By Dorothy Heller
Town of Clay Historian
In the 1860 United States Census, there were no black families at all listed in Clay, but in the 1870 Census, there were 11 African-Americans living in Clay.
A very fascinating one was Littleton Lorton Page since he became involved with a well-known Clay family, the Deckers. He was born a slave around 1850 in Virginia but nothing is known of his childhood. The pension records show that as a teenager, Page served in the 8th United States Colored Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. He probably joined up while the 8th Regiment was serving in Virginia in 1864 and 1865.
Charles Town records show that he served as a page to an officer named Littleton Lorton, so he adopted the name Littleton Lorton Page as he had no name of his own. (Or maybe someone in authority gave it to him.)
He actually served under a white officer named John Lyttle Decker from the town of Van Buren who was serving in the 8th. There was at least one officer named Norton in the 8th. (In my archives is a book, “75 Year Record,” by Frank Norton Decker, whose father was James Lyttle Decker and his farm was on Ver Plank Road but addressed as Three Rivers. No doubt with the names Norton and Lyttle, they are part of the family tree of John Lyttle Decker who was Page’s benefactor and a friend of Norton in the Civil War.)
After the end of the Civil War, Decker brought Page back with him to Onondaga County. In the 1870 Census, he is shown as a farm laborer on Decker’s farm on Verplank Road in Clay, just west of the intersection with Bennett Road. He is also listed as attending school, probably School No. 11 on Bennett Road. Allie Burdick, a schoolteacher probably at No. 11, was living at the Decker farm, as well. It seems likely that she taught Page (now in his 20s) how to read and write, do simple arithmetic and other basic skills. Before the war, it was illegal for African-Americans to attend school in Virginia or for anyone to teach them. These skills were all new to him, but he was a fast learner. One wonders if Allie knew what an impact her teaching had on Page.
He was an avid learner, for he had to make up for lost time. Asking Allie for more and more, he soon soaked up all she could teach him. She may have encouraged him to further his education at a secondary school. She probably never went to one herself. By 1873, Page was enrolled as a student at Storer College, a historically black college near Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. He listed his residence town as Phoenix, New York, the closest village to the Decker farm. Clay was only a township.
After graduating, Page invested his time in the education of his fellow African-Americans, the same as James Decker and Allie Burdick had given him their time and support. He soon became the first teacher and then principal of Charles Town, Virginia’s first school built specifically for African-Americans. Located next to the Zion Baptist Church, the building is still standing today. Later, he served on the Board of Trustees of Storer College. Page also founded the first Prince Hall Masonic Lodge (predominantly African-American Free Masons) in West Virginia.
Around 1880, he married Georgia A. Lowery of nearby Middleway, West Virginia, and the couple had three children, two of whom lived to adulthood. Littleton Lorton Page died in Charles Town, West Virginia, in 1914. Page-Jackson Elementary School of Charles Town is partially named after Page in honor of his enormous contribution to the education of Charles Town’s students.
The research for this column was completed by Zachary Peelman, MSed.
