Clarksville church rooted in black history

In telling the story of African American history in southern Delaware, it is hard to ignore the Union Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church complex in Clarksville.

Since the early 1800s, it has served as a religious center for local black families with its summer camp meeting grounds and, later, the site of a church and cemetery.

And, for black students, it also had one of the first African-American schools in a region that, for years, only allowed white children in public educational institutions.

“The Wesley campground was the hub of the African-American society in southern Delaware,” said Martin Drew, who grew up in Clarksville and returned to the community after retiring from an educational career in New York City.

While fire destroyed the first church and two early schools on the grounds, miraculously, the Blackwater Colored School, built in 1870, has survived. And a group with ties to the school and the campground are hoping to restore the one-room wood-framed school house, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“We want to be able to preserve something for our children that shows them how we were raised,” said Jamie Miller, a Rehoboth Beach resident and descendant of Daniel Tunnell Jr., who was one of the first teachers at the school.

And Miller’s father, also named Daniel Tunnell, was a member of the Blackwater School’s board of trustees.

“It’s a place that is very important to all of us because a lot of younger people didn’t even realize there was a school there,” said Vivian King, a Dover resident who grew up in Clarksville.

The Wesley Camp Meeting, where the school is located, was established in 1840. It was a time when local black families began gathering at the campground every July for a week of worship, singing and fellowship. Worshippers even included slaves from local farms until their post Civil War emancipation.

In the beginning, families attending the camp meeting would bring covered wagons to the site. Eventually, visitors started using tents or small, modest cottages that were built around a “bower” — an open-sided structure — that was used for worship services. In 1873, a permanent church was built on the grounds. After a fire, a new church was constructed in 1959.

Now, camp visitors often use recreational vehicles and mobile homes for housing during the weeklong camp meeting. And, though once common, very few of these black church campgrounds have survived.

“While these camps were located across the peninsula and in Maryland, only two from African American congregations survive in the state — this one and the camp meeting at nearby Antioch AME Church in Frankford,” said Robin Krawitz, director of the historic preservation program at Delaware State. Krawitz authored the 2011 historic register nomination for the Wesley site.

“For over 170 years, Wesley Camp Meetings have been conducted during the last week of July. Prayer bands and bus loads of people would come home and spend their vacations at Wesley Camp,” said a historical summary prepared by descendants of the early worshippers.

“When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time at those camp meetings,” said Drew.

In the beginning, the first Blackwater School was housed in one of the campground cottages. The second school, which still stands, was replaced in 1922 by a third, which was one of many black schools financed by industrialist Pierre duPont.

From the 1920s, duPont, a member of the state’s most prominent family, personally paid for the construction of 80 new black schools in Delaware, including the one in Clarksville. All told, he used over $6 million of his own money to improve education standards for African-American students in Delaware.

Though many of the early teachers at the school were white Quakers, eventually qualified black educators took over.

Many former students of the duPont Blackwater school speak fondly of former teachers: Sarah Burton — grades one through four — and Carrie D. Frames, who taught fifth through eighth grade.

Of the three Blackwater schools, including the one financed by duPont, the only one that survives is the one built about 1870. The first and third Blackwater schools were destroyed by fire.

Interestingly, the surviving school has always been used as a kitchen to prepare meals for families attending the summer camp meeting.

“Because it is located in a camp meeting circle, and was used as the boarding tent, or mess hall, during those annual celebrations, (this school) can tell the story of religious practices on Delmarva,”said Krawitz.

“And it is one of six pre-duPont African-American one-room schoolhouses left in Delaware,” said Daniel Parsons, Sussex County historic preservation planner.

Indeed, others also believe that the surviving Clarksville school house is an important piece of Delaware history.

“The Blackwater School retains a high level of architectural integrity and is the best surviving example in Delaware of the school buildings constructed for black children during the post-Civil War period,” said a summary prepared by the state Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs.

The first public schools in Delaware began appearing in the late-1700s after the General Assembly passed the Free School Act. The legislation created an education fund that was financed by fees on marriage and tavern licenses.

But, at a time when slaves were still used in Delaware and racial equality was nonexistent, the new public schools catered solely to a white student population.

Though the first Quaker run schools for black students started to appear in Delaware in the early 1800s with the creation of the African School Society, the number of institutions was small until after the end of the Civil War when many former slaves gained their freedom.

In 1866, the education effort got a big boost with the creation of the Delaware Association for the Moral Improvement and Education of the Colored People. While more schools were built for black students, education remained a segregated activity for another 100 years.

It was in this context that the first school was opened in the Wesley complex with assistance from the association. The first Blackwater school burned down and was replaced by the surviving structure in 1870.

Since many students were expected to work in the fields, school was only in session for three months a year — December, January and February. Moreover, the school did not provide education beyond the sixth grade although the duPont-financed Blackwater school did extend to eighth grade.

For black students — and parents — who wanted more education, the only option was to go elsewhere.

“We had no place we could go from here,” said Clara Walters, who attended the duPont Blackwater School in the early 1940s.

Loretta Drew Chowdhury, for example, completed eighth grade at Blackwater then lived with relatives in Dover so she could graduate from a local high school.

“It was the only way to finish school,” she said.

Despite the short school year and the eighth grade limit, the Clarksville school evolved into an important part of black society.

“This one-room schoolhouse was the educational facility for all African Americans of the Wesley Community,” according to a history of the school produced by Drew and other community members.

“Many of our ancestors were products of education from the Blackwater Colored School,” said the book, which was dedicated to Aldon Hall, a student of the school who supplied much of the oral history before he died in 2010 at the age of 99.

Now, Drew and others with ties to the Wesley campground are hoping to raise $100,000 to restore the landmark one-room Blackwater school and create a museum in honor of its rich history. In addition to publishing a book, the group has collected oral histories to help explain and document the rich heritage and significance of the Wesley campground.

“The group has done an amazing job researching the site and raising money to maintain and restore the site,” said Parsons of Sussex County.

And, while they have helped maintain the old school, many look forward to its restoration.

“I can’t wait for it to get finished,” said Lois Mumford, a Frankford resident who attended the Clarksville school after World War II.