Josephine School Community Museum

Josephine School Community Museum The Josephine School Community Museum & Clarke County African American Cultural Center is housed in a circa 1882 two-room schoolhouse in Berryville, Va.

Its mission is to preserve and share Clarke County’s Black history.

John Curtiss Underwood (b. March 14, 1809; d. Dec. 7, 1873) was a lawyer and outspoken antislavery activist. In the 1850...
09/04/2026

John Curtiss Underwood (b. March 14, 1809; d. Dec. 7, 1873) was a lawyer and outspoken antislavery activist. In the 1850s, he and his family lived in Clarke County, Va. By the end of 1856, his neighbors had so often threatened his safety that Underwood left and moved his family to New York. His written account of his exile was published in The New York Times on Jan. 6, 1857.

President Lincoln appointed Underwood a federal judge for Virginia’s eastern district in 1863. He was reassigned to the United States District Court for the District of Virginia on June 11, 1864. In this position, Judge Underwood presided over the grand jury that indicted Confederate president Jefferson Davis for treason in May 1866.

Judge Underwood continued his highly critical and public remarks against former Confederates and their sympathizers in favor of African American suffrage.

He was elected president of the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1867-68, and its “The Underwood Constitution” granted Black men the right to vote, established a system of free public schools, and secured other democratic reforms.

The long letter John Underwood wrote to The New York Times after leaving Clarke County includes this passage:

“We were sad at seeing our household goods scattered around us; for, though in form a voluntary sale, it was, in fact, a forced sale … forced upon us by the oppression of proud and cruel men, who neither feared God nor regarded humanity. Our little children were grieving over the sale of the horses and colts, cows and calves, pet lambs and playthings, which they had been accustomed to call their own, and to which they had become attached, as farmers’ children often are. To increase the gloom and desolation caused by this general breaking up and scattering of those old and familiar associations and objects to which our hearts fondly clung, our kind neighbor, Mr. Feltner, called late in the afternoon with a message from another friendly neighbor, that we must immediately prepare for the reception of a Committee of Vigilance, which was coming on with the most hostile intentions. This seemed to explain the mistake published in the papers respecting the day of the sale. And now came trouble to my wife and her female friends, who urged me to leave the house and them, as they supposed the mob would be appeased if made certain of my absence.”

Read the full text of John C. Underwood’s letter to The New York Times at https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/letter-from-john-c-underwood-in-the-new-york-times-january-6-1857/

Read more about Mr. Underwood at https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/underwood-john-c-1809-1873/

“Still Family: William Still and the Legacy of the Underground Railroad” is presented at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, in He...
09/03/2026

“Still Family: William Still and the Legacy of the Underground Railroad” is presented at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, in Henkel Hall, Hester Auditorium, on the campus of Shenandoah University (726 Wade Miller Dr., Wi******er). The event is FREE and open to the public.

Based in Philadelphia, Pa., William Still was a conductor of the Underground Railroad. In his obituary, The New York Times proclaimed Still “The Father of the Underground Railroad” and credited him with helping as many as 800 slaves escape to freedom.

At Shenandoah, William Still’s descendant Valerie Still will discuss her new book, “Still Family: William Still and the Legacy of the Underground Railroad.” For more information, contact Professor Jonathan Noyalas, director of Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute at (540) 665-4501 or [email protected].

Read more about the Institute at www.su.edu/mcwi/

In 1993 – when plans were being made to transform the Josephine City School into Clarke County’s Black history museum – ...
09/01/2026

In 1993 – when plans were being made to transform the Josephine City School into Clarke County’s Black history museum – Mary Bell Jackson Howard wrote a remembrance of her childhood education. In the 1920s, she attended the two-room schoolhouse that was built in 1882 to serve the Black community.

We have transcribed her letter to the best of our ability. Scroll through the images; text for each page is in its caption.

Mary Bell Jackson was born March 7, 1909, in Berryville, Va., the daughter of William A. Jackson and Nannie Justice Williams Jackson. She married Earl William Howard; he died in 1947. The Howards had three children: Nannie, Ruth, and Earl Jr. Mary Bell Howard was a member of the Josephine Improvement Association and of Zion Baptist Church on Josephine Street.

