Montford, Donum (1771-1838)

Variant Name(s):

Donum Mumford

Birthplace:

North Carolina, USA

Residences:

  • New Bern, North Carolina

Trades:

  • Brickmaker
  • Brickmason
  • Plasterer

Building Types:

Styles & Forms:

Federal

Donum Montford (Mumford) (1771-1838), New Bern brickmason, plasterer, and brickmaker, was prominent among the city’s early 19th century builders and became one of the wealthiest of the city’s free people of color. Memoirist Stephen Miller recalled that he was “copper-colored, and carried on the bricklaying and plastering business with slaves, a number of whom he owned. Whenever a job was to be done expeditiously, he was apt to be employed, as he could always throw upon it a force sufficient for its rapid execution.”

Born a slave, Montford was owned by the prominent Richard Cogdell family until 1804. During his more than 30 years as a slave, he mastered the related trades of bricklaying, plastering, and brickmaking. He gained his freedom in 1804, when the widow Lydia Cogdell and her daughter Lydia Cogdell Badger sold him to the wealthy free man of color John C. Stanly, who emancipated him the next day, doubtless carrying out a strategy planned by all parties. As a free man, Montford promptly established his shop and began acquiring property. Although he was illiterate, signing documents with his mark, he was successful in his business. In 1806 his former owner, Lydia Cogdell, gave him a young slave, Abram Moody Russell, to train as an apprentice, then to emancipate upon his maturity; Abram Moody Russell Allen, as he was later known, was identified by Montford as his nephew and also became his heir and executor. In 1807 Montford took the first of many free apprentices to his trade. In 1809 he married Hannah Bowers. By 1811 he was purchasing real estate, and he eventually owned several town lots and houses, plus a farm. By 1820, according to the United States Census, Montford was head of a large household of free people of color, and had twenty-two slaves in his employ; whether he owned all of these is not certain. In 1827 Montford petitioned to emancipate his only child, Nelson, a plasterer who had worked with Montford until he attained his majority.

Both Hannah and Donum Montford were members of Christ Episcopal Church in New Bern, and their burial services were recorded in the parish register noting them each as a “colored communicant.” Montford’s stature in the community was indicated by his appointment to a committee, along with the leading white brickmasons in town, Bennett Flanner and Joshua Mitchell, to inspect repairs to Christ Church in 1832. He was regularly employed to work on public buildings. Along with taking free apprentices to his trade, he also trained slave artisans, such as Ulysses, “a plasterer by trade, who served his time with Donum Mumford, in the town of New Bern afterwards worked at his business upwards of four years, in Hyde County,” and who could “read and write tolerably well.” Ulysses had run away from William S. Sparrow, who advertised for his return in 1818.

Despite his long and active career, few of Montford’s projects have been identified. For the Craven County Jail (1821-1825), a handsome and formal civic building, detailed construction records show his versatility. Montford supplied 100,000 of the roughly 400,000 bricks, at $5 per thousand, and he and his workers accomplished the lathing and plastering, including laborers (probably slaves) Charles, Edmond, and Romey at 5 shillings a day, and skilled workers Tony and Lawson at $1 a day. He typically charged 12 shillings and sixpence per day for his own work and a few other skilled men in his shop. Montford also supplied many of the bricks for the John R. Donnell House (1816-1818), which was among the finest of the city’s Federal style, brick townhouses, where Wallace Moore was the chief brickmason and Asa King was the lead carpenter. Montford also did some work beyond New Bern, including an unnamed project for Tyrrell County planter Ebenezer Pettigrew, who paid him in 1819 for delivering bricks and lime, building the foundation for a smokehouse, and mending plaster.

At his death in 1838 Montford had a considerable estate in land, slaves, and personal possessions. Illustrating accounts of the prosperity and gentility of New Bern’s leading people of color, he left to his wife, Hannah, such household furnishings as a secretary, a sofa, a mahogany candle stand, a dining table, and a breakfast table; numerous serving pieces, including two dozen plates of Liverpool ware, silver teaspoons and tablespoons, decanters and wine glasses, and two oyster dishes; and two pictures, one of Napoleon, and one of Christ on the Cross. Among the many items sold from his estate were a musket and a shotgun, window sash, brick moulds, shad nets, and farm implements. His estate also included slaves Bob, Dick, Jim Carney, Dinah, Alexander, and plasterer-bricklayer Isaac Rue (Rew). Montford stated in his will that Isaac was to be freed after Hannah’s death; Isaac Rue continued to practice his trade for many years as a free man and a property owner.

  • Catherine W. Bishir, “Black Builders in Antebellum North Carolina,” North Carolina Historical Review, 61.4 (Oct. 1984), reprinted in Catherine W. Bishir, Southern Built: American Architecture, Regional Practice (2006).
  • John H. Bryan Papers, East Carolina University Special Collections, Greenville, North Carolina.
  • Craven County Deeds, Register of Deeds Office, New Bern, North Carolina.
  • Craven County Records, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.
  • John Donnell Letter Book and Account Book, Bryan Family Papers, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
  • Stephen F. Miller, “Recollections of New Bern fifty years ago, with an appendix Including letters from Judges Gaston, Donnell, Manly and Governor Swain,” Our Living and Our Dead (1874-1875).
  • Norfolk and Portsmouth Herald, Feb. 2, 1818.
  • Pettigrew Papers, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
  • Peter B. Sandbeck, The Historic Architecture of New Bern and Craven County, North Carolina (1988).
Sort Building List by:
  • Craven County Jail

    Contributors:
    Joshua Mitchell, brickmason; Donum Montford, plasterer and brickmaker; John M. Oliver, carpenter
    Dates:

    1821-1825

    Location:
    New Bern, Craven County
    Street Address:

    Craven St., New Bern, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Public

    Images Published In:

    Catherine W. Bishir, “Philadelphia Bricks and the New Bern Jail,” APT, 9.4 (1977), reprinted in Catherine W. Bishir, Southern Built: American Architecture, Regional Practice (2006).
    Peter B. Sandbeck, The Historic Architecture of New Bern and Craven County, North Carolina (1988).


  • John R. Donnell House

    Contributors:
    William Charlotte, painter; Bennett Flanner, plasterer; Asa King, carpenter; Joshua Mitchell, brickmason; Donum Montford, brickmaker; Wallace Moore, brickmason; Peter Shepherd, brickmason
    Dates:

    1816-1818

    Location:
    New Bern, Craven County
    Street Address:

    Craven St., New Bern, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Residential

    Images Published In:

    Frances Benjamin Johnston and Thomas Tileston Waterman, The Early Architecture of North Carolina (1941).
    Peter B. Sandbeck, The Historic Architecture of New Bern and Craven County, North Carolina (1988).

    Note:

    Through the records kept by John R. Donnell, known as “Judge Donnell,” the construction history documentation for this house is unusually complete. (See John Donnell Letter Book and Account Book, Bryan Family Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.) One of New Bern’s finest Federal style buildings, it was a 2-story house of brick laid in Flemish bond and followed a side-passage plan. It featured an unusually early local example of bullseye cornerblocks flanking the window lintels. The house was destroyed by fire in 1972. The adjoining office was moved to a suburban site, and some elements of the elegant woodwork were also salvaged. Because this house was similar to other Federal period houses in town, as discussed in Peter B. Sandbeck, The Historic Architecture of New Bern and Craven County, North Carolina (1988), Donnell’s records provide clues to the artisans involved in other buildings.


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