New Guinea Online Trail

The Post Office was dedicated as a place to learn about local history, including enslavement.

In 1941, as US President Franklin Roosevelt was jugging the emerging global war that would be known as World War Two, he came to dedicate the opening of the US Post Office, which remains operating as such today.

Roosevelt had overseen the development of the Rhinebeck Post Office in the town adjacent to the north the prior year.

Roosevelt was pleased with the  murals depicting Rhinebeck's local history  done by a longtime family friend, Olin Dows of that town.

As a result, Roosevelt entrusted Dows with the depiction of FDR's hometown's Post Office history. This is how we come to meet Richard Jenkins , who is depicted by Dows inside.

The building is in the form and shape of the house that John Bard built. It was a wooden framed house called the Red House on Albany Post Road (not at the edge of the Hudson River as future estates would be).

The building's main function is a local post office. Please be respectful when you sojourn in (which is welcomed and encouraged) with the purpose of viewing the murals. A  deeper study of the murals  is published by the Dutchess County Historical Society.

Depiction of Dr. Bard and an injured enslaved man is featured on murals.

Dows writes about this scene, "Dr. [Samuel] Bard gives first aid to a negro who has been burnt, while his son William holds the lantern and his son-in-law, John McVickar holds the wounded man. McVickar was rector of St. James Church. In the background of the scene a barn is engulfed in flames. This may be no more than the storytelling of an actual event (the barn fire) being inclusive to include one of around 25* enslaved Blacks on the Bard Estate.

* Diary of Arthur Sands, great great grandson of Dr. Samuel Bard, Bard College Archives & Special Collections.

Depiction of persons enslaved by the Stoutenburghs is featured.

In the  booklet  that was published to accompany the Post Office murals, Olin Dows wrote about this specific scene, “Before 1741, Jacobus Soutenburgh, his sons and slaves clear the land…”

The scene is notable for several reasons. Simply by depicting enslaved persons, and describing them as such in 1941, Dows was progressive. In the booklet published to accompany his Rhinebeck murals a year earlier, someone had stricken the words "slave" or "enslaved" from the text Dows had written before publication. Here it remained.

Dows was a detailed student of history. He would have intentionally depicted, and called out in his published writing, a scene that shows an enslaved Black man working alongside the slave owner’s sons. The smaller population of the early settlement period meant that large tasks, like the raising of a house or barn, harvesting, or clearing land, would require the all-hands-on-deck participation of neighbors, both free and enslaved.

A Stoutenburgh house today.

Let's take a quick virtual quick side-trip given that we are speaking of the Stoutenburghs. A half mile south east of Crum Elbow Creek's u-turn, the Stoutenburgh Family Association maintains an original Stoutenburgh family house.

Typically at the time, enslaved persons lived in the attic or cellar of the enslaving family’s home, not in separate quarters like the plantation south. The earlier illustration of the house shows that there were originally no dormers. Needless to say, living in the attic or basement would have lacked light and air.

Fredonia Lane, central lane of New Guinea.

When originally opened as a lane, the entrance was at Mill Road at its northern end, and the lane headed south until it hit a dead end at Crum Elbow Creek. The county road that parallels the "u" shape in the Crum Elbow came later. But it is from this southern approach you should enter today, as it affords parking.

You can park at the parking lot of the Hyde Park Recreation Area, under terms that may vary, please check with  Hyde Park Parks & Recreation  if you have any questions.

This is a photo looking from the south, an interesting photograph from the 1880s courtesy of the Marist College Archives. The big house is the house built by Henry Hackett, whose 1939 article in the Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook we use as a source. It is today home to the Town of Hyde Park recreation.

Fredonia Lane from the south.

You can access Fredonia Lane from the parking lot by either walking up the steps to the main driveway, or by walking to East Market Street. You will see trail signs posted at the edge of the forested area to the west.

The stone walls that originally lined both sides of Fredonia Lane still stand.

