This burial spot has long been known in local lore as the site of
the grave of an escaped or runaway slave. It is even noted as a "Slave
Cemetery" on the tax record card for the parcel on file at the County Taxation
Office in Wampsville (Footnote
#1). How and why it came to be known as a Slave Cemetery
is presently shrouded in mystery as property records (from which the tax
reference is taken) as well as many details found in the rare Memoir
of Rev. Edward Mott Woolley by Fidelia Woolley Gillett (1855,
Abel Tompkins, Boston, MA) show beyond all doubt that the people
who were once buried here were Edward Woolley (died December 28, 1834,
age 75 years 3 months 6 days) and Elizabeth Woolley ("relict of Edward
Woolley", died March 21, 1840, age 78 years 3 months 25 days). From
the ample evidence it is very clear that they were definitely not black
and were elderly Quakers who definitely never owned slaves. Even
the bodies of Edward and Elizabeth may no longer lie here for it appears
that they were moved in the mid-19th century to the Beach
Cemetery in nearby Fabius, Onondaga Co., NY, where they (or at least
their tombstones) now lie beside later generations of the Woolley family.
How this burial place has
become known as a "Slave Cemetery" is not known, and in my research
on the African Americans of the area I have not found any indication
that anyone but Edward and Elizabeth Woolley had been buried here.
The question still remains that if this is not the Slave Cemetery, then
where might it have been if it did exist?
There were few early Cazenovia
residents of African ancestry. Their presence is noted in very few
records and, like other lower class residents, black or white, rarely made
it into the usual documentary sources such as property and church records.
I have collected many references
to African-American residents of Cazenovia and have found that several
did live not far from the location of this cemetery. About a mile
and a half to the east, on No. Nine Road, lived James Peters and Nathan
Gilbert, who are noted in several records as being Black, but they also
appear in other records (with no notation of their skin color) showing
that they were not typical of the blacks who lived in Cazenovia in the
first half of the 19th century.
Peters and Gilbert, listed
as "other" in the 1800
census, lived together, with their wives and several children, on what
is now No. Nine Road south of Cazenovia Village. Holland
Land Company records show that they purchased Lot
57 of the Road Township Reservation in February 1800 and they also
appear in the annual Holland Land Company Census and Inventories.
That they were landowners, and had a good inventory of livestock and crops,
indicates they were essentially no different than their neighbors.
A chair maker's shop was located very near their house before 1814 and
a blacksmith shop that stood on their property in later years indicates
that they might have been active in those trades (Footnote
#2).
These two men are also among
the few Blacks mentioned in any of our histories. In 1883 Henry Severance
wrote in his unpublished "History of School District No. Nine" that two
colored men, named only "Jim and Nathan," lived along No. Nine Road, which
was at one time called "nigger street." Severance also says that
Peters and Gilbert went to the "Genesee Country" which makes me think that
they were associates of Elias Skinner, who had the nearby chair maker's
shop and who also moved to Chautauqua Co. in 1814 or 1815.
That Peters and Gilbert
moved west indicates that they are not buried in Cazenovia, but it is possible
that members of their family are. But, it is unlikely that they would
have been buried near the Woolley Cemetery. An examination of State
and Federal Census records for the remainder of the 19th century did not
find any black or mulatto families living in the vicinity of the Woolley
Cemetery or School District No. Nine. Several families noted in the
black or mulatto category were found in the vicinity of New Woodstock,
Cobb Hill, Cazenovia Village, and Chittenango Falls.
From the rare and remarkable
Memoir of Rev. Edward Mott Woolley by Fidelia Woolley Gillett (1855,
Abel Tompkins, Boston, MA) we have many unique details of the family,
life, death and even burial of Edward and Elizabeth Woolley.
Edward ("Uncle Edward")
and Elizabeth ("Lizzie") Woolley were Quakers whose family had lived on
lease farms in Dover, Dutchess Co., NY for several generations. They
had seven children, of whom James T., Edward M., and Eunice Woolley had
moved to Central New York and settled at Nelson Flats. Other known
children included Gideon, who remained back in Dutchess Co. and Alfred.
