Aunt Betty’s Story 13th and quackenbos streets nw
elizabeth proctor thomas (1821-1917), a free black woman, once owned some 11 acres in this area. Known respectfully in her old age as “Aunt Betty,” Thomas and her husband James farmed here. When the Civil War began in 1861, her hilltop attracted Union soldiers defending Washington. Thomas later told a reporter: one day soldiers “began taking out my furniture and tearing down our house” to build Fort Stevens. Then a visitor arrived. “I was sitting under that sycamore tree . . . . with what furniture I had left around me. I was crying, as was my six-months-old child, . . . when a tall, slender man dressed in black came up and said to me: ‘It is hard, but you shall reap a great reward.’ It was President Lincoln.” For years afterward, although her land was returned, Thomas unsuccessfully pressed the federal government to pay for her destroyed house. “[H]ad [Lincoln] lived, I know the claim for my losses would have been paid,” she often said. Thomas died at age 96 after a lifetime of community leadership. After the war, Fort Stevens fell into neglect. Finally, in 1938 the Roosevelt Administration’s Civilian Conservation Corps rebuilt the portion of earthworks that you see today. The Church of the Nativity, to your left, has served the community for more than 100 years. The building replaces a series of smaller churches built near the corner of Peabody Street and Georgia Avenue, which are still used by the congregation.
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker