Significance

James Beulah and his family are a well-documented example of the dozens of freedom-seeking families who settled in Syracuse and Onondaga County and became well-established community leaders and property owners. Unfortunately, the three houses associated with this family are probably no longer standing.

Biography

James Beulah was a Methodist Episcopal minister who lived in Jordan, New York. He is probably the same James Beulah mentioned by Rev. Abel Brown as a licensed exhorter of the Methodist Episcopal Church, living in slavery for thirty years, who hid with his wife and children for weeks in swamps and woods until they arrived in Albany, New York. They came to Jordan about 1848. Rev. Beulah went to Canada in November 1851, after the rescue of William “Jerry” Henry.

His story was told by John Thomas, editor of the Syracuse League in Syracuse, and reprinted in the Pennsylvania Freeman:

“A Hard Case—We find the following letter from Jordan in Cayuga County, New York, in the Syracuse League. We copy it, not because we approve of violence—for we do not—but that our readers by see what sentiments and feelings have been engendered by the man-hunt of Syracuse.

Two colored citizens, Bulah and Johnson, who have been residents of

Jordan, the former about three years, parted with the sympathizing citizens thereof on Tuesday morning for the King’s Dominion. Bulah is an eminent Christian minister. There were no more respected people in our village. They went under the council [sic] of Judge Conklin, “to move to some other country if they were not safe in their own.” This is the third time that Bulah has purchased a house and lot, and been chased from it by slave-catchers.

On Monday evening the citizens of Jordan met at the Methodist Church

to express their indignation a the wrong and outrage inflicted on these men. I have never seen greater excitement and determination. The meeting advised Mr. Bulah to stay, and publicly resolved that they would arm him and arm themselves, and stand by him at all hazards, and to the last extremity.

Mr. Bulah has an interesting family (his wife a member of the

Methodist Church) and they were all in affliction. He said that he felt so insecure that he could not sleep at nights, and could not endure his insecurity. He therefore determined to leave the pleasant home he had just paid the last purchase money for, and took his passage to Canada. We made up a pretty large purse to help him along. I really believe that our citizens would shoot a Marshall, Attorney, or President, as soon as they would a dog, if they put their guilty hands on either of these men. And if that is treason, let it be treason.

Thomas L. Carson

[Editor of the Syracuse League]

(Reprinted in Pennsylvania Freedom

Philadelphia, November 6, 1851)

Beulah returned to Jordan shortly thereafter, where he purchased land on lot 45 in 1853 and 1855. (Deed book 111, page 425 and 120, page 429)

Joseph Beulah, perhaps a son, is listed as a barber in Jordan in the Onondaga County Directory for 1868-9. He purchased property on lot 45 in 1868.

In 1870, Rev. James Beulah published a letter in the Syracuse Standard urging voters to support Republicans.

Site

James Beulah purchased land on lot 45 in the Town of Elbridge in 1853 and 1855. Joseph Beulah purchased land on the same lot in 1868. Sweet’s 1874 Atlas shows two houses on lot 45, labeled J. Beulah, north of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, and one building labeled “Beulah and Morris” next to these houses.

Jack Horner, Town Historian of Elbridge, reported that these two houses, one of them brick, were taken down about 2000. Much of this area has been torn up for storage facilities and a gravel parking area. The property is now owned by Plainville Turkey Farms.

Sources

Bulah, James. “Letter to the Colored Voters by Rev. James Bulah,

Jordon, Onondaga County, November 4, 1870.” (1879s folder, OHA)

Brown, Rev. Abel, Memoir of Abel Brown. Thanks to Tom Calarco and to Paul

and Mary Liz Stewart for this reference.

Carson, Thomas L. “A Hard Case,” Thomas L. Carson, [Editor of the Syracuse

League], Reprinted in Pennsylvania Freedom, Philadelphia, November

6, 1851. Thanks to Christopher Densmore for finding this article.

Deeds

1853-- L.H. Mason et al to James Bulah, Book 111, page 425, Town of

Elbridge, Lot 45 &c.

1855--L.H. Mason et al to James Bulah, Book 120, page 429, Town of

Elbridge, Lot 45

Thanks to Jack Horner, Town of Elbridge historian, for his work on locating these sites.

Further research

Censuses would tell more about the Beulah family. So would the Memoir of Abel Brown. Maps, assessments, and physical analysis of the site might reveal the chronology of the Beulah buildings, as well as their precise location.

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