Eunice was the oldest child and Edward M. was the youngest. Despite
the fact that their parents were Quakers, both James T. and Edward M. Woolley
became Protestant Ministers, James being the minister of the new Presbyterian
Church in Nelson and Edward M. being a Universalist Minister who preached
and taught throughout the region.
As the parents aged the
family felt it necessary to have them leave their lease farm and come to
live near them in Central New York. Thus, on July 29, 1826, Edward
M. Woolley purchased the 31 acre lot on Ballina Road (Deed
AK:401) where the parents lived out their last days.
Fidelia Mott Woolley recalled
living at the farm with her father, Edward M., after her Grandfather had
died but while her Grandmother was still living (between 1834 and 1840):
- [The] home was situated about two miles south of the beautiful village
of Cazenovia, and like many farm residences in inland towns, was as secluded
as a monastery. The road from the south, leading to the village,
bounded the farm upon the west, and the carriage-road turned away from
it and swept around the hill, and led down through a green yard in front
of the house. The dwelling was a large old-fashioned, two-story house,
with a basement under the front part. The front chamber windows overlooked
the broad yard, the green meadow and the hill with the white stone at the
head of my grandfather's grave; the green pastures, skirted by light woodland,
and the white or brown dwellings of the neighbors. In the rear of
the house were fields of maize or wheat in summer time; and on the outer
edge of these fields was a small cluster of elms and maples; while
down at the grassy base of the little hill warbled a clear, silver-lipped
stream. [Memoir of Rev. Edward Mott Woolley, pages
162-163]
Edward Woolley died December 28, 1834, age 75 years 3 months 6 days, and was buried on the farm that his son had purchased for him. Fidelia Mott Woolley recalls the day that her grandfather died and his burial:
- [Edward Mott Woolley's] aged, feeble mother met him at the door, and,
as she gave him her wasted hand, the tears rolled thick and fast over her
wrinkled cheeks, and she asked, "Did thee know thy father was dead, Edward?"
He put his strong arm around her tottering form, and led her back to a
seat, and his voice was steady as he said, "No, mother, ‘he is not dead,
but sleepeth.'" She looked up into his face, and a smile broke over her
before saddened countenance, and she exclaimed, "God bless thee, Edward!"
After he had become warm, his mother opened the door of a little back parlor,
and called, "Edward, will thee come here?" He took his little daughter
[the author, Fidelia] by the hand and entered the room; and there, in the
same place in the room, and arrayed in the same manner as his own children
afterwards saw him, lay his sleeping father. He was dressed in a
brown vest, dark pants, and soft knit stockings, and the points of the
brown silk neck-cloth lay smoothly upon the white liner that glistened
over his silent breast. The silver hair hung thinly about his hollow
temples, and the placid, happy expression of his face was like that of
a patriarch gone to his pleasant slumber. My father cut a lock of
white hair, put it in his pocket-book ...
The next day was the burial. A path was shovelled from the door-yard, across the meadow, up the low hill-side; and while a few snow-flakes fell around their passing feet, the bereaved ones followed their father and friend to the resting-place he had chosen. It was on the home farm, but a few rods [rod = 16.5 feet] from the house; and the aged mother and widow stood by the window in her home, and saw the husband of her youth lowered to his silent chamber. A few years later [1840], and another grassy door was opened, when her form went down to slumber sweetly by his side. [Memoir of Rev. Edward Mott Woolley, pages 128-129]
- This summer [1840] his [Edward M. Woolley's] mother died. She
went to her rest as quietly as an infant sinks to repose in its mother's
arms; and her last earthly request was heeded, for she was buried by the
side of her husband, on the old home farm. When he sold this place
my father [Edward M.] recorded a deed of this burial-place of his father,
which gave the little hill to him and his heirs forever. And nearly
his last care, before he left his native state, was the building of a new,
strong fence around these cherished graves; and he left them, as a sacred
charge, to his children and his children's children. [Memoir
of Rev. Edward Mott Woolley, page 218]
Henry Severance states that Edward Woolley died on Lot
14 (Road Township) in 1836 (Footnote
#3). Later deeds, up to that which records when the Ledermann's
bought the property in 1960 (see below) continued to have the exception
of the cemetery, but it is not noted in the Ledermann to Clark deed of
1979. Bea Ledermann informed me that they knew of the burials but
