Conklin was an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
in
Loudoun County, Virginia
Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. The county seat is Leesburg. Loudoun County ...
, United States. The site of the former community is located around
State Route 620 (Braddock Road)
State Route 606 (Loudoun County Parkway) and straddles the southern border of the census-designated place of
South Riding. The only two buildings remaining of the community are the Settle-Dean Cabin, the home of a family of
enslaved people, and Prosperity Baptist Church and Cemetery.
History
After the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
(1861–1865), emancipated
black slaves
The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage. Europeans est ...
settled in the area that would later be known as Conklin. The community would receive this name after
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
ns John R. and Mary Conklin built a homestead in the 1870s. The Conklins would establish a store here in 1890 and it would serve as a
post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...
for the community. In 1872, the Conklin School, a single-room schoolhouse for
Black
Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...
children, was built and operated until 1948.
In the 1850s, one of the emancipated slaves who lived in Conklin, Charles Dean, was willed the 142 acre property of his slaveowners, the Settle family. He, with assistance from his daughter
Jennie Dean
Jane Serepta Dean (April 15, 1848 – May 3, 1913) (nicknamed "Jennie" or "Miss Jennie") was born into slavery in northern Virginia, freed as a result of the American Civil War, and became an important founder of churches and Sunday Schools for ...
, donated a portion of his to establish Prosperity Baptist Church in 1889. The church was burnt down in a fire of unspecified cause in 1951, but a new church building would be constructed in 1972. One of the few remaining buildings of Conklin is the Settle-Dean Cabin, which was the home that the Dean family lived in while enslaved.
In 1995, the community of
South Riding was established. The new community would engulf Conklin as the homebuilding company
Toll Brothers
Toll Brothers, Inc. is an American homebuilding company that builds, markets, and finances for residential and commercial properties in the United States. In 2020, the company was the fifth largest home builder in the United States, based on ho ...
began developing residential subdivisions at the site. The Settle-Dean Cabin, which was in poor condition, was dismantled and relocated on the western side of
Loudoun County Parkway to make way for the new development and informative signs were added at the new site. A ceremony was held on November 5, 2011 to celebrate the completion of the project.
See also
*
Willard, Virginia, a nearby former black community
References
Unincorporated communities in Loudoun County, Virginia
{{LoudounCountyVA-geo-stub