In 1857, Annie E. Washington opened a select primary school in her mother's house, on K Street, between Seventeenth and Eighteenth streets, west. The mother, a widow woman, was a laundress, and by her own labor has given her children good advantages, though she had no such advantages herself. This daughter was educated chiefly under Rev. John E. Cook and Miss Miner, with whom she was a favorite scholar. Her older sister was educated at the Baltimore convent. Annie E. Washington is a woman of native refinement, and has an excellent aptitude for teaching, as well as a good education. Her schools have always been conducted with system and superior judgment, giving universal satisfaction, the number of her pupils being limited only by the size of her room. In 1858, she moved to the basement of the Baptist Church, corner of Nineteenth and I streets, to secure larger accommodations, and there she had a school of more than sixty scholars for several years.
A FREE CATHOLIC COLORED SCHOOL.
A free school was established in 1858, and maintained by the St. Vincent de Paul Society, an association of Colored Catholics, in connection with St. Matthew's Church. It was organized under the direction of Father Walter, and kept in the Smothers school-house for two years, and was subsequently for one season maintained on a smaller scale in a house on L Street, between Twelfth and Thirteenth streets, west, till the association failed to give it the requisite pecuniary support after the war broke out. This school has already been mentioned.
OTHER SCHOOLS.
In 1843, Elizabeth Smith commenced a school for small children on the island in Washington, and subsequently taught on Capitol Hill. In 1860, she was the assistant of Rev. Wm. H. Hunter, who had a large school in Zion Wesley Church, Georgetown, of which he was the pastor. She afterward took the school into her own charge for a period, and taught among the contrabands in various places during the war.
About 1850, Isabella Briscoe opened a school on Montgomery Street, near Mount Zion Church, Georgetown. She was well educated, and one of the best Colored teachers in the district before the Rebellion. Her school was always well patronized, and she continued teaching in the district up to 1868.
Charlotte Beams had a large school for a number of years, as early as 1850, in a building next to Galbraith Chapel, I Street, north, between Fourth and Fifth, west. It was exclusively a girls' school in its later years. The teacher was a pupil of Enoch Ambush, who assisted her in establishing her school.
A year or two later, Rev. James Shorter had a large school in the Israel Bethel Church, and Miss Jackson taught another good school on Capitol Hill about the same time. The above-mentioned were all Colored teachers.
Among the excellent schools broken up at the opening of the war, was that of Mrs. Charlotte Gordon, Colored, on Eighth Street, in the northern section of the city. It was in successful operation several years, and the number in attendance sometimes reached one hundred and fifty. Mrs. Gordon was assisted by her daughter.
In 1841, David Brown commenced teaching on D Street, south, between First and Second streets, island, and continued in the business till 1858, at which period he was placed in charge of the large Catholic free school in the Smothers house, as has been stated.[65]