did not know where they were, and that she had signed an affidavit to that
effect which is on record in the County Clerk's Office (Footnote
#4). I also talked with Russ Curtis, who lives across
the road and farms the land, about the grave but he only had heard of a
"slave" burial and was not sure of where it was located. The tax
maps still show the majority of the 31 acre property to be presently (1994)
owned by Stephen J. Clark who resides in the former Ledermann home at #1984
Ballina Road (being the Woolley house or a newer house upon the same site)
. The tax maps also show the seven foot square plot at the northeast
corner the Duerr property (the new house), and along the south edge of
Ballina Road. The location of the burial spot shown on the tax maps
is quite unlikely and it is clearly a contrivance of the cartographer because
the actual burial spot is not known. It also does not fit what has
been described in Fidelia Woolley Gillett's writings:
"across the meadow, up the low hill-side" [page 129]
"green meadow and the hill" [page 162]
"the little hill" [page 218]
There are at least two prominent
places where this situation, a low hill near the Woolley House, are found
on the property (marked "X" on the accompanying
map). One is the low knoll to the southwest of the house
on the western boundary of the 31 acre property, and the other is a small
rise in the middle of the small field to the east of the house and visible
from the road. At the time of my field check in 1994 I made note
of the knoll to the east of the house, but did not investigate the rise
to the southwest. The small rise to the east is entirely within the
property while the rise to the southwest is bisected by the property line
and it is just as likely that the Woolleys were buried at either spot (I
say this with no first- hand observation of the knoll to the southwest).
Since the burials have long been removed and since this field has been
under cultivation for many years all surface evidence of the burial would
have been obliterated, but the subsoil would still contain evidence of
the original grave shafts as dark stains of disturbed and mixed soil.
I have found no documentary
record that the bodies of Edward and Elizabeth Woolley have been removed
from this property, but physical evidence found in the Beach
Cemetery, in nearby Fabius, Onondaga Co., indicates that they, or at
least their tombstones were relocated from their lonely Cazenovia hill
to be with later generations of the family.
While making the field check
of the Beach
Cemetery in Fabius, I found several stones of the Woolley family, including
the stones of Edward and Elizabeth Woolley. From the placement of
the stones in the Beach
Cemetery, it is clear that Edward and Elizabeth Woolley had not originally
been interred here and (their stones at least) were relocated to this cemetery
at some unknown time (after 1854).
The stones of Edward Wooley
and Elizabeth Wooley "relict of Edward Wooley" are stuck between the grave
of Alfred Wooley (died 1854) and the outside fence of the Beach
Cemetery. The space into which they are literally jammed is not
more than a few feet and the three stones and the fence are almost touching.
Since the three stones are so close together it would seem that the stones
of Edward and Elizabeth had been placed there after the stone of Alfred.
If Edward Wooley died in 1834 and Elizabeth Wooley died in 1840 why would
they be given such cramped quarters (not really even room for one body)
unless they were interred there after Alfred Wooley
who died in 1854?
It was common, as it sometimes
happens today, that bodies are moved to a new location to be nearer to
other family members or to take them from secluded or no longer family
owned properties. If the bodies had been reduced to bone (or nearly
so) by the time they were moved it would be understandable that the bones
of even two bodies could be placed in a smaller container that would have
fitted well into the cramped space given them in the Beach
Cemetery.
I have conducted only minimal
research on the 31 acre property where the Woolleys were originally buried,
and thus the succession of ownership is not yet complete.
The Woolley property consists
of a 31 acre parcel which was located in the northwest corner of Lot
14 of the Road Township in the Town of Cazenovia. This 31 acre
property appears to have been created in 1826.
The earliest owner of the
property was Lieut. Joseph Williams who purchased all of Lot
14 of the Road Township from the Holland
Land Co. on the first day of land sales, June 1, 1793. The Town
Road Book shows that Williams lived at #2016 Ballina Road and the Holland
Land Co. Census and Inventories show that he had built himself a frame
house some time between 1803 and 1806. Williams, a veteran of the
American Revolution, died November 11, 1837 at the age of 93 and was buried
in South
Cemetery. The 1830 census lists Joseph Williams as the immediate
neighbor of Edward Woolley.
