The Benjamin Lyons Story: The Preface

It is past time to take a step back and reflect on our local history to give new insights in our patterns of thinking. Were slaves ever held in our mostly white Bedford County? Was there a separate school just for the black students? Did racial segregation even happen here, too? And most importantly, does prejudice still occur today?

Although Pennsylvania was a northern state and a part of the Union, just north of the Mason-Dixon Line, slavery was allowed until a law was passed in 1780 which gradually emancipated slaves. Although not actually freed, children born to slave mothers would serve as “indentured servants” to the mother’s master (replacing the term “slave” for servant) until they were 28 years of age. By 1810 there were fewer than 1,000 slaves in the Commonwealth.

In Bedford County, there are numerous records in the courthouse listing prominent landowners who held slaves, such as Bernard Daugherty, George Armstrong, Jean Bonnet, Dr. William Watson and Dr. John Anderson. Records show that from 1817 to 1825, William Hartley, Jr., innkeeper in Snake Spring Township, owned two adult women – Mary and Nancy Smith, ages unknown but adults; plus three of their children, listed as “slaves to the age of 28.” The numbers of slaves and servants in Pennsylvania gradually diminished through the years as they reached the age to be legally free. By 1840 there were over 400 persons of color in Bedford County. Schools and churches, once segregated, could be integrated.

There are many untold stories of Bedford County’s past that need to be discovered and preserved in writing before they are lost. Perhaps by learning about these individuals we can discover their personhood and hopefully better understand the struggles still being waged today to find equality and acceptance, no matter one’s skin color.

Editor’s Note: Doris Dibert is a former elementary school teacher and a “collector of information” on many family lines and history of Bedford County and the Church of the Brethren. Dibert was part of a group that was looking into black families of Bedford County. She has been kind enough to write out the stories of these families and allow the Herald to publish them.