Captivated by the life and times of Levi Carroll
An ex-slave from the U.S., he lived more than 50 years in the log schoolhouse now found in Waterloo Park
The first time I wrote about Levi Carroll was in 2012, a few years after having first encountered his name while working on another research project.
His story, what little of it was known back then, captivated me.
Here was a man, an ex-slave, who had lived for more than 50 years in the log schoolhouse that stands prominently today in Waterloo Park. And yet, according to the handful of published news articles, few details of his long and storied life were known. As a historian, I considered this a challenge. Levi needed to have his story told.
Nearly a centenarian when he died in 1897, Levi was certainly not a rich man but he outlived many who were — as well as his three wives and most of his children. His life was long and hard, frequently changing jobs in order to survive.
Levi was born around 1804 in Maryland, although dates surrounding his birth do vary. Following his death, a former neighbour recalled in a July 22, 1897, newspaper story that Levi had told him:
“He was born in slavery and stated he remembered quite distinctly when the British, under Rear Admiral Cockburn, worsted the Americans and advanced upon Washington. He relates (sic) the fact of being carried away by his master and hidden away in a large storehouse to escape from the British. As he was only 5 or 6 years old at the time, he could hardly have reached the century mark ...”
Historically, this is a traceable event. Rear Admiral George Cockburn’s troops attacked and burned Washington, D.C., on Aug. 24, 1814, which confirms Levi had already left his childhood home of Maryland when still quite young. His owner, a rich widow, had previously relocated to Washington some time before this, where in failing health, had intended to live out her days with her daughter and son-in-law. According to Levi, although she had kept him with her, she had already sold three of his brothers and one of his sisters.
Levi grieved the loss of his family and finally got his chance to escape in June 1842, thanks to the Underground Railroad and conductor, abolitionist Charles Turner Torrey.
Torrey, along with Thomas Smallwood (himself an ex-slave) facilitated the escape of 400 slaves before being arrested and charged with “stealing” the slaves he had helped to find freedom. Smallwood eventually settled in Toronto, but Torrey was arrested and sent to prison. There he later died of tuberculosis, while awaiting his release.
Many of those who Torrey helped to escape settled in the Amherstburg, Chatham and Wellesley-Woolwich areas. Levi was one of these, settling briefly with other Black settlers in the Queen’s Bush area outside of Wellesley, where Fidelia Coburn had established the Mount Pleasant Mission School for the children of ex-slaves.
Sometime later in 1842, Levi moved permanently to Berlin where he was employed as a labourer for Mennonite settler Abraham Weber. Coincidently, it was here, on Weber’s land as well, that the log schoolhouse had recently been relocated when it had outlived its use as a school. Levi, gainfully employed, moved in.
Nearly a centenarian when he died in 1897, Levi was certainly not a rich man but he outlived many who were — as well as his three wives and most of his children
He was joined by his first wife, Lucretia Brooks (or Brown) in August of that same year and their son, Charles (Charlie). Historian Ellis Little later noted that Levi considered his rent of $5 per month to be an exorbitant sum but here he stayed for years, marrying at least three times. Charlie was the only Black child at his school, Berlin Central (today known as Suddaby), and liked to play ball with his classmates and friends, David and Samuel Schneider (the sons of Mennonite pioneer Joseph E. Schneider).
In June of 1845, Levi injured himself while working in the bush. In an era without antibiotics, infection set in and, by July, Levi’s lower left leg needed to be amputated in order to save his life.
Disabled by modern standards, Levi’s employment record is equally impressive as indicated by census records. Levi continued to reinvent himself as a labourer, shingle maker and even a gardener, which is not surprising since it appears that the way in which Levi tended his garden became something of a novelty to local folk who were used to the German-Mennonite way of horsedrawn plowing. Levi, it seems, tended to his field garden by hand, using only a long-handled hoe, planting corn from year to year so that it looked like “a plantation field from the south.”
On Oct. 1, 1861, Levi married for the last time to Queen’s Bush resident Margaret Moore Johnston. At the time of their marriage, Margaret’s daughter from her previous marriage, eight-year-old Emiline, lived with them in the schoolhouse until her own 1884 marriage to James Aylestock, a Black barber from Elmira. One year later, Emiline and James welcomed their only child, William James.
A few short years later, on Feb. 19, 1890, Margaret Carroll passed away at the age of 69. Levi, already advanced in age, was becoming increasingly infirm and was unable to work.
The 1891 census records indicate that
Levi, Emiline and William were still living in the log home together following the death of Margaret. (It is believed that James had left Emiline and William and had relocated to the Hamilton or Freelton area whereby she had moved in with Levi and her mother). In time, the family became destitute and lost their home.
Without Margaret to help him in his daily life, Levi, along with Emiline and William, eventually entered the Waterloo County House of Industry and Refuge on March 12, 1895 as “inmates.”
Levi’s stay in the House of Refuge was a relatively short one. On July 15, 1897 he passed away and, as a pauper, his estate could not afford a private burial so he was interred in an unmarked grave in the second House of Refuge cemetery (which was in operation from 1884 to 1907). In modern terms, this area is bounded by Dunham Avenue, Mansion and Indiana streets.
What is most interesting is that following Levi’s death, not one but two obituaries were published — one on the day of his death and another a few days later on July 22, 1897. The first detailed Levi as a familiar face in life, as someone known to “most citizens” of the area. In the second, Henry Bachman, a local letter carrier and former neighbour of Levi’s, updated (and attempted to correct) some of the details of Levi’s life, which
included the loss of one of his sons in a marine accident on Lake Erie some years previously.
A now iconic (and the only known) photo of Levi shows him sitting in front of the log schoolhouse, accompanied by two women and a young boy. In the background, the 1876 Berlin Collegiate (today KCI) can be seen, which gives us some clue as to the age of the photo. It is possible that the women in the photograph are Emiline and her mother, Margaret, shortly before her death in 1890.
This is further evidenced by the apparent age of the young boy who, if William, would have been about five years old when the photo was taken. The photographer has never been identified but my theory is that it was their old neighbour, Henry Bachman, whose hobby was photography.
Emiline lived out the remainder her days in ill health at the House of Refuge. She died on Feb. 16, 1943, of an apparent heart attack at the age of 89. William was discharged on Sept. 1, 1897, less than two months after Levi’s death. He was 11 years old.