Lisa Fager, executive director of the Black Georgetwon Foundation, has recently shared an intriguing mystery with my Race and Racism students at American University. A member of one of Georgetown’s longest-resident African American families came across, in his grandparents’ trunk, a puzzling large book. At first glance it appeared to be a Bible, bound in the distinctive American Bible Society elaborate coverings. But opening the book, it turns out to be an early edition of William Still’s classic, “The Underground Railroad A record of facts, authentic narratives, letters, &c., narrating the hardships, hairbreadth escapes and death struggles of the slaves in their efforts for freedom,” first published in 1872, an encyclopedic compendium of Still’s remarkable experience aiding hundreds of freedom seekers prior to Emancipation. (The full, searchable text of the book is available on Internet Archives at: https://archive.org/stream/undergroundrailr00lcstil/undergroundrailr00lcstil_djvu.txt)
Why would someone have re-bound this venerable book in a Bible covering? Was this done for protective subterfuge? To sanctify a remarkable story of Black liberation? For simple convenience as the old binding frayed off the Still book.
As we ponder this enigma, we are pursuing the likely chain of provenance of the volume. On the flyleaf, we can discern the name “James Cole” aand an address 1711 13th Street, in Northwest, Washington DC.
The house at 1711 13th Street
This brownstone, still standing, was owned by George Wheeler, a porter, and member of the Odd Fellows. Born in Norfolk, Virginia around 1847, he served during the Civil War in the 38th USCT regiment (Company H) a unit primarily composed of self liberated men from Virginia and St Mary’s County, Maryland. Wheeler mustered into the regiment on 15 February 1965 in Frederick MD, as a substitute for a Phillip Sheffer of Maryland’s 4th Congressional District. After a hospital stay, he was mustered out for disability on May 3, 1865.
On May 2, 1870, 23 year old George Wheeler opened a Freedman’s Bank account in the District of Columbia, listing his birthplace as Norfolk Virginia; his parents were not living and his brothers were John and Thomas Wheeler. He is a porter working for John A Major. (A latter application, evidently by the same man, lists his mother as Mary)
Around 1878 George Wheeler married Josephine Thompson, daughter of James Thompson and Charlotte Craig. By 1880, he and Josephine resided at the house at 1713 11th Street, NW, where he continued to live for the next 45 years.
Upon the death of George Wheeler on 16 May 1926 the house on 13th street was willed to his widow Josephine (nee Thompson) Wheeler and his three children Ernestine Wheeler Brooks (widow of Daniel L Brooks, who died in 1911). Sandy (Samuel) Wheeler and Bessie Brooks Cole. Sandy Wheeler, a handyman, died in August 1940 in Pittsburgh. Ernestine Wheeler Brooks died in her family home of 1713 11th street, on 27 April 1955 (no children are listed in her death notice in the Evening Star.)
Sandy and Ernestine’s sister Bessie Wheeler married James Cole on 26 May 1906. The couple continued after the death of Bessie’s father George Wheeler to reside in the Wheeler house at 1713 11st NW. It is possible that the Bible-covered copy of The Underground Railroad was inherited from George Wheeler, who as a USCT veteran from Virginia, residing in Frederick MD in early 1865, had likely been a reedom seeker during the Civil War, and may have had particular interested in Underground Railroad history.
The family of James Cole
James Cole, who married George and Ernestine Wheeler’s daughter Bessie, was evidently the son of James Cole Sr (born about 1857) and Belle Wallace Cole, of Caroline County, Virginia. The couple registered their marriage on 26 Februrary 1880 in Washington DC. However, as early as December 23, 1871 in a Freedmen’s Bank application, James Cole Sr lists his wife as Isabella, his parents as John and Julia, and his sons as James and Henry. (We are a little puzzled by the timeline: this James, born before 1871, must have been much older than the James Cole who married Bessie, born in 1892.)
We are not clear yet on the history of the African American Cole family in Caroline County, although we note that in 1860, there were at least seven white slave-owning families in the county with the surname Cole. We are unsure if the elder James escaped from slavery, and might thus have had a personal interest in the William Still volume.
We see that as late as 1940, James Cole Jr (the evident son of James and Belle Cole) continued to reside at 1713 11st St withs wife Bessie, who as noted above had inherited part interest in the house from her father George Wheeler (the house was then valued at $8.000).
We have not yet located a death record for James Cole, Jr, the husband of Bessie Wheeler Cole.
Bessie Wheeler Cole continued to reside at 1713 11th street, until her death on 27 June 1960, when she died at home.
We are not sure if James and Bessie Cole had children. Bessie’s 1960 obituary makes no references to surviving children or grandchildren.
We are not as of this writing clear on why the Bible-bound Underground Railroad volume came into the possession of the family in Georgetown.
An intriguing partial note on the volume reads, “Mr Craig would you please come to my house tonight or tomorrow morning, If you will stop the roof from leaking as you promised, I will give you the balance of the money I owe you. The roof has never stopped yet {I] paid {21 dollars?]
As note above the maternal grandmother of Bessie Wheeler Cole was Charlotte Craig, so it is possible that the note was a addressed to a kinsman of James Cole.
We hope that we will be able to make some progress tracing how the Cole and Wheeler family of 1713 11th street might be related to the Georgetown family that currently has possession of the volume.