Out of respect for the persons who lived, worked and died here, please stay on the lane and trails. Do not climb on the walls or foundations for your own safety, as well as for preservation of the remains. There are old wells in the area, one of which has been filled, but others may be hidden in leaves and underbrush and could be dangerous. Also, visitors should not disturb the ground or remove any artifacts or cultural material from the area. Please help us maintain this site as a sacred to the memory of the people who lived, worked, played and died here at a critical time in our nation's history.

Site of the QuockenBush farm.

The earliest documentation we can find that relates to Fredonia Lane is a formal agreement between Samuel Bard and Quock QuockenBush. It is a lease dated 1811, courtesy of  Bard College Archives & Special Collections, allowing QuockenBush five acres of land along the east side of Fredonia Lane. The quality of the land is marshy and rocky with some flat areas. Some of the rock formations seem like dramatic, intrusive, upward-pointing sculpture. This is essentially why the Crum Elbow Creek does a u-turn here.

The quality of the land is revealed in the description of the boundary starting point described in the lease, “Beginning at a stake and stone at a swamp... ” Our best guess is that they were likely raising some sort of livestock, like sheep. 

Primus Martin & Betty Prime lot and home.

The local historian and diarist Edward Braman indicates Primus Martin had been enslaved by Dr. Samuel Bard when he wrote the following description, "[Primus Martin] was a Bard negro. He and his wife, Betty Prime, were industrious and respected. Usually called 'Prime,' [he] was an industrious colored man, and he accumulated a considerable property. He owned quite a farm. He owned a small, rocky farm on [Mill Road].

The lot is at the mid-point along Fredonia Lane on the west side of the lane.

Richard Jenkins lot and home.

Jenkins is the only community member we have a photo of, shown here. He was obviously loved by the St. James Church community. He was sexton for thirty-five years, from 1822 to 1857, so he had literally taken many of Hyde Park’s people to their final resting place. According to church records he was born in 1783 and baptized in the church December 20, 1829. He was an enslaved man in the Bard family.

Former Bard mill site.

Called Mill Road today, old maps show that the east/west road that ran from the mill site that is visible today, to the landing at the Hudson River due west, was originally owned by the Bard family originally.  

Farmers would trade agricultural goods, processed to some degree or another, and trade them for manufactured goods in return at the landing. This exchange was the foundation of the Dutchess County, and for that matter, the Hudson River Valley economy at the time.

Peter Griffin House at Guinea Bridge.

The most important land transaction here, and I believe the first land purchase by a person of color in the area, was in February of 1814, when Richard Teller sold one and a half acres right at Guinea bridge to Peter Griffin.

Although seemingly small, it was strategic and created a space, although a very crude space, to support an influx of free persons of color literally in the backyard, running along Crum Elbow Creek, on both sides.  The lot has a wide front on what is today East Market Street and goes back to the Crum Elbow Creek.  While technically, legally, Griffin owned to the middle of the creek, the opposite side of the creek is a flat space for a short distance, and then there is a 40-foot sheer cliff going up such a distance as it could not be easily scaled. So the end of the back yard of Peter Griffin felt more like an area that included some space on the far side of Crum Elbow Creek. 

So when Braman describes what must have been the most rudimentary of shacks (he  later used the patronizing words “the area has since been cleaned up both sides of the Crum Elbow) I believe he was referring to where the neediest of the New Guinea community would have taken shelter, here in the back yard of the Griffin house.

Dunbar & Amy Griffin Brown house.

Somewhere along his journey from enslaved man to free man, Pompey Brown asked to be called by the name Dunbar Brown. Brown was an enslaved coachman and valet for Edmund Penleton, arriving locally around 1820. We have good information on Brown because the local historian and diarist, Edward Braman, took a trip to New York City and visited Brown and his wife Amy specifically for an interview in 1878.

