1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse

MARJORY ALLEN PEREZ | FREEDOM-SEEKING FAMILIES IN FARMINGTON & MACEDON, MAY 17, 2:00 p.m. 

Co-sponsored by the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse Museum and the Macedon Historical Society, the program will focus on freedom-seeking families who traveled from Maryland and Delaware to settle near Quaker communities in Farmington and Macedon during the 19th century.

Perez has dedicated more than 50 years to family history and African American research. A descendant of a Farmington-Macedon Quaker family, she earned her master’s degree in history from the State University College at Oswego and served as Wayne County Historian from 1972 to 2000. During her tenure, she oversaw the collection and preservation of historically significant records throughout the county.

Her work documenting African American life and Underground Railroad history in Central New York has resulted in several published works, including “Uncovering the UGRR, Abolitionism, and African American Life in Wayne County, 1820–1880,” Last Stop, Freedom! The UGRR Experience in Wayne County, NY, and Freedom, a Shared Sacrifice: New York’s African American Civil War Soldiers. 

WELCOME TONY COHEN & FREEDOM WALKERS | JUNE 18-20, 2026

Wesley Wofford, Journey to Freedom

On May 4, 2026, Tony Cohen, a “living historian,” began his 750-mile walk, following the path of Harriet Tubman and so many others who escaped from slavery into freedom. He started from the Quaker Meetinghouse and the Sandy Spring Slave Museum in Sandy Spring, Maryland.

Tony will be retracing his steps from a similar walk he took in 1996. He felt called to do this on the 250^th anniversary of this nation’s independence, helping to bring Americans together in what he calls the “eternal journey” toward “independence, liberty, and freedom.”

He will be accompanied by Wesley Wofford’s statue, Journey to Freedom. This 200-pound statue is thirteen feet long and more than eight feet high. It features Harriet Tubman holding a small child by the hand as she travels north. Tony will follow Tubman’s general route, traveling up the Hudson River to Albany and then west to St. Catharines, Ontario, along New York State’s proposed Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Corridor.

Tony and his crew will be arriving in the Farmington-Macedon-Rochester area for programs from June 18-20, 2026.

Thursday, June 18, 2026: 5:30 p.m.

Wesley Wofford’s statue of Harriet Tubman will be at the 1816 Meetinghouse table at the community band concert, Erie Canal Park, Macedon, State Route 350, Macedon, New York.

Friday, June 19, 2026:

Welcome to Tony Cohen and Freedom Walkers, for Juneteenth programs at the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse, 230 Sheldon Road, and Farmington Friends Meeting, 187 County Road 8, Farmington, across the street from the 1816 Meetinghouse.

2-5 p.m.—Open House, tours, and Wesley Wofford statue, 1816 Meetinghouse.

7-9 p.m.—Talk by Tony Cohen and guest appearances from Austin Steward (a.k.a. Doug Curry) and General Gordon Granger (a.k.a. Peter Grassi), with strawberry shortcake social.

Saturday, June 20, 2026, 10-12 a.m.

Memorial AME Zion Church, Rochester. Presentation by AKWAABA: The Heritage Associates, about women, including Anna Murray Douglass and Harriet Tubman, who were active locally in the Underground Railroad.

Thanks to Mattie Schmidt, Ruth Anderson, Christine Ridarsky, and others for arranging lodging and meals in Rochester; Sandy Pagano and the Macedon Historical Society for helping to arrange activities in Macedon; and Doug Bowne and Farmington Friends for helping to create welcoming programs and strawberry social in Farmington. We are delighted to be part of this.

For more information on Tony and his walks, see this four-minute CBS news program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KTMEY4Eiag