Tag Archives: Rochester

Historical research: Walk where they walked

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When I first researched Susan and her family, I walked where they walked. Wearing a long skirt, wool cape, and boots, I trudged snow-clogged streets of old Rochester. A bit later, I was dismayed to learn that the Rochester home of Frederick Douglass no longer exists. Undeterred, I branched out to visit Seneca Falls, where she met her good friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Because of Susan’s many travels, the list of places to visit never seemed to end!

The Kansas connection

When I finally had the opportunity to visit the home of her brother D.R. in Leavenworth, KS, I set about walking where he walked. There was so much to see: the port of Leavenworth, the site of his home (now greatly remodeled), and the commercial district. I roamed the backcountry of Kansas and the town of Lawrence that he helped to settle with the Emigrant Aid Company.

Walking where Annie walked

Through Daniel, I met his wife Annie and from there took a leap back east to her home in Martha’s Vineyard. Questions began to form as I gazed out to sea from her home in Edgartown and as I visited the cliffs at what was then called Gayhead (now Aquinnah). My romantic imagination kicked in when I walked the winding paths of the Gingerbread Cottages.

Leavenworth, Kansas

Walking Leavenworth’s business district gave me a sense of the busy, moneyed man who was Daniel Read Anthony.

Annie’s birthplace

…in Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard gave me a sense of her wealth and gentility.

Gingerbread Cottage

…in Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard, gave me a perfect setting for Daniel’s first mention of marriage to Annie

New Underground Railroad Exhibit at Niagara Falls

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A whole new source of information on the Underground Railroad is opening next weekend in Niagara Falls, starting May 4. I’m excited because it will offer more in-depth background for my historical novels in The Dauntless Series, featuring abolitionists Daniel Read Anthony and his sister Susan.

Here’s the scoop on the new museum:

Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center

825 Depot Avenue W.
Niagara Falls, NY 14305

Why is this new museum important?

States bordering Canada, particularly in the East, were the last frontier for enslaved people seeking freedom before the Civil War. Niagara Falls, NY, just across the river from Canada, admitted many freedom seekers traveling through New York State. I am familiar with many such stories that took place near my home in Rochester, and always wondered what happened to those travelers after they left here.

Gala Opening

The opening weekend includes a gala on Friday, a dinner on Saturday, and community day (for the general public) on Sunday. Thereafter it will assume a regular schedule. Read all about it here.

Their website offers some intriguing and detailed stories about an organized group of African-American waiters who risked their lives and businesses to help enslaved people to cross the border. Visit “Underground Railroad Sites” to read about these individuals and some of the places where those escapes occurred.

For those of us who love the grandeur of the falls at Niagara, it’s just one more reason to visit this well-known northern city. Hope to see you there!

The Anthony Connection

Daniel and Susan B. Anthony lived in Rochester, about 60 miles from the famous falls at Niagara. Each of them, but especially Daniel, lent a hand to escaping fugitives. It would not have been unusual for either of them to visit Niagara Falls, since it was already a well-known tourist attraction during their time. Already my mind is conjuring up images of them speaking to a waiter and setting foot on one of the paths that led to river crossings.

Historic Rochesterian Burns Up the West

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Historic Rochesterian Daniel Read Anthony, brother of Susan B., wielded both fire and bullets to bring about the end of slavery in the Wild West. Pictured behind me is the city of Leavenworth, Kansas around 1860, where Daniel emigrated after selling insurance in Rochester, New York for several years.

Throughout his life, Daniel also supported his sister’s more peaceful but equally radical attempts to bring about equal rights for women.

How did his convictions mesh with Susan’s? And what methods did he use? Learn all about it at this upcoming talk:

Powerpoint presentation by Jeanne Gehret

The Truth About Daniel: Susan B. Anthony’s Forgotten Brother

Saturday, April 21, 1-2:30

Rochester Public Library, Central (Rundel) branch

South Avenue

Sponsored by Rochester’s Rich History Series

 

 

Susan B. Anthony’s Forgotten Brother

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The “The Truth About Daniel: Susan B. Anthony’s Forgotten Brother”

Powerpoint presentation by Jeanne Gehret

Saturday, April 21, 1-2:30

Rochester Public Library, Central (Rundel) branch

115 South Avenue

Sonsored by Rochester’s Rich History Series

Preparing this presentation has been fun, since it offers another opportunity for me to gather facts in one place on this many-faceted man. This blog has offered many sound bytes about him. However, the Powerpoint talk will present a concise overview of his long and controversial life.

It’s always a pleasure to talk about Rochester’s rich history. Hope to see you there!

P.S. The talk is based on my 2017 historical novel The Truth About Daniel.  You can get a signed copy at the presentation. Or order it on Amazon or Kindle.

 

 

Nov. 26, 1862 Death of Susan B. Anthony’s father

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One day in early November 1862, Susan B. Anthony and her father Daniel were reading and discussing antislavery newspapers when he suddenly began suffering acute pain in Continue reading →

Agitators Prevailed

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The story of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass packed a full house tonight, the opening of “The Agitators.” Rochester’s famous reformers really showed their mettle at this fine play at GEVA Theater. Actors Madeleine Lambert and Cedric Mays delivered the pair’s famous arguments with conviction and humor against a massive timeline that resembled the double arches of the Frederick Douglass-Susan B. Anthony Bridge in Rochester.

“Agitation is the spark of all change”

This is one of my favorite quotes from the play, and served as the theme to portray the lifelong friendship between these reformers. Especially moving were the scenes where the pair toured Frederick’s burned-out home; where they fought over the enfranchisement of black men before women; and where he begged Susan not to hold a women’s rights convention in a southern state where black women were not welcome.

