Josephine City

Clarke County · dedicated 1999 · Josephine Street, 90 feet east of intersection with Church Street, in Berryville

Early in the 1870s African Americans established Josephine City, a community originally composed of 31 one-acre lots lining a 16-foot wide street. Twenty-four former slaves and free blacks purchased the lots for $100 an acre from Ellen McCormick, owner of Clermont farm. The street and the community were probably named after a former slave at Clermont, Josephine Williams, purchaser of two lots. By 1900, Josephine City had become an oasis for the county's African Americans and was a self-sufficient community with a school, grocery store, gas station, boarding house, restaurant, cemetery, churches, and numerous residences.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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