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<p>This home was built between 1900-1905, and was demolished in 2008. Luckily, I was able to see what the demolished house looked like from Google Maps. Tax records show the land switching hands from Self Help to Habitat, and in 2009 this home was built:</p>
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<p>It was the home of the Reverend Dangerfield Newby, Jr. and his wife Julia E. (Mayhew) Newby. He was the reverend at both <a href="http://www.opendurham.org/buildings/emmanuel-ame">Emmanuel AME</a> and the short lived Wall Street AME. Emmanuel AME was also known as the Fitzgerald church, for both many of it's parishioners as well as the bricks that built it.
</p><p>Pauli Murray wrote about Dangerfield Newby Jr. in her autobiography:</p>
<p> "In his seventies when I first knew him, he was a cabinet maker by trade, tall, spare, amber-colored, with white curly hair and almost deaf. He carried himself with great dignity and was very much respected by my family. What I did not discover until after I had gone to college was that he was the oldest son of Dangerfield Newby, the freeborn mullato who had joined John Brown's raid and been killed at Harper's Ferry in 1859."</p>
<p>History buffs may be familiar with Dangerfield Newby, Sr. who was famous for his part in John Brown's raid in Harper's Ferry. The elder Dangerfield Newby was a freed slave, but he was trying to buy the freedom of his wife and children. He was unable to do so, potentially influencing his decision to join the raid. Sadly, he died in the raid and never saw his family again. </p>
<p>The elder Dangerfield Newby:</p>
<drupal-media alt="Dangerfield_Newby.jpg" data-align="" data-view-mode="full_width" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="c0a0b5e2-225e-4e8f-a208-f31a7caef927"></drupal-media><p>For those interested in more information on Dangerfield Sr. and his experience, check out this <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/stratalum/newby-harpers-ferry-schwarz-101709-… project</a> or Chapter 7 of the book Migrants Against Slavery by Philip J. Schwartz, which has an excellent historical synthesis of the Newby Family. </p>
Just how Dangerfield Newby Jr. made it from being enslaved in Virginia to working on a farm on Long Island, NY after emancipation where he met his wife Julia Mayhew is a mystery. Her family was active in or at least associated with the local Quaker religious community. The area they lived in around Westbury, NY was a known stop on the underground railroad, hinting at a potential route for Newby Jr. to have landed there. At some point in the 1880’s he was inspired to become a Reverend in the A.M.E. denomination. He and Julia left New York and came to North Carolina to minister in Halifax, Chapel Hill, Efland and Raleigh before landing in Durham at Emanuel A.M.E.
He was widowed in 1911 (Julie is buried in the historic Geer Cemetery). In 1921, at the age of 65, he remarried Mary Lawson. She was a teacher, and taught at a county school, another school in Morrisville (she would take the train) and at <a href="http://www.opendurham.org/buildings/hillside-park-high-school-whitted-j… Park School</a>.
Newby had no children from either of his marriages, but no doubt he, Julie and Mary all made a lasting impact on the Durham community through their ministry, service, and life experiences.
<p>I find some discrepencies though about whether this man is his son. The timeline works well, but Jr's story is that he was the eldest son of Dangerfield Newby. In looking at some very thorough people have worked on, there is never a Dangerfield Jr mentioned, but sons named James, John and Gabriel. Regardless, it makes for an interesting story I suppose, and both Dangerfield Newby, Jr and his wife Mary had an impact on Durham through their professions. </p>
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