time a number of white people who had been going
through Cockeysville, some trying to find out if there was any concerted
move on the part of the slaves to run away, others contacting the free
people to find out to what extent they had 'grape-vine' news of the
action of the Negroes. The Negro who was seen coming from mother's home
ran away. She was immediately accused of Voodooism by the whites of
Cockeysville, she was taken to Towson jail, there confined and grilled
by the sheriff of Baltimore County--the Cockeys, and several other men,
all demanding that she tell where the escaped slave was. She knowing
that the only way he could have escaped was by the York Road, north or
south, the Northern Central Railroad or by the way of Deer Creek, a
small creek east of Cockeysville. Both the York Road and the railroad
were being watched, she logically thought that the only place was Deer
Creek, so she told the sheriff to search Deer Creek. By accident he was
found about eight miles up Deer Creek in a swamp with several other
colored men who had run away.

"Mother was ordered to leave Baltimore County or to be sold into
slavery. She went to York, Pennsylvania, where she stayed until 1865,
when she returned to her home in Cockeysville; where a great many of her
descendants live, now, on a hill that slopes west to Cockeysville
Station, and is known as Foote's Hill by both white and colored people
of Baltimore County today.

"I was born in Cockeysville in 1867, where I have lived since; reared a
family of five children, three boys and two girls. I am a member of the
A.M.E. Church at Cockeysville. I am a member of the Masonic Lodge and
belong to Odd Fellows at Towson, Maryland. The Foote's descendants still
own five or more homes at Cockeysville, and we are known from one end of
the county to the other."

Maryland
Sept. 22, 1937
Rogers

MENELLIS GASSAWAY, Ex-slave.
Reference: Personal interview with Menellis Gassaway, ex-slave,
on Sept. 22, 1937, at M.E. Home, Carrollton Ave., Baltimore.

"My name is Menellis Gassaway, son of Owing and Annabel Gassaway. I was
born in Freedom District, Carroll County, about 1850 or 52, brother of
Henrietta, Menila and Villa. Our father and mother lived in Carroll
County near Eldersberg in a stone and log cabin, consisting of two
rooms, one up and one down, with four windows, two in each room, on a
small farm situated on a public road, I don't know the name.

"My father wor