Mary Bell Jackson Howard died in Oct. 24, 2009, at age 100.

Excerpts of Mary Bell Howard’s 1993 letter are included in the comprehensive Josephine City School “National Register of Historic Places” nomination form dated March 1, 1995: https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/VLR_to_transfer/PDFNoms/168-5027_Josephine_City_School_1995_Final_Nomination.pdf

A great man once lived in the center of Millwood, and it would take a book to tell William “Bill” Layton’s story. Fortun...
08/28/2026

A great man once lived in the center of Millwood, and it would take a book to tell William “Bill” Layton’s story. Fortunately, he wrote one a decade before he died in 2007 at age 92. “Layton Looks at Life,” published in 1996, is available at the Josephine School Community Museum and the Clarke County Historical Association museum.

His Millwood home, “Rock Cliff,” was built on land his family owned since 1871. Though his career was in Washington, D.C., (beginning in 1965), the Laytons spent their summers in Millwood.

Bill Layton’s obituary in The Washington Post sums up his education, career, and community service while only hinting at his compassion and kindness. It does not mention his warmth and humor, nor does it mention the extraordinary family he and his wife Phoebe raised.

The Post wrote: “Mr. Layton was born [July 17, 1915] in Hanover, Va., and graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He received a master's degree in sociology from Fisk University in Nashville in the late 1930s and did further graduate study at Michigan State University.

“After working in the Nashville public schools, Mr. Layton began his professional career in 1942 with the Urban League in Columbus, Ohio. From 1951 to 1959, he was executive of the Urban League chapter in Muskegon, Mich. He then spent six years as director of education and community services for the Michigan Civil Rights Commission in Lansing, Mich., before moving to Washington.

“Mr. Layton lived in Washington since 1965, when he became director of contract compliance for the Department of Agriculture. In 1971, he became one of the first African American senior staff officials of the Federal Reserve Board, where he was director of affirmative action hiring throughout the Federal Reserve System. He retired in 1977, but continued as a consultant to the Federal Reserve Board until 1981.

“He collected documents associated with the Civil War and the abolitionist movement and often lectured about his collection. He was a member of many historical organizations, including the Columbia Historical Society, U.S. Capitol Historical Society, the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia and the McCormick Civil War Institute of Shenandoah University in Wi******er, Va.

“He was a founding member of the Fort Collier Civil War Center in Wi******er and served on the boards of the Grafton School in Berryville, Va., the Shenandoah Arts Council, the Clarke County chapter of the Red Cross and the Wayside Theater in Middletown, Va. He was a member of the Kiwanis Club; the Torch Club, a youth leadership group; and the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.”

Bill Layton’is wife of 67 years, Phoebe Anderson Layton, died at age 101 in 2018.

Their daughter Andrée Roaf, who died in 2009, was the first Black woman to serve on the Arkansas Supreme Court, and she is the mother of former NFL offensive lineman Willie Roaf.

Daughter Mary Layton is a public relations professional who served director of public relations for the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital and was Assistant U.S. Postmaster General in the 1980s.

Daughter Serena Davis, who worked in advertising, died in 1988.

A Washington Post article published before Mr. Layton’s death begins, “On March 4, 1933, William Wendell Layton came to Washington with his family to watch the inauguration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

“As a student of history, he recognized the importance of Roosevelt's presidency, which had arrived in the midst of the worst financial crisis of the century. And as an African American who had grown up near Richmond in a rigidly segregated society, the 17-year-old Layton saw hope in Roosevelt’s message of uniting all Americans.”

And the article includes this: “Wherever he went, Layton had a way of bringing people together from all backgrounds and races.”

The Stewart Bell Jr. Archives at Handley Regional Library in Wi******er contain “The Layton Family Collection” of news clippings, correspondence, and writings regarding African-American history and the Civil Rights Movement. Mr. Layton also donated some of his vast collection of historic documents to Shenandoah University.

