Buck Weaver: Harpers Ferry’s Human Rights Pilot
“The spark that started the Civil War” — A common response when students of American history are asked about Harpers Ferry. Some will add details about John Brown’s raid on the Federal Armory and the war that left most of its buildings in ruins. Far fewer will mention anything about the harrowing post-war struggle in this remote Appalachian town, when an eclectic mix of Yankee zealots and destitute refugees unexpectedly gathered here — fueled by hope and desperation — to forge a radical new way of life and community, in the face of fierce and often violent opposition. Appreciation for this period is starting to grow thanks to an extraordinary new set of Federal grants centered on preserving sites and stories related to these early struggles which laid an essential foundation for the Civil Rights Movement. This is one of those stories.
In late September, 1867 — just a few blocks from the spot where Brown was hanged for murder, treason, and insurrection eight years prior— an ominous 680 word editorial appeared in West Virginia’s oldest newspaper, directly targeting two Northern missionaries and an audacious “negro” who was daring to help them:
{[W]e conceive it to be our duty to notify the public that … an attempt is being made by a secret, oath-based association, to array the negro against the white race, in our own immediate community, and that already some progress has been made in this nefarious and outrageous business. … In this very town a meeting was held at the house of a negroman on Saturday night week. At this meeting, two white men were present, believed to be Ames and Brackett. They came into town after night fall, and were piloted to the house in question by a negro named Buck Weaver from Harpers Ferry. … At the meeting to which we refer, we understand five negroes were initiated. …and made to swear to support and defend the principles of the Declaration of Independence, as espoused and defined by these imported spawns of radicalism, and among other things are made to pledge themselves to arm against any encroachment upon their rights and privileges — they to be the judges when their rights are invaded. … A WORD TO THE NEGRO. The less you have to do with these men the better for you. They are not your friends. Their efforts are directed to get you into trouble, and when the hour comes that will involve you in difficulties, they will be the last to render you assistance. …We understand further that this association has its password and secret signs and oaths, and that they exact an initiation fee of $2.00 from each negro to whom they administer the oath.}[1]
Who was “Buck Weaver”? And why was he risking his life to help these “New England enemies to social order” recruit members for a cult-like-sounding group with an inflation-adjusted initiation fee of $40.00?
Ironically, part of the answer would be printed more than 50 years later in the same paper (with a markedly warmer tone):
{George L. Weaver, known as “Buck” an aged and respected colored citizen, died at his home on Union street… after a long illness. He was 84 years of age. A large turnout of colored and white friends attended his funeral Sunday afternoon at the A.M.E. Church. Internment in the colored cemetery on the Heights.}[2]
Answering the second question rests on the identity of the “nefarious” Brackett… well-known to be Nathan Cook Brackett, founding president of Storer College —which would officially open its doors to “nineteen earnest students” less than two weeks after the editorial above was printed — and make history the next year as the first college in the South to win State approval of a charter to educate students “without distinction of race or color” — an ambitious vision that would never see fruition due to local hysteria and soon-to-follow state-wide banning of integrated education.[3]
A Free Will Baptist pastor from Maine, Brackett graduated from Dartmouth College in 1864 at the age of 28 and came to the Shenandoah Valley as an agent for the U.S. Christian Commission mission to assist Union soldiers and formerly enslaved people — which is likely how he met Buck. Over the course of his 30 year presidency, Storer records reveal Brackett orchestrated a clandestine network of loans and property transfers to at least 43 hand-picked Black families in the Harpers Ferry area — including George and his wife Julia.[3]
Six months prior to the editorial above, the Weavers likely obtained one of these secret loans from Brackett to purchase the property on Union Street that was mentioned in George’s obit —a prominent two story Federal style brick home for which they paid $190 cash in February 1867 — an eyebrow-raising sum for any young family in Harpers Ferry at the time, especially one with a head of household who would be noted three years later in the 1870 census as an illiterate 25-year-old “farm laborer.” By this time the family had expanded from one to three children: John, 11; James, 3; and William, 1. Two more children, Elizer and George Jr., would be added over the next three years according to the 1880 census. A final daughter, Lizzie Ann, would be born in 1881 according to the 1900 census, which indicates she was the last child still living with her parents on Union Street, age 19, working as a nurse. Sadly, in addition to the six children above, the 1900 census notes that Julia was mother to another four who did not survive.
