Here is an article about Farmington
Friends in 1849, who were involved
in a very famous rescue of the
Edmondson sisters from slavery.
They were two of 77 people who
tried to escape from slavery in
Washington,D.C., in 1848 on a
ship called the PEARL. William
Chaplin, editor of the ALBANY
PATRIOT, was one of those
involved in this rescue. The PEARL
ran aground, and all on board
were captured and sold into slavery.
The Edmondson sisters, through
the efforts of their father, were
purchased and brought to the
Farmington area. They later
made a lecture tour around upstate
New York to help William Chaplin
get out of jail in Maryland when
he was again captured in Maryland.
ITEM #20128--from Accessible
Archives Database. Found by
Tanya Warren
October 26, 1849
THE NORTH STAR
Rochester, New York
CIRCULAR
Of the Provisional Committee,
for the Promotion of Education
among the Colored People, in
such of the Slave States are,
or may be accessible.
-------
The organization of this Committee,
is the work of necessity. It grew
out of the consideration, that the
labors and prayers of the friends of
the slave had been blessed in the
deliverance of many thousands from
the fetters of legal bondage. But
their condition, when thus
emancipated, suggests the important
inquiry, that how glorious soever
may be our success in the future,
whether the consummation we so
ardently desire would not be reft
of half its interest and importance
if we were denied the reasonable
anticipation, that a blow so well
aimed and effective, would be
followed by a ready zeal, fidelity and
insight, in ample preparations to
impart the rudiments of sound
knowledge, with healthful morel
discipline, to the youthful masses just
escaped from legal bondage.
What is true of our slaves and colored
people, is true of every people,
long outcast and degraded. Such can
secure the recognition of their
rights, only through an intellectual
and moral regeneration. They
must burst the fetters of ignorance, and
vanquish the dominion of low,
sensual passions, or live and die in a
condition, in no way more exalted,
or worthy of a divine manhood, than
that of the veriest slaves!
The time has fully come in our
judgment, when a well advised and
effected plan may be vigorously
prosecuted for the enlightment and
elevation of our colored people,
who are at least nominally free,
though in the Slave States. In
some of those States they are not
seriously interrupted in the pursuit
of knowledge. They may be reached
in either of two ways, to wit: by
establishing schools directly among
them, or by selecting young persons
of good morals, and endowed with
active, strong powers of mind, who,
when sufficiently trained under
good teachers and the best social
influences to be found at the North,
may return to labor in the department
of instruction, among their
friends and the people of their peculiar
class at the South. This
latter is the idea which strikes us
forcibly, and which, for the
present, we shall seek to make
available by our efforts. Through the
events of Providence we have it
in our power, just now, in an easy,
quiet way, to make an experiment
in the direction alluded to, and under
the most agreeable and gratifying
circumstances.
The Edmondson Sisters, Mary and
Emily, you know by reputation. Their
brief history is singular
and affecting. It is enough to say,
that they were for seven months in
the hands of slave-traders, in
Washington, Baltimore, Alexandria, and
New Orleans - that their virtuous
and christian character afforded them
a shield of complete defence -
That by a rare impulse of social
sympathy, twenty-two hundred
and fifty dollars were raised for their
redemption! They are of a good
family - are now in this neighborhood,
under the most favorable
circumstances to be thoroughly taught,
possessing highly respectable
capacities, with most exemplary industry,
and a rare deportment for propriety;
they are anxious to acquire
information that will, in every way,
render them competent and
effective, as teachers and examples
among their people in the District
of Columbia. This Committee propose
to take charge of them - to advise
them, and to raise whatever means
may be required in the course of
their education. Others of equal
promise will, no doubt, soon offer
themselves. Indeed, we are well
informed, that any number of persons
adapted to the object we have in
view, can at any time be selected at
Washington or Baltimore.
Allow us to say, that it is not our
purpose to make pets of our
beneficiaries - to spoil them by
indulgence, or by superficial, shallow
views of the relations and duties
of life. It shall be our aim to
foster and assist their own exertions,
and by no means to supersede
them. Nor is it our design, in any
way, to build up schools exclusively
for colored children. We shall
place them where the chances for sound
instruction, exact discipline, and
real elevation of character, are the
most completely satisfactory.
Our limits forbid addition to this
hasty outline of our plans. We
wish to regard you as a corresponding
member of our body, and to look
to you constantly for counsel and
support, as a cordial and active
laborer in a common field of
enterprise and responsibility.
- Is it not
a delightful thought, that by a
united effort, the women of New York
can, in a brief period, place in
the District of Columbia, or the State
of Maryland, a dozen intelligent,
well-trained colored females, as
teachers of schools and models
of manners, behavior and character, to
exert an influence among those,
who are most sadly in need of its
quickening power?