Braman reports that the Browns moved to New York City where he was a carpet shaker, white washer, and public waiter.  In 1863 they were victims of the draft riots targeting Blacks. Braman reports that Dunbar Brown came to own a good deal of property and was successful financially.

Hyde Park landing at Hudson River's edge.

You will remember the mill at the far eastern end of Mill Road, the east/west route from which Fredonia Lane heads south.

This is the western terminus of that east/west route. The main scene shown is from the Hyde Park Post Office which Olin Dows describes as follows, "About 1795. Richard De Cantillon, Tobias Stoutenburgh's son-in-law, supervises workmen unloading rum, sugar and molasses from one of his West India packets." The inset shown is from the Rhinebeck Post Office where Dows depicts enslaved stevedores which would have been the case here. The 1800 census shows De Cantillon owning 8 enslaved persons.

Samuel Bard & David Hosack's View.

As mentioned earlier, the first generation of the Bard family to own (and name) the Hyde Park Estate was John Bard who built "the Red House" on the Albany Post Road, near St James Church, not at river's edge. But when his son, Samuel Bard, took over the estate, he built his home at this site, to capture the most extraordinary views of the Hudson River. This 1838 engraving is based on work by the influential artist, William Bartlett, and the view was published in the widely acclaimed, widely read, and influential publication American Scenery.

Dr. David Hosack's Estate.

After the Bard family felt compelled to sell their beloved Hyde Park estate due to financial pressures, it was purchased by a protegee and student of the Bards, David Hosack. Hosack was famous for creating the nation’s first botanical garden, Elgin botanical garden in New York City, and for being the physician who tended to the dying Alexander Hamilton after the fatal duel.

Pendleton & Paulding Estates. Paulding's pro-slavery views.

Nathaniel Pendleton married Susannah Bard, daughter of John Bard, sister to Samuel Bard. This is how he came to acquire land just north of Samuel Bard's estate at Bard's Rock. It was greatly altered by the construction of the railroad but for a time was a very active estate (see image) and landing.

St James Church & cemetery.

We looked at Richard Jenkins 8 acre land lot near the mill on Mill Road. Jenkins worked at St James Church.Jenkins was obviously loved by the St. James Church community. He was sexton for thirty-five years, from 1822 to 1857, so he had literally taken many of Hyde Park’s people to their final resting place. According to church records he was born in 1783 and baptized in the church December 20, 1829. He was an enslaved man in the Bard family; he was living in a house he shared with a White man at Bard’s rock, mentioned earlier. When David Hosack bought the 730 acre Bard estate, he removed Jenkin’s house. Richard and his wife Nancy had many children; the youngest, Catherine was the last surviving family member and was resident there when the church celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1911. Richard was a paid employee of the church for decades, so he was a salaried man who owned property. His wife, Nancy, had paid work as a laundress for the church. The Church was obviously an important part of their financial, social, and emotional safety and security.

Rare unity in death.

It was very unusual at the time for persons of color to be buried in integrated cemeteries, with permanent markers. Here lies Richard Jenkins, with other family members in the vicinity of New York State Governor Morgan Lewis.

A large number of persons of color, however, remain unaccounted for in terms of their burial and remains.

Crum Elbow Meeting House.

It was further south in the county that the Meeting at Pawling voted in 1767 to ban any Quaker from owning any enslaved person. But the local DeGarmo family became outspoken abolitionists, one of whom is buried at Crum Elbow Meeting House Cemetery: Lizzie DeGarmo, who was speaking out at a time when Quakers were outspoken about both the abolition of slavery and equal treatment of women.

Crum Elbow Cemetery.

No one Quaker Meeting House and cemetery can tell the whole extraordinary story of Quakers and their role in the abolitionist movement. But within the Town of Hyde Park that was home to the Bards, Pendletons, and Hosacks, and home to the New Guinea Community, we also find Crum Elbow Meeting House.