Additional evidence of a direct connection between Brackett and Weaver came to light in 1895, when a deed of bargain and sale written in 1882 from Brackett to Weaver was admitted to the record of the Jefferson County Clerk. The property in question was a near half-acre land lot directly behind the Weaver’s home on Union Street. This larger property, located at the literal “boundary” entrance to historic Harpers Ferry, is where the Weavers would construct stables and a modest two story flat roof Victorian style commercial building in 1888.[16] Known today as Weaver-Gillison House, George and second-eldest son James would run the family’s varied horse-powered businesses from this property together for nearly 30 years, including carriage services, hauling, prisoner and casket transport, and the first “ice delivery” business in Harpers Ferry — a remarkably hazardous vocation and frequent subject of accident reports in area papers. Weaver-Gillison House was also the primary residence for James and his wife Lucy, where they would raise three children and, like George and Julia, ensured all attended school.
About two years after building Weaver-Gillison House, George — now father of six children including nine-year-old Lizzie — would be swept up in the largest known mass arrest of Black men in Harpers Ferry, reported by at least four regional papers, including the Virginia Free Press on May 14, 1890: “BUCK WEAVER, JOHN [STROTHER], GEORGE MOTON, WM. LAWSON, WM.BROOKS, JOHN EDWARDS, WM.DEFOE, ALL “COLORED” ARRESTED AT HARPERS FERRY … FOR LARCENY & IMPRISONED AT CHARLESTOWN JAIL. FOR SEVERAL MONTHS FARMERS HAD BACON STOLEN FROM MEAT HOUSES.”[19]
Strother would receive 13 years; Lawson, 10 years; and Moton, 2 years. At least one man was convicted on a misdemeanor charge was Harpers Ferry’s most prominent Black entrepreneur, Thomas S. Lovett, a well-known graduate of Storer College and proprietor of the newly built Hill Top House Hotel, which would go on to receive many distinguished guests over many decades despite this initial setback, including Presidents Wilson and Clinton, Alexander Graham Bell, and Mark Twain.
The number of days George spent locked in a Charlestown jail for allegedly receiving stolen ham will likely never be known, nor the financial costs related to his legal fees and missed work, nor the emotional toll on his wife and children; however, we certainly do know one of the outcomes that none of the area papers covered: Buck’s “NOT GUILTY” verdict in December, more than six months after they all reported on his indictment. In due fairness, the editor of one of these papers was probably exhausted from writing a full page special report the prior month titled “TO AFRICANIZE WEST VIRGINIA… EXPOSURE OF THE SCHEME… TO COLONIZE THE STATE WITH THE BLACKS OF THE SOUTH.”
Nearly ten years after a jury found Buck not guilty, an 1899 deed shows that he took possession of a property located about a third of a mile to the south of Weaver-Gillison House, at the base of the rocky cliffs below the campus of Storer College. This is where the Weavers constructed “Weaver’s Ice House” to store ice harvested from the waters of the Shenandoah. A few years later, the local newspaper reported in December, 1903: “A LARGE ICE HOUSE BELONGING TO GEO.L.WEAVER …WAS BURNED ON MONDAY NIGHT OF LAST WEEK. THE BUILDING WAS INSURED FOR $300…”[18]
The record is still unclear as to whether the Weavers rebuilt an ice house at this location or decided to store ice at the Weaver-Gillison House property where it would be safer; however, continuation of the business is evidenced by at least two advertisements that George ran in the local paper in the summer of 1906 as “Weaver’s Ice Wagon” delivering “Pure Spring-Water Ice.”[15]
Another land investment which appears to have worked out better for George and Julia was initiated in 1905, when they won a bundle of five Harpers Ferry land lots out of foreclosure for a few dollars, and sold them all less than 10 years later for a hefty $450 profit in 1914.[17]
In later years, George and James would be directly acknowledged by Storer’s controversial second president, Henry McDonald, as two of six local Black business leaders “who made worthy contributions to the making of our section a better place for all mankind” -specifically noting their many decades of carriage services for Storer’s students, teachers, and guests.[4]
Something McDonald failed to note in his bucolic memoir was the reality of providing “carriage services” for Storer College, especially in its early years, was needed moreover to ensure physical safety of students and faculty — including times when teachers and students felt compelled to carry arms or have armed escorts when traveling outdoors due to repeated physical assaults in town as well as threats from the Ku Klux Klan.[5]
Five years after Buck’s death, near the peak of a decade-long resurgence in Klan popularity, the local newspaper reported that about forty KKK members dressed in full regalia — followed by 40 or 50 men in automobiles — marched two miles from the bridge in Lower Town up through the campus of Storer and on to a ridge overlooking the town where they held a “conference.”[6] This event would have been capped-off with the same KKK signature cross-burning used 20 years later to welcome Storer’s first black president to his new home.[7]
In addition to helping “Massachusetts interlopers … array the negro against the white race” (as our surely well-intentioned editorial phrased it) and providing safe transport for fearful Storer students and faculty, Buck played a leading role in establishing the first Black congregation in Harpers Ferry: the John Wesley African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (A.M.E.). Father and son are both noted by church historians as early leaders — and Buck is recorded as one of nine trustees who signed for the land to build the church in 1879, which included land for Cedar Hill Cemetery, the first and only burial ground for blacks in town.[7] Both James and his younger sister, Eliza (likely named for the heroine of Uncle Tom’s Cabin), would also be recognized by A.M.E. for contributing “much to the work of the church.”[6] A.M.E. would eventually merge with Camp Hill-Wesley Methodist Church, where visitors will find eight two story windows in the nave, and a colorful stained glass tribute to “George L. and Julia A. Weaver” in the second window on the west side.
