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1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse | The 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse Museum preserves, maintains, and interprets the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse as a national site of conscience and a cornerstone of historic movements for equal rights, social justice, and peace, including rights for Native Americans, African Americans, and women, inviting visitors to explore issues of equality and justice in their own lives. |
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“I was the conductor on the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say—I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”
Harriet Tubman, probably spoken at 1896 New York State Woman Suffrage Association, Rochester. Democrat and Chronicle, November 19, 1896; Kate Clifford Larson, Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero (NY: Ballantine Books, 2003), 154.
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- Women's History Month: Harriet Tubman in Rochester
- Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway Across New York State
- Tony Cohen and Freedom Walkers, June 2026
- Sister Organizations: Women's Rights National Historical Park (WRNHP); Women's Rights Alliance of New York State (WRANYS); Gilder Lehrman Institute
- News about friends
- Special thanks to Kirstyn Cooley and Amelia Burm
- How you can help
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WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH: HARRIET TUBMAN IN ROCHESTER, NEW YORK
A History Spotlight article by Judith Wellman
1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse Museum
March 2026
| As we commemorate Women’s History Month each year, we view with admiration a large gallery of nationally important women with roots in upstate New York. | | | | |
Harriet Tubman
Earliest known photograph, c. 1868
National Portrait Galley
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HARRIET TUBMAN UNDERGROUND RAILROAD BYWAY ACROSS NEW YORK STATE
The New York State legislature is now considering Phase I of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway across New York State (https://tubmanbywayny.org/). Sponsored by the Underground Railroad Consortium of New York State (URCNYS, to which the 1816 Meetinghouse belongs), with support from the NYS Department of Transportation, tourism agencies, and many local and statewide organizations, this route will go 173 miles from Auburn to Niagara Falls through eight counties and 65 municipalities.
Ally Spongr DeGon, President of URCNYS, reports that bills in both the Assembly (A10194, https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/A10194)) and Senate (S9057, https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S9057) are now moving through committee, with no opposition.
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The 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse is listed as one of the major historic sites on this proposed Byway. In order to be ready for considerable new tourism traffic generated by the Harriet Tubman Byway, we are developing plans to move forward with Meetinghouse restoration and exhibits, opening the interior, although not yet fully finished, to the public in 2028.
Phase II of this Byway, to be sent to the legislature later this year, will include 376+ miles from New York City through Albany, Utica, and Syracuse to connect with Phase I in Auburn, for a total of 550 miles. All of this will eventually connect NYS with Tubman Byways in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
| | | TONY COHEN AND FREEDOM WALKERS, JUNE 2026 | | Freedom walker Tony Cohen will walk along this new Byway 750 miles from Maryland to Canada, following Underground Railroad routes and repeating a similar trek that he did in 1996. Wofford’s eight-foot statue of Tubman will travel with him. He will be stopping in various places along the route, including Poughkeepsie, Albany, Utica, Syracuse, Auburn, Farmington, Rochester and points west, as he travels to Niagara Falls and then to St. Catherines, Ontario. | | |
SISTER ORGANIZATIONS:
Women’s Rights National Historical Park sponsored Harriet Tubman Day on March 10, with the theme of “Towards a More Perfect Union.” Using words from the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, this commemoration connected Tubman to the nation’s 250th anniversary, as Tubman sought to expand the promise America to all people. “Tubman’s vision of creating a ‘more perfect union’ could not be achieved by words alone, but through her relentless fighting for freedom, rights, and human dignity,” said Superintendent Ahna Wilson. “The National Park Service is honored to bring the Auburn community back together in the church where Tubman worshipped for a shared day of learning and remembrance.” The 1816 Meetinghouse has programmatic agreement with Women’s Rights Park.
Women’s Rights Alliance of New York State (WRANYS) is co-sponsoring with New York State’s League of Women Voters and the NYS Archives Partnership Trust a program on March 26, 2026, on women legislators in New York State. Join Lauren Kozakiewiz, author of Ladies’ Day at the Capitol and Carol Faulkner, Dean and Professor of History at Syracuse University, for lively discussion about the impact of women elected to NYS’s Assembly and Senate, past and present. This program will be in-person only, but we expect that it will be videotaped and available on YouTube shortly after the presentation. The 1816 Meetinghouse is a member of WRANYS.
