UCAC ORAL HISTORIES: NORTH COUNTY
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Charlotte Hall

Mechanicsville

Sarah Evelyn Mason Butler

Interviewed on March 13, 1997, Sarah Butler was born in Mechanicsville, MD in a large gray house across from BJ’s Liquor Store. She moved into her house on Pin Cushion Road near Sunnyside Road in Loveville, MD in 1949. She discusses her childhood and family life, specifically income, church, and activities. She speaks at length about formal schooling and the work she would do with her family. She answers questions regarding how black people got news/information growing up and transportation. Miss Butler speaks at length about an incident where a family member got severely burnt during a Christmas celebration and how that affected a period of her life. She talks about cooking especially with her mother and how they would cook as an occupation. She speaks at length about meeting her husband and getting married in 1940 at St. Joseph's Church, she describes the relationship between her husband and children specifically following the death of her husband. She discusses the impact of religion on her life and working for the nuns. Miss Butler expresses her opinions regarding life in St. Mary's along with segregation and concludes the interview by reflecting upon accomplishing her life goals.

Loveville

Vincena Dickerson

Interviewed May 27, 2009 with Mildred A. Gross and James A. Sommerville, Vincena Dickerson was an officer of the St. Joseph Housing Project. She first became involved with the St. Joseph Housing Project through her parents. The St. Joseph’s Park community was described as a very close neighborhood by Ms. Dickerson. She noted how people would trust each other, and help each other out with repairs. She mentions John Somerville, Scanlon Herbert, and McKinley Herbert as using their own money to purchase land. Ms. Dickerson talks about how everybody got along and that all the people were beautiful, her father checked on the people everyday and her mother would cook all the time. She mentions the “Kavanagh people” and how they were very welcoming. Ms. Dickerson lived with her grandmother before they moved into the Project house until her mother made a deal with Father Kavanagh to build a house. She speaks at length about the Project and everyone involved along with their efforts and contributions. She talks about folks not wanting black people to own land and how the NAACP aided in legal issues involving black people. Ms. Dickerson concludes the interview speaking at length about Father McKenna. 

Beatrice Wingate Ellis

Mrs. Beatrice Wingate Ellis was interviewed on October 11, 2020, for the UCAC. Mrs. Ellis graduated from a Historically Black University, North Carolina Central, during segregation in 1957. She started her teaching career in St. Mary’s County Public Schools at Benjamin Banneker High School; afterward, she transferred to George Washington Carver High School. After desegregation, Mrs. Ellis would move to Great Mills High School. After her teaching career, Mrs. Ellis worked with Leonardtown and Chopticon high school staff to organize the testing program for Civil Service employment in all county high schools. Mrs. Ellis retired from St. Mary’s County Public Schools in 1993.

Morganza

Agnes Genevieve Carter

Interviewed on March 3, 2006, Agnes Carter lived on Mills Point for ten years, she had six children and her husband gave up farming to work at Indian Head for ten years. She talks about her husband’s work with Indian Head and their financial situation at the time. She details her experience with not having proper electricity or running water in the house. Mrs Carter speaks at length about father Kavanaugh and how he helped provide housing for people to live in. She talks about how many people resented him for helping poor black people, this resentment may have caused him to transfer to Indian Head. Mrs Carter concludes the interview by discussing sharecropped and working hours daily to make a living.

Clements

John Armstrong & Helen A. Holt

Interviewed on March 16, 2006, the interview begins with a discussion related to the St. Joseph’s Project in Oakville which Mrs. Holt heard about through her father and Father Cavanaugh. She was living in Baltimore at the time because her husband was in the service, she and his sister (Mary Armstrong) applied for a home through the project. Her father gave all his children two acres of land to build their homes, she lived in the Morganza area for a long time before she got her house in Clements. She speaks at length about Father Cavanaugh and mentions a few names of people who received houses from the project. Mrs. Holt concludes the interview by talking about how Mr. Armstrong was stationed in Italy for a while and lived in Washington D.C. when he returned, her mother passed away in 1973, and her father in 1974.

Mary & Joseph Dickerson

Interviewed on July 2, 2009, Mary and Joseph Dickerson live in the “barracks” house built in Abell in 1953. They married in 1947 and lived with his parents until they moved into their new house. They describe assembling their house themselves, which had no running water or electricity. They moved in with their five daughters and one son. Mr. and Mrs. Dickerson recounts the many friends and parish members that have moved in the sixty-six years since they began living on their own. Out of the thirteen barack houses, six or seven are still standing. Mr. and Mrs. Dickerson concluded the interview reflecting upon the work put into the house over the years, looking at photos of the renovations.