When Elizabeth V. Dixon arrived in Havre de Grace in the fall of 1868, she likely looked strikingly similar to the young children she had been hired to teach. Records indicate that Dixon was born sometime around 1852,[1] making her 16 or 17 when she opened the school on October 6.[2] Despite her young age, Dixon was tasked with many responsibilities during her time in Harford; over the course of the 1868-1869 school year, for example, she was charged with managing as many as 40 pupils at one time.[3] Additionally, as the town’s only African American educator, it appears Dixon was also responsible for leading the local industrial school, where she taught students how to sew and knit.[4]

The schoolhouse where Dixon held these classes was probably able to accommodate all of these activities. Under the leadership of teacher Mary J.C. Anderson, African Americans in Havre de Grace had worked with the Freedmen’s Bureau to erect a two-story building for the education of local Black children in 1867. As the second instructor to teach in the new schoolhouse, Dixon seemed uncertain about the building’s name. Over the course of her year in the town, she referred to the school in a number of different ways, including the “Freedmen’s School,”[5] “Colored Public School,”[6] and the “Havre de Grace School.”[7] Only after Dixon’s departure was the school referred to by its proper name: the Anderson Institute, after Mary J.C. Anderson.[8]

Dixon’s time at the school appears to have passed without incident. In April 1869, the teacher reported that “particular business compelled [her] to leave [her] school, causing a deficiency of one day.”[9] By the next month, however, Dixon described her school as “flourishing…[with] a pleasant and comfortable schoolhouse.” She also reported on the activities of her pupils, stating: “The children are getting up a fair for [the school’s] benefit.”[10] Her final month of teaching at the Havre de Grace school appears to have been June 1869. Other than statistical information about her classroom, Dixon’s final report sheds little light on her experiences in Havre de Grace, or those of the students she taught.[11]

The next time Elizabeth Dixon appears in the historical record, she had left Harford and returned to the town of her birth: Richmond, Virginia.[12] In an 1870 article from the Richmond Daily Dispatch, she is mentioned as the principal of a colored class that, along with two other classes, were meeting inside a former bakery.[13] While in Richmond, Dixon also apparently began saving her money in the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, commonly known as the Freedmen’s Bank.[14] Her deposit slips from that time period show that she continued to work as a teacher in Richmond at least until 1872. Similar to her monthly reports as a teacher, Dixon recorded minimal information on her bank slips. She did, however, record the names of her mother (Elizabeth Adams) and three siblings (John, Virginia, and Georgiana). On the line for her father’s name, she wrote one word: “dead.”

By 1874, the Freedman’s Bank had closed its doors due to mismanagement, fraud, and, in some part, the financial panic of 1873.[15] It is likely that the savings Elizabeth Dixon had deposited in this bank disappeared overnight since few customers received their funds when the Bank closed.[16] Perhaps it was this event that stimulated Dixon’s return to Maryland. In 1875, an “E.V. Dixon” was listed as the teacher for School 1-2 in Harford County.[17] (According to Doug Washburn’s work, School 1-2 likely would have been known colloquially  as Hopewell/Greenspring.)[18] For the 1877-1878 school year, “Elizabeth V. Dixon” was listed as the teacher of School 3-3[19] (probably the Asbury school, which at some point had also been known as Churchville).[20] Finally, in 1880, Elizabeth V. Dixon taught at School 1-5 (likely Hosanna).[21] That same year, an “L. A. Dickson” was recorded in the Harford census. Dickson, who was 28 and a native of Virginia, was working as a school teacher at the time her census record was created.[22] This record marks the final time that Elizabeth (also known as Lizzie) Dixon appears in the historical record.

Four years after the 1880 enumeration, an “Elizabeth Fraser” was listed as teaching at School 1-6 (likely the Havre de Grace school).[23] In 1886, Frazer appeared again, this time stylized as “Elizabeth V. Frazier.”[24] While it is not known for certain whether Frazier and Dixon were one and the same, an “Elizabeth D. Frazier” appeared in Harford’s 1900 census, with a birth year of 1852 and a birthplace of Virginia. Frazier and her husband, Charles, were listed as being married for 16 years at the time of the census, putting the year of their wedding around 1884.[25] Considering Dixon’s final appearance in the 1880 census, combined with Frazier’s first appearance in the historical record in 1884, it seems likely that the two Elizabeth’s were, in fact, the same person.

Frazier continued teaching in Harford until at least 1910.[26] For the most part, she seems to have remained at the Havre de Grace school, teaching there between 1887 and 1898.[27] It is unclear where else she taught following 1898 since she is not listed on any of the state’s annual reports for the years 1899 - 1903.[28] Beginning in 1904, Maryland stopped publishing teacher names in its reports on education, making it impossible to gather further information about Frazier’s career in Harford through those means.[29]

Little else is known about Frazier’s life; the final census record found of her is from 1910 and lists her and Charles as having no children, either dead or alive. Charles worked as a cook for the U.S. Fish Commission and the couple rented, rather than owned, their home in Havre de Grace.[30] No other information about the Fraziers, either in life or death, could be located.

By Stephanie Martinez

^[1] Elizabeth V. Dixon, “Application, November 12, 1870,” U. S. Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874, U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, Ancestry.com.

