There is a historic Black cemetery at Snelltown off Whiskey Bottom Road. The small, well-maintained cemetery is in the middle of a development, but very little information is known about it other than it was the cemetery of the Snell family. The closest site listed in the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties was 1,000 feet away and the form submitted for it speculated that the area was “a small enclave for freedmen” but it also wondered if it could have been “an attempt to segregate blacks from whites.”
Was this area an enclave for freedmen and/or a segregated community? Where did the name Snelltown come from and what are the origins and status of the cemetery? Does Snelltown still exist?
What is Snelltown?
Snelltown is still shown on a Google Map between Whiskey Bottom Road and Hammond Branch, along what is now Harmony Lane. After a little digging, I learned that there was a small but notable Snell family settlement from the 1800s that occupied this North Laurel land for over 150 years. The only property left of their descendants is the family cemetery.
One of the streets near the cemetery is Earl Levy Drive. There were two oral history interviews with Mr. Levy done in the 1980s, and Mr. Levy was asked about his great-grandfather, who had once been enslaved. He said his name was Dennis but knew little of him except a few stories told by his grandmother. I was able to locate some records of his great-grandfather’s enslavement to the Sappington family along with some odd developments.
The Sappingtons
Polly Ridgely, daughter of Major Henry Ridgely, married Thomas Sappington, who died in 1783 leaving Polly with their three daughters. Polly owned several properties, including Sappington’s Sweep, which had about 300 acres. Daughter Anne survived her siblings and eventually inherited the property.
Perhaps the Snell enslavement began with Thomas Sappington, so his records were worth looking into. Mr. Sappington’s 1783 estate inventory indicated he had only enslaved five children: Hannah (15), Nancy (9), Jacob (8), Lucy (7), and Sarah (7). There were no adults listed in the inventory, so I wondered if his wife, Polly, had enslaved people from her inheritance from her father, Major Henry Ridgely. However, he mortgaged those he enslaved. In the 1790 U.S. Census Polly Sappington was listed as having enslaved eight people.
Upon her own death in 1823, Polly Sappington had desired that most of the enslaved were to be set free when they turned 35 years old. Three of those enslaved, including Dennis, listed as 17 in the estate inventory, were left to her daughter, Anne Louise, and the remaining enslaved were to be divided among Anne and her other daughter, Frances. Among the enslaved going to the two daughters was a 49-year-old woman named Luce (perhaps the 7-year-old Lucy from Thomas Sappington in 1783) and a 19-year-old man named Charles.
Freedom for the Snells
A certificate of freedom is a document certifying the holder of it is a free person, whether they were born free or manumitted, and vouched for by a white man. Dennis, Charles, and Samuel Snell all received their manumissions because of Polly Sappington’s will. Dennis was about 36 years old, and Charles was about 37 when their manumission was recorded on Feb 1, 1842, both recorded as having a light complexion. Samuel Snell was 35 years old when he was recorded as manumitted on Feb 12, 1844.
The names Dennis Snell and Charles Snell, each appeared as heads of families and free Blacks in the 1840 census. Along with Dennis Snell were six free children (two White and four Black), and two free Black women, for a total of 11 people in his household. In the Charles Snell household, he was listed with five free Black female children. The census was taken from the same area in which they were enslaved. Could this possibly have been two enslaved men that showed up as free Black men in the 1840 census? There were no other Snell family members by that name in the area.
Until the Snells received their freedom, they were enslaved by Anne Sappington, who had married Zedekiah Moore in 1825. Moore became one of three County Commissioners for the newly established Howard District in April 1840, shortly before the U.S. Census. It is possible that his personal knowledge of the Snell family, their light complexion, and the need for more population for representation and receiving federal taxes, could have prompted the listing of the Snell families as free, rather than enslaved. They could have been considered and treated as free by Anne and Zedekiah Moore before 1840. We just don’t know for sure.
Snell’s Land Ownership
In March 1850, prior to that year’s census, Zedekiah and Anne Louisa Moore sold over 6 acres of land to Dennis Snell. The man and his family they formerly enslaved and would now be close neighbors. Although Dennis was a Black man, there was no indication of race for his family or many others on that census page except for one family that was Mulatto and Black. Perhaps this was due to Dennis’ light complexion.
