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| The
Shearer Cottage, Rose Avenue, Eastville, Oak Bluffs |
The Shearer Cottage on Rose
Avenue was originally purchased by Charles and Henrietta Shearer
from the Baptist Campground. Charles Shearer, the son of a white
slave master and his enslaved black woman, was born into slavery
on a farm in Spanish Oaks, Appomattox County, Virginia, on January
10, 1854.
Near the end of the Civil War, as Union soldiers approached his
plantation, Master Shearer, the slave owner, prepared to move his
slaves, money, and valuables. Charles openly declared that he was
going to join the Union Army. For this he was beaten and chained
in the barn, until the master was ready to move his belongings to
safety. Hastily packing up to leave the area, the Master either
forgot that Charles was chained in the barn or left him on purpose.
The union soldiers later found Charles and permitted him to travel
with them. Charles' hunting and fishing skills proved very helpful
in providing food for the Union Troops.
After the Civil War, Charles lived in Lynchburg, Virginia and worked
as a laborer, before attending Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute
in Hampton, Virginia. He graduated from Hampton Institute in 1880.
Charles married Henrietta Merchant, a woman of African, white and
Native American heritage from Lynchburg. Henrietta was born free
to free parents, Madison and Elizabeth George Merchant, who were
married in 1843 and had ten children. Henrietta also attended Hampton
Institute and later served as one of Hampton's matrons. Charles
taught at Hampton Institute and public schools in areas around Lynchburg,
Virginia.
A staunch Baptist, Charles often visited Oak Bluffs, then called
Cottage City, on Martha's Vineyard to attend religious revivals.
Charles and Henrietta grew to love the Island and purchased their
first Island property in the late 1800's. Charles and Henrietta
eventually sold this property. On August 28, 1903, they purchased
their home overlooking the Baptist Temple Park, where Shearer Cottage
now stands. Every year, Charles and Henrietta would close their
winter home in Everett from the middle of June until the middle
of September and move their family to their Cottage City home on
Martha's Vineyard.
In 1912, Charles and Henrietta built a twelve-room home on their
property overlooking the Baptist Temple Park. It was at this time
that they opened a summer inn, Shearer Cottage, which was operated
in conjunction with the a laundry. Shearer Cottage catered to African
Americans who, at that time, were not welcome as guests at other
Island establishments. Henrietta's horse and wagon were now used
to transport guests.
Harry T. Burliegh and friends at the Cottage, 1918 |
Shearer Cottage thrived. On any given day, the dining room was filled
with fifty or more guests, all enjoying delicious breakfasts and
dinners cooked by Aunt Sadie (Shearer Ashburn), Uncle Robby (Merchant)
and Uncle Benny (Ashburn). Nearby, black-owned homes were often
called upon to supply rooms for Shearer's overflow of guests. Indeed,
many of the black homeowners on the Island have said that their
presence here today is due to their family's earlier association
with Shearer Cottage.
Shearer Cottage had a roster of black guests, many of whom are nationally
known. These guests included the talented singer and actress, Ethel
Waters; Paul Robeson, performer and activist;
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., one day to become US
Congressman, in his mid-teens through adulthood, with his father,
the Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian
Baptist Church; Madame CJ Walker, the self-made millionaire in the
beauty industry; Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller, acknowledged as the
first African-American psychiatrist and his wife, Meta Vaux Warrick
Fuller, well-known sculptor; singer, Roland B. Hayes; William H.
Lewis, a Bostonian, who was the first African American appointed
to the post of Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department
by President Taft; Henry Robbins, the Boston court stenographer
who recorded the testimony at the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti; composer
and arranger, Harry T. Burleigh, who preserved
the oral spirituals by putting them into print; Madam CJ Walker,
hair care entrepreneur and first female to become a millionaire
by her own achievements (black or white); and Lillian Evanti, acclaimed
as the first African American female professional opera singer.
The Shearer was the first site dedicated on the AAHT, in 1987.
The Shearer Cottage is still owned and operated by the Shearer family
descendants. You
can visit their website here.
Here's an article published by the Martha's Vineyard Times about
the Cottage.
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