^[2] Elizabeth V. Dixon, “Teacher’s Monthly Report for the Month of October 1868,”  Records of the Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872, U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

^[3] Elizabeth V. Dixon, “Teacher’s Monthly Report for the Month of February 1869,” Records of the Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872, U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

^[4] Elizabeth V. Dixon, “Teacher’s Monthly Report for the Month of January 1869,” Records of the Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872, U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

^[5] Elizabeth V. Dixon, “Teacher’s Monthly Report for the Month of November 1868,” Records of the Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872, U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

^[6] Elizabeth V. Dixon, “Teacher’s Monthly Report for the Month of December 1868,” Records of the Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872, U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

^[7] Dixon, “Teacher’s Monthly Report for the Month of October 1868.”

^[8] Sarah A. Usher, “Teacher’s Monthly School Report for the Month of November 1869,” Records of the Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872, U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

^[9] Elizabeth V. Dixon, “Teacher’s Monthly Report for the Month of April 1869,”  Records of the Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872, U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

^[10] Elizabeth V. Dixon to New England Freedmen’s Aid Society, “May 13, 1869,” New England Freedmen's Aid Society records, Massachusetts Historical Society.

^[11] Elizabeth V. Dixon, “Teacher’s Monthly Report for the Month of June 1869,” Records of the Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872, U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

^[12] Elizabeth V. Dixon, “Deposit Slip, September 10, 1872,” U. S. Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874, U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, Ancestry.com.

^[13] "Our Baltimore Visitors - The Public Schools Inspected,” Daily Dispatch (Richmond), November 17, 1870, Virginia Chronicle.

^[14] “Freedmen’s Bank Building,” U.S. Department of the Treasury, https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/freedmans-bank-building#:~:text=The%20Freedman%27s%20Savings%20and%20Trust,endeavored%20to%20become%20financially%20stable.

^[15] “Freedman’s Bank Demise,” U.S. Department of the Treasury, https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/freedmans-bank-building/freedmans-bank-demise.

^[16] “Lasting Impact of Freedmen’s Bank,” U.S. Department of the Treasury, https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/freedmans-bank-building/lasting-impact-of-freedmans-bank.

^[17] Maryland State Board of Education, Report of the State Board of Education Showing the Condition of the Public Schools of Maryland, For the year ending Sept. 30th, 1876, (Annapolis, MD: L. F. Colton & Co., 1877). https://archive.org/details/report00mary_10/page/172/mode/2up.

^[18] Doug Washburn, “The Colored Schoolhouses of Harford County: Separate and Equal? Part 1,” Harford Historical Bulletin, no. 101 (2005): pp. 4-6.

^[19] Maryland State Board of Education, Report of the State Board of Education Showing the Condition of the Public Schools of Maryland, For the year ending September 30th, 1878, (Annapolis, MD: George Colton, 1879). https://archive.org/details/report00mary_12/page/272/mode/2up?q=Harford&view=theater.

^[20] Washburn, “The Colored Schoolhouses of Harford County: Separate and Equal? Part 1.”

^[21] Maryland State Board of Education, Fifteenth Annual Report of the State Board of Education Showing the Condition of the Public Schools of Maryland, For the year ending September 30th, 1881, (Annapolis, MD: L. F. Colton, 1882). https://archive.org/details/report00mary_15/page/246/mode/2up.

^[22] “1880 United States Census, Havre de Grace, Harford County, Maryland,” “L. A. Dickson,” Family Search, Entry for John Richardson and Martha Johnson, 1880.

^[23] Maryland State Board of Education, Nineteenth Annual Report of the State Board of Education Showing the Condition of the Public Schools of Maryland, For the year ending September 30th, 1885, (Annapolis, MD: Geo. T. Melvin, 1886). https://archive.org/details/nineteenthannual1886mary/page/262/mode/2up?q=Harford&view=theater.

^[24] Maryland State Board of Education, Twenty-First Annual Report of the State Board of Education Showing the Condition of the Public Schools of Maryland, For the year ending September 30th, 1887, (Annapolis, MD: James Young, 1888). https://archive.org/details/report00mary_20/page/144/mode/2up?q=Harford&view=theater.

^[25] “1900 United States Census, Havre de Grace, Harford County, Maryland,” “Elizabeth D. Frazier,” FamilySearch, Entry for Charles L Frazier and Elizabeth D Frazier, 1900.

^[26] “1910 United States Census, Havre de Grace, Harford County, Maryland,” “Elizabeth Frazier,” FamilySearch, Entry for Charles Frazier and Elizabeth Frazier, 1910.

^[27] See the following Annual Reports of the State Board of Education Showing the Condition of the Public Schools of Maryland: 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st, and 32nd.

^[28] See the following Annual Reports of the State Board of Education Showing the Condition of the Public Schools of Maryland: 33rd,  35th, 36th, and 37th. The 34th report could not be located.

^[29] Maryland State Board of Education, Thirty-Eighth Annual Report Showing the Condition of the Public Schools of Maryland, For the year ending July 31, 1904, (Baltimore, MD: Thomas & Evans Printing Co., 1904). https://archive.org/details/report00mary_34/page/n7/mode/2up?q=Harford&view=theater.

^[30] “1910 United States Census, Havre de Grace, Harford County, Maryland."