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Joseph Vermilion was a 27-year-old white man [1] lynched December 3, 1889 for the crime of arson in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. [2]
Vermillion had been jailed in Upper Marlboro for a series of arsons involving barns filled with tobacco and houses in Prince George's County. [3] At 2:30am, a band of masked men broke into the jail, overpowered the jailkeeper, and left with Vermillion. [3]
Vermillion was dragged to the "iron bridge just between the town and the railroad depot" [4] and hanged. [3] His body was left hanging from the bridge until the coroner's investigation. [3]
That same bridge was used 5 years later in another lynching, of Stephen Williams, by a similar band of masked men. [4]
Prince George's County is located in the U.S. state of Maryland bordering the eastern portion of Washington, D.C. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 967,201, making it the second-most populous county in Maryland, behind neighboring Montgomery County. The 2020 census counted an increase of nearly 104,000 in the previous ten years. Its county seat is Upper Marlboro. It is the largest and the second most affluent African American-majority county in the United States, with five of its communities identified in a 2015 top ten list.
Seat Pleasant is an incorporated city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, located immediately east of Washington. Per the 2020 census, the population was 4,522. Two state highways pass through the community — Maryland routes 704 and 214. The Washington Metro's Blue and Silver Lines are nearby. The Washington Commanders' stadium is east of Seat Pleasant, near the Capital Beltway (I-95/495).
Upper Marlboro, officially the Town of Upper Marlboro, is the seat of Prince George's County, Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population within the town limits was 652, although Greater Upper Marlboro, which covers a large area outside the town limits, is many times larger.
Maryland Route 4 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The highway runs 64.85 miles (104.37 km) from MD 5 in Leonardtown north to Southern Avenue in Suitland at the District of Columbia boundary, beyond which the highway continues into Washington as Pennsylvania Avenue. MD 4 is a four- to six-lane highway that connects Washington and communities around Interstate 95 (I-95)/I-495 with southern Prince George's County with southwestern Anne Arundel County. The highway is the primary highway for the length of Calvert County, during most of which the route runs concurrently with MD 2. MD 4 also connects Calvert and St. Mary's counties via the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge across the Patuxent River. The highway connects the Southern Maryland county seats of Leonardtown, Prince Frederick, and Upper Marlboro.
Lansdale Ghiselin Sasscer represented the fifth district of the state of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives for seven terms from 1939 to 1953.
Maryland Route 725 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The state highway runs 1.86 miles (2.99 km) from Brown Station Road east to U.S. Route 301 within Upper Marlboro. MD 725 is the old alignment of MD 4 through the county seat of Prince George's County. What is now MD 725 was constructed in the mid- to late 1910s and became MD 4 in 1927. After MD 4 bypassed Upper Marlboro in the early 1960s, the old highway through town became part of MD 408. After the Prince George's County segments of MD 408 were removed in the late 1970s, the remaining state-maintained highway through Upper Marlboro became MD 725.
Maryland Route 980 is a designation used for a collection of five service roads in the U.S. state of Maryland along MD 4, four in Bristol and Waysons Corner in southern Anne Arundel County and one near Upper Marlboro in southern Prince George's County. MD 980 was assigned to the service roads constructed during the expansion of MD 4 to a four-lane divided highway in the early to mid-1960s.
Maryland Route 223 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The state highway runs 12.65 miles (20.36 km) from a dead end near Livingston Road in Piscataway north to Mellwood Road in Melwood. MD 223 passes through suburban areas of southern Prince George's County, including the community of Woodyard south of Andrews Air Force Base between MD 5 in Clinton and MD 4 in Melwood. The highway was constructed from Clinton to near Piscataway in the 1920s and early 1930s. MD 223 was extended west to Livingston Road in Piscataway and east to MD 4 in the mid-1950s. MD 223's interchanges with MD 4 and MD 5 were built in the mid-1960s and early 1990s, respectively.
Maryland Route 202 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The highway runs 13.92 miles (22.40 km) from MD 725 in Upper Marlboro north to MD 450 in Bladensburg. MD 202 connects the central Prince George's County communities of Bladensburg, Cheverly, Landover, and Largo with the county seat of Upper Marlboro. The state highway was constructed from Bladensburg to Largo in the mid- to late 1920s and from Largo to Upper Marlboro in the early 1930s. MD 202 was relocated through Landover in the early 1940s. The highway was expanded to a divided highway with several interchanges from Bladensburg through Landover and Largo from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s. In the 1990s, MD 202's divided highway segment was extended halfway to Upper Marlboro and expanded again through Largo, including the construction of several auxiliary routes to connect the highway with FedExField.
St. Barnabas Church, also known as St. Barnabas' Episcopal Church, Leeland, was built in Leeland, Maryland, and was established in 1704 as the parish church of Queen Anne Parish which had been established that same year. Because of its location in one of the richest tobacco-producing regions in Colonial Maryland, the small church has been a cultural hub for southern Maryland from early colonial times, through the American Revolution, Civil War, and Reconstruction. The church holds some highly significant art and was the scene of a fiery anti-revolutionary showdown that was close to erupting in violence.
Maryland Route 408 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known as Mount Zion-Marlboro Road, the highway runs 5.62 miles (9.04 km) from MD 4 at Waysons Corner east to MD 2 and MD 422 in Lothian. MD 408 is the old alignment of MD 4 in southern Anne Arundel County. The highway was constructed in the late 1910s and became the easternmost part of MD 4 in 1927. The highway received its present designation in the mid-1960s when MD 4 was rerouted south into Calvert County. MD 408's western end was relocated when MD 4 was upgraded to a freeway through Waysons Corner in the early 1990s. MD 408 was also applied to the old sections of MD 4 between Andrews Air Force Base and Upper Marlboro in Prince George's County. The number was assigned after the MD 4 freeway was completed in the mid-1960s. The Prince George's County portions of MD 408 were transferred to county maintenance in the late 1970s except the section through Upper Marlboro, which became MD 725.
The Prince George's County Sheriff's Office (PGSO), officially the Office of the Sheriff, Prince George's County, provides law enforcement services in Prince George's County, Maryland in the United States. Its headquarters are located in Upper Marlboro, near the Depot Pond. The sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer of Prince George's County and is elected every four years. There are no term limits for the sheriff.
Frederick Douglass High School (FDHS), is an American public high school established in 1935 and located in the Croom census-designated place of unincorporated Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, with a mailing address of Upper Marlboro and near Upper Marlboro.
George Armwood was an African American who was lynched in Princess Anne, Maryland, on October 18, 1933. His murder was the last recorded lynching in Maryland.
Matthew Williams was a black man lynched by a white mob in Salisbury, Maryland on December 4, 1931.
William Burns was a 22-year-old African-American man who was lynched on October 6, 1907, in Cumberland, Maryland for the alleged murder of white Cumberland police officer August Baker.
Stephen Williams was an African American man, lynched in Upper Marlboro, Maryland on October 20, 1894.
Michael Green was an African American man who was lynched by a band of masked men near Upper Marlboro, Maryland on September 1, 1878.
Caleb Clarke Magruder Jr. was a politician and lawyer from Maryland. He served in the Maryland House of Delegates in 1867 and as clerk in the Maryland Court of Appeals from 1907 to 1923.