The next family visited in the 1850 census was James Snell (75) and Lucy Snell (73), along with four children with the last name of Hawkins—all of whom were not listed as Black or Mulatto. It is possible that Lucy was one of the girls that Thomas and Polly Sappington enslaved and was about seven in 1783 and given to their daughters upon Polly’s death in 1823, when Lucy was reported to be about 49. It makes me wonder if Lucy, and perhaps James, were Dennis Snell’s parents or other family members.
In 1881, Dennis Snell and his wife Annie Snell, sold about one of their six acres of land to their daughter, Mary Snell. By 1889 Dennis had died. The lands remained with descendants of Dennis and Annie Snell until the 1970s when BG&E claimed slivers of the land for their transmission right-of way and, in 1991, when the last remaining descendent of Dennis Snell, Frank Curry Sr., sold the remaining lands, excluding the cemetery, for the development centered around Harmony Lane, which used to be recognized by the county government as Snelltown Road.
Rev. James Nicols and Snelltown Neighbors
Rev. Nicols and his wife sold land in the 1870s to four Black families along what is now Whiskey Bottom Road adjacent to the Snell family area. Those families were Thomas Waters, Rachel and Henry America, William Cager, and Dennis Moore, adding to the extended Snell family and others.
The Thomas Waters house was near the Snell family cemetery, per the Maryland Historical Trust (MHT) MIHP form for this property. While MHT speculated that “it would appear Nicols was creating a small enclave for freedmen” by selling a tract of land to a Black man named Thomas Waters, Rev. Nicols sold to white people in the area as well. There is no indication at all that he attempted “to segregate blacks from whites” and the effect seemed to be the opposite.
While listed as a very wealthy farmer in both the 1860 and 1870 census, he was listed as a minster in the 1880 census at 41 years old. Newspapers report that Rev. Nicols was active in the Presbytery of the Chesapeake, but by 1877 the Maryland Presbytery in 1879 identified him with Laurel. Later newspapers identify him as the minister of the Laurel Presbyterian Church. Rev. Nicols was also a trustee for public school number 5 located west of All Saints Church on Old Annapolis Road (now Whiskey Bottom).
Snell Cemetery
Very few mentions are made to the place “Snelltown” in the historical records. One gravestone was engraved with the name “Ada Green” but only unmarked “field stones” remained marking some of the depressions in the ground.
Ada Green was born March 13, 1890, and died June 13, 1981. Her parents were Benjamin Curry and Henrietta Snell. Benjmain Curry first purchased land in the area in 1885 and his descendants still reside very close to it. They had a child in about 1888 and Henrietta Snell’s age was estimated in the 1910 census at 47, putting her birth around 1871.
One of the sons of Dennis Snell, James, was unaccounted for in the 1880 census but resided in the area based on the 1884 voter registration poll. James’ wife was named Henrietta, and perhaps they named their daughter the same, but no records exist for them for the 1880 census and no records exist at all for the 1890 census. James died in 1907, a widower, at 51 years of age.
Dennis Snell’s sons James and Henson both died in 1907 and while James’s death certificate listed Colesville, Henson’s certificate listed Snelltown, which was the first mention of that term we found. In 1912, a local worker, Benjamin S. Powell, died in Colesville, and the place of burial was listed as Snell’s Homestead. It makes sense that James and Henson were also buried on their family homestead cemetery along with many of their ancestors.
There is no doubt that this cemetery, in the Snell family since at least 1850, and still owned and managed by the Curry family, descendants of Dennis and Annie Snell, is a historic Black cemetery deserving of protection and acknowledgement.
Earl Levy
During the interviews with Mr. Levy in the 1980s, he said his great-grandfather’s name was Dennis, who had been enslaved at some point in time. We haven’t been able to adequately trace back his lineage, but we have no reason to doubt his statement. He lived in Snelltown from at least 1950 until his death in 1990. His mother’s name was Carrie Davis and in the 1950 census Carrie was a widow with the last name of Hall. We would love to fill in the gaps if anyone has additional information.
Questions Remain
As with Early Levy’s ancestors, there are still many lingering questions. Who are the parents of Henrietta Snell and is there any primary documentation for the other folks buried in the cemetery? Why were Dennis and Charles Snell listed as free Black men in the census before they officially got manumitted, or had they already lived as free men? Did Charles move to Elkridge and start the Snell family there? The history of Rev. James Nichols needs exploring, as well as how Colesville got its name. So many rabbit holes to go down but so many stories, as imperfect as they may be, that needed telling.
Read Hidden History of Howard County by Nathan Davis and Wayne Davis, published by The History Press, for more forgotten and hidden stories about Howard County.
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