DeKalb historian explores legacy of "African Americans of St. Lawrence County"

Feb. 10—DEKALB — It was at a parent-teacher conference that Bryan S. Thompson realized something was amiss when it came to recording and documenting Black history in St. Lawrence County: there wasn't much resource material out there. So, he dove into the abyss.

The result is his "African Americans of St. Lawrence County: North Country Pioneers," published by The History Press. In it, Thompson records the heritage of Black people in the county dating back to French colonial rule. He then tracks that history, with stories of individual people linked to abolition, emancipation and growing industrialization. He also highlights how the structures of Jim Crow appeared in the north country after the Civil War and the "racial cleansing" methods found in St. Lawrence County in the 1920s.

Thompson has an adopted son who is Black. The notable parent-teacher conference occurred when the son, now grown, was in fourth grade. Thompson asked the teacher what Black history had been learned during the year. He said his teacher responded that his son was absent on that one day the topic was covered.

"I knew that because of my background teaching elementary social studies' methods at SUNY Potsdam and as an elementary teacher, what was supposed to be taught that year," he said.

But Thompson didn't blame the school teacher.

"I realized that teachers just didn't have the resources available to know about local Black history," he said. "That's what inspired me to write the book, although it's for everybody."

Thompson, the town of DeKalb historian, is a life-long resident of St. Lawrence County, where he grew up on a dairy farm. He received a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and a master's degree from SUNY Geneseo. He has published more than 50 articles on local history in local, regional and state publications and is a well-known local lecturer. In 2009, he won a prestigious state award for excellence in educational use of historical records.

A raft of revelations

Thompson said that at the time of the American Revolution, there were more slaves in New York state than any other state north of the Mason Dixie line. New York passed a Gradual Emancipation act in 1799 that freed slave children born after July 4, 1799, but indentured them until they were young adults. In 1817 a new law passed that would free slaves born before 1799 but not until 1827.

While researching "African Americans of St. Lawrence County," Thompson was awarded with revelations.

"There are so many more stories that could be told than the ones I did," he said. "My biggest hope is that the book will inspire local historians in Jefferson County and Lewis County and around the area to research their black history."

Thompson uncovered the Black history of St. Lawrence County through legwork that often took him out of state.

"I've been to so many libraries," he said. Cities visited for his research included Montreal, Ottawa, Ann Arbor, Michigan and Ithaca, where he visited Cornell University archives. He also visited the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Thompson explained why a place like the Ann Arbor District Library would have information on Black Americans in St. Lawrence County and how he discovered that fact.

He did a presentation at a National Parks Service underground railroad conference in Niagara Falls. At a banquet, he sat near a librarian from the city of Buffalo library system. Thompson brought up the Ogden family. David A. Ogden (1770-1829) along with his brothers Thomas Ludlow Ogden and Gouverneur Ogden, developed through the Ogden Land Company, huge tracts of northern New York state. The librarian told Thompson that the Ogdens also owned land in the Buffalo area and that Ann Arbor was the place to see more Ogden papers.

"Ann Arbor has these incredible archives," Thompson said. "They have something called the Pioneer Collection. They can buy anything that comes up for sale that equates with the pioneer period for every state in the U.S. In a place like Oklahoma, that would be from 1900. But they have an incredible amount of stuff from Northern New York. They have a huge volume on the Ogden family papers. Not only did they have Ogden papers, but Hasbrouck family papers and a whole series of letters from my town of DeKalb written by two sisters back to Rhode Island between 1809 and 1826."

In his book, Thompson tells of Louis Hasbrouck, who moved to Ogdensburg(h) from Ulster County in June of 1802 to serve as the first St. Lawrence County clerk. Six months earlier, Hasbrouck married Catherine Banks, who brought an enslaved woman, Nanny to the marriage. Thompson recounts the tribulations faced by Nanny, which included giving birth and being sold.

"What is amazing is that the Ogdensburg Public Library has Hasbrouck family papers," Thompson said. "But half of the Hasbrouck papers, not in that library, ended up in somebody's private collection. I would find a letter, say from the tenth of October in 1812 in Michigan, and the next letter that was written by the Hasbroucks, say from the thirty-first of October, was in the Ogdensburg Public Library. They got split up at some point in time."

Why, Flora Fry?

