Stephen Keese Smith Farm

Title: Stephen Keese Smith Farm
Description: This property was originally owned by John Haff, who was a Peru settler and slave owner. He deeded this property to his son, The Rev. Abraham Haff, a Methodist Minister, who became and Abolitionist. Rev. Abraham sold the farm to Quaker Stephen Keese Smith, who was an Underground Railroad conductor along with Wendell Lansing, Samuel and Catherine Keese and Noadiah Moore to name a few.
Contributor: "I first became acquainted with the "Under Ground Rail Road" twenty years or more before the [Civil] War ... Samuel Keese was the head of the depot in Peru. His son, John Keese - myself, and Wendell Lansing at Keeseville were actors. I had large buildings and concealed the Negroes in them. I kept them, fed them, often gave them shoes and clothing. I presume I have spent a thousand dollars for them in one-way and another. There were stations at Albany, Troy, Glens Falls and then here in Peru. The Negroes would come through the woods and be nearly famished. We kept them and fed them for one or two days and then ran them along to Noadiah Moore's in Champlain... He went with the Negroes to Canada and looked out places for them to work" --- Stephen Keese Smith
Creator: Robin Michel Caudell
Date: September 2022
Format: JPG
Identifier: A
Language: EN
Relation: Baptists
Source: Recollections of Stephen Keese Smith, 1887
Subject: antislavery