By Ally Lanasa, Staff Writer

(Nov. 5, 2020) Briddletown residents and descendants of the Briddell family are honoring Rachel Briddell, who played an integral part in having Briddletown designated as an African-American Cultural District in 2018.

“Rachel was a matriarch of the Briddell family,” said Gregory Purnell, Briddletown resident, local historian and nephew of the first Black Worcester County Commissioner James L. Purnell Jr. “Her mother was ‘Mom Berth.’ Her name was Bertha, but she was known as ‘Mom Berth’ because she had a rather large family of Briddells, and they lived in Briddletown.”

PHOTO COURTESY GREG PURNELL
Rachel Briddell was the longest living descendant of the original Briddell family, who was among the first inhabitants of what became Briddletown in Berlin. She passed away on Oct. 18 at 95 years old.

Briddell, who was born on Nov. 29, 1924, was the longest living descendant of the original Briddell family, who was among the first inhabitants of what became Briddletown.

“Kendall Bridell was her grandfather, and he was one of the original Briddells,” Purnell said.

Purnell added that from an early age, Briddell was in his life.

“She was very good friends with my mother. I was born in October, and the next September, my mother passed,” he said. “My grandmother took me from there because my mother lived with my grandmother. She was just 20 years old when she passed … The ladies in the community, and there was a few of them, kind of took me under their wing. One of them was Rachel. Part of that is because she had girls. Actually, she had all girls.

“I knew her very well and her family,” Purnell continued. “All of her girls, they all knew me. They all treated me like their little brother.”

Briddell raised eight daughters as a single parent, working any job she could take in a segregated Worcester County to provide for her family.

“Back in that day, all of the Briddells worked for Harrisons’ Nurseries,” Purnell said.

Many African-American women also worked at the chicken plant and in Ocean City as maids.

Briddell, 95, died on Oct. 18. Funeral services were held at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center in Salisbury on Oct. 24, where roughly 100 people, mostly Briddells, gathered to celebrate her life.

For four decades, Briddell and her relatives, including her cousin Sarah Briddell Smack,  organized an annual Briddell family reunion.

Briddell’s daughters, Sandra Briddell Dublin, Carolyn Briddell Jones and Sharon Briddell Fowlis, were inspired by the reunions and wanted to honor their family lineage with an interpretive sign in Briddletown in 2017.

“[Briddell] worked … through her children to honor her grandparents and great-grandparents and those Briddells that preceded her,” Purnell said.

Her daughters contacted the county tourism board about the sign.

“County Commissioner Diana Purnell was instrumental in assisting to get that done,” Purnell added.

On Feb. 20 2018, the Worcester County Commissioners agreed to pay up to $2,000 in tourism funds on an interpretive sign marking the Briddletown area of Berlin and designating it as a historic African-American community.

According to an article from The Daily Times, former Worcester County Tourism Director Lisa Challenger worked with Paul Touart, a local architectural historian and author of “Along the Seaboard Side: The Architectural History of Worcester County,” to develop the sign.

The sign was installed on Aug. 28, 2018, which coincidentally was the 55th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

“They had a dream and brought it to fruition there,” Purnell said. “[Briddell] was behind them all the way. Actually, she was instrumental, but there was only a certain amount that she could do because she wasn’t what you call ‘formally educated.’ But she had all of the records.”

With the help of Briddell, her daughters researched their heritage for years for the interpretive sign, which is located near Stephen Decatur Middle School.

“Placing that sign there really made this community, which has always been known as Briddletown,” Purnell said. “As a matter of fact, it used to be Briddletown Road because it stopped at the town limit, but when the town extended its limits on one side of Briddletown … then it became Flower Street Extended.”

Now, it is called Flower Street.

The Briddell family is working to have the street renamed to Briddletown Road officially because it has been designated as a historic Black community.

“Even if it’s just with an asterisk back to Briddletown Road because Briddletown Road is the heart of Briddletown,” Purnell said.

According to the interpretive sign, the first documented land conveyance in what would become Briddletown in

PHOTO COURTESY GREG PURNELL
Rachel Briddell and her daughters, Sandra Briddell Dublin, Carolyn Briddell Jones and Sharon Briddell Fowlis, were instrumental in having Briddletown designated as an African-American Cultural District as well as creating an interpretive sign about the history of the community in 2018.

Berlin was in 1866 when Benjamin Pitts, an African-American and free man, became a landowner.

Records show that Pitts had purchased 2.5 acres of land formerly used as “Mill Haven Pasture” in the Flower Street area on June 2, 1866. From then on, parcels of farmland were broken into lots.

Records at the Worcester County Library show Jacob Briddell/Breddell bought two acres of the “Mill Haven Pasture” from Capt. John S. Purnell on Aug. 17, 1872.

“Apparently, the original name was Bredell, and this came from a prominent slave-owning family around that area,” said Alec Staley, a local history librarian at the Worcester County Library. “When the slaves were freed after the Civil War, they adopted the last name Bredell also.”

Throughout the coming decades, the Bredell/Briddell/Briddle, Williams, Fitchett, Johnson, Purnell and Quillen families established themselves in what was then a growing community.

The sign states that “over the course [of] the late 19th century, a community of more than 160 men, women and children resided in what became known as Briddletown by the turn of the 20th century.

It is presumed that the name Briddletown was inspired by the Briddell elders in the community during the period between 1890 and 1910.

The interpretive sign also states that Briddletown was not mentioned on the U.S. Census until 1910.

“Similar to many rural communities on the Eastern Shore, the population of Briddletown reached its peak during the early 20th century before the 1930s Depression forced many residents to leave for employment elsewhere,” the sign states.

Purnell said the interpretive sign is just a sign if people are not informed about the history of the community and those who live there today. He encouraged people to document the stories of the historic Black district.

“Putting it on the map as Briddletown was something that [Briddell] worked with her daughters [on] because they really wanted to do that because their great-great grandfather and beyond that worked that property for where that sign is and that area,” Purnell said. “You can Google Briddletown, Berlin and it will point to this area, and that in itself is so significant.”

Descendants of the Briddell family still live on Flower Street in Briddletown as well as within the Berlin town limits, including District 3 Councilmember Shaneka Nichols. Nichols is the granddaughter of Brazile Briddell, son of Charles and Lila Briddell and brother of Sarah Briddell Smack.