The answer is that the Ohio History Center is the U.S. Michaels and Easton, and the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Church is on the right before Tunis Mills Road.Īlso nearby – The historic Towns of St. 370) and follow into the small community of Unionville. From Route 50 take the Easton Bypass (Rt. Unionville Cemetery is located on the Eastern Shore in Talbot County, Maryland. It was heartening to find a spot where African American heritage – especially from this period in time – is celebrated with joy, pride, and optimism, marked not only by stone memorials but by a living continuation of a community that thrives today. Wandering through it amidst the graves of people connected by a call for freedom, even the old trees seem to be smiling. There’s a peace about Unionville Cemetery. Graves of the Union Colored Troops from Talbot County lined up in the rear of the graveyard. Around Unionville’s founders rest their descendants, and the community is still intact. Their graves are well looked after, each decorated with a small American flag. All eighteen are buried behind the church they founded – St. Later, the community was renamed “Unionville” after the common thread that stitched the founding inhabitants together – fighting for the Union, standing for freedom. The community grew – most being descendants of these eighteen men. They named it Cowgilltown after their benefactors.

All eighteen settled there and built a community, starting with a church and a school. They offered each one of the eighteen a plot of land for a dollar a year. Ezekiel and John Cowgill – Quakers who owned Lombardy Plantation in Talbot County – carved out a parcel of land for these soldiers. Former slaves were homeless and free Blacks had difficulty fitting back into communities.Įighteen slaves and free Blacks from rural Talbot County, Maryland were a part of the Colored Troops in the Union Army. When the war was over, most had nowhere to go.

When Lincoln established the Colored Troops, many African Americans – both free and slaves – signed with the Union Army. During the Civil War Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas – both natives of Maryland’s Eastern Shore – consistently urged President Lincoln to allow Blacks to fight for their freedom. It is linked to a touching Civil War story – a story of “after-war” success of those facing the greatest challenges for survival.

I’ve lived in Maryland all my life and had never heard of Unionville, a small community on between St.

Carved in Stone by John A. Cowgill