The next known owner of
the property on which the cemetery was located was James Benedict, who
had married Eunice Woolley, daughter of Edward and Elizabeth Woolley.
The 1820 census shows that James Benedict was a near neighbor of Joseph
Williams and that he may have lived on the property (he is listed next
to Elihu Williams who owned the land to the immediate west). How
and when Benedict came into possession of the property is not known, but
it is clear that he did not purchase all of Lot 14, only the western portion
of it, for Joseph Williams was still living on the eastern part.
It was James and Eunice
Benedict who sold created the 31 acre property in the sale to Edward M.
and Laura Woolley, then of Nelson, on July 29, 1826 (Deed
AK:401, Footnote #5). The Benedicts
continued to live nearby, for the 1830 Census shows that they lived next
door to Edward Wooley on the other side from Joseph Williams. Since
the Woolleys are "injected" between Benedict and Williams, this indicates
that there probably was no house on the 31 acre property (i.e. between
Williams and Benedict) until the Woolleys bought the place in 1826, and
indeed, the Memoirs of Rev. Edward Mott Woolley (page 86) mentions
that "After the farm was paid for, and a good dwelling-house and barn built,
the father and mother were removed (from Dutchess Co.)."
We know from the Memoir
that Edward M. Woolley was living in the hosuehold of his parents at the
time of his father's death in 1834. Apparently Edward M. and his
wife Laura continued to live in Nelson as they were still residents there
in 1828, 1830, and 1832, (Deeds Z:44, AE:239, AK:459).
In 1833 they were residents of Smithfield but owned land in Nelson (Deed
AH:281). The several properties they owned in Nelson were
located on the north side of the turnpike not far east of the intersection
of the Fenner Road.
Only one deed has been found
for the elder Edward Woolley (then of Cazenovia), that being for an undivided
1/2 of part of Lot 23 Road Township. This lot lies immediately south
of Lot 14 and was purchased from his son James T. Woolley, of Nelson, on
May 23, 1832 (Deed AM:257).
On October 8, 1838, several
years after Edward Woolley died, but still a few years before Elizabeth
Woolley met her maker, the 31 acre property was sold by Edward M. Woolley
to Joel Bartholomew, of Pompey, Onondaga Co. Because Edward Woolley
had been buried on that property the deed included an exception for a plot
"Seven feet square where Edward Woolley the Father of said Edward M. Woolley
is buried" (Deed AS:133). It is clear that the
family did not vacate the premises and it is likely that the widowed Mrs.
Woolley had life use of the house and property. We also know, from
the Memoir, that she remained on the property until her death in 1840 and
that she was buried beside her husband. Later deeds did not expand
the cemetery exception to include Mrs. Woolley's grave.
I found no other deeds for
Edward Woolley or his son Edward M. Woolley. There were several deeds
for James T. Woolley and other Woolley family members but I was unable
to check them in the time that I had to do this research.
I also found no record of
whom Joel Bartholomew had sold the property that showed how the next known
owners, named Thompson, acquired the property.
According to Evans' 1854
Map of Madison County someone named "Thompson" was on the property, and
this was probably the same "R. Thompson" who is shown there on Gillette's
1859 Map of Madison County. In 1875,
according to Beers' Madison County Atlas, a "Mrs. Thompson" was on
the property (Footnote #6).
There is no telling at this point who this "Mrs. Thompson" was as Jarvis
and Jane Thompson had sold the property to Ann and Jane E. Thompson on
March 25, 1873 (Deed 131:289) - there were plenty
of Thompson's in the area too, with the nearby Thompson Road being named
after the family. Although the deeds still carried the exception
for the burial plot it is likely that the bodies had been moved some time
during the Thompson's ownership.
