Hopewell Crossroads (or Greenspring) was located in eastern Harford County between Churchville and Havre de Grace. Its original trustees were Edward Waxwood, Charles Garrett, Henry Hilton, and John B. Giles. The school was first started in June 1865, with the support of the Pennsylvania Freedmen’s Relief Association. For it first three years the school was evidently not held in a schoolhouse. Like many early freedmen’s schools, classes were probably held in a church.

Hopewell first appears in Freedmen’s Bureau records in a report of Maryland schools for December 1866. That month there were 25 students (18 boys and 7 girls). The names of the teachers during this early period have not been determined. This and later reports from this period confirm that the teacher or teachers were African American.

By the beginning of 1868 efforts were underway to create a dedicated school building at Hopewell Crossroads. In January, trustee Edward Waxwood, now also chairman of the building committee, corresponded with the Freedmen’s Bureau regarding materials to construct a schoolhouse. By early May, a full complement of lumber, windows, plastering materials, and other supplies had been furnished by the Bureau.

In November 1868, the building was complete and furnished enough for classes to begin. That month, teacher Maggie H. Jaques began work as the first teacher at Hopewell Crossroads. Jaques, like the two teachers that would follow her at Hopewell, was supported by the Baltimore Association. She reported having 25 students in November, which dwindled to 13 the following month. Rosie Sythe replaced Maggie H. Jaques in January 1869, teaching until the close of the school year in June. Her class size in January was 45, which gradually fell to 14 students at the end of her tenure. Maggie H. Jaques returned to Hopewell to teach that fall. Classes sizes during that term averaged in the twenties. The spring term of 1870 was taught by Henrietta Gilmore. Her last monthly report dates to May 1870, when she had 31 enrolled students.

With the dissolution of the Baltimore Association shortly afterward, Henrietta Gilmore left the school. In July 1870, trustee George Washington wrote to Freedmen’s Bureau education superintendent W. L. Van Derlip. He hoped that the Bureau would continue their school under its direct management, preferably with Henrietta Gilmore returning as teacher. It is unclear whether steps were taken to renew her services. Washington’s letter also reveals that the school had no desks, which he told Van Derlip the trustees would obtain if Gilmore returned.

The school at Hopewell Crossroads continued into the twentieth century. It was burned in 1926, possibly by the Ku Klux Klan, and never rebuilt.^[1]

By James Schruefer

^[1] Doug Washburn, “The Colored Schools of Harford County: Separate but Equal? Part 1,” Harford Historical Bulletin 101 (Summer/Fall 2005): 12.