Taken together with other evidence, a clearer picture begins to emerge. George Weaver, along with his free-born wife and five-year-old son, is believed to be one of as many as 30,000 destitute Blacks from the Shenandoah Valley who fled north in 1864 seeking freedom and Federal protection in Harpers Ferry.[3] Exactly how and when Weaver started his relationship with Brackett is still unknown, but one thing is certain: Buck’s path from bondage in Confederate Virginia (where teaching blacks to read had been outlawed since the 1830s ) to persecuted human rights activist, to respected land-owning church leader is unparalleled in the annals of Harpers Ferry — which carries added significance as “the town where the end to American slavery began" (as Frederick Douglass frequently coined it); However, for every story of life-risking bravery like Buck’s which is known, only because he was targeted directly by name in the paper, there are countless heroic stories that will never be known — especially south of the Mason-Dixon line — as virtually every step in pursuit of basic human rights was confronted with bitter, often violent opposition and legal manipulations by a fanatical white redeemer core bent on maintaining social, political and economic superiority.
Tragically, most of the hard-fought gains that Blacks achieved during reconstruction would be methodically stripped away — starting with political power, followed by land-ownership; However, thanks to bold life-risking leaders like Buck Weaver and the institutions that he helped establish, countless freshly minted teachers and preachers would radiate across the South — from as far east as Maryland to as far west as Texas — to ensure continued strengthening of two essential freedoms that Jim Crow failed to kill: Faith and Literacy. Organized religion and literacy would grow slowly but steadily over many decades and provide an essential foundation for future thought leaders and activists, culminating in the Civil Rights Movement.
Twelve years before he passed, Buck would have felt a sense of pride as he most certainly witnessed firsthand the earliest shoots of this movement begin to emerge in 1906, when the first black man to earn a doctorate from Harvard, W.E.B. DuBois, selected Storer College as the venue for the first meeting on U.S. soil of the newly formed Niagara Movement… an event recognized today as a cornerstone of the Modern Civil Rights Era — as members of this group would soon become the core body of the NAACP in 1909.[9]
Beset by suspicious fires throughout it history — including the near total loss of its flagship building Anthony Hall in 1927 [10] and again in 1939 [11]—the end for Storer would come with its final graduating class in 1955, the year after State leaders issued a death sentence to the school by abruptly terminating funding in thinly veiled retaliation to Brown-v-Board.[12] Thus began a stunning 50 year decline of a community that was recognized as the epicenter of Black cultural for the greater half-of-a-century for a range of 50 miles or more in any direction.[4]
Adding insult to injury, dozens of the school’s post-war buildings would be demolished within a few years by the Federal government as part of its effort to absorb former Storer properties into the new “National Monument” at Harpers Ferry (known today as Harpers Ferry National Park). Weaver’s Ice House on Shenandoah Street was another target in this process, taken from James in an forced-sale by “eminent domain” in 1953 for $50… the exact same price his father George paid for the property in 1899. Over time, historians would piece together a better understanding of the scandalous influence that Neo-Confederate groups had in pressuring the government to effectively white-wash Harpers Ferry’s rich and unique post-war Black heritage.[13]
One of these groups, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), a perennial antagonist of the school, previously lobbied for decades to erect one of the most egregious Confederate memorials in the nation; A two-ton granite boulder inscribed with a profoundly condescending ode to the “[thousands of negroes who remained faithful during the war despite many temptations]”… which continues to stand in full view to this day on Park property, in the middle of downtown Harpers Ferry, fewer than 50 yards from the “hallowed ground” where John Brown’s raid came to a bloody end.