He had documents signed by Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet, plus items autographed by Jack Johnson, Marian Anderson, Langston Hughes, and Rosa Parks, who was Mr. Layton’s friend.

Links to The Washington Post articles mentioned in this post are in the “comments” section.

By 1875, there were 10 African American communities in various stages of development in Clarke County, including Josephi...
08/25/2026

By 1875, there were 10 African American communities in various stages of development in Clarke County, including Josephine City and Blackburn Town near Berryville and others across the county. In the 20th century Millwood came to be known as a Black community; however, from the late 1700s and throughout the 1800s, Millwood was a cluster of commercial buildings centered around the large stone gristmill – all owned by white families, some of whom owned many slaves.

By the 1870 Census, nine out of 38 households in Millwood were headed by Blacks. The 1880 Land Tax Book lists 16 Black landowners in Millwood, though only seven properties had buildings. As more Blacks settled in and around Millwood, they – like many Black communities – built churches and schools to meet their needs.

Millwood’s Shiloh Baptist Church, however, was built in 1892 by a white congregation. When the congregation decided to move to Boyce in 1919, an African-American congregation purchased the church property for $1,500 in April 1921.

The church, originally a wood frame structure, was covered with stucco in 1932. A two-story frame building next to the church served as its parsonage and, later, for recreational activities.

In 1910, the Burch family conveyed a parcel of land adjacent to Shiloh Church to be used as a source of water for the residents of Millwood. The public town well was – and still is – next to the parsonage. (Public water and sewer came to Millwood in the late 20th century.)

Shiloh Baptist Church is much more than a church. Because it sits near the center of the village, it has long served as a community meeting spot. In recent years, FISH of Clarke County sets up its monthly free food distribution truck there, too.

In 2002, local architectural historian and preservation consultant Maral Kalbian co-authored an in-depth study of the African-American population in Clarke County. Her co-author was research historian Leila Boyer of Harrisonburg.

The study makes clear how slavery shaped the development of the county, and it became a springboard for new research on Black communities in the region. Read the 2002 report, “African-American Historic Context, Clarke County, Va.” at https://fliphtml5.com/lifzz/asqj/Final_Report_-_African-American_Context%2C_Clarke_County%2C_Virginia%28HD%29/

More examples of how white-owned newspapers – particularly in the South – enforced the color line in the Jim Crow era......
08/21/2026

More examples of how white-owned newspapers – particularly in the South – enforced the color line in the Jim Crow era... During World War I, the Clarke Courier newspaper, like many local newspapers across the country, listed the young men who were heading off to serve in the United States Armed Forces. White men were not identified as “white,” as that was understood; however, Black men were named in separate lists and identified as “Colored.”

Does anyone have information – or a photo – to add to the story of Malverine Rebecca Garner Artis? A community park on J...
08/18/2026

Does anyone have information – or a photo – to add to the story of Malverine Rebecca Garner Artis? A community park on Josephine Street is named in her memory. What did she do to be so honored?

With help from the Clarke County Historical Association archivist, we have learned a little about Malverine’s life. And, with every discovery, more questions arise.

Malverine’s obituary, published Dec. 29, 1960, in the Clarke Courier newspaper, reads:

“Mrs. Malvriene [sic] Artis, wife of Nathanial Artis of Berryville, died December 20 in the Wi******er Memorial Hospital. She was 50 years old. Mrs. Artis was born August 12, 1910, a daughter of Harrison Garner and the late Lucy N. Alexander Garner. Besides her husband and father, she is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Arthur Reynolds, at home, and the following brothers and sisters: Miss Virginia Garner, Miss Lucy N. Garner, Mrs. Lelia DePriest, Richard Garner, all of Berryville, Jack Garner of Easton, Pa., Nathaniel Garner of Charles Town, and an aunt, Mrs. Emily Taylor of Ranson. Funeral services were conducted Friday from the Zion Baptist Church, by the Rev. Paul Brown of Washington. Pallbearers were William H. Paige, John Lampkins, Phillips Paige, Stanley Clay, Beverley Williams and James Moss.”