You are left free to raise funds
and to bring this interesting
subject before the community
around you, in such way as
seems to you
most convenient, and at the
same time surest to reach a
speedy and desirable result.
The Committee will take care
that you receive frequently a f
ull report of what they design
and accomplish, and
especially of the manner in
which all the money and resources put at
their disposal are applied.
Your friends, truly.
P.S. Please to direct your
communications to our Secretary, C.G.
Hamblin, Farmington, Ontario Co., N.Y.
HANNAH C. SMITH,
PHEBE HATHAWAY,
MARIA E. WILBUR, Com.
ANNA P. ADAMS,
C.G. HAMBLIN,
More Historical News
Here is what we need right now:
1. a 501c3 organization to take over
temporary ownership of the building,
so that we can move it fairly immediately,
document, store it, and make a long-range
plan for it.
We have a couple of possibilities,
but no commitments as yet from anyone.
This will be a crucial next step.
2. a place to store the building.
Ideally, this would be a large
facility where we might be able
to spread out the pieces to do some
detailed drawings and documentation
(and perhaps partial reconstruction).
We do have some possibilities of a barn,
as well as a possible warehouse, but we
have nothing nailed down yet, so all
offers and ideas are most welcome.
Again, this is a crucial next step.
3. funding. We have a commitment of
$5000 from Heritage New York Women's
History Trail, a grant proposal in
to the Chace Fund (sponsored by
Rochester Monthly Meeting) for $5000
for documenting the building. We have
private donations of just over $1000.
We have another grant possibility
of $5000, and possible significant
public and private donations from
other sources. We are seeking estimates
from four contractors about moving the
building, and we are should have a
better sense about the cost of Phase I
--documenting, dismantling, and moving the
meetinghouse--very shortly.
Last News Update
The latest news this week is that the
Farmington Town Board deferred action
on a resolution to demolish this meetinghouse
until March 28, to allow us as much time as
possible to come up with a plan.
We are most appreciative of their willingness
to work with us, consistent with public health
and safety. The clock is ticking for this very,
very important part of America's history.
Here is our status:
1. DONATIONS--Thank you!
2. NEEDS--
a) 501c3 organization
to take ownership of the building;
b) place to store the building.
We have some possibilities for both,
but we are still working on this;
c) funding--we are still trying to
figure out how much Phase I
(documenting, dismantling, and
moving the building) will cost,
and we are working on a
combination of grants and
donations to raise this.
Stay tuned!
3. FARMINGTON AND THE
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: EDMONDSON
SISTERS--historic newspaper article
4. ARTICLE IN CANANDAIGUA
NEWSPAPER--contemporary
newspaper article.
Excellent!
Moving right along! Judy
1. DONATIONS.
Thanks so much to Syracuse
Monthly Meeting, which on
Sunday approved a donation
and a letter of support for
this meetinghouse. We
appreciate both so much.
For those who would like
to contribute money to
the Farmington Meetinghouse
project, here is the address
for Rochester Monthly Meeting:
Rochester Friends Meeting
84 Scio Street
Rochester, New York 14604
Attn: Paul Michaloski
1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse Fund
Next Previous Update
Hello Friends--In grateful recognition for the life and work of Tom Fox, let us continue our work with the Genesee Yearly Meeting of Friends meetinghouse at Farmington, with thankfulness also for all of those who have volunteered so much time and so many gifts on behalf of all this meetinghouse stands for.
Thanks especially to Rochester Monthly Meeting of Friends, who this morning agreed to sponsor a proposal to the Chace Fund of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to help document this building with photographs and drawings and also to set up a fund to collect money for the
meetinghouse. More very soon on exactly how we can write checks for this building. We are so grateful to Rochester Monthly Meeting, especially to Rich Regen, convener of a new oversight committee who will oversee this fund.
Thanks also to Diane Plassey Gutierrez, who has volunteered her skills as a graphics designer to help publicize the importance of this meetinghouse, and to Bruce Harvey, who took many large-format photographs of the meetinghouse on Saturday morning.
We are awaiting estimates from building movers about the cost of stabilizing, dismantling, and moving the building.
The Farmington Town Board will consider the fate of this building at its meeting this Tuesday evening, March 14, at the Farmington Town Hall. We will try to prepare a summary of what has happened so far, so that everyone is up-to-date on our progress by Tuesday.
Everyone is welcome. To get to the Town Hall:
Get off Thruway at Manchester exit. Take 96 heading west out of Manchester, toward Victor. About six miles west of Manchester, on right, there is a red schoolhouse. Turn right (north) on County Road 8. Go approximately a mile. Town hall is on left.