Peter (1797 to 1878) and wife Sarah (1800 to 1887) had two children in particular who spoke out in favor of abolition, and whose letters can be seen here in the Liberator. One was Lizzie DeGarmo who is buried at Crum Elbow Cemetery near her parents. The other is John Marshall DeGarmo who is buried in Poughkeepsie. Through their reports on a recent convention in Poughkeepsie that involved Susan B. Anthony, you will get a good sense of their argument for abolition.  Read their reports here , a new window will open.

The mold had been broken by the time war commenced.

By December 20, 1860, when South Carolina seceded from the United States, here at Hyde Park there had been nearly 50 years of persons of color both integrating into a broader White community, and building their own community of New Guinea.

1812 St. James church records show three Blacks listed as parishioners: Jack Senea, Sally Senea, and Nancy Bard.

By 1814 Peter Griffin bought land that would become important at the north west corner of Guinea Bridge and others followed.

We know that in death, certain Blacks were buried in a single, integrated, cemetery which was highly unusual at the time, as Richard Jenkins was in 1856.

Meanwhile, the nation was about to embark on its deadliest war as southern states did not want give up the institution of slavery.

Destination: Cities & bigger farming opportunities

The successful conclusion of the war brought about the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the US Constitution, consecutively abolishing slavery, ensuring equal protection under the law, and promising the right to vote will not be denied or abridged due to race. This meant that former enslaved persons, at least technically, were made a promise that they could begin to chart their own personal course – and realize their individual dreams –  which of course varied person to person.

The question became, "where is best for me to live to achieve my personal dreams and ambitions?"

Destination: New York City & St. Philip's Church

Dunbar Brown left New Guinea for New York City just prior to the Civil War, obviously feeling New York City offered opportunities that New Guinea did not.

We find the object of not just Dunbar Brown's focus, but his wife and at least one daughter, was St. Philip's Church. More than just a religious institution, St. Philip's offered social and political "heft" to advance Black causes that were not available in New Guinea or St. James' Church.

St Philip's, named for the saint who had converted an Ethiopian to Christianity, was created in 1809 in downtown Manhattan as a church dedicated to the African community. Brown was an elected vestryman at St Philips, shown here on Mulberry Street in downtown manhattan in the 1850s, in the important years that the church was arguing to become a full member of the larger Episcopal Church.

Normally, the reception of St Philips into the Episcopal Diocese of New York also would have meant it was accepted into the full convention, a technical difference that was important because it allowed full voting and legal and leadership rights. But in this unique instance, it was not permitted until after several decades of hard fighting, among whose leaders were Dunbar Brown. (See Protest and Progress, New York's First Black Episcopal Church, by John H. Hewitt, Jr.).

St Philip’s Church relocated to Harlem in 1911. It was home to generations of Black leaders like W E B Dubois, Langston Hughes, and Thurgood Marshall.

Brown operated a shoe shine shop on Broadway, a block below (so just out of view to the right of) this 1840s scene on the east side of Broadway north of Canal Street. St Philip's Church photo courtesy Robert N. Dennis Collection, New York Public Library.

Destination: New York City & Black leadership in education & in war in two generations.

Lewis Frazier was the third generation of his family to be farmers in Milan, but at some time around the Civil War, he moved to New York City and became a coachman to a wealthy fifth avenue family. Lewis and his wife Ellen had five children, among them was Susan Elizabeth Frazier born in 1864.

Miss Frazier graduated from Hunter College preparing herself to be a teacher and became the first Black woman allowed to teach White students in New York City in 1892. The breaking of "the color line" as it was called then came only after she made national headlines by suing the city after they denied her the job based on her race. 

At the end of World War One in 1919, as the founder and active president of the women’s auxiliary of the Harlem Hellfighters, she was master of ceremonies at a massive welcome home celebration of over one thousand people in Harlem. There, a letter addressed personally to her from former President Theodore Roosevelt was read aloud, and his gift of a silk American flag was given to her as Roosevelt's acknowledgement of the whole unit's achievements.

