Butler man was first Black to join Pa. National Guard
Butler resident Charles Albert Waters was the first, and for many decades only, Black soldier in the Pennsylvania National Guard.
Waters was born in a community called Libertytown, Md., about 30 miles west of Baltimore and 20 miles south of the Pennsylvania border.
When he was born in 1860, Maryland was a slave-holding state and would remain so until the conclusion of the Civil War, despite its status as a Union state. However, his status at birth is unknown. About half of Baltimore’s African-Americans were free in 1860. Libertytown was an important crossroads for transportation between Baltimore and Hagerstown.
It can be reasonably assumed that Waters and, possibly, his family arrived in Butler sometime in his teenage years, possibly 1877.
Pennsylvania was long a haven for free African-Americans, and it is likely they headed north after the end of the Civil War or in the years after. Western Pennsylvania was a less likely destination than the eastern counties, but it still attracted a fair amount of people. When he arrived in Butler, there was a very small African-American community living there.
In 1880, census records indicated Waters had obtained a position as a servant in the household of prominent attorney John M. Thompson.
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