Spry (QAC deed book T. M. No. 3 Pg 415). Spry’s widow Hannah also sold land to Aaron Johnson, my 4th great-grandfather. As we saw in the 1877 map, it was indeed a “colored” Methodist church and cemetery, with a J. Price living nearby in 1870. Furthermore, an “E. Brooks” is found living across the street on the map from J. Price. Sarah Annie Brook’s father was Eli Brooks. Lucille and I encountered other Brooks headstones in the Price Chapel cemetery so I can only conclude some Johnsons, Brooks, and Price family worshipped at Price’s Chapel.

Sources.


The Chase Family: Documenting the Free, the Enslaved, and Enslaver

The Christopher Goodhand family of Kent and Queen Anne’s County, Maryland were wealthy landowners, farmers, and enslavers originating in England. Christopher Goodhand born 1650, in Lincolnshire, England, arrived on Kent Island in the late 1660s as an indentured servant. He served his contract and received a land grant.  His family and descendants are well-documented on Kent Island in the Chesapeake Bay. Goodhands later settled in the Sudlersville area between Dudley Corners and Crumpton on the Chester River.

Speedwell-type ship, Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, Netherlands.

Christopher Goodhand’s brother Capt. Marmaduke Goodhand commanded the Speedwell of Dartmouth, owned by the Royal African Company, and made voyages Senegambia, to purchase African slaves and take them to the colonies, the first in 1868. The Speedwell also took 170 slaves to Barbados from Mozambique in 1682. The Speedwell was the second ship in the pilgrim contingent that included the infamous Mayflower, but was abandoned for its lack of seaworthiness. Were it not overmasted and leaky, it may have had a much better and positive provenance than as a slave ship. It turns out the pilot of the Mayflower was my 10th great grandfather, but that’s another story.

Only in 1685 did a serious slave trade to Maryland tentatively begin: in that year, instructions from the RAC’s Committee on Shipping (the ever-active Lord Berkeley was on it) asked a sea captain, Marmaduke Goodhand, to deliver two hundred slaves to be shared among Edward Porteus (a merchant of Gloucester County, Virginia), Richard Gardiner, and Christopher Robinson (a future secretary of the colony), on the Potomac River. Next year, there was a reference to a consignment of “slaves and sugar” in Maryland from Barbados. The intention had been to load tobacco, as if the transaction were normal; and there are some other isolated references to slaves arriving at Annapolis or smaller ports on Chesapeake Bay.

Erenow.com, Lawful to Set to Sea, Chapter 11

EMORY CHASE – FREE

The Emory Chase family of Queen Anne County begins as a family of free blacks and enslaved in Kent County in the 1830s. Some of my eldest ancestors on the Upper Shore, the Chases were both free and enslaved by the Goodhand family up to and through the Civil War. While there is no documentation to indicate the Chases descended from Capt. Goodhand’s cargo of slaves, DNA research does indicate my own family has roots in the Senegambia region.

Emory Chase Sr. first appears on the written record in the 1832 Free African-American Census of Maryland in Kent County.

“Emory Chase, 28”

The census was taken in response to the growing population of free blacks living in Maryland. There are no other Chases in the immediate vicinity of Emory’s name on the list.

Among the legislative actions of the Maryland General Assembly of 1831 was the passage of “an act relating to the People of Color in this state…The primary intent of the act was to achieve the removal of free African Americans from the state of Maryland in their entirety, sending free blacks to the colony of Liberia.” The state undertook the census to enumerate the free black population. In some counties, free men were asked directly if they would remove themselves to Liberia. The Maryland Colonization Society which led the local effort was founded in part as a response to the threat of slave rebellion (Nat Turner’s uprising in Virginia was in 1831). The Society saw colonization as a remedy for slavery.

“In 1832 the legislature placed new restrictions on the liberty of free blacks, in order to encourage emigration. They were not permitted to vote, serve on juries, or hold public office. Unemployed ex-slaves without visible means of support could be re-enslaved at the discretion of local sheriffs. By this means the supporters of colonization hoped to encourage free blacks to leave the state.”

Goodhand Plantation, Queen Anne’s County, 1866.

Four generations later, the great-great-grandson of the original scion of the family, Christopher Goodhand b.1787, was dying around 1857 on his plantation southeast of Crumpton and near Sudlersville, Maryland. He had served as a Private in the 38th Regiment, Wright’s Militia during the War of 1812, a state delegate, a farmer and hotel owner. By 1850 he had at least five children (Hiram, Josephine, Eugenia, Martha, and Samuel), was married to Susan Pope Sturgess of Baltimore County, and had an estate worth $16,000 according to the Census. According to the US Federal Slave Schedule he owned 10 slaves of various ages by 1850.

