Category: Entrepreneurs

Behind the Scenes of The Bell Family

Freida Bell Brockington

In 2023, the Alexandria Library, Special Collection, and Local History hosted the first Alexandria African American Family Reunion. This event focused on increasing the library’s collection of pictures and artifacts of African Americans who once lived or are still living in Alexandria.

Many people contributed pictures at that event, and even a family Bible was given to the library. Through the collection of photographs, I met Freida Bell Brockington.

She donated pictures from her family, including pictures of her father. In a conversation with Freida, she told me that her father worked for the government but was also a photographer. I only knew one early well-known African American photographer who took pictures in Alexandria during the 1930s—1970s, Elrich W. Murphy.

Freida’s story stayed with me. I felt that her family history was a part of Alexandria’s history and needed to be told. An opportunity came to tell her story when I came across a 1922 article about a man who died in Alexandria delivering supplies for the Masonic Temple. This man’s name was John S. Bell. I called Freida and asked her whether she had a story in her family about the Masonic Temple. Immediately, she told me that her great-grandfather had something to do with the Masonic Temple. In addition, she told me that the last three generations on her paternal side were named John Bell, and each John had a different middle name and used their middle name as an initial. There was John J. Bell, her father; John A. Bell, her grandfather; and John S. Bell, her great-grandfather. That was enough information for me to research.

I researched Freida’s great-grandfather, John S. Bell, back to Winchester, VA. Her second great-grandfather, John Bell, was born in Winchester, VA, in 1845 and was listed on the 1860 Census as a free boy at 15. He was living in the household of his mother, Catharine Bell. There were also other children in the household besides John. These children were Emily, age 17; Martha, age 6; Queen, age 4; and Mary, age 1. They were John’s siblings.

If it weren’t for Freida’s participation in the Alexandria African American Family Reunion, where she donated pictures to the library, I would have never known she was connected to a man who took part in building the Alexandria Masonic Temple.

The 2025 Alexandria African American Family Reunion will be on September 6, 2025, at the Alexandria Barrett Library on Queen Street. Please attend and donate copies of your family’s pictures. It just might be a researcher like me who uncovers your family history.

On February 27, 2025, check out the second blog posting of the Bell family with an interview with John A. Bell’s grandson, Andrew “Andy” Evans.

Please read the Alexandria Gazette Newspaper titled, “The Ringing Success of the Bell Family: “A family’s historical connection to Alexandria and the Masonic Temple.” The article is on page 3, https://connectionarchives.com/PDF/2025/020525/Alexandria.pdf

Insight into the Life of Freeman H.M. Murray

Freeman H M Murray

It was a cold winter day in 1950 when an elderly man was walking toward Washington and Oronoco Streets in Alexandria; suddenly, as he walked across the Street, he was hit by a car. He dies two days later. The driver was a 29-year-old medical doctor who failed to yield to a pedestrian. The doctor was fined $5.

Who was this elderly victim? The man was Freeman H. M. Murray, 90. He had accomplished a lot in his ninety years and contributed his life to help better his race.

Freeman H. M. Murray was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1860 and came to the Washington, D.C., area to attend Howard University. He studied chemistry, physics, and languages there, mastering five languages. In 1883, he was the first appointed Ohio Civil Service in the records and pension division of the War Department in Washington, DC. He settled in Alexandria, VA, and retired after thirty years of service.

Mr. Murray had a second act: He founded two weekly newspapers, the Alexandria Home News and the Washington Tribune Newspaper, and the Murray Brothers Printing Company at 920 U Street, NW, Washington, DC.

Besides running his printing business, he was a religious leader and the author of “Emancipation and the Freed Man in American Sculpture.” He was a teacher and head of the primary Sunday School of Roberts Chapel Methodist Church (now Roberts United Memorial Methodist Church) in Alexandria for half a century. He was an organizer and director of the Alexandria Dramatic Club and a former member of the Niagara Movement, a pioneer civil rights organization, which included W.E.B. Dubois.

