Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part weekly series for the month of February exploring black history in Athens County.
A historical anomaly resided in Southeast Ohio in the 1800s: the Albany Enterprise Academy, one of the first black-owned and operated schools in the United States. Several of its students’ lives intertwined in ways that left an indelible impression on Athens.
Booker T. Washington and Olivia Davidson
The wedding of a local educator and a noted black American leader spread a stir of excitement throughout Athens County in the summer of 1886.
At that time, tuition was $3 per 12-week session at Albany Enterprise Academy, where Olivia Davidson was a student before she married Booker T. Washington.
At 4 p.m. Aug. 11, 1886, Davidson and Washington married at 193 W. Washington St.
Washington was a former slave and a nationally known educator and author. However, in Athens County, Davidson was a hero as well.
“While Athens was, no doubt, honored to have Dr. Booker T. Washington pass through our beautiful city for his nuptials, we should be just as honored that another extraordinary educator, Mrs. Olivia Davidson Washington, received her initial education and had her first teaching assignment in this part of Ohio, which had once played a major role in the Underground Railroad,” said Patricia Gunn, associate professor of law in the Department of African American Studies at Ohio University, in an email.
The Albany Enterprise Academy was one of the first higher-education institutions in the country to be owned and operated by black people, according to OU archives. After leaving the school, Davidson worked to further develop Washington’s Tuskegee Institute — now Tuskegee University — which was founded in 1881, according to its website.
Davidson had a “major role” in fundraising the amount needed to keep Tuskegee thriving, Gunn said.
Andrew Jackson Davidson and Eliza Brown
In the West State Street Cemetery, not too far from Washington’s wedding site, lie a couple who could have family ties to Davidson.
Born into the slave trade, Andrew Jackson Davidson and Eliza Brown escaped to Athens County and its workforce.
Some OU archives indicate Andrew Jackson Davidson and Olivia Davidson could be siblings, although local historians haven’t confirmed the relation, Athens historian Nancy Aiken said.
Davidson was the first black attorney in Athens. Union officers brought Davidson to Ohio, where he passed his bar exam and attended Albany Enterprise Academy, Aiken said.
Davidson’s wife, Brown, served as a personal cook to Civil War Major Gen. George Armstrong Custer. She befriended Custer’s wife Elizabeth, who frequently visited Athens. Once the Civil War ended, Brown left for Ohio and met Davidson.
Davidson later ran as a Democratic candidate for Athens County prosecuting attorney and lost.
Edward Berry and Mattie Madry
Among the attendees at Washington’s wedding were Edward Berry and Mattie Madry, owners of the popular Berry Hotel.
Madry, who attended the Albany Enterprise Academy with Olivia Davidson, catered Washington’s wedding with Berry, according to the Athens County Historical Society and Museum.
“(Berry) had as much faith in Athens as Athens had in him, and in 1883, he erected the fine hotel,” states an 1897 issue of Athens County Illustrated.
Berry and Madry’s hotel was one of the largest Athens establishments at the time, according to university records.
“His natural disposition is courteous and obliging, and he is a genial host,” Athens County Illustrated states. “For a town the size of Athens, their register shows a remarkably large list of arrivals each day.”
Berry was featured in Washington’s novel, The Negro in Business.
“The leading hotel-keeper of color in this country is perhaps E.C. Berry of Athens, Ohio,” the book reads. “Mr. Berry is one of those pioneers of our race who has conquered race prejudice by achieving a business success.”
Berry’s Hotel was the first in the nation to offer sewing kits and Bibles in its dresser drawers, according to university archives. At the peak of business, the hotel was worth an estimated $50,000 annually.
At the time of the hotel’s existence, Berry was often confused for a bellman because he regularly helped out with the daily tasks for the hotel.
“The story of his hard struggle is one of the valuable traditions of the colored people and deserves to be known,” Washington wrote.
Olivia Young contributed to this story.
sj950610@ohiou.edu
