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Born in Connecticut around 1820, Gilbert worked as teamster and was a trustee of A.M.E. Zion church when it incorporated in 1857. He was living in Canajoharie as early as 1839 when he married his first of three wives, Eliza Williams. Gilbert received a land grant of 40 acres in the Adirondacks from abolitionist Gerrit Smith in 1848. George’s son Benjamin served in the 20th United States Colored Troops during the Civil War. Benjamin’s name is on the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C. George Gilbert was always held in the highest esteem among his neighbors and they chose him as one of the Montgomery County delegates to attend what was then known as the Convention of Colored People in Utica in 1868. George Gilbert died in 1897 and he and his third wife Susan are buried in Fort Plain Cemetery.

George Gilbert was a prominent member of Canajoharie's Black community. He worked as a teamster and served as a trustee for the A.M.E. Zion Church during its incorporation and its dissolution. He was also a member of the St. Mark's Lutheran Church.

George Gilbert (Mohawk Street)

Welcome to the Abolitionists and African Americans in Canajoharie, NY walking tour. This tour was developed by the Montgomery County Department of History and Archives. This walking tour features sites and information that tell the story of Canajoharie's role in the struggle for freedom.

Abolitionists and African Americans in Canajoharie, NY

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In 1857, trustees of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AME Zion) Church incorporated as a congregation. That same year, the trustees including George Gilbert, Francis Jackson, …. purchased property on Cliff Street from Pythagoras Wetmore to build a house of worship. Notable members of AME Zion denomination in other areas include: Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Rev. Jermaine Loguen, &amp; Thomas James (born a slave just south of the Village of Canajoharie in the hamlet of Buel), all are synonymous with Underground Railroad work.  The only record of church that has been discovered thus far is a notice in an 1860 issue of the Canajoharie Radii newspaper mentioning a donation visit for Rev. James J. Scott of “colored church.”The next reference is found in records of Genesee Conference for AME Zion church appointing Rev. Richard Eastup to oversee this congregation. Eastup, himself a freedom seeker, served the AME Zion congregation in Auburn, NY (home of Harriet Tubman). While there, he worked to secure funding and clothing for other freedom seekers escaping their lives of bondage. It is not known when the AME Zion Congregation dissolved in Canajoharie. Also unknown is whether or not a structure was ever built on the property in which the congregation worshipped. The trustees of the church sold the property on Cliff Street to Peter Skinner in 1874.

Five men representing African Americans who had been meeting for some time in a local church, assembled to incorporate the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church at Canajoharie in 1857. They purchased a plot of land here on Cliff Street, just east of the home of Peter and Eliza Skinner. It is not likely that the congregation was able to actually build a church at this location s the trustees of the church sold the property on Cliff Street to Peter Skinner in 1874. The AME denomination is synonymous with notable abolitionists Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Rev. Jermaine Loguen. Rev. Richard Eastup, a freedom seeker himself, was appointed to oversee the Canajoharie mission church in 1862.

AME Zion Church (1857)

Peter Skinner was long-time barber in the Canajoharie community. According to his obituary, he was also a well-known musician around the Mohawk Valley. Barbers were typically involved in the Underground Railroad network as men tended to gather at the barbershops sharing news. Underground Railroad author Tom Calarco noted that "the security, visibility, and accessibility of Black barbers made them leaders in their community and likely agents of the Underground Railroad."Peter Skinner, son of Michael, and Eliza Miller, daughter of Henry and Maria Miller, were married in Cherry Valley in 1847 and they lived there for a time prior to moving to Canajoharie.  Peter may have been descended from slaves that came from Barbados to Cooperstown with HUSBAND family.Peter purchased this property on Cliff Street in 1864 from David and Catharine Zielley. The deed described property as bordering that of African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church property.The Skinners were longtime members of Methodist church in this village. Peter participated in numerous political conventions geared toward Black equality. Eliza passed away in 1899 at the age of 73 and Peter lived until 1912. Both are both buried in Fort Plain Cemetery.

Peter and Eliza Skinner represent the successful integration of many African American, born of enslaved parents, into the community life of these Mohawk Valley villages. Both Peter and Eliza became property owners and successful business people in Canajoharie.

