Biography:
Young Harvey Milton Edwards was only 16 years old when he died and was buried in Ellsworth Cemetery.
Born on May 18, 1869, he was the son of Mr. Nelson and Frances (Johnson) Edwards. In the 1870 Census, he is enumerated as “M” for Mulatto. While this term was intended to be for people who had one Black parent and one white parent, both of his parents are enumerated as Mulatto as well. More often the term was based on the enumerator’s judgment of the shade of the person’s skin.
In 1880, Harvey was attending school. The community had established a school for the Black children in the city of Westminster in years following the war.
In the winter of 1886, before his 17th year, Master Edwards died. We have no records to indicate how he died. Maryland did not issue death certificates until the late 1890s, and the extant newspapers do not carry a report of his death.
His family erected a headstone with the following inscription:
One sacred Trinity
One Lord divine
May I be ever His
And he forever mine
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