  • 25, female
  • 22, male
  • 18, male
  • 17, male
  • 14, male
  • 13, male
  • 21, female
  • 6, female
  • 4, male
  • 8 months, male

Several enslaved individuals appear in the inventory of the will of Christopher Goodhand. Remarkably, his will provided for gradual freedom to all of his enslaved, which numbered 11 by then.

1857, Christopher Goodhand will lists 11 enslaved, several confirmed Chase family members.

This is my last will and testament, that the following named negroes shall be outfitted to their freedom at the time as specified –


Negro woman Maria to be free 1st January 1859
Negro woman Harriet to be free 1st January 1864
Negro girl Amanda to be free 1st January 1873
Negro woman Mary to be free 1st January 1879
Negro woman Mary Ann to be free 1st January 1882
Negro man Richard to be free 1st January 1862
Negro man Emory to be free 1st January 1868
Negro boy Henry to be free 1st January 1870
Negro boy Levi to be free 1st January 1872
Negro boy James to be free 1st January 1882
Negro boy William Emory to be free 1st January 1890


Will of Christopher Goodhand, 1857, Maryland State Archives.

The manumission dates appear to point to the age of the enslaved. The later the date, the younger the enslaved. Goodhand indicated his wife should take a third of the enslaved and the rest be divided by his heirs.

The Emory Chase Sr. family appear in the 1850 and 1860 census reserved for freemen. However, some of his presumed children or nieces/nephews also appear in Christopher Goodhand’s will probated in 1857. The Chase Sr. family group in the 1850 census includes:

  • Emory Chase, 40
  • Charlotte, 40
  • Mary Jane, 8
  • Addison, 6

By 1850, Emory Chase Sr. is a blacksmith. The Chase Sr. family group in the 1860 census includes:

  • Emory Chase, 60
  • Charlotte, 55
  • John, 21
  • Mary Jane, 18
  • Addison, 16

By 1860, Emory Chase Sr. is a farmer with a personal estate worth $400. The Chase Sr. family group in the 1870 census includes:

  • Emory Chase, 65
  • Charlotte, 64
  • Levi, 29
  • Emory Jr., 32 (Jr. my addition)
  • Addison, 24

A FAMILY FREE AND ENSLAVED

By 1870, Emory is still farming with $1100 in real estate and $300 in his personal estate. Among the listed enslaved in Christopher Goodhand’s will, my own confirmed ancestors from this group include Emory Chase Jr., Harriet Ann Chase, and Levi Chase. It is also plausible Mary is also my ancestor Mary Jane Chase, another daughter or niece of Emory Chase Sr. Perhaps Maria, to be manumitted the earliest via the Goodhand will, was a sister of Emory Chase Senior? After emancipation, Richard Chase appears in Sudlersville on the draft registration record for 1863, less than a year after his manumission. Richard and other members of the family group appear in the county, but it’s not possible to determine their exact relationship.

At first, I was really confused as to how several chase family members could appear in the 1850 and then it occurred to me that you simply can not assume that just because a black family appears in a pre-1870 census that the ENTIRE family is free. Slavery fell from the mother and clearly some of Charlotte’s children were enslaved before she gained her freedom.

Levi and Emory Jr. join the household of Emory Chase Sr. by 1870 according to the census. While Harriet never appears in the Chase Sr. household (she is married to neighbor James Milbourne by 1850), her younger brother John who is living with her in 1850 according to the census appears in the Chase Sr. household in 1860 (she is likely still enslaved but married). Later death records of Milbourne children identify Harriet as “Harriet Ann Chase.”

Sadly, the executor of the Goodhand will, Lemuel Roberts notes during the probate, “Boy, William Emory, mentioned in the will has died since the will was made.” William Emory was likely a Chase relation, perhaps Harriet or Maria’s son. By the time of the probate of Christopher Goodhand’s will, a young girl “Sarah” is also appraised in the inventory. After the 1870 census, Emory Chase Jr. disappears from the record. Others, Maria, Amanda, Henry, Maria, James, and Mary Ann never appear in the record after emancipation, leaving much to explore in neighboring counties.

