Douglas Syphax

Douglas Syphax (1842 – 4 February 1890) or Douglass Syphax was an American aristocrat, from a affluent land-owning family in the Commonwealth of Virginia. A descendant of Martha Washington, he was one of the few African-American sergeants to serve in the American Civil War.

Douglas Syphax
Born1842
Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.
Died4 February 1890
NationalityAmerican
OccupationLandowner
Known forArmy officer during American Civil War
RelativesSyphax family

Background
East front of Arlington Mansion in 1864. Douglas Syphax's grandparents were married in the mansion.
Mary Custis Lee (1808–1873), Douglas Syphax's great-aunt

Douglas Syphax was a member of an illustrious Virginia clan who owned land in Arlington County, Virginia, that later became part of Arlington National Cemetery. The family was descended from Martha Washington (1731–1802), wife of President George Washington (1732–1799).[1] The family, considered aristocratic in African-American society, traces its origins to Mariah (with an "h") Custis, the mulatto daughter of George Washington Parke Custis (1781–1857), grandson of Martha Washington. Mariah's mother was Ariana Carter, one of Custis's house slaves.[2]

When Mariah Custis asked her father for permission to marry Charles Syphax, one of his slaves, he freed them both, held a wedding for them in his Arlington mansion, and gave them fifteen acres[lower-alpha 1] of his Arlington estate. Mary Custis (1808–1873), Mariah's white half-sister, was to marry the Confederate General Robert E. Lee (1807–1870).[4] Mariah and Charles had ten children, several of whom were given important political positions from the 1850s onward. Their eldest son, William B. Syphax, was eventually appointed superintendent of Washington's black segregated school district.[3]

Life

Douglas Syphax was born in Arlington, Alexandria, Virginia in 1842.[5] Douglas' parents were Charles Syphax, (who was the son of Mariah (with an "h") Custis Syphax) and Eliza. In 1864 he entered the Union Army, serving for ten months before being honorably discharged.[6] Douglas Syphax married Abbie McKee, daughter of the wealthy businessman Colonel John McKee.[7] Colonel McKee had come to Philadelphia from Virginia in the 1840s, become a waiter and then the owner of restaurants before moving into real estate and reputedly becoming a very wealthy man.[8]

In the late 1800s Syphax was involved in speculative real-estate, employing the African American architect Calvin Brent to design houses for him.[9] He was a member of the Oliver P. Morton Post of the Grand Army of the Republic.[5] Syphax was appointed to Post 3 in the Relief Committee of the Grand Army's Department of the Potomac, which was active from February 1888 to August 1889 and decided which Civil War veterans should be eligible for relief.[10] He died on 4 February 1890. His wife, Abbie, lived on until 19 February 1923. They were buried in Arlington National Cemetery.[11][6]

Children

When Colonel McKee died, he left Abbie Syphax a legacy of just $300, and $50 for each of her children. Her nephew Henry McKee Minton, later to become a prominent physician, was also given $50, with most of the rest going to the Roman Catholic Church to fund a college for orphans.[12] The will was disputed, and Abbie eventually gained $26,500 from Colonel McKee's will. When she remarried in 1904, she was reported to be "the richest colored woman in this city, and perhaps in the world."[13]

Douglas and Abbie had five children.[12] Their son, Ernest Syphax, was a pharmacist in Pittsburgh. Carrie Syphas Watson was the first Black directress of domestic art in the Public Schools of the District of Columbia. Mary E. Syphax and Julia Syphax Willis were public school teachers.[5] Another son was Theophilus John Minton Syphax, a classmate and friend of the future educator Roscoe Conkling Bruce at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. Theophilus had a light complexion. He changed his name to T. John McKee and let people think that he was white. He cut off relations with his family and married a white woman with whom he had two children. In the 1940s, however, after all his siblings and first cousins had died, he sued for a portion of his grandfather McKee's estate that had not been distributed.[7]

Notes and references

Notes

  1. The Arlington property remained in the Syphax family until the 1940s, when the Federal government asked the Syphax family to exchange it for land elsewhere in the district to accommodate expansion of the cemetery. The Syphax family cemetery was transferred to the Lincoln Memorial Cemetery as part of the exchange.[3]

Citations

  1. Graham 2007, p. 181.
  2. Graham 1999, p. 8.
  3. Graham 1999, p. 222.
  4. Graham 1999, p. 9.
  5. Douglas Syphax 1935, p. 475.
  6. Sgt Douglass Syphax - Find A Grave.
  7. Graham 2007, p. 182.
  8. Lane 1991, p. 101.
  9. Wilson 2004, p. 82.
  10. Grand Army of the Republic 1890, p. 47-48.
  11. Syphax Burial Location Index.
  12. Lane 1991, p. 102.
  13. Lane 1991, p. 103.

Sources

  • "Douglas Syphax". The Journal of Negro history. Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. 1935. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  • Graham, Lawrence Otis (1999-12-22). Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class. HarperCollins. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-06-098438-0. Retrieved 2013-01-05.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Graham, Lawrence Otis (2007-07-03). The Senator and the Socialite: The True Story of America's First Black Dynasty. HarperCollins. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-06-098513-4. Retrieved 2013-01-05.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Grand Army of the Republic. Dept. of the Potomac (1890). Proceedings of the ... Annual Encampment, Department of the Potomac, Grand Army of the Republic ... Gibson Bros., Printers and Bookbinders. p. 47. Retrieved 5 January 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Lane, Roger (1991). William Dorsey's Philadelphia and Ours: On the Past and Future of the Black City in America. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-506566-4. Retrieved 2013-01-05.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • "Sgt Douglass Syphax". Find A Grave. Retrieved 2013-01-05.
  • "Syphax Burial Location Index". Syphax Family Reunion. Retrieved 2013-01-05.
  • Wilson, Dreck Spurlock (2004). African-American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-92959-2. Retrieved 5 January 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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