Peter & Eliza (Miller) Skinner

To quote from the National Park Service's Network to Freedom website, "The term described activities that were locally organized, but with no real center. It was ephemeral to those who imagined it, yet tangible to those who followed it."Evidence of slaves in Montgomery County appears in church records with baptisms denoting parents, typically, as property of different individuals &amp; not having surnames . The Fort Plain Reformed Church recorded the marriage of Henry, a slave of John Miller, and Maria, a slave of Adam Garlock in 1818.  Together they raised a family of nine children, baptisms of two of those children were recorded in the records of the Geisenberg Church.According to New York State law in the 19th century, African Americans were required to own at least $250 worth of real estate in order to have the right to vote. Gerrit Smith, a wealthy landowner and abolitionist, granted 120,000 acres of uncultivated land to 3,000 African Americans in 1846 so that Black men, by owning property, would have the opportunity to vote. Henry Miller was among the Montgomery County men to receive the 40-acre land grants in the Adirondacks in the settlement that became known as "Timbuctoo." Unfortunately, despite the gift from Gerrit Smith, many settlers were not able to farm uncultivated land, clearing rocks and felling evergreens and paying taxes; therefore, most did not stay. I have no evidence that the Millers settled on the land in the Adirondacks. In Canajoharie, the Millers lived on the south side of Cliff Street just west of the Sts. Peter &amp; Paul Catholic Church. An 1856 quit-claim deed describes property that Pythagoras Wetmore sold to Maria Miller for $70 a lot of land on which she moved her house – almost 30 yrs later she sold the property for 5 times the purchase price.Around 1868 Henry Miller died and Maria remarried to another Black man, John Miller. In 1880 Maria was counted, along with another woman, as the oldest female resident in the Village of Canajoharie at the age of 84.Maria, while living with her daughter Mrs. Timothy (Mary Ann) Dodge in Phoenix Mills, Otsego County, died in 1891 around the age of 96. Her death record indicated she was born in the area of Freysbush, father John Malone, mother unknown.Both Henry and Maria Miller are buried in the Fort Plain Cemetery.

Both born into slavery, Henry and Mary (Garlock) Miller were emancipated with the 1827 New York State law. They lived on this site where they raised a large family.

Henry & Mary Miller (Cliff Street)

Frances, daughter of Peter and Eliza Skinner, married Charles Walter Denning, a prominent Black bricklayer and stonemason who came to this area from western NY in order to work on construction of the Hotel Wagner. Denning served in Civil war &amp; was member of the Farrell Post G.A.R. (Frances became a member of the local Women’s Relief Corps and together they attended many GAR conventions). Denning’s father Daniel was instrumental in Underground Railroad work in Corning, NY.

Built sometime after 1868, this house was the home of Walter and Frances Denning, African Americans, by 1905. Walter Denning was a Civil War veteran who became a prominent mason and brick worker in Canajoharie, who most likely used limestone quarried near this house. Denning's father actively shepherded Freedom Seekers from his home near Elmira. Frances Skinner Denning grew up with her parents in a house just east on Cliff Street.

Charles Walter & Frances (Skinner) Denning (Cliff Street)

Philip, “a faithful and valued servant” (slave?) of the local Van Alstine family, was granted land in the Adirondacks in northern New York by abolitionist Gerrit Smith.  Philip and his wife Eunice Van Horn became members of the Canajoharie Reformed Church where Philip as appointed sexton in 1848. The Phillips family purchased this lot of one acre in 1851, which they then sold to Charles W. Wheeler in 1866. Eunice Phillips died in 1874 at the age of 43 while Philip died in 1881 around the age of 70. Both are buried in Saratoga.

As the generation of African Americans who were once enslaved, Philip and Eunice (Van Horne) Phillips represent the modest success that steady work and home ownership provided to people who spanned the experience of both slavery and freedom in the Mohawk Valley in the mid-nineteenth century.

Philip & Eunice (Van Horne) Phillips (corner of Wheeler & Otsego Streets)

During her tenure as Preceptress and teacher at the Canajoharie Academy, Susan B. Anthony wrote many letters home to her family in Rochester detailing her life in Canajoharie . One such letter to her mother in 1849 describes the new principal at school Thomas Bibb Bradley (age 19) who was a senior from Union College in nearby Schenectady. Bradley was the son of an Alabama slave owner and in Anthony ’s opinion he governed the school in the same fashion as a slave master.  While census records indicate that a number of the local Black children attended school, it is not known at this point if any of them living in Canajoharie were among the students attending the academy.

