The story of Schoharie County’s African Americans is out there.
Somewhere.
Likely in local attics, in family Bibles, or in stories handed down, generation-to-generation.
Now, Pat Hults, a retired librarian, and Catherine Adams, a longtime genealogist, are looking for help from the community—both Black and white—for an account—maybe even a book—they’re calling “To Be Remembered in Equal Measure.”
The title comes from a quote by Morgan Freeman in his 2023 documentary on the 761st Tank Battalion, the first all-Black tank unit to serve in combat during World War II.
The two women are expanding on the late Jack Daniels’ 1999 book “Discovering the Forgotten History of African Americans in Schoharie County” and a series of local lectures in 2021.
So far, they’ve compiled a database of nearly 3,000 entries that include church and census records, wills, bills of sale, newspaper articles, a manumission record, and more.
But there are significant gaps in what they’ve been able to find, largely because African American lives were never well-documented, Ms. Hults said.
“We want to paint a picture of what their lives were like,” she said.
“And we can’t do that with the dearth of information we have,” said Ms. Adams.
The two joined forces after those 2021 lectures, but Ms. Adams had begun collecting information as far back as 2015 when two Black men from Schenectady walked into the Old Stone Fort, looking for information on their Vedder and Vroman relatives—familiar families, she knew, but none of them were Black.
“It had never occurred to me before, that all of this information was missing,” she said.
For Ms. Hults, she’s been particularly intrigued by the story of Sarah Rogers, her husband, Thomas, and her daughter, Cinderella; Sarah and Cinderella are buried in the Cobleskill Rural Cemetery, but without stones, information detailed in cemetery records.
And while Ms. Hults and Ms. Adams have turned up a statement of manumission for Thomas, no one knows where he’s buried.
An article from the March 29, 1880 Gilboa Monitor remembers Sarah Rogers, “better known as ‘Old Sarah,’ as “the last freed woman in New York State, who died at the home of her daughter, Cinderella Thompson, 103 years old “according to the best evidence at hand. She was born a slave and was owned by William Snyder of Cobleskill and grandfather of William Snyder of Warnerville, NY. She was given to his daughter Maria as part of her marriage dower at the time of her marriage to Henry Mann.”
An October 2, 1952 article from the Cobleskill Times Index headlined “Death of Slave Recalls Practices,” also mention’s Sarah’s death at her daughter’s home—Cinderella also lived to be more than 100--in a reprint of an 1888 article by Peter Mann:
“Mrs. Rogers was born a slave to Johannes Lawyer of Schoharie, who was father of General Lawyer, a very prominent and useful citizen of Cobleskill. She later became the property of Peter W. Lawyer…”
Despite finds like this, “What we’re finding is that there is little primary material to use in our research,” Ms. Hults said.
“We’re looking for more to tell a more complete story and we’re looking to the community to help. Where people lived, where they were buried, what they did for a living,” information that may also be found in the records of local slave owners. And we’d love to see photos.”
Both women believe there’s considerable interest locally in exploring these connections.
“People are curious and they want to help,” Ms. Hults said.
Their focus is primarily on Black lives from the 1800s or earlier.
Anyone who can help can contact Ms. Hults, (518) 441-2717, hultsp@gmail.com, or Ms. Adams, (518) 231-5999, ccadams60@gmail.com.