Charlotte Lane, east side of the "Fry Lands"
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
James Twyman of Madison County, Virginia manumitted 37 adult slaves and 5 children in 1849. Those Blacks were sent to Lawrence County, Ohio with money to buy land or the land was purchased for them. That land was one unit listed in the Lawrence County Deed Book as the Fry Lands, so named for the leader of the Blacks, Reverend Thomas Walker Fry.
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
Charlotte was one of the manumitted Twyman slaves and the wife of Walker Fry. Charlotte Lane has a sign post on the north side of old US 52 about 1/2 mile east of the 37 Cemetery at Burlington. The lane seems to be eastern line of the "Fry Lands", which was the land purchased to support the Twyman group. The land was held in common for several years until individual members brought a law suit to have the land divided. That suit, in the Lawrence County record books, names all the members of the original Twyman group and lists where they lived at that time. Most of the land was sold, but many members of the group remained in the area.
Sources
Lawrence County, OH Deed Books
Pratt, J. Earl: The Promised Land