Gleedsville

After the Civil War, many of the people who had been enslaved at Oatlands and the Carter’s plantation in western Loudoun County, Bellefield, remained in the area. While this might seem odd to modern sensibilities – why wouldn’t everyone leave after they had their freedom? – it makes sense from a practical and personal standpoint. Most newly freed people could not read or write. Most did not have money. Most had family and friends who they did not or could not leave behind.

By 1879, women and men who had once been enslaved at Oatlands and nearby plantations began to buy small parcels of land to the northeast of Oatlands. Most of the tracts came out of the larger, 146-acre Greenup tract, shown in the aerial view below, which had been purchased by John F. Elgin at auction in 1878. The land had been in the Elgin family since 1830, but at some point prior to the Civil War, Elizabeth O. Carter of Oatlands had expressed interest in buying it. A formal contract was never made, and after the war, she refused to buy it.

Whether Carter had ever farmed the Greenup tract or built structures of any sort is not known, but the parcel would have been familiar to people enslaved at Oatlands and nearby plantations. It was close-by and spanned the Carolina Road, which led from Leesburg to Carter’s Mill Road (now present day Gleedsville Road and Oatlands Mill Road respectively). In John F. Elgin, formerly enslaved people found a white property owner willing to sell land and give them a start.

The first person to buy land from Elgin was a woman – Margaret Johnson in July 1879. It was a small, 1-acre parcel on the east side of the Carolina Road.

Other purchases soon followed. Although some deeds were not recorded until the final payment of the purchase price, the 1881 land tax records list the following landowners in what became Gleedsville:

Gleed held onto his 7.5-acre parcel for two years before selling 5.5 acres to Frances A. Daniel, who was white and owned several other parcels in the area, and 2 acres to Harry Washington, who was Black. The latter transaction enabled another Black man to achieve land ownership and put down roots within the growing community.

By 1886, Gleed had purchased another parcel from John and Anna Elgin, this time on the east side of the Carolina Road. Three years later, he sold 1.5 acres to Murray Allen, creating another opportunity for Black land ownership as he had done with Harry Washington.

Establishing a burial ground was a high priority for newly freed people. It meant a special place of their choosing to bury their dead and honor their memories, unlike whatever land had been set aside by their former enslaver for burials. Legal title for a cemetery in Gleedsville was not made until 1886, however, a burial ground was in place by 1881. It was on the northern border of John Elgin’s Greenup tract across the road from Emanuel Day.

Other men continued to purchase land in the area, and by the late 1880s, the small community of Gleedsville had been formed. The earliest documented reference to the name was in the 1886 deed that was recorded for John Gleed’s purchase on the east side of the road.

In April 1886, Thomas Day’s 3-acre parcel was sold to Washington Thornton for $300. Thornton didn’t retain it for long. In 1889, he and his wife, Margaret, sold half an acre to trustees Robert Day, George Bryant, James Serors, Thomas Washington, Bushrod Murray, Thomas Waters and Emanuel Day for use as a “place of divine worship” for the Methodist Episcopal Church. By this time, the village of Gleedsville had a general store owned by the Daniels family.

Another pillar of a community is its church, and the citizens of Gleedsville knew the importance of creating a place for them to worship and share fellowship. The wooden, Late Gothic Revival-style church, known as Mount Olive Methodist Episcopal, was dedicated on 12 October 1890.  The little, white church still stands and is presently owned and used for worship by the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Loudoun.

The second wave of families began to move in – the Buchanans, Smiths and Murrays – and the next generation of the founding families bought or inherited land. But in many ways, times got tougher rather than better for them. The hope of Reconstruction had faded, and fear of African American advancement led to the return of pre-Civil War attitudes in most parts of the south.

Aiming to be self-sufficient and supportive of their neighbors, many communities formed mutual aid societies and fraternal organizations. They provided a means for socializing in segregated society and philanthropic assistance for those in financial need. There is some indication that an Odd Fellows Lodge had been established in the area in the early 1800s, but the deed establishing the Mtn. Gap Lodge #2407 Grand United Order of Odd Fellows wasn’t filed until 1901. The quarter acre lot was adjacent to the church and is now part of the Unitarian-Universalist Church parcel.

By the early 20^th century, farming jobs were fewer due to changes in crop production and mechanization. Many residents of Gleedsville moved out of the area, some to Arlington and Washington, D.C., and others to the north. Of those who stayed, several worked for the Eustis family who bought Oatlands in 1903. James Buchanan served as Edith Eustis’s chauffeur. Deborah Buchanan Fox cared for Edith’s daughter, Helen. Bazil Turner worked on the farm and in the garden and later in life, he helped with household chores.

Little remains of historic Gleedsville today, although several property boundaries are still intact.  Many descendants of people who once lived there remain in northern Virginia, but the original properties have been sold, and new houses have been built. But two pillars of the community – the church and cemetery – remain as testaments to “the struggle of one group of African Americans as they made the transition from chattel [slavery] to free, responsible citizens.”

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