When Jane Thompson died
on or about June 28, 1922 her property was inherited by William H. Butts,
her only heir (Deed 267:302). He sold the property
to Harold F. Butts on July 1, 1936 (Deed 316:321)
who in turn sold it on June 20, 1947 to Ashley F. Pratt (Deed
391:345). Pratt died soon afterward and the heirs of his estate
sold the property to Garrett V.H. and Catherine C. Orth on September 11,
1947 (Deed 391:345). On May 16, 1960 the Orths
sold the 31 acre parcel on Ballina Road to A. Henry and Beatrice Ledermann,
with the exception of the burial place, which was described as in the 1838
deed (Deed 581:541). On November 28, 1979 the
Ledermann's sold the parcel surrounding the house lots to Stephen J. Clark,
but the deed does not have the exception of the burial place that was first
entered in 1838 (Deed 718:405, Footnote
#7).
I have been unable to find
a compiled genealogy of the Woolley (Footnote
#8) family that would be helpful in further identifying the
players in this saga.
Local records of the family
were sparse (Footnote #9)
and some scattered information is found in the wonderful Memoirs of Rev.
Edward Mott Woolley, published by his daughter, Fidelia Woolley Gillett.
It is clear that the Woolleys were an established family from the Hudson
Valley, having lived for several generations on lease farms in the Dutchess
Co. community of Dover. It is not clear if they were well to do,
but they had a deep desire to leave their downstate home behind and head
to the rural reaches of Madison County.
The Patriarch and Matriarch
of the family, Edward and Elizabeth Woolley were devout Quakers who had
been married for some 50 years. They had seven children: Eunice,
Gideon, Alfred, James Titus, and Edward Mott being those that I was able
to identify by name. Robert Woolley is also found locally and is
of the right age to be a child of edward and Elisabeth, but I hev no prof
of this.
Eunice Woolley, the eldest
child, moved to Cazenovia in the 1820 and married James Benedict.
They lived on Lot 14 of the Road Township, Cazenovia, a portion of which
they sold to brother Edward M. for the sue of their parents..
Alfred Woolley was born
in 1785 and is buried in the Beach
Cemetery in Fabius, died 1854 age 69 years. His wife Polly Woolley,
who died 1863 age 79 years, is buried there also. It is beside Alfred
that Edward and Elizabeth were reburied after being removed from their
home farm.
James Titus Woolley become
a Presbyterian Minister and moved to Nelson as early as 1820. He
married into a prominent Cazenovia family, taking Lydia Dow Whipple, the
daughter of Jeremiah Whipple, as his bride (Footnote
#10). James T. was also a trustee of the Nelson Congregationalist
Church and is found in their books for various activities from the founding
of the church on February 15, 1825 to February 4, 1833 (Footnote
#11). I have not searched property records for James T.
Woolley so I am not sure of his residences throughout his life, but when
he sold an undivided 1/2 share of a part of Lot 23 Road Township to his
father Edward Woolley (just south of the 31 acre parcel on Ballina Road)
he was listed as a resident of Nelson. James T. and Lydia moved to
Homer, Calhoun Co. Michigan in 1844 and there he died in 1851 and she in
1878. A James T. Woolley, of DeRuyter, who appears to be the grandson
of our Edward Woolley (son of James T.?), was a soldier with Company H
of the 114th New York Volunteer Infantry, and died from chronic diarrhea
at Brashear City, LA, on April 18, 1863, his mother being one Angeline
Page, wife of John Page (Footnote
#12).
Edward Mott Woolley tried
his hand at shoe making for a while, and then became and Universalist Minister
and moved to Nelson in 1823. He married Laura Smith (the daughter
of Nathan Smith of Nelson) in Nelson, January 11, 1827 (Footnote
#13). On January 14, 1828, when he and Laura sold part
of Lot 26 Nelson, they were residents of Nelson (Deed Z:44).
He purchased part of Lot 5 of the Oneida Creek Tract in the town of Stockbridge
(formerly Smithfield) on October 22, 1830 (Deed AE:239)
(he was listed as resident of Nelson). He was still living in Nelson
on January 31, 1832, when he sold a small parcel on Lot 27 Nelson (Deed
AK:459), but by February 28, 1833, when he and Laura sold a small
lot in Nelson (Flatts), they were residents of Smithfield (Deed
AH:281). Some time around the time of his father's death in
1834 Edward M. Woolley and his wife Laura moved to Cazenovia to live with
his widowed mother. They were residents of Cazenovia when they sold
the 31 acre lot with his father's grave on October 8, 1838 (Deed
AS:133). Edward M. Woolley (place of residence unknown) was
still active in the area as late as 1846 for on May 27th "Rev. E.M. Wooley"
married a couple at Morrisville (Footnote
#14).