Malverine Garner married Nathaniel Artis on Dec. 16, 1937, at St. Luke Baptist Church in Berryville, and their certificate of marriage notes they both live in Berryville and both are “colored.” The marriage certificate names Nathaniel as “Nathan” and lists his occupation as “farm laborer.”

Their marriage certificate gives her age as 22 and his as 20; however, Nathaniel was born in 1905, making him 31 on his wedding day, and Malverine was born in 1910, making her 27.

Nathaniel’s 1942 draft registration card refers to his wife Malverine as “Marie Artis.” Perhaps a clerical error, or perhaps her nickname.

In print Mr. Artis is identified as Nathanial (with an ‘al’), Nathaniel (with an ‘el’), and Nathan.

In January 1938, the “Baltimore Afro-American” newspaper published a marriage announcement – dateline Berryville – for Miss Malverine Garner and Nicholas Ott. Is Nicholas Ott just a really bad misspelling of Nathaniel Artis?

Remember that in the many decades when newspaper type was set by hand – letter by letter – typos abound. And, if information was taken over the telephone or via telegraphs (perhaps the case with “Baltimore Afro-American") the potential for misspellings increases.

It appears Clarke County native Malverine and Nathaniel, who was born in in Isle of Wight County, Va., lived in Berryville their entire married life and raised Malverine’s daughter.

Lucy Ann Garner was born in 1927; her 1947 marriage certificate names her parents as Strother French and Malverine Garner. A note on the certificate says “Parents of bride not married.” It also notes “Consent of mother given in person.”

The 1940 U.S. Census United States for the Town of Berryville lists the Artis family: Nathan, 35; Malverine, 28 (she was 30); “step child” Lucie Garner, 14; and “step child” Harrison Garner, 12. Harrison was actually Malverine’s brother. Who knows why Nathaniel and Malverine were made Harrison’s guardians? Harrison Garner Sr. was living. (He died in 1964, and is buried in Milton Valley Cemetery.)

Malverine died Dec. 20, 1960, in Wi******er. Her death certificate says her occupation was “domestic.” Nathaniel died July 25, 1975, at Shenandoah Memorial Hospital in Woodstock, Va.; his death certificate lists his occupation as “laborer.”

Nathaniel and Malverine Artis are buried in Milton Valley Cemetery at the end of Josephine Street – right across the road from the Malverine Artis memorial community park. Their grave markers are long gone.

Why does the park on Josephine Street honor Malverine?

The 1/2-acre park is land deeded by H.F. Byrd, Inc. to the Josephine Improvement Association, Inc. on Feb.8, 1967 “in consideration of the sum of Ten Dollars…”

The deed conveys “lot or parcel of land lying in and being in settlement known as Josephine City, adjacent to the the Town of Berryville, Clarke County, Virginia, beginning at a point in the middle of Main Street of Josephine City…” The deed was signed by Richard E. Byrd, president of Harry F. Byrd, Inc., as well as Harry F. Byrd Jr., the secretary of Harry F. Byrd, Inc.

Did Malverine Artis work for the Byrd family? Is that the connection?

In January, this page shared the story of Benjamin Lippkin, a Black man who shot and killed another Black man i...
08/14/2026

In January, this page shared the story of Benjamin Lippkin, a Black man who shot and killed another Black man in Berryville in July 1904. After being found guilty of murder in court, Mr. Lippkin was hanged in January 1905. He was the first and last person sentenced to death by hanging in Clarke County, Va.

On Aug. 14, 1936, Rainey Bethea – a Black man who was convicted of ra**ng and killing a 70-year-old woman – was hanged on the banks of the Ohio River in front of about 20,000 people, creating a media circus.

Newspapers across the country gave it sensational monikers like a “picnic hanging” and a “hangman’s holiday.” However, news stories written by Black newspapers focused on the systemic racism at play in the justice system.

