Two brothers born into slavery in the 1820s have been honored with new “stumbling stone” historical markers on Columbia Pike.
The bronze emblems, embedded into the sidewalk at the intersection of the Pike and S. Ode Street, honor the lives of Thornton and Daniel Check.
They were among at least 2,750 individuals held in bondage in what is now Arlington between the mid-1600s and the 1864 adoption of a new Virginia constitution that abolished slavery.
The new markers were unveiled during a June 7 ceremony at the site, located just east of the Sheraton Pentagon City Hotel.
Ken Brotherton, who did much of the research into the Check family, said the experience was challenging but enjoyable.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Brotherton, while acknowledging the historical record was spotty.
The effort was, he said, like trying to “find people who seemed like they did not want to be found.”
Thornton and Daniel Check were among four brothers enslaved by Bazil Williams, whose large farm straddled Columbia Pike in what today are the Foxcroft Heights and Arlington View neighborhoods.
According to historical research, Thornton Check was born in 1823, followed by his brother Daniel in 1826. Their father was Emanual Check and their mother’s name remains unknown.
Bazil Williams had owned the farmland since 1816 and by 1830 enslaved 11 people. By the time of his death 24 years later, that number had doubled.
His farm holdings, totaling about 100 acres, bordered the larger Arlington House estate owned by George Washington Parke Custis, the father-in-law of Robert E. Lee.
“There are many places of enslavement along Columbia Pike,” said Jessica Kaplan, co-coordinator of the Memorializing the Enslaved in Arlington initiative.
Columbia Turnpike dates to the earliest part of the 19th century, and “was the main road then as it is now” from points west into the nation’s capital, Kaplan said.
The corridor was also home to some freed Black residents prior to the Civil War, she said.
At his death in 1854, Williams freed all but three of the people he enslaved.
Each received $20 and was encouraged to use the funding to resettle in the African nation of Liberia. None opted to do so.
According to research into their lives:
Thornton Check was married to Julia Check, a woman enslaved at neighboring Arlington House. They had two daughters, Catherine and Susan, and a son, Henry. In 1864, Thornton enlisted in the 117th US Colored Troops and was discharged a year later. In 1878, he entered the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers near Dayton, Ohio, where he died in 1889. He was buried at the Soldiers Home Cemetery.
Daniel Check was born around 1826 in Virginia. He lived in both Arlington and Washington, DC, after gaining his freedom in 1855. In 1873, he married Henrietta Baker, and they had one known daughter, Mary Check. Daniel’s date of death is unknown, but entries in District of Columbia directories point to his having lived there continuously until 1899.
The “stumbling stone” project came about through the Memorializing the Enslaved in Arlington initiative. This is a joint undertaking between the Arlington Historical Society and Black Heritage Museum of Arlington, with support from the county government.
County Board members Maureen Coffey and JD Spain Sr. attended the unveiling along with Chair Takis Karantonis.
“I hope that more [local] jurisdictions will follow our lead,” Coffey said of the memorialization effort.
She called the initiative “so special and so critically important.”
The concept of stumbling stones — “stolperstein” in German — originated in Europe in the 1990s as a way to memorialize victims of the Nazi regime in the 1930s-40. The concept has been used in multiple countries to honor other victims of oppression.
Arlington’s effort to honor enslaved people began this March with the placement of several markers near Little Falls Road. County funding will provide for placing 30 markers per year, but supporters hope to augment that number through donations.
Students at Arlington Tech took the initiative to craft the markers. Kaplan said organizers hope to place additional markers honoring the other two Check brothers, Jackson and Lewis, someday.
Nancy Pilchen, who has worked to support the effort, said contributions already have been made as birthday and wedding gifts. At the June 7 event, one local leader wrote a check for $600 to support the placement of two additional markers.
Of the nearly 3,000 individuals who have been identified as enslaved in what today is Arlington, about 1,000 are known by name. Research continues to further identify them.
Scott Taylor, who heads the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington, said each of the unveiling ceremonies to date has been an emotional experience.
“I get choked up,” he said of the “sacred journey” to remember those who otherwise would be lost to history.
“I feel them around me,” Taylor said, calling ceremonies like the one on June 7 “the unbroken chain that links our present to our past.”
