Side Story (Don't worry. It's related)
I found a
side-story relating to the 1862 DC Emancpation Act that touches the Flemming/Fleming clan. With the fear of jumping too far ahead or
deviating from what has so far been a somewhat chronological laying out of
information found, I will go ahead and mention that Dabney Jr. had a wife named
Mary Carroll. The 1870 Census shows Mary
at age 4 living in Georgetown, D.C. Yes, blacks have a rich history in Georgetown
and Foggy Bottom in D.C. Her father is
Daniel Carroll and we see her mother is Rachel Carroll.
At the end
of the family list there is one Hannah Ogle. She is sister to Rachel, Mary's mom.
1870 Census
Jump now to the Census of 1900 and as we
search for Hannah Ogle, we find her. She is listed as 73 yrs old and the head of the house. We see Daniel Carroll, her son-in-law but Rachel is not listed. She is listed in the 1880 Census however, but we can not look in the 1890 Census because most of those records were destroyed in a fire. She may have passed, but we just don't know. Now a closer look reveals that Dabney Fleming is now in this family and Mary Carroll, Rachel's daughter and Hannah's neice is also here, but now her name is Mary Fleming.
1900 Census
Here is the short of it. Hannah Ogle and Rachel are sisters. Mary is Rachel’s daughter. Dabney was spouse to Mary. Ok, got that? What does this have to do with the DC
Emancipation Act? Ok, fair
question. Well, we found that Hannah Ogle
and Rachel Ogle (Carrol) were born in Maryland, but were enslaved in D.C. Their owner was a Louis Brooks. These two were released from slavery becuase of the DC Emancipation Act. This was, of course well before Dabney and Mary were a pair. So the end result is that Dabney Jr.’s mother-in-law Rachel and her older sister Hannah were slaves released by this act. We have found the testifying documents and
they are below.
From the National Republican Paper Jun 20, 1862
Names of freed persons and former owners appear below the headline above.
See Hannah and Rachel Olge. It looks like Lewis Brooks sought to assess each
sister at $1000 ea. Below is the actual hand-written "application" that he
submitted to the Government for this claim. It is hard to read, but this was the general format for most of these claim applications. It is addressed to "Clerk of the
Circut Court". Near the beginnig, the document references and uses the exact
words shown in the headlne shot above. "An Act for the release of certain persons
held to service or labor in the District of Columbia." Looking carefully, near the
end you can see "Hannah Ogle, Aged36 years, Dark Colored" and also
"Rachel Ogle, Aged 27 Dark Colored, and then the actual signaure of Mr. Lewis
Brooks, dated April 28th, 1862.
And finally, the official record. See the Ogle sisters and the price assesed by Lewis for each sister. It was $1000 ea. Actual payment to Lewis however, was less.
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More to come.
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