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Gilder Lehrman Institute. Our volunteer Executive Director Judith Wellman recently presented a webinar to several hundred teachers and students associated with the Gilder Lehrman Institute, discussing the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments, its relationship to the Declaration of Independence, and its influence on the suffrage movement in the early 20th century. To listen to this webinar, see https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/videos/inside-vault-another-declaration-independence-1848-seneca-falls-convention.
Underground Railroad Free Press. For a good source of current information on the Underground Railroad, subscribe to the free Underground Railroad Free Press: https://urrfreepress.com/. Its March edition includes a fine article about the discovery of a secret hiding place in the Merchant’s House in New York City.
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NEWS ABOUT FRIENDS
Our friend David Anderson recently suffered a minor stroke. He is recuperating well and would welcome cards sent to his home at 181 Royleston Road, Rochester, New York, 14609.
Demian Spindler, our long-time videographer, will be giving a solo trumpet recital this Thursday March 19, 2026, at 12:10 at First Universalist Church, Clinton & Court Streets on Washington Square Park in downtown Rochester. Sending good energies to Demian for what we know will be a spectacular concert.
Don Simkin of Poplar Ridge/Farmington/Rochester Meetings is a former member of the 1816 Board. After a hospitalization, Don is now at home in hospice care. Cards are welcome, sent to 17 Crawford Street Rochester 14620.
Chester Freeman spoke eloquently last year in a program with Preston Pierce, Ontario County Historian (co-sponsored by the 1816 Meetinghouse and Wood Library, Canandaigua) about his work in setting up a maker for Austin Steward in Canandaigua. Thanks to Chester for writing about his ongoing valiant battle with cancer in an article for Cure: https://www.curetoday.com/view/the-storm-within-my-body-after-the-drumming-clinical-study.
David Herendeen, from Farmington, NY, a long-time supporter of the 1816 Meetinghouse, died on February 10, 2026, after a long battle with cancer. He had been a Quaker pastor in Indiana, Illinois, and New York (at Easton Friends and Manhattan Friends Meetings). We were looking forward to welcoming him back to Farmington to continue his work for peace and social justice. A burial service will be held at the North Farmington Cemetery (behind the Friends Meetinghouse, 187 County Road 8, Farmington, NY) on March 28th at 10:00 a.m. A Celebration of Life Service will follow in the Farmington Friends Meetinghouse sanctuary at 11:00am. For more details, see https://www.murphyfuneralservices.com/obituaries/david-herendeen.
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SPECIAL THANKS TO KIRSTYN COOLEY FOR HELP WITH THE NEWSLETTER AND AMELIA BURM FOR HELP WITH ARCHIVES!
If you noticed a slightly different look to our newsletter last month, that is because we have switched programs. Thanks to Kirstyn Cooley, we are now using Constant Contact, which will allow us a bit more flexibility in both format and timing. Kirstyn is an amazing designer, and we are so grateful for her help. Amelia Burn, from the Public History program directed by Professor Timothy Kneeland at Nazareth College, is now helping us organize our digital archives, putting key documents in Google Docs so that they will be available long-term for future Board members and potential staff. We have worked with Professor Kneeland’s students on earlier projects, and we are delighted to have their help.
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HOW YOU CAN HELP
Follow us:
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/1816farmingtonquaker/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/1816FQMM/
Subscribe to this newsletter at the bottom of our webpage: https://farmingtonmeetinghouse.org/
Attend & bring friends to our public programs—free and open to all!
Volunteer (programs, hospitality, transcription of Quaker–Seneca papers, collections, exhibits, education, fundraising; especially exhibit review & publicity/design)
Train as a docent
Support: Consider a legacy gift in your will or estate plan to help us restore the Meetinghouse and grow our endowment with the Rochester Area Community Foundation. Your gift will help carry out our mission for many years to come. Donate to our annual appeal to help fund our operating expenses.
Reply & Contact: To respond to ideas in this Newsletter info@farmingtonmeetinghouse.org or Judith Wellman, Executive Director - historicalnewyork@me.com.
| | | 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse | 230 Sheldon Rd. | Farmington, NY 14425 US | | | | |
