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events
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THOMAS GARRETT LECTURE AT WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, JULY 16, 2005
James McGowan, author of Station Master on the Underground Railroad, will speak on Thomas Garrett at the Wilmington, Delaware, Friends Meetinghouse on Saturday, July 16, 2005, at 10 AM.
[Thanks to Robert Seeley for forwarding this information.]
STEAL AWAY TO FREEDOM CONFERENCE, GREENWICH, NEW YORK, JULY 29-31, 2005
Steal Away to Freedom IV conference, scheduled for July 29-31, 2005, is presented by The North Star Historical Project in cooperation with The Greenwich Historical Association and The Greenwich Free Library. This annual summertime conference in Washington County provides the opportunity to learn about the involvement of New York State's abolitionists and freedom seekers through lecture and re-enactments, as well as through the artistic expressions of Magpie and a guided bus tour.
Details are available at www.stealawaytofreedom.com, or by calling (518) 692-9740.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD CONFERENCE AT NORTHERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY, OCTOBER 14-15, 2005. CALL FOR PAPERS.
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and the Institute for Freedom Studies at Northern Kentucky University invite interested presenters to submit a proposal for Borderlands IV, an Underground Railroad annual research collaboration conference and historic site tour event. The purpose of this conference is to further collaboration among the academic and lay communities in researching, sharing, and bringing to public attention knowledge and accurate information about the Underground Railroad (UGRR). It seeks to uncover and document the involvement of neglected individual contributors, identifying and authenticating places where significant events occurred, while publicizing and documenting the trails and stations used by runaways and their supporters. The systematic collection and documentation of local stories will help to enhance understanding of the Underground Railroad while clarifying its impact on and significance in American history and culture. Interested presenters are invited to submit a seventy-word abstract in related areas, as well as those listed, by August 31, 2005. Presenters interested in having their papers considered for publication should prepare them in Chicago Manual of Style format. Proposals may be submitted online at:
[email protected]
For more information about the conference and tours go to
www.nku.edu/~freedom/
RESEARCH QUERY: WILLIAM CALVIN SWEET IN LUZERNE COUNTY,
PENNSYLVANIA
I am seeking information about an ancestor of mine who was said to have been involved in the Underground Railroad in Luzerne Co., PA. I am hoping that you will know which direction to point me to obtain information to that effect. While my mission is fairly mercenary, as I am trying to fill a hole in my family history, I hope to be able to share the name of a previously unidentified advocate on the Underground Railroad.
It had long been a family story that my GGG Grandfather, Reverend William Calvin Sweet, a pastor with the Free-Baptist Church, was a "Conductor" on the Underground Railroad. While I understand the problems inherent with oral family histories, I have found a copy of his daughter's (my GG Grandmother, Nettie Marie Sweet-Caton) obituary that attests to his having been involved in this capacity. I am hoping to locate resources that may have been developed to verify his involvement, or at very least, his presence in Luzerne County, PA during the appropriate period.
The obituary reads:
Nettie Marie Sweet was born in Broome County, NY (1850) the daughter of Rev. Wm. C. Sweet, a prominent pastor in the Free-Baptist Church. Her childhood was spent in Luzerne Co., Penn., where her father held a charge, and where he acted in the capacity of superintendent of a division of the underground railway, as it was called, an organization involved in the smuggling of slaves from the south, across the border into free Canada.
After the Emancipation Proclamation, she returned with her people to the neighborhood of her birth (Broome Co, NY) where she lived until December 1872, when she removed to Mercer, Penn., with her husband, Hugh J.
Caton, to whom she was married in Whitney Point NY, Jan 25, 1871.
The obituary goes on to detail many more moves west etc, until her death here in Western South Dakota in 1910, at which time the obituary was written. I am interested to find out if any of the facts stated might be verifiable. If so, we might be able to identify a cog in the machine of the Underground Railroad! To go further, we might be able to identify a stop on the railroad through either his residence or church!
If you have any thoughts on the best way for me to proceed in locating any type of supportive information, please let me know. The Reverend William Calvin Sweet was born in Butternuts, Otsego Co. NY, on 28 Sep 1814 and died in Forestville, Fillmore Co. MN on 24 Nov. 1904. In the 1880 federal census of Minnesota he is listed under the name of "WC Sweet."
Any ideas you might have toward my search would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you in advance for your kind assistance!
Sincerely,
Mark A. Rambow, 8412 Winchester Ct., Piedmont, SD 57769
(605) 787-9851 or (605) 381-5395
[email protected]
Christopher Densmore
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
July 5, 2005
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