Jesse Geer

Jesse Geer (1799-c.1880), appears on the Blount Map of Durham's Station c. 1867 as owner of a farm on the east side of the Roxboro Road, between the village and the farm of his relative Fred C. Geer.

Present-day Geer Street runs through former Geer acreage. Jesse Geer is also namesake of the Geer Cemetery at Camden Road and Colonial Drive, in the Duke Park neighborhood. Tradition holds that an African American child who died after falling from a mule was buried on Geer land; subsequently, in 1877, Geer sold two acres, including the child's grave, to a group of black Durham residents with the provision it be used as a graveyard "for the colored people."

Streets
Geer Street