The school at Thomas Run, also known as Clark or Clark’s Chapel (or far less commonly as Hickory), is less well attested in the Freedmen’s Bureau records than the schools at Havre de Grace, Bel Air, or even Churchville, but a basic outline of its founding and operations may still be discerned. The earliest documents about the school relate to construction. On October 1, 1867, the Baltimore Association sent more than 1900 feet of lumber to Thomas Run, along with ten windows, a door, roof shingles, and thousands of laths to anchor plaster on the walls and ceilings. On October 13, trustee Elijah Stewart wrote to Bureau disbursing officer Samuel J. Wright. Stewart told Wright that the carpenters had been too busy with other work to labor on the schoolhouse, and that at any rate they did not have enough materials to complete it.
