Supt. Kimball informs Rev. E. P. Smith of the American Missionary Association that he has received a letter from Darlington indicating that teacher Mary Watson had not yet arrived. He asks Smith if something is the matter.
Supt. Kimball informs Rev. E. P. Smith of the American Missionary Association that Mary Watson wishes to go to Port Deposit, Cecil County, to teach, and he would like Smith to send her there. Kimball asks Smith if the A.M.A. can send more teachers, as they are much needed.
Supt. Kimball writes to Thomas Taylor, the chairman of the building committee at Port Deposit. He asks Taylor what progress has been made on the schoolhouse, and tells him that he intends to visit soon.
Education superintendent John Kimball informs George M. McComas that he has a "first rate colored man, student from Lincoln University" that he can send to Hendon Hill to teach a summer school, if the people there will board him and organize such a school. The teacher is one of about forty that Kimball is sending out, and he want to send him right away. Kimball asks McComas to find out if the people around Hendon Hill want him.
Rev. John W. Alvord, Freedmen's Bureau national education superintedent, responds to Ida S. Marshall's letter of Mar. 7 to bureau commissioner Oliver O. Howard. He advises her that the Bureau cannot appoint teachers and suggests several avenues she might follow to get a teaching position through a freedmen's aid society.
Reverend Peter Bishop was the founder of Mt. Zion AME Church in 1865. He served as a trustee for the McComas Institute. In 1867, the Harford County Board of School Commissioners, partnered with Mt. Zion Methodist Church to help with constructing the McComas Institute under the leadership of Rev. Peter Bishop. The McComas Institute was a Freedmen’s school named in honor of George McComas, an abolitionist and tobacco merchant. Rev. Peter Bishop also assisted with organizing a committee which formed the Board of Directors for the school. Peter Bishop is listed in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 U.S. Census Records.[1] He appears twice in the 1880s records.[2] He was listed as living in Churchville in the first record and Abingdon in the second record. He also has a wife (Rachel Bishop) listed in the second record. Rev. Peter Bishop served the church, community, and supported the McComas Institute for many years until his death.
Richard L. Mason appears in the Freedmen’s Bureau Records from January to May of 1869. He takes over as the teacher of the McComas Institute in place of Addie V. Green. Unfortunately, Mr. Mason does not appear in any other records so his background is unclear. He also does not come up in the 1850, 1860 or 1870 U.S. Census Record for Harford County or Maryland in general which suggests that he left the county and perhaps was assigned to teach in another state.
McComas teacher Richard L. Mason writes a brief letter to Supt. Kimball accompanying his monthly school report for March 1869. He describes his school as in good condition.
Richard L. Mason, teacher at McComas School, sends a brief note to Supt. Kimball accompanying his monthly report for January 1869. He explains that unanswered questions on the report form are due to him needing the register back from the previous teacher, Addie Green, who took it with her when she left the school.
Richard L. Mason, teacher at McComas school, sends Supt. Kimball a brief letter accompanying his monthly report for 1869. He complains that the school trustees have been negligent in supporting the success of the school.
Taught at Perrymansville from October 1869 to at least May 1870. Green appears to have taught again at Perrymansville for the 1879-1880 school year, by which point the school had already been under Harford County control for some time.
Quartermaster Samuel J. Wright orders French Madden in Baltimore to supply the new school at Churchville with ten student desks, one teacher's desk, and six seats, to be delivered to the railroad station at Aberdeen and collected by school trustee Nathaniel Cooper.
Quartermaster Samuel J. Wright notifies Churchville trustee Nathaniel Cooper that he has dispatched that day ten student desks, one teacher's desk, and six seats to arrive by rail at Aberdeen. He asks Cooper to confirm receipt of the desks.
Quartermaster Samuel J. Wright asks Churchville trustee Nathaniel Cooper for the dimensions of the school room and other relevant information, so that he can send an appropriate number of desks to outfit the new school.
Quartermaster Samuel J. Wright informs the superintendent of schools that Churchville trustee Nathaniel Cooper has contacted him, asking when they should expect a teacher to be sent for their new school.
Sarah A. Usher was in her mid- to late-twenties when she moved to Harford County to teach at the school in Havre de Grace. While not much is known about the Black teacher before her time in Harford, records indicate that she was born in Jamaica, likely to parents William and Sarah Usher, on June 15, 1843. According to the 1930 census, Usher first migrated to the United States in 1865. She took over leadership of the Anderson Institute from the school’s second teacher, Elizabeth V. Dixon, in October 1869, and remained at the school for only one academic year.
Includes nine Harford schools: Clayton, Havre de Grace, Perrymansville, Churchville, Fallston, Hopewell, Forest Hill, Hickory, and Darlington. Also lists the following teachers with each Harford school: C. Mason, Elizabeth V. Dixon, J. F. Pierpont Dickson, Ida S. Marshall, Eliza M. Murry, Rosie Sythe, John H. Camper, and Joshua G. Jordan, and Mary Watson.
Includes nine Harford schools. All Harford teachers are listed as being employed for two months in the quarter except for teachers at Thomas Run, Churchville, and McComas School.
Includes eight Harford County schools: Havre de Grace, Perrymansville, McComas, Churchville, Fallston, Forest Hill, Hickory, and LaGrange. Also mentions the following teachers: Sarah A. Usher, Samantha Green, Louie C. Waters, Ida S. Marshall, Mary E. Grantum, John H. Camper, J. F. Pierpont Dickson, and Rachel A. Smith.