It isn’t clear why Christopher Goodhand, who died by 1857, set out to emancipate his slaves gradually according to his will. They were a considerable part of the wealth of his estate. The probate inventory appraised the enslaved at over $6000. Perhaps the Goodhand family was Methodists. There were Methodist Episcopal churches in Dudley Corners, Crumpton, and Sudlersville about this time. Since its founding by John Wesley in the 1700s, Methodism wrestled with slavery. Generally, northern Methodists were opposed to slavery and southern Methodists saw slavery as essential to their way of life and legal. Maryland was very much on the border, sending its youth into both the Union and Confederate armies at the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1844, a Georgian Bishop and slave owner, James O. Andrew, was asked to resign his title after a 12-day conference but was convinced by South Carolinian Methodists not to resign. Thus Northern and Southern Episcopalians split over slavery began only a little more than a decade before Goodhand wrote his will. This may have influenced the treatment of his enslaved – and why the Chase family appeared as free blacks on the census as early as 1850. I can only speculate how some of the Chase family lived were free while others were enslaved. Perhaps, since Emory Chase Sr. had a personal estate, he was purchasing the freedom of family members gradually, when and as he could. Perhaps the Goodhand Chase enslaved were children of an enslaved sibling.

Christopher Goodhand’s executors – wife Susan Pope Goodhand b.1812 nee Sturgis, son Hiram Goodhand, and Col. Lemuel Roberts (a neighbor, farmer, friend, slaveholder, and co-delegate to several State and Congressional conventions) followed the will’s instruction, as they did split up the enslaved. Levi was given to Samuel Goodhand (son of Christopher Goodhand) to “serve 15 years.” Emory Jr. was to serve Susan for 11 years before being emancipated.

FREE TO FIGHT

Susan Goodhand, widowed, eventually emancipated Levi Chase, my 3rd great-uncle during the Civil War –but for a fee.

“Whereas my slave Levi Chase has enlisted in the service of the United States now in consideration thereof I, Susan P. Goodhand, guar Samuell S. Goodhand of Queen Anne’s County, State of Maryland do hereby in consideration of said enlistment, manumit, set free, and release the above named Levi Chase from all service due me; his freedom to commence from the date of his enlistment as aforesaid in the Regiment of Colored Troops in the service of the United States.”

Manumission of Levi Chase, Queen Anne’s County Land Records, Maryland State Archives.
Levi Chase Manumission 1864

Goodhand took advantage of an offer from the War Department and offered Levi Chase to the US Army for a bounty and filed manumission for Levi in September 1864.

“To facilitate recruiting in the states of Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, and eventually Kentucky, the War Department issued General Order No. 329 on October 3, 1863. Section 6 of the order stated that if any citizen should offer his or her slave for enlistment into the military service, that person would, “if such slave be accepted, receive from the recruiting officer a certificate thereof, and become entitled to compensation for the service or labor of said slave, not exceeding the sum of three hundred dollars, upon filing a valid deed of manumission and of release, and making satisfactory proof of title.”

Civil War Soldiers, Union, Colored Troops 56th – 138th Infantry Fold3.

Records indicate she was paid $100 bounty after the war. The remaining enslaved Chases were freed when slavery officially ended in Maryland on November 1, 1864 after the Maryland General Assembly wrote a new constitution for the state that made slavery illegal upon that date. Thankfully, the Chases did not have to wait for freedom long.

Bounty Record, Maryland State Senate showing payment to Susan Goodhand after the Civil War.

Private Levi Chase served in the United States Colored Troops in Company I of the 39th Regiment until the end of the war. According to rolls he mustered in March 31st, 1864 in Baltimore. The 39th U.S. Colored Infantry was organized in Baltimore, Maryland beginning March 22, 1864 for three-year service under the command of Colonel Ozora P. Stearns. The 39th participated in several battles including the Siege of Petersburg and Richmond, and the infamous Battle of the Crater in Richmond, VA.

The Battle of the Crater, part of the Siege of Petersburg, took place on July 30, 1864, between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee, and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade (under the direct supervision of the general-in-chief, Lt. Gen.Ulysses S. Grant).

On July 30, Union forces exploded an 8,000 lb mine to blow a gap in the Confederate defenses. Less seasoned white troops were sent in after the explosion and cut down. Colored units were sent in to save them and further massacred while in a poor position. The attack was a failure resulting in thousands of Union casualties. The Confederates launched several counterattacks. The breach was sealed off, and Union forces were repulsed with severe casualties. The siege lasted another eight months.

Muster Record for Levi Chase, USCT 39th Regiment.

