William Syphax

WILLIA, SYPHAX

First Chairman of the DC Board of Trustees of Colored Public Schools; He Established Dunbar High School, the first black high school in the District of Columbia

"William Syphax, the oldest son and second child of Charles and Maria Carter Syphax ,was born in Alexandria County, Virginia at the Arlington Estate on April 4, 1825.

While an infant, William was manumitted with his mother and elder sister, Elinor, in 1826. Living in a family of semi-freedom, he was educated in the private schools of Alexandria and Washington, D.C. William’s mother, Maria, was given seventeen and a half acres of land on the southwest corner of the Arlington Estate by George Washington Parke Custis, and she lived there until her death.

From November 21, 1863 to January 10, 1864 the sale of the Arlington Estate of 1,170 acres was purchased at public auction by the federal government for $26,100 and the cemetery began May 13, 1864. There was no deed, record, will, or document of any kind to prove the right of ownership of the 17 acres by the Syphax family, although they had lived there for over fifty years.

William came to his mother’s rescue. Through his efforts the matter was brought to the attention of Congress and with little delay and no debate the Bill for the Relief of Maria Syphax was passed. On May 16, 1866, Senator Harris from the Committee on Private Land Claims, reported a bill (S. No. 321) for the relief of Maria Syphax.2

Resources Cited: http://arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Wi...