Amanda (Bruce) Squirrel

Ms. Amanda Bruce was born in the spring of 1847. She was the child of Mr. David and Trecie (Mason) Brine. She may have been enslaved, as she has not been found in the 1850 or 1860 Federal Census records.

She married Mr. Noah Squirrel in March of 1868, and her name was recorded as Mason. They lived outside the city of Westminster. The couple was both illiterate, as were 80% of their fellow African Americans at that time. (The white population in this rural county was 20% illiterate.) She kept house while he worked as a laborer.

Sometime in the 1870s, the couple had moved to Court Alley in Westminster. They remained in that house through the subsequent decades. Mr. and Mrs. Squirrel apparently did not have children. By 1910, she was taking in laundry to supplement their income.

Mrs. Amanda Squirrel died on May 3, 1917, of edema (also called dropsy) and heart issues at home.