Levi’s regiment also participated in the bombardment of Fort Fisher in North Carolina, and its capture, the capture of Wilmington, and the surrender of Confederate General Johnston and his army. The 39th U.S. Colored Infantry mustered out of service on December 4, 1865 in North Carolina. Levi returned home to Queen Anne’s county by 1870 according to census records.

MOSS TRACT

In 1869, Susan Goodhand, three years after the close of the war, daughter Martha Sudler nee Goodhand, and Susan’s son-in-law J. Morling Sudler, later sold land known as “the Moss Tract” to Emory Chase Sr., Emory Chase Jr., and Levi Chase, and to son-in-law John Jeffers (husband of Mary Jane Chase). Moss Tract directly adjoined the lands of Lemuel Roberts and James Dudley according to the deed. Emory Chase Sr. acquired two fifths and other purchasers –the remaining three fifths. The father and son relationship between Emory Chase Senior and Junior is confirmed in this deed.

Deed between Goodhands and Emory Chase Sr., Levi Chase, Emory Chase Jr.

In freedom, the Chase family along with the other formerly free black families they married in to (Doman, Jeffers, Johnson, and Milbourne families) were active members of their community, farming and educating their children, building schools and churches. In 1872, Emory Chase Sr., my 4th great-grandfather, and several other “trustees” including my 3rd great-grandfather James Milbourne, purchased land to found an African Methodist Church, later known as Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church in Pondtown, just northwest of Sudlersville. The trustees purchased land from the Gafford and Holliday families (African Americans), “being on the main road leading from Crumpton to Pondtown, adjoining lands…and the Pondtown Public School House.” The deed was testified to by William Tarbutton, on whose land both Christopher Goodhand and Lemuel Roberts are buried. None of the Chases have headstones at Mt. Pleasant UM Church. The search goes on for their burial place.

Deed for land in Pondtown for African Methodist Episcopal Church, later, Mt. Pleasant UMC with family member trustees, Emory Chase Sr, Joseph Doman, James Milbourn, George Brown.

Levi Chase was my 3rd great-uncle by marriage and blood, as he married my 3rd great-aunt, Sarah “Sally” Johnson born 1850 to Asbury Johnson, my 3rd great-grandfather. The marriage took place in Pondtown between 1870 and 1880.

I am the great-great-grandson of Sally’s brother Walter “Wallis” Johnson. Furthermore, Walter Johnson married Sara Catherine Milbourn between 1870 and 1880 in Pondtown. Sarah “Katie” Milbourn was the daughter of Harriet Ann Chase and James Milbourn, my 3rd great-grandparents, and granddaughter of Emory Chase Snr.

Walter Johnson’s father and uncle, Asbury and Alfred, were born free to Phillip Johnson in the early 1820s. Philip, Alfred, and Asbury Johnson appear as a family group in the same 1832 Free African-American Census of Maryland that Emory Chase is recorded in.

Asbury Johnson’s 1866 will, just one year after the Civil War ends, shows he was an industrious farmer with dozens of farming tools, cows and horses. But he also owned items that suggested his eyes were on the horizon. He owned a looking glass, 3 pictures, and a clock. He wasn’t rich, but he was free and able to leave an inheritance that included money to each of his seven children and wife.

Certificate of Freedom granted simultaneously to Asbury and Albert Johnson, 1857 by Col. Lemuel Roberts.

Asbury and Albert both had Certificates of Freedom signed by Col. Lemuel Roberts in 1857, Christopher Goodhand’s estate executor. Roberts attests to the fact that they were “born free.” In 1805 the Maryland General Assembly passed a law to identify free African Americans and to control the availability of freedom papers. As the lawmakers explained: “great mischiefs have arisen from slaves coming into possession of certificates of free Negroes, by running away and passing as free under the faith of such certificates“. The law required African Americans who were born free to record proof of their freedom in the county court. The court would then issue them a certificate of freedom. If the black person had been manumitted, the court clerk or register of wills would look up the manumitting document before issuing a certificate of freedom. It is plausible Asbury’s father or mother was enslaved by Col. Roberts though I have no documentation yet. The Roberts family connection to the Johnson and Chase family is palpable and leaves much to be explored.

Susan Goodhand passed away in 1877, about 10 years after her last documented contact with the Chase family. Presumably, she is buried on the Tarbutton farm with her late husband Christopher Goodhand in an unmarked grave. I have yet to find the Johnson family in QAC cemeteries.

*Update – for more on the Johnson family, see Johnson Roots on Comegys Reserve.

Sources.