Personally, I enjoyed the proslavery mob scene and the final vignette about Ida Wells, which both figured prominently in my book Susan B. Anthony And Justice For All.

Want to read more about these two revolutionaries? Get your own copy of this easy read that portrays Susan’s entire life. Great for students, too!

This week in History: John Brown at Harpers Ferry

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John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry shook the Anthony family’s roots when on this day in 1859 he broke into a federal arsenal in Virginia and was captured.

Lucy and Daniel Anthony had raised Continue reading →

Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass association recounted in new biography

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Susan B. Anthony And Justice For All is out in its new edition and explores her long-term association with Frederick Douglass. (Click here to order on Amazon.)This monument, titled “Let’s Have Tea,” depicts two of the main characters in the book.

A Multifaceted Friendship

Susan and Frederick were neighbors when both moved to Rochester in the 1840s; the Douglasses frequently dined at abolitionist gatherings at Susan’s farm home. The two worked tirelessly together for universal suffrage until a falling-out but were re-united in their old age. Read more about their friendship in my new easy-reading biography Susan B. Anthony And Justice For All: Suffrage Centennial Edition.

A Little Background on the Statues

When Susan’s brother Daniel died a rich man, he specifically left $1,000 for a memorial to Susan. Instead, however, she elected to spend the money on a woman suffrage campaign. (She outlived him by two years.) It wasn’t until 2002 that the Susan B. Anthony Neighborhood Association in Rochester, NY commissioned Laotian immigrant Pepsy M. Kettavong to create the larger-than-life statues near Susan’s Madison Street home.

America’s Iconic Suffragist

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Biography of Susan B. Anthony–New in September 2017!

Susan B. Anthony And Justice For All: Suffrage Centennial Edition–complete revision of 1994 edition. Order now on Amazon or Amazon Kindle.

Description:

Biography of Susan B. Anthony that carefully follows primary sources (Ida Harper, Alma Lutz, Ann Gordon), and is updated to include the ratification of the woman suffrage amendments in New York State (1917) and the U.S. (1920).

Celebrate the reformer whose drive and passion for equality made such a difference in the lives of women and African-Americans. From her early work against slavery in the 1860s through her fight for the nineteenth amendment granting woman suffrage, Anthony traveled the world, voted illegally, and changed history.

For grade levels 6-8: includes archival photos, illustrations, bibliography, index, and glossary. Selective adjustments of dialogue accommodate modern ears.

  • 128 pages
  • Archival images & illustrations
  • Grade level 6-8
  • ISBN 978-1-884281-00-6
  • Author: Jeanne Gehret
  • Publisher: Verbal Images Press
  • Order now on Amazon, paperback or Kindle

Praise for the first edition:

 “A readable, lively biography of the women’s suffrage advocate, abolitionist, and temperance crusader.”  School Library Journal

“In Susan B. Anthony And Justice For All, students have a chance to see what the world was like for both women and black people more than 100 years ago. . . . Anthony’s story is well told by Gehret.”  Beaumont Enterprise

“A strong and concise overview of Susan B.’s life and the issues she faced.” Rose O’Keefe, author of Frederick & Anna Douglass in Rochester, New York.

About the Author:

Jeanne Gehret has portrayed Susan B. in costume ever since the 1994 first edition of this book. She served as a docent at Miss Anthony’s home in Rochester, NY and has set her own feet on many of the places where the famous reformer lived, worked, and visited. She has also written The Truth About Daniel based on the true story of Susan’s brother.

Town Where Susan B. Anthony Was Convicted

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 Ontario County is celebrating woman suffrage  at a fine exhibit in Canandaigua, NY,  the town where Susan B. Anthony was convicted for voting. It runs until April 1, 2018. In addition to great details about the women who campaigned hard for New York State suffrage, it also contains several beautiful period gowns and a reproduction of a bloomer costume. (To my surprise, the bloomer outfit was calico!)

The exhibit shows how the various cities and towns in New York State voted on its own woman suffrage amendment in 1917, three years before the federal amendment passed. I’m sorry to say that Rochester, the city where Susan lived her last 40 years, voted no. Thank goodness that neither she nor Mary Anthony were living in that year. Fortunately, the majority of the state endorsed the amendment, and it passed.

Susan’s Trial in Ontario County

Susan B. Anthony’s 1873 trial for “voting illegally as a woman” occurred in Ontario County. The museum that houses this exhibit sits just a few blocks away from the courthouse where the judge denied her a trial by jury and found her guilty.

Starting at the museum, I walked downhill past the courthouse toward the shopping district. Browsing the stores, I wondered whether these same buildings lined Canandaigua’s main street when Susan attended her trial. Since it’s about 30 miles away from her Rochester home, she probably stayed overnight . That evening, did she lodge with a friend or keep her nerves to herself in a hotel? Where did she take her meals during the days when her trial was in session?

The courthouse (pictured above during the 19th century) was considerably smaller in 1873 than it is now. I can imagine the number of carriages parked around it as people jammed the courtroom to hear Susan’s lawyer* and the district attorney square off. Even former president Millard Fillmore attended.

After receiving the guilty verdict, Susan stayed in town for a couple more days to witness the trial of the voting inspectors who allowed her to register and cast her ballot. I hope she got at least a glimpse of the beautiful lake at the bottom of the hill. When the inspectors were found guilty and jailed for a week, she made sure they had plenty of visitors and good food to pass the time.

*Henry Selden defended Susan. Interestingly, when Frederick Douglass had to flee Rochester because he was suspected of supporting John Brown at Harper’s Ferry, he borrowed Selden’s horse. Shows just what a good guy Selden was.