Oakley Cabin (built circa 1820)
MSA SC 5496-047812
Constructed in Brookeville, Cracklin District, Montgomery County,
Maryland
Biography:
The historic Oakley Cabin in Brookeville was built around the 1820s on the site of the colonial Oakley Farm, which had once belonged to Colonel Richard Brooke, the so-called "Fighting Quaker" in the Revolutionary War.1 The farm stood on part of a tract of land called Addition to Brooke Grove, patented by Colonel Brooke's father, James Brooke, in 1762 as "Resurvey on Brookes Park."2 By the time of the cabin's construction, Oakley was in the hands of Colonel Brooke's grandson, Richard B. Dorsey. On March 18, 1836, Dorsey sold the entire 308-acre farm to the wealthy slaveholder Dr. William Bowie Magruder.3 The 1860 census documented thirty slaves and two slave houses on Magruder's farm, including the Oakley Cabin and a second slave quarter that is no longer standing.4
With two rooms, a loft, and a stone and brick chimney, the Oakley Cabin was constructed of oak and chestnut logs on the north bank of the Reddy Branch. The cabin's framework includes two doors, the loft's three small windows, and three large windows on the first floor. During the cabin's use as a slave quarter, it may have contained the usual cornhusk or "straw bedding, barrels for seats, pots, pans, and ... a grindstone or handmill for beating corn into meal,"5 basic furnishings and supplies that appeared in Chesapeake-area slave quarters for decades. In the 1980s, archaeologists began uncovering artifacts dating back to slavery. These objects ranged from everyday cookware to rock crystals used in rituals that echoed West African traditions.6
Following the emancipation of Maryland's slaves in 1864, the cabin continued serving as living space. Shortly after Dr. Magruder's death in 1873, Josiah W. Jones bought 295 acres of Magruder's land.7 Josiah J. W. Hutton purchased 187 acres a year later.8 G. M. Hopkins' 1879 map of the Mechanicsville District, (newly-formed from the Cracklin District) recorded three structures, one of which was the Oakley Cabin, standing in a row on the northern bank of the Reddy Branch. Only two slave quarters appeared in the 1860 slave census,9 so third building may have served another purpose if it was constructed during slavery.
The three cabins housed African American
families in 1880. Washington Bowie, the census-taker for that year,
traveled from east to west as he recorded the residents living along Brookeville
Road. If he maintained that order with the three cabins, then the 
first
(eastern) cabin would have housed David and Ginnie Dorsey. A former slave
of Josiah W. Jones, who lived several miles south of Brookeville Road,
the seventy-seven-year-old David Dorsey worked as a blacksmith. The central
cabin accomodated a family of fourteen: the farm laborer Westley Hackett,
his wife, Eliza Ann, their five children, and seven grandchildren. The
western cabin was the home of a carpenter named Resin Wallace, along with
his daughter, son-in-law, two grandchildren, a cousin, and eleven-year-old
Alexander Squalles, a student and nurse.10
Hopkin's 1879 map and the 1880 census record both show the three families
as living between the residences of Josiah J. W. Hutton and Gustavus Jones.11
The Dorseys, Hacketts, and Wallaces also appeared in the 1870 census.
The Oakley Cabin and the surrounding land remained with Josiah Hutton's
descendents until the 1960s. The Cabin is the only one of the three structures
still standing, and currently serves as a living history museum under the
stewardship of the Montgomery County Department of Parks.13
1. Sandy Spring Museum. Sandy Spring Legacy. Sandy Spring, MD: The Sandy Spring Museum, 1999.
2. LAND OFFICE, (Patent Record), 1759-1763, Liber BC & GS 15, Folio 348. Location: 01/23/03/022, MdHR Number: 17,426, MSA Citation: MSA S11-113. James Brook, "Addition to Brooke Grove," 1762.
3. MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Liber BS 7, Folio 490, 1834-1836, MSA CE 148-33. Ephraim Gaither, Richard B. Dorsey, and Anna Eliza Dorsey to William B. Magruder. March 18, 1836.
4. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for W. B. Magruder, Slaves, 1860, Cracklin District, Montgomery County, Page 12, Line 1.
5. Allan Kulikoff. Tobacco and Slaves: The Development of Southern Cultures in the Chesapeake, 1680-1800 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1988) 339.
6. Sandy Spring Museum. Sandy Spring Legacy (Sandy Spring, MD: The Sandy Spring Museum, 1999) 53.
7. MONTGOMERY COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Land Records), Liber EBP 11, Folio 133, 1873-1874, MSA CE 63-21. William E. Magruder and Zachariah D. Waters, executors of William B. Magruder's estate, to Josiah W. Jones, June 17, 1873.
8. MONTGOMERY COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Land Records), Liber EBP 11, Folio 489, 1873-1874, MSA CE 63-21. Josiah W. Jones and Mary E. Jones to Josiah J. Hutton, February 14, 1874.
9. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for W. B. Magruder, Slaves, 1860, Cracklin District, Montgomery County, Page 12, Line 1.
10. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record,
MD) for David Dorsey, 1880, District 118, Mechanicsville District, Montgomery
District, Page 6, Line 5.
U.S.
Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Westley Hackett, 1880, District 118,
Mechanicsville District, Montgomery District, Page 6, Line 7.
U.S.
Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Resin Wallace, 1880, District 118,
Mechanicsville District, Montgomery District, Page 6, Line 21.
11. Hopkins, G. M. Atlas of Fifteen Miles Around Washington Including the County of Montgomery, Maryland, 1879. Philadelphia, PA: F. Bourquin, 1879. Available in the Maryland State Archives.
12. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record,
MD) for David Dorsey, 1870, District 1, Montgomery County, Page 20, Line
13.
U.S.
Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Wesley Hackett, 1870, District 1,
Montgomery County, Page 22, Line 23.
U.S.
Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Resin Wallace, 1870, District 1,
Montgomery County, Page 22, Line 18.
13. "Oakley Cabin." Montgomery County
Department of Parks. www.oakleycabin.org.
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