All other states had banned public hangings by the 1930s, although hanging remained a means of ex*****on. The unprecedented nationwide coverage of Rainey Bethea’s ex*****on caused the United States to phase out public ex*****ons.

And, in the decades following Mr. Bethea’s ex*****on, states began eliminating hanging as means of ex*****on altogether.

For Mr. Lippkin’s ex*****on on Jan. 27, 1905, scaffolding was erected under a huge tent on the Clarke County courthouse grounds, and invitations to the ex*****on were sent to no more than 150 people; however, less than 100 attended, according to the Clarke Courier newspaper, which also noted a large crowd of curious onlookers gathered outside the tent.

“Hanging” is a legal method of capital punishment. “Lynching” is an unlawful act carried out by a mob for a perceived wrongdoing.

DeathPenaltyUSA – https://deathpenaltyusa.org – details all known ex*****ons by state from 1607 through 2014. DeathPenaltyUSA also identifies hundreds of slaves who were hanged prior to and during the Civil War. After the war, the terminology changes to “freedman” and “black.”

The Josephine School Community Museum is a proud co-sponsor of “Researching Resistance: A Workshop on Self-Emancipation ...
08/11/2026

The Josephine School Community Museum is a proud co-sponsor of “Researching Resistance: A Workshop on Self-Emancipation and Freedom-Seeking at Belle Grove.” This FREE public event begins at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, at the Northeast Neighborhood Association Community Center located at 491 Broad St. in Harrisonburg, Va.

This workshop is part of a series of programs on African American resistance co-sponsored by the Afro-American Historical Association of Fauquier County VA., Belle Grove Plantation, Josephine School Community Museum, Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project, and the Institute for Historical Biology (IHB) at William & Mary.

On Aug. 29, IHB researchers will discuss their ongoing exploration of resistance and self-emancipation at Belle Grove. Utilizing “runaway ads” from newspapers of the time, IHB is learning more about enslaved peoples’ lives and the ways they resisted against enslavement.

For more information contact [email protected] or go to www.wm.edu/as/programs/ihb/

These three panels at the Josephine School Community Museum & Clarke County African-American Cultural Center name known ...
08/06/2026

These three panels at the Josephine School Community Museum & Clarke County African-American Cultural Center name known slave owners in the county and the known number of Blacks they enslaved.

The 1860 Slave Census reported 3,375 slaves registered to 346 owners in Clarke County. That year, enslaved African Americans accounted for 48 percent of the county’s total population.

Clarke was created in March 1836, when the state Senate officially divided Frederick County to form the new county. So, it is difficult to know how many people were enslaved in the area before it became known as Clarke.

The first U.S. Census in 1790 recorded 4,200 slaves in Frederick County. By 1810, there were 6,417 slaves in Frederick County, an increase of 50 percent from 20 years earlier. By 1830, Frederick County had 7,430 slaves and 1,265 free Blacks.

It is known that African Americans were among the earliest settlers of the region. Beginning in the mid-1700s, slaves were marched 200 miles from the James River to what is now Clarke County.

The earliest record of those African Americans is in account books from the 1740s, describing slaves being brought from Tidewater plantations to work along the Shenandoah River. They, or their ancestors, had been kidnapped into slavery from western Africa, brought by way of the West Indies, and sold off slave ships at the piers along the James River to wealthy plantation owners.

While many settlers west of the Opequon Creek owned slaves in the 18th and 19th centuries, the number of slaves held per landowner there was significantly smaller than in the area east of the Opequon, which later became Clarke County.

Four years after Clarke County was separated from Frederick County, the 1840 Census counted 3,325 slaves in Clarke and 2,302 slaves in Frederick.

On the eve of the Civil War, there were more than 3,350 enslaved individuals and less than 70 free Blacks in Clarke County.

Read more in “African American Historical Context” a Certified Local Government (CLG) project prepared for Clarke County in 2002: https://fliphtml5.com/lifzz/asqj/Final_Report_-_African-American_Context%2C_Clarke_County%2C_Virginia%28HD%29/

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303 Josephine Street
Berryville, VA
22611

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1pm - 3pm

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