A sign testifying to her life achievement was posted in the church where she was active, the same St Philips church that Dunbar Brown had fought so hard to be seen as legitimate. By the time of her early death, in 1924, St. Philip's had moved to Harlem.

Her funeral at the Armory of the 369th Harlem Hellfighters was a funeral with full military honors. She is buried at the family plot in Rhinebeck (see map).

Destination: Poughkeepsie & Williams College & Yale Law School in three generations.

Abram Bolin moved from rural Dover to the City of Poughkeepsie in 1866, purchasing this house on North Clinton Street with his wife Ann. The house became the family home for a century. Very active in movements to make higher education available to Blacks, Abram's son Gaius became the first Black graduate of Williams College, and his granddaughter became the first Black judge in the united states after being the first Black Woman to graduate from Yale Law School.

Destination: Poughkeepsie, the AME Zion Church, military officer & IBM professional in three generations.

The older photo at the upper right is Jasper Jackson. Like Lewis Frazier, he was born in the Town of Milan into a farming family. His parents came to own 141 acres of farmland. The city of Poughkeepsie called to their son Jasper and he moved while others remained. The last member of that family to remain in Milan died in 1952.

In a 2018 interview, Jasper Jackson's grandson, Walter Patrice, said this about his grandfather’s move, and I quote, “a lot of African Americans left the farm after the proclamation, a lot of African Americans left the farm and came to Poughkeepsie like my grandfather, Jasper Jackson."

Jasper Jackson became very involved in the AME Zion Church, as did subsequent generations.

Walter Patrice served in WW2 as a Lietenant in Europe and had a long and successful career at IBM.

He was a lifelong social justice advocate and had dedicated much of his life to ensuring equal employment opportunity in Poughkeepsie.

Destination: Michigan farmland & generations of successful farmers.

Prince Minisee (1785 to 1875) can be found in 1820 and 1840 census records in the town of Pine Plains, and Town of Stanford, respectively. He lived in the adjacent town north, Gallatin, in 1830.

Shortly after his wife passed away, Prince Miniseee (sometimes Manessah) moved to Michigan with his children. In Kent County, near Grand Rapids, they were among a number of Black families who settled there to farm.

The family was recognized as a pioneering family of Black farmers by the US Government in the 1980. Thank you to the descendants of Prince Minisee living in Michigan who contributed to this narrative.

Some Remained in Rural Dutchess County to Farm.

According to the author Michael Groth, the rural town with the largest Black ownership of farmland was the Town of Milan, fifteen miles north and east of New Guinea. This was due in large part because it had the poorest land in the county, the least valued, which made it accessible as an entry point to land ownership.

In the image starting in the upper left and working clockwise, you will recall that in the profile of Jasper Jackson we mentioned that he left family members in Milan when he moved to Poughkeepsie. The family house still stands on Rowe Road (shown). Henry and Almira Jackson came to own 141 acres, including land that was a large wood lot (see 1873 town tax book). Through inheritance, Alma Jackson became the sole owner of 108 acres of land, a truly exceptional instance of a Black woman owning so much farmland.

We find by 1876 that the Brazilian freedomseeker, Robert St. John, who lived at New Guinea has moved a few miles north, on the border of Hyde Park and Rhinebeck.

Again an 1876 map shows the location of the farmhouse of Uriah St. Paul, a Black farmer. A road bears the family name today.

There seems to have been an area in northern Hyde Park, south of the Robert St. John house. This vicinity was known as "Hawktown," where there were both Black residents and Black land owners. Compared to the first sale of land to a person of color in New Guinea in 1814, the 1817 sale of land to Jack DeWitt, is early by any measure. It is 3 and 1/4 acres and may have been tied to lumber and logging. Braman makes references to Blacks living in "the Pines," a Stoutenburgh woodlot south of the u-shape of the Crum Elbow Creek. We know a sizable section of Almira Jackson's Milan lot is described as a wood lot. This is just a reminder that "farming" included logging.