Gideon Woolley remained
in the Hudson Valley.
I found several other Woolleys
whom I could not identify:
Samuel Wooley has
a will on file at the Madison County Surrogates Office, but I did not investigate
this. File A:329, #1768.
Abigail Woolley who
was a member of the New Woodstock Baptist Church, having transferred there
from Norwich (NY?) in 1831 (Footnote
#15).
Laura A. Woolley
is listed on the 1860 Federal Census. She is age 25, living in the
town of Cazenovia, in the residence (or hotel) of Levi Jones at Union (Dwelling
#326).
Robert Woolley is
buried in the Delphi
Falls Baptist Church Cemetery. He was born May 31, 1789 and died
March 17, 1863 age 74 years. He is also of the right age to be a
son of Edward and Elizabeth Woolley).
I found no Woolley's in Madison
County Bench and Bar, Hammond's 1872 History of Madison County,
the 1875 Cazenovia Seminary history, my "Index of The Pilot," and
the records of the Cazenovia Presbyterian Church, Cazenovia Methodist Episcopal
Church, Fenner Baptist Church, or William Newton Clarke's Baptist Church
records (all at the Cazenovia Public Library).
FOOTNOTES
- Parcel 118.00.1.67, Town of Cazenovia.
- Henry Severance, "History of School District No. Nine," 1883, pages
9 and 94 of the Hendrix typescript at the Cazenovia Public Library.
- Severance, "History of School District No. Nine," 1883, page 97 of
the Hendrix typescript at the Cazenovia Public Library. Woolley's
stone, now in the Beach
Cemetery, Fabius, notes that he died in 1834.
- A. Henry and Beatrice C. Ledermann signed an affidavit regarding the
burial location on November 27, 1979. They "have been over the land
many times, and have never seen any physical evidence of any burial plot,
nor has anyone made any claim for said burial plot and (they) know of no
burial plot on (their) 30.559 acres" (Mad. Co. Clerk's Office,
Miscellaneous Records 15:947).
The abridged
description of the property (from Deed AK:401) is:
Beginning at
the center of (Ballina Road) at the northeast corner of Elihu S. Williams'
land, formerly owned by Anthony Houd (Howd)
-South 117 rods
(1930.5 feet)
-East 38 rods
15 links (636.9 feet)
-North 140 rods
(2310 feet) to the center of (Ballina Road)
-West 32 30'
South 46 rods (759 feet) to the beginning
Containing 31
acres and 8 perches of land.
NOTE: This description is not much changed from the latest deeds of
the property (Deed 718:405).
- The Beers maps are notorious for giving women's names on the maps even
if the husbands were still living. Apparently they went door-to-door
asking only "what is your name" and not "who is the proprietor of these
premises."
- See Footnote #4 above regarding the Ledermann's
1979 affidavit regarding the cemetery.
- The name is also spelled Wooley in some records. The family seems
to have spelled it Woolley.
- I have made only a cursory check of the records at Lorenzo. The
name Edward Woolley (or Wooley) is not found in the index. Several
other individuals named Woolley are, but the connection is not determined.
- The Pilot, October 12, 1820.
- Transcript of Nelson Congregationalist Church records at the Cazenovia
Public Library.
- Harris H. Beecher, 1866, Record of the 114th Regiment, NYSV,
J.F.Hubbard Jr., Norwich, NY, page 573; will of James T. Woolley on file
at Madison County Surrogates Office, file A:441, #2338. Company H.
was the "Second Oxford Company, better known as the Oxford, Bainbridge
and DeRuyter Company" (Beecher 1866:36). His will states that he
died on or about June 11, 1863. He does not appear in the Cazenovia
Census of Officers and Soldiers who died in the war.
- Republican Monitor, January 24, 1827.
- Madison County Whig, June 10, 1846.
- Transcript of the New Woodstock Baptist Church Records, at Cazenovia
Public Library.