George’s son James may very well have provided transportation for the Storer chorus to perform at the unveiling of this blight in 1931, at the direction of the school’s white president, McDonald, who had a blundering desire to “voice the spirit of fellowship” at this blatant pro-slavery celebration. Courageously, upon hearing praise for “faithful slaves” during the dedication speeches, Storer’s music director, Pearl Tatten, interrupted the ceremony. “I am the daughter of a [Union soldier]… who fought for the freedom of my people, for which John Brown struck the first blow.” The mostly Confederate audience was appalled, reported the Baltimore Afro-American.
Today, Weaver-Gillison House is facing imminent risk of demolition due to condition issues stemming in part from repeated incidents of theft and vandalism; however, a growing number of locals and Buck’s direct descendants are fighting to restore this structure as a monument for inspiring future human rights champions — and a lasting tribute to the brave pioneers who struggled for decades to forge a new and vibrant community here, only to have it unfairly taken from their children.
Can you help us show Harpers Ferry’s hundreds-of-thousands of annual visitors the proper respect that America owes to Buck and the community he helped forge here? Please check-out our exciting grass-roots GoFundMe campaign to learn more about Buck’s remarkable story and the extraordinary new Federal grants that we’re pursuing — which have potential to turn each $10 donation into more than $1,500 in restorative value for this special place at the gateway to historic Harpers Ferry, https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-harpers-ferrys-weavergillison-house.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Special thanks to the Weaver Family (April, Norvel, Janis, Huel, Douglas, Shawn and Stacy) and my spirited campaign co-captains, Jamila Fleet and Storm DiCostanzo.
Fundamental gratitude to Barbara Humes of Harpers Ferry and especially Author/Prof. James A. “Jim" Beckman of Bolivar for doing most of the deep research needed to more fully appreciate Buck Weaver’s story. Many of Jim’s great books on politics and history (including Harpers Ferry and Storer College) are available here, https://amzn.to/42vWzV4
CITATIONS:
[1] Beale, Benjamin F.. “New England Meanness.” Spirit of Jefferson — 9/24/1867 — Charles Town.
[2] Obituary; — Farmers Advocate, 4/20/1918 — Charles Town.
[3] Beckman, James A.. “Storer College and Its Role in Assisting African Americans.” Jefferson Co. Historical Society Magazine, 12/2004 — WV. Note1: Storer received charter approval from the State of West Virginia in 1868 as an “institution of learning for education of youth, without distinction of race or color,” and with “power to confer such degrees as are usually conferred by colleges and universities.” However, the school would cater to only black students due to fierce local opposition to racially integrated education, which was codified in 1872 via West Virginia Constitution (Article XII, Sec. 8 [repealed November 8, 1994]). Note2: Deed for property on Union Street from Samuel V.B. Strider to George L. Weaver in exchange for $190 case, dated February 2, 1867, and recorded and on file at the Jefferson County Courthouse, Charles Town, West Virginia, recorded in Deed Book 2 page 767. Note3: Storer Record, February 1897, Volume 14, Number 3, page 2. A copy of this particular issue of the Storer Record is available on Microfilm (Reel #122, titled “Storer Record”) at the Harpers Ferry National Park Service Museum in lower town.
[4] James Beckman credit: Letter written by Henry T. McDonald (Storer College’s second president from 1899-1944) around the time of his retirement.
[5] Anthony, Kate J. (1891). Storer College : Harper’s Ferry, W. Va. : A Brief Historical Sketch : With Supplementary Notes :1867–1891
[6] Farmers Advocate, 9/1/1923; page 1 column 2. Harpers Ferry and Bolivar News.
[7] “The Making of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park: A Devil, Two Rivers, and a Dream.” by Moyer, Teresa and Paul Shackel, 2008:pg152; Lanham, MD: Rowman Altamira.
[8] Lewis, Ralph H.. “A Historical Sketch of Camp Hill-Wesley Methodist Church.” Harpers Ferry Historical Assoc., 1/1/1996.