As the headmistress of the female department, Susan B. Anthony taught from 1846-1849 in the building that stood in this spot. One cousin called her "the smartest woman in Canajoharie." Here she began her public career as a reformer, when she gave her first lecture on temperance on March 2, 1849. She resigned in 1849 to move to Rochester, where she lived with her parents and began her career in abolitionism and women's rights. The current structure was designed by Archimedes Russell and built in 1892.

Canajoharie Academy /West Hill School (Cliff Street)

The Ehle Block was built in 1876 by Eliza Ehle.  Peter Skinner operated his barbershop in later years here in this building. His wife, Eliza Skinner also ran an ice cream parlor here exemplifying the success of this Black couple.

Erected 1876 by Eliza Ehle replacing an earlier home that had burned. This building housed various businesses including Peter Skinner's barbershop and his wife Eliza Skinner's ice cream parlor.

Ehle Block (Rock & Cliff Streets)

“Like many Montgomery County churches, this one incorporated African American as well as European American members. Records of the Canajoharie Reformed Church show that Philip Phillips and Eunice Van Horn (who would later marry each other) joined this church upon “profession of their faith.” (p. 34). Both were noted as “colored.” In April 1842, the Rev. E.O. Dunning officiated at the wedding of Prince Freeman and Mary Ann Thompson, both “colored,” with Philip Phillips and Diana Titus as witnesses. (p. 103) On September 26, 1848, the consistory meeting of the church, with H.D. Dievendorf as Clerk ‘Resolved that Philip Phillips be our sexton for one year and that his compensation for his services and the duties required of him be as the late sextons.’” [source: Judith Wellman, Kelly Yacobucci Farquhar, et al. “Uncovering the Underground Railroad, Abolitionism, and African American Life in Montgomery County, New York, 1820-1890” (2011)]

Like many churches in Montgomery County, European Americans dominated this congregation, but many African Americans were also members. Philip Phillips and his wife Eunice (Van Horne) Phillips were both members of this church. Philip Phillips also served as sexton.

Reformed Church (Front Street)

Prior to the organization of the A.M.E. Zion Church, many local Black families were members of the Mthodist church and had their children baptized. Henry Walton Bibb, a former slave who escaped from southern owners by way of the Underground Railroad, lectured to Canajoharie residents at the Methodist Church in 1849. Bibb described his journey to freedom forced to leave his wife and children behind. Susan B. Anthony, then teaching at the Academy, referred to Bibb’s speech in a letter home highlighting that Canajoharie residents were seemingly impressed by Bibb. The first Methodist structure was constructed on this site in 1841 and burned in a 1915 fire.

Organized in 1828 in Palatine Bridge, the United Methodist Church was built on this site in 1841. A new structure was erected after the 1915 fire destroyed the original. Antislavery lectures held here including one by former slave Henry Walton Bibb. Many Black families had their children baptized here.

United Methodist Church (East Main Street)

In 1850, 22 residents of Town of Canajoharie signed a petition to Congress praying “that no state be hereafter admitted into this Union, unless the Constitution of such State shall expressly prohibit the existence of slavery within its limits.” John C. Smith (1826-1878) was a teacher when he signed the petition. Later Smith became president of Canajoharie National Bank (1856-1877) and postmaster in 1863, also serving two terms as Treasurer for Montgomery County. Other signers of anti-slavery petition include other prominent Canajoharians including Darius V. Berry (later postmaster of Fonda), Dr. Joseph Burbeck, Charles H. Brown, and Beardslee Van Alstine. Smith’s patriotic duty extended to serving in Company H of the 44th NY Regiment where he was wounded at the Battle of Spotsylvania in 1864.

As a teacher and later President of the Canajoharie National Bank, Smith was one of those Canajoharie residents who, in 1850, signed and sent a petition to Congress denouncing slavery and forbade further admittance of any slave state to the Union. By 1868, Smith and his family were living on at the east end of Front Street.