At the time of Mr. Murray’s death, he had four children, two boys and two daughters, and he lived at 813 Princess Street. One of his sons took over his newspaper and printing business, and his daughter, Florence, was the author of “Negro Yearbook,” which was published in New York. His daughter Katherine, through his first wife, Laura Hamilton, married Earl M. Luckett in Alexandria, Virginia. His granddaughter, Raye N. Luckett Martin, grew up at 405 North Alfred Street. She attended and graduated in 1943 from Parker-Gray High School. She became one of the first minority professionals in the Alexandria Juvenile Court System.  

Raye Luckett Martin

Raye was a Probation Officer for twenty-five years in Alexandria, VA. Before her appointment with the City of Alexandria, she was a law clerk for Otto Tucker, Esquire. Otto was the brother of the famous Civil Rights Lawyer, Samuel Tucker.

Like her grandfather Freeman, Raye was devoted to her church. She was a lifetime member of the Meade Memorial Episcopal Church in Alexandria, and her grandfather was a member of Roberts Chapel Methodist Church for sixty-seven years before his death.

There are many lessons to learn from Freeman Murray and his children. When they retired, they worked hard and invented new careers. In death, Freeman still teaches us the value of having multiple survival skills. But his greatest lessons are religion and education.

©2024-Char McCargo Bah

He Made His Mark: Linwood John Henry Newman

It was a cloudy day with rain threatening when the 81-year-old Linwood John Henry Newman died at the Alexandria Hospital on September 9, 1962. Six months before his death, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. Reflecting on Linwood’s life, he survived the odds and gave his family and grandchildren a middle-class life.

Linwood John Henry Newman on Pendleton Street – 1930s or 1940s

Linwood was a son of a former slave. He was a farmer, a self-employed mason, and a carpenter. He married his first wife, Nannie Daniels, in 1913. They settled on his property in Burke, Virginia, off Braddock Road. He and Nannie had four children: Julius, Elease, Julian, and Grace. By 1919, the couple had divorced. In 1921, Linwood married his second wife, Elizabeth Daniels. They had eight children: Alberta, Lillian, Justine, Marion, Kolan, Herman, Laverne, and Winona.

Linwood was concerned about his children’s education because there were no colored schools nearby. He prepared to move his family to Alexandria around 1926.  He moved his family temporarily to 601 North Pitt Street. He built 510 Pendleton Street and purchased an additional home at 512 Pendleton Street. Linwood used the property at 601 North Pitt Street as his business address. In Alexandria, he found work as a mason, carpenter, and builder. His grandson, Linwood Smith, remembers his grandfather walking to his contract jobs. Some of the jobs he walked to were in Manassas, Virginia. He walked from Pendleton Street to Manassas with a family member pulling a wagon with his tools. Linwood faced hardship during the Depression. He lost his houses at 510 and 512 Pendleton Street. He moved his family to his property on North Pitt Street. After the depression, he was able to buy back his two properties on Pendleton Street. He learned to survive from his father, who was a hard-working man. His father, John Henry Newman, achieved homeownership in 1886 when he purchased nine acres of land on the property where he worked as a slave for Richard Fitzhugh.

Linwood John Henry Newman was born in 1880 on the Ravensworth’s tract in Fairfax, VA. His parents were John Henry Newman and Lillie Nelson Gatewood.

Two of Linwood’s grandchildren, Jesurena and Linwood Smith, live in Old Town, Alexandria. They have fond memories of their grandfather. He left his mark in Alexandria and made his grandchildren proud of his achievements.

(c) 2024 – Char McCargo Bah

Contee and Gibson Families

Behind the scenes of the article titled, “A 150-Year history of the Contee-Gibson Family School.”

Myron Contee had no idea about the history of his ancestors in Alexandria, Washington, DC and Maryland. His Contee and Gibson families were early property owners in Alexandria. The Contee family migrated from Prince Georges, Maryland around the beginning of the Civil War to Washington, DC. They stayed in Washington, DC until after the Civil War. Myron’s second great-grandfather and his children migrated to Alexandria after the civil war leaving other relatives in DC. They became property owners of not just one house but several homes in Alexandria.

You can read Myron Contee’s story, “A 150-year history of the Contee-Gibson Family” in the Alexandria Times dated, August 12, 2021 at https://alextimes.com/2021/08/the-other-alexandria-contee-gibson-family/