Leonard A Grimes (1815 - abt. 1873)

Born 9 Nov 1815 in Leesburg, Loudoun, Virginia, United States

Died about 14 Mar 1873 at about age 57 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

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Biography

Leonard Grimes was a part of the Freedom Movement.

Leonard Grimes is Notable.

Leonard Grimes was an abolitionist and pastor, served as a conductor of the Underground Railroad, and petitioned for African-American enlistment in the Civil War. He recruited soldiers for the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.

Leonard A. Grimes was born free in Leesburg, Virginia in 1815.^[1]

As an Underground Railroad conductor, though he had been born free, he risked that freedom to free others. He served two years in prison in Richmond, Virginia for aiding a free black man, his slave wife and their children to freedom in Canada.^[2]

The site of his former home has a plaque at corner of one of the GWU buildings near 22nd and H st, NW (in Foggy Bottom.)

Occupations

• 1870: Clergyman
• 1850: Baptist minister
• 1848: Minister at Twelfth Baptist Church in New Bedford, Massachusetts^[3]

Residences

• 1870: Somerville, Massachusetts with his wife, son John, and 25-year-old domestic servant Emma Marshall
• 1850: Boston, Massachusetts with his wife, children, his (presumed) sister Julia Grimes, and 20-year-old South Carolina born Maria Watson

Land Owner

• 1870: $6,000 real estate value.

Research Notes

There is a James Grimes in Waterford, Virginia in the 1830 federal census who is a free colored person with five other free colored persons in his household. Perhaps his father?

Sources

1. ↑ Horton, p. 49
2. ↑ Horton, p. 49
3. ↑ Horton, p. 49

• 1840 United States Federal Census Year: 1840; Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Page: 108
• 1850 United States Federal Census Year: 1850; Census Place: Boston Ward 6, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: M432_336; Page: 383A; Image: 124
• 1870 United States Federal Census Year: 1870; Census Place: Somerville, Middlesex, Massachusetts; Roll: M593_631; Page: 488A; Family History Library Film: 552130
• Horton, James Oliver and Lois E. Black Bostonians: Family Life and Community Struggle in the Antebellum North. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1979, 1999.
• National Parks Service: Underground Railroad
• Russell, Hilary. "Underground Railroad Activists in Washington, D.C."
• Wikipedia: Leonard Grimes