Anti-slavery Petitions -- John C. Smith

Chester Bromley Hoke, known to everyone as “Bromley,” was born in the Town of Minden in 1847 to parents Moses and Nancy (Miller) Hoke. While he was still a toddler, his mother died so Bromley was raised by his grandparents, Henry and Maria (Garlock) Miller. As a teenager, Hoke served in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment during Civil War under Colonel Robert G. Shaw, the nation’s first regiment of all Black soldiers made famous in the 1989 motion picture “Glory.” Bromley returned to civilian life in Canajoharie working primarily as a porter in local hotels and he became a member of the Farrell Post chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.). About 28 years after the end of the Civil War, Hoke courted and married local girl, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Phillips who worked for the Arkell family.

Bromley Hoke and Elizabeth Phillips Hoke represent the integral part that African Americans, descendants of grandparents who had been locally enslaved, played in the economic and social development of the Mohawk Valley, as well as the close ties of family and neighborhood that sustained African American families as they moved from slavery into freedom. They rented the house at 45 Mohawk Street and lived there when Bromley died in 1913. Lizzie survived him until 1945. Both are buried in the Canajoharie Falls Cemetery.

Chester "Bromley" and Lizzie (Phillips) Hoke (Mohawk Street)

While in teaching in Canajoharie, Susan B. Anthony stayed with family. Her mother’s brother Joshua Read lived across the river in Palatine Bridge and actually secured the teaching position for his niece. In her letters home, Anthony recounted her uncle’s position on slavery that northerners had no business interfering in the south’s institution of slavery. Read had himself owned a slave or two before it was abolished in New York State in 1827. Susan B. Anthony’s family in Rochester hosted many anti-slavery meetings with other Quakers. They were sometimes joined by well-known abolitionists Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison. She also spent time in Albany with Lydia Mott, cousin to Lucretia Mott. Lydia was also an active abolitionist (many women involved with anti-slavery movement also became involved in women’s suffrage).  Anthony’s reluctance for marriage may have developed during her time in Canajoharie as result of Joseph Caldwell’s chauvinistic attitudes – she wrote her mother of an incident when Caldwell complained of a headache and when his wife, a pregnant Margaret (Read) Caldwell indicated that she’d had one for weeks, he countered that his was “a real headache, genuine pain, yours if sort a natural consequence” [Ann D. Gordon, ed. The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton &amp; Susan B. Anthony: In the School of Anti-Slavery 1840-1866 (1997)]. Sadly, Margaret Caldwell died a few weeks after that statement.

Susan B. Anthony first stayed at the home of her cousin Eleanor (Read) and George Caldwell during her tenure teaching at the Canajoharie Academy. As a conservative Democrat, George Caldwell introduced Anthony to local and statewide political debates, helping Anthony to define her own commitment to abolitionism.

George & Eleanor (Read) Caldwell (Mohawk Street)

James Teboet, another barber whose shop was in the Shaper block at corner of Mohawk &amp; Church St. (note on map), lived in this multi-family Italianate house with wife Sarah and son John.  Born in 1850 almost a quarter of a century after New York State abolished slavery, Teboet enlisted to serve in the Civil War at the tender age of 15 to assist with eradicating slavery across the nation. The Cromwell family also lived in this home — father John, mother Martha, and sons Oscar and John Addison. John Cromwell was born a slave and early in life became a servant to the prominent George H. Mann family in Schoharie County. While very young, Cromwell developed a love of music and learned to play violin. His master believed music to be a sin and therefore, forbid John’s playing, however, he continued to play the instrument in secret. Later, as an adult and a free man, “Bay John” Cromwell’s love of music was allowed to flourish into his career as a musician. Cromwell’s orchestra became very well-known playing in halls and prominent parties up and down the Mohawk Valley. Musicians were also involved in Underground Railroad networks due to their expanse of contacts and gathering news at their events.

James Teboet learned the skill to be a barber and practiced his trade in the Shaper Block just down the street to the east of his home. John Cromwell, residing in the same house, learned to play the violin while enslaved in Schoharie County. His orchestra was well-known playing at many halls and events throughout the Mohawk Valley.

Abolitionists and African Americans in Canajoharie, NY

George Gilbert (Mohawk Street)

Introduction

Backstory and Context