Among topics covered by Thompson in his book is when New York state removed the property ownership requirement of $50 for all white male voters in 1822, while increasing the property ownership requirement for Black male voters to $250. That inspired abolitionist and wealthy white land baron Gerrit Smith in the 1840s to give away in 40-acre chunks in the Adirondacks to 3,000 African Americans from all around the state. The story of Smith and those who took him up on his offer is documented in Amy Godine's book, "The Black Woods: Pursuing Racial Justice on the Adirondack Frontier." (See feature, beginning on Page A1.)

Thompson said that Godine informed him about one of those land grantees, Flora (Buck) Fry of Gouverneur and who was likely born in Champion. She piqued Thompson's curiosity because Smith's program was designed for Black men so they could vote. Thompson explained that Fry, like many land grantees, signed over her title claims in lieu of getting a deed. That sale allowed Fry to become a homeowner in Gouverneur. Thompson traces her descendants — from foreign wars to racial attitudes at home.

'The decline'

Thompson concludes his five-chapter book with, "The Industrial Era and the Decline of the Black Community (1900-1930.)" In the chapter, he focuses on the Alcoa Inc. plant in Massena, which began operations in 1903. It's the longest continuously operating aluminum smelter in the world. "Demand for aluminum soared as World War I raged in Europe," Thompson wrote. "The Massena workforce would eventually balloon to 3,000 workers in 1919."

Four "residential hotels" were built to house those workers, he wrote, including the Lincoln Hotel, exclusively for Black workers. Thompson included a photo of Curtis Sneed in his book, who he said was drafted into the war. "He was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French government," Thompson wrote. "He returned to his job on the potline in Massena following the cessation of hostilities."

Thompson found several photos from Alcoa's Aluminum Bulletin, published between 1918-1920, that were used in his book. The publication often highlighted the Black community in the Massena area. Thompson wrote that around 1916, Alcoa was recruiting Black workers at rates "as high as 200 per week."

Thompson highlighted a 1918 Aluminum Bulletin item that stated that Mrs. L.E. Hopson of Chase Street was seeking subscribers to the Chicago Defender, a Chicago-based (now) online African-American newspaper founded in 1905. Hopson was also the local correspondent for the paper.

Thompson noted the first Massena news item appeared in the Defender on Aug. 9, 1918, titled, "Southern Tactics in Massena."

"The article tells a chilling tale of how Judge Giles A. Chase ran his local court," Thompson wrote and that a complaint of misconduct was filed with New York state governor Charles S. Whitman. "There is no record of any action taken against Judge Chase, who would remain in office in Massena until 1927, sentencing multiple Black people to banishment," Thompson wrote.

Thompson also explores the activities of the Ku Klux Klan and its detractors and how its "activities in the county led to much dissension in local churches and fraternal organizations." His book includes a chart that lists, from 1926-1929, dates and places of known KKK rallies in St. Lawrence County. There's more than 40 of them, with the earliest in November of 1923 in Benson Mines, and the latest on July 11, 1929 in Potsdam.

Thompson wrote that at the beginning of 1920, about 150 Black people lived in the county. "By 1930, the population had dropped by two-thirds to fewer than 50 ... The disappearance of the Black community from St. Lawrence County at the same time the KKK was attracting thousands of new members in the area is not a coincidence."

The situation, he wrote, was "no less a racial cleansing than others that were occurring throughout the United States in this same period."

Thompson concludes his final chapter: "Without knowledge of Black contributions paired with the intolerance, injustice and violence that undergirded that silence, we are denied a true understanding of the costs of racism in our county.

Because of his other duties, it took Thompson 20 years to put together the book. "I dedicated one week a year to serious writing and research. The whole story got much richer and different that I thought. You never know as you do research. You only have part of the picture and you have to keep digging to get the whole picture."

"African Americans of St. Lawrence County" was inspired in the classroom, and the author's Black adopted son who was at that parent-teacher conference with him is now 31 and lives in Los Angeles. The conference was an eye-opener for the historian, but now, he believes the book that resulted from it would be especially eye-opening for teachers.

"I hope teachers will read it. I don't expect them to use it verbatim in the classroom, but teachers lecture a lot and they can include some information from the book in their lectures. It's there now, in one place. It's not like they have to dig all over the place to find the information."