Uncovering the Freedom Trail in

Syracuse and Onondaga County, New York

 

Summary Report

May 2002

 

Sponsored by the

Preservation Association of Central New York

 

                                                                                                                              Preservation Association of

                                                                                                                                                Central New York

                                                                                                                                                             2001-2002

 

Funded by Preserve New York through the

Preservation League of New York State

 

Prepared by

Judith Wellman, Principal Investigator,

Historical New York Research Associates, and

Milton Sernett, Professor, African American Studies,

Syracuse University

 

Images on cover from:

  1. Printers' stock, 1830s, reprinted in Eber M. Pettit, Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad, reprint Westfield, New York: Chautauqua Region Press, 1999.

  2. "Western View in the Central Part of Syracuse," in John W. Barber and Henry Howe, Historical Collections of the State of New York (New York: St. Tuttle, 1842), 395.

  3. Anonymous African Americans from tintypes in the Robinson Family Collection, Onondaga Historical Association. Used by permission of the OHA.

UNCOVERING THE FREEDOM TRAIL IN
SYRACUSE AND ONONDAGA COUNTY
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

I. Overview
 
II. Statement of Historic Context
 
III. List of Sites, by Town and Type

 

FULL REPORT ALSO INCLUDES:

 

Appendix I:

Description of Sites, by Last Name of Owners

 

Appendix II: Databases

 

A.     Preliminary List of People and Places

 

B.     African Americans in Onondaga County
Listed in Censuses, 1850, and in Syracuse, 1850, 1855, and 1860

 

C.     Deed Searches for Sites

That May Be Associated with the Freedom Trail

 

Appendix III: Bibliography

 

Appendix IV: Samples of Primary Sources

 
Copies of the full report are available online at www.PACNY.net/freedom_trail and at the Onondaga Historical Association, the Onondaga County Clerk's Office, the Onondaga County Public Library, and Martin Luther King, Jr., Library at Syracuse University.

 

Appendix I:

Description of Sites, by Last Name of Owners

 

Allen-Schneider House

A.M.E.Zion Church

Benjamin and Rachel Bakeman House Site

George and Rebecca Barnes House

James Beulah House Site

Borodino Baptist Church

Courier Building

Site of William and Mary Edwards House

James Canning Fuller and Lydia Fuller House

Matilda Joslyn Gage and Henry Gage House

Joseph and Rhoda Gold House

Jerry Rescue Site

Thomas and Jane Leonard House Site

Jermain and Caroline Loguen’s House Site

Harriet Smith Mills and C.D.B. Mills House

L.P. Noble House

Plymouth Congregational Church

Rose Hill Cemetery

Mary Robinson Houses

William Sabine House

David and Lucelia Spaulding House

Absalom and Magdalena Talbot House

Thomas Houses

George Vashon Law Office

Wandell House

Wesleyan Church

Ellen Birdseye Wheaton House

Hamilton White House

 

Appendix II: Databases

 

A.     Preliminary List of People and Places

 

B.     African Americans Listed in Censuses

in Onondaga County, 1850, and in

Syracuse, 1850, 1855, and 1860

 

C.     Deed Searches for Sites
That May Be Associated with the Freedom Trail

Appendix IV:

Samples of Primary Sources

 

 

 

  1. African American doctor among the Onondagas, 1779

Lt. Erkuries Beatty, "Journal, April 19, 1777," in Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779 (1887) reprint (Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1972).

 

  1. "George," a freedom seeker, October 1837

Friend of Man, February 28, 1838

 

C. Frank Wanzer and his group, December 1855-January 1856

William Still, The Underground Railroad: A Record (Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1872), 124-129.

 

I. Overview

 

II. Statement of Historic Context

 

III. List of Sites, by Town and Type

 

 

Appendix I:

 

Description of Sites, by Last Name of Owners

 

Allen-Schneider House

A.M.E.Zion Church

Benjamin and Rachel Bakeman House Site

George and Rebecca Barnes House

James Beulah House Site

Borodino Baptist Church

Courier Building

William and Mary Edwards House

James Canning Fuller and Lydia Fuller House

Matilda Joslyn Gage and Henry Gage House

Joseph and Rhoda Gold House

Thomas and Jane Leonard House Site

Jermain and Caroline Loguen’s House Site

Harriet Smith Mills and C.D.B. Mills House

L.P. Noble House

Plymouth Congregational Church

Rose Hill Cemetery

Mary Robinson Houses

William Sabine House

David and Lucelia Spaulding House

Absalom and Magdalena Talbot House

Thomas Houses

George Vashon Law Office

Wandell House

Wesleyan Church

Ellen Birdseye Wheaton House

 

 

Appendix II: Databases

 

A.     Preliminary List of People and Places

 

B.     African Americans in Onondaga County, 1850, and in

Syracuse, 1850 and 1860

 

C. Deed Searches for Sites That May Be Associated with the Freedom Trail

 

 

A.     Preliminary List of People and Places

 

B. African Americans in Onondaga County
Listed in Censuses, 1850, and in Syracuse, 1850, 1855, and 1860

 

C. Deed Searches for Sites That May Be Associated with the Freedom Trail

 

 

Part II:

Statement of Historic Context

 

 

Part III:

List of Sites, by Town and Type

 

 

National Register Nomination for

James Canning Fuller and Lydia Fuller House

Skaneateles, New York

 

National Register Nomination for the

William R. Edwards and Mary L. Edwards House

Syracuse, New York

 

Benjamin and Rachel Bakeman Site

 

A.M.E. Zion Church

Syracuse, New York

 

James Beulah House Site

 

Sites

 

Plymouth Congregational Church

Syracuse, New York

 

James C. and Lydia C. Fuller House

Skaneateles, New York

 

Matilda Joslyn Gage and

Henry Gage House

Fayetteville, New York