Residents of the Tamina community in South Montgomery County celebrated the unveiling of a state historical marker Dec. 6.
Others who participated in the ceremony at Tamina Community Park included County Judge Mark Keough and members of the Montgomery County Historical Commission.
This marker commemorates the early post-Civil War settlement of formerly enslaved people from nearby plantations who by 1871 settled along the railroad in what was then an unpopulated remote area of South Montgomery County. This colony of freedmen and freedwomen toiled in the timber industry, sharecropped land owned by others, and worked for the railroad to survive during the Jim Crow era in order to build a better life without shackles. Over the decades that followed they eked out a humble living, raising their children and worshiping their God with dignity and loyalty to one another.
This marker is the culmination of years of inspired work by Tamina resident and leader Rita Wiltz, her sister Mary Henry Butler and MCHC member Maria Banos Jordan. We also thank our MCHC marker chair Annette Kerr for her commitment to this project.