OR
Go west on Route 31 through Macedon. Turn south on County Route 8 for maybe 5 miles. Town hall is on right.
•publicize the issue. There is strong local support for this building, but the building needs immediate help for its stabilization and initial restoration efforts.
•support fund-raising efforts. Local people are working hard to give support. But the large amount of funding necessary to preserve and restore this structure must come in part from sources outside the community. Donations may be sent to: Elizabeth Cady Stanton Foundation, P.O. Box 603, Seneca Falls, New York 13148.
Donations may be sent to: Elizabeth Cady Stanton Foundation, P.O. Box 603, Seneca Falls, New York 13148.
Importance for Quaker History
National Importance of this Meetinghouse
In the 1830s, these Friends assumed leadership roles in national reform movements, including the abolition of slavery, the preservation of Seneca Indian land rights, and the woman’s rights movement. National reformers spoke here, including both African American and European American abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, Frederick Douglass, and William Wells Brown. In the late 1830s, Haudenosaunee leaders appealed here for Quaker assistance in retaining their homelands. “We pulled the strings and the world’s people danced,” said one Quaker reformer. In terms of women’s rights, Genesee Yearly Meeting of Friends at Farmington in 1838 stated explicitly that “men’s and women’s meetings for discipline stand on equal footing of common interest and common right.” Ten years later, in June 1848, 200 Quakers walked out of this building to form the Yearly Meeting of Congregational Friends, in which men and women, blacks and whites met together on a basis of complete equality, joined not by creeds but by “practical righteousness.” At least one-quarter of the signers of the Declaration of Sentiments at the first woman’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, held in June 1848, came from Farmington Quarterly meeting. In her autobiography, Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote that the first speech she gave after the Seneca Falls convention was at Farmington meeting. Susan B. Anthony spoke here in 1873 at the time of her trial for voting.
In 1927, this building was moved to its current location, just east of its original spot, where its gallery was turned into a second floor and its windows were lowered a full sash length. Benches and stoves were moved to neighboring homes, and the meetinghouse became a barn.
For more on the architectural and historical significance of Quaker meetinghouses, see Catharine Lavoie, Silent Witness: Quaker Meetinghouses in the Delaware Valley, 1695 to the Present (based on Historic American Building Survey documentation, with an introduction by Christopher Densmore) and Silas B. Weeks, New England Quaker Meetinghouses, Past and Present.
- Prepared by Judith Wellman, February 27, 2006.
A letter from Judy Wellman, 3/6/2006
Hello Friends--Many people have come forward in the last day to offer help with various aspects of the meetinghouse project.
1. DOCUMENTATION. Committees from Rochester Monthly Meeting of Friends are working on sponsorship for the Chace Fund grant to help document the meetinghouse with photographs and drawings. The whole meeting will discuss this on Sunday. Turnaround time for the grant is rapid, and we appreciate so much the efforts of F(f)riends to meet the deadline. Meanwhile, Bruce Harvey has offered to take large-format photographs as soon as possible.
2. WEBSITE. Glenn Reinhart put up a website within one day yesterday so everyone will have access to photographs and information. Charles Lenhart has supplied pictures to show us how the building now looks. Tita Beal suggests a section on bibliographies, so if you have good ideas about useful books, please send them on. Christopher Densmore sent an excellent compilation of references to people who spoke in this building. If you know of other references, we would be delighted to add them.
3. MOVING THE BUILDING. Bob Skellan and Liseli Haines are helping to find out more information about moving buildings and reconstructing them. We have been receiving informal and extremely useful advice about this from various architects and professionals, as well. We are still awaiting a formal estimate from a local contractor, well-recommended, with experience in doing this.
4. PLACE TO STORE THE BUILDING. We are seeking a place to store the building, once it is dismantled. We have the offer of one place, outside, but if anyone knows of a large room, where the pieces can be kept under a roof, please let us know.
Many thanks to all who are working so hard, in so many ways, to help this building and all that it stands for survive. This must be an example of Thomas M'Clintock's "practical righteousness" at work.
As Daniel Anthony, a member of Genesee Yearly Meeting of Friends (Hicksite) and Rochester M.M. of Friends, wrote to his daughter Susan B. Anthony in 1848, "I am a member of that Society which has for its Teretory no less sphere than all creation & for its members every rational creature under Heaven." (Anthony Papers, Schlesinger Library, Harvard)
Yours in friendship, Judy Wellman
Judith Wellman, Ph.D.
Director, Historical New York Research Associates
Professor Emerita, State University of New York at Oswego
2 Harris Hill Road, Fulton, New York 13069
315-598-4387/wellman@twcny.rr.com
