Gum Springs (South Entrance Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

Gum Springs
Gum Springs, an African-American community, originated here on a 214-acre farm bought in 1833 by West Ford (ca. 1785-1863), a freed man, skilled carpenter, and manager of the Mount Vernon estate. The freedman's school begun here in 1867 at Bethlehem Baptist Church encouraged black settlement. In 1890 the Rev. Samuel K. Taylor, William Belfield, Lovelace Brown, Hamilton Gray, Robert D. King, Henry Randall, and Nathan Webb formed the joint Stock Company of Gum Springs and sold lots. Gum Springs has remained a vigorous black community.

Erected 1991 by Department of Historic Resources. (Marker Number E-94_2.)

More about this marker:
An identical marker stands several blocks away. The web site for Virginia Department of Historic Resources designates the other marker as E-94_1 and this marker as E-94_2, although the markers themselves both read E-94.