[9] “The Legacy of Storer College (1867–1955), Part 2” by Nick Powers, Curator of Collections for Museum of the Shenandoah Valley; published online NOVEMBER 13, 2017by Museum of the Shenandoah Valley 901 Amherst Street, Winchester, VA; ref: https://www.themsv.org/legacy-storer-college-1867-1955-part-2/
[10] Anthony Hall Storer College Harpers Ferry Gutted by Fire. “ Spirit of Jefferson, October 26, 1927, page 1, column 3. “ANTHONY HALL MAIN BUILDING OF STORER COLLEGE CAMP HILL HF. ALTHOUGH STUDENTS HAD SMELLED BURNING PINE NONE REALIZED WHAT WAS HAPPENING UNTIL FLAMES BURST THROUGH SLATE ROOF AFTER DARK. LOCAL FIREMEN AIDED BY THOSE FROM CHARLESTOWN BRUNSWICK & SHEPHERDSTOWN. STARTED IN LIBRARY OR MUSIC ROOM ON 2ND FLOOR. BELIEVED FROM WIRING. ANTHONY HALL HOUSED LIBRARY OF SOME 8,000 VOLUMES MUSIC ROOM PHYSICAL & CHEMICAL LABORATORIES NUMBER OF RECITATION ROOMS. PRES H.P.MCDONALD & OTHERS ESTIMATE LOSS AT $50,000. DORMITORIES & CHURCH BEING TEMPORARILY USED FOR SCHOOL WORK.”
[11] Source: The McDowell Times ((Keystone, WV), Nov. 17, 1939; Chronicling America: Historic Newspapers, Lib. of congress. “Storer College Has Fire”…”On November 2nd, at 130 a.m. a student was awakened by smoke and discovered that the building, Anthony Hall of Storer college at Harpers Ferry, W. Va. was on fire. …damage to the building was estimated at $5,000" …”Origin of the flames is not yet known.”
[12] “The Ugly Backlash to Brown v. Board of Ed That No One Talks About” by LESLIE T. FENWICK, published in Politico on 05/17/2022 Leslie T. Fenwick, PhD, is author of “Jim Crow’s Pink Slip: The Untold Story of Black Principal and Teacher Leadership” (Harvard Education Press, 2022). ref: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/05/17/brown-board-education-downside-00032799 ; Excerpt: “The 1954 landmark Supreme Court ruling was hailed as a victory for desegregation. But protracted white resistance decimated the pipeline of Black principals and teachers.”…”At least 17 states fought with all their might against Brown for more than 20 years. In Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia, all that might include outright law-defying governors, state legislatures, local school boards and superintendents, and white citizens groups that illegally hijacked state budgets and statutes to steer tax dollars and white students away from desegregating schools.”
[13] “An Administrative History of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park” by Teresa S. Mayer, et al., 2004.
[14] Afro-American, 17 October 1931; Martinsburg Journal, 12 October 1931; and Shepherdstown Register, 15 October 1931; Spirit of Jefferson, 30 September 1931; Also: Burke, Dawne Raines (2015). An American Phoenix: A History of Storer College from Slavery to Desegregation, 1865–1955.
[15] Storer College class catalogs preserved at the West Virginia & Regional History Center, the Special Collections division of the WVU Libraries at the University of West Virginia. ref: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/collections
[16] Jefferson County Assessor records show a $200 increase in the value of the Weaver-Gillison House property, from $50 in 1887 (on par with other nearby empty land lot values at the time) to $250 in 1888, indicating the construction of at least one significant building on the property. Jefferson County Clerk records also document that the Weavers used their property on Union Street as collateral on a $244 loan dated March 1, 1888 with Jefferson County Building Association №8, indicating the loan was used to build Weaver-Gillison House in 1888.
[17] Jefferson County Clerk deed records: 01/11/1905 DEED** Book 95 @ 333; Five lots GRANTEED to WEAVER GEORGE L.; 04/23/1914 DEED** 111 @ 21; Five lots sold by GRANTOR WEAVER GEORGE L. for $450.
[18] Spirit of Jefferson — 12/22/1903 — A LARGE ICE HOUSE BELONGING TO GEO.L.WEAVER IN SOUTH BOLIVAR WAS BURNED ON MONDAY NIGHT OF LAST WEEK. THE BUILDING WAS INSURED FOR $300 WITH THE AGENCY OF MOORE & MOORE IN THIS PLACE.
[19] Papers reporting on the arrest of seven Black men in Harpers Ferry in association with bacon theft: Virginia Free Press 05/14/1890 P3C2.; Wheeling Register 5/12/1890; Shepherdstown Register 5/16/1890; Martinsburg Independent 5/17/1890;
APPENDIX:
