‘Firsts’ of the Freethought Trail

The Freethought Trail (www.freethought-trail.org) is the Council for Secular Humanism’s online tribute to some 185 radical-reform history sites. All are located in west-central New York State (between Rochester and Rome; very roughly, within 120 miles of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum in Dresden, New York). The Trail focuses on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when this segment of the Erie Canal watershed was a bellwether of social and religious change, playing much the same role that southern California would play later in the twentieth century. So it should come as no surprise that among the Trail’s stories of its abolitionists, freethinkers, suffragists, dress reformers, and utopians are many historic “firsts”—twenty-seven of them, all told. It’s my privilege to present them here.

The printshop is a well-designed historic site operated by the Mormon church. Little is offered there about Dogberry, even if one asks.

January 2, 1830, Palmyra, New York: First published critique of the Book of Mormon.

Freethinking newspaper editor Obadiah Dogberry (a pseudonym) published the first in a series of lengthy articles pointing out the absurdities of Joseph Smith’s new scripture, the Book of Mormon. It was an impressive “scoop”—the earliest installments came out before Smith’s tome went on sale! It was possible because Dogberry composed and printed his newspaper in the same printshop that produced the Book of Mormon. Dogberry was able to preview its contents over several weeks, perusing the drying pages when he was supposed to be working on his paper, the Palmyra Reflector.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:obadiah-dogberry-is-first-critic-of-book-of-mormon/.

The site of the 1835 meeting still stands. It now houses the National Abolition Hall of Fame.

December 22, 1835, Peterboro, New York: First completed meeting of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society.

The new Anti-Slavery Society tried to meet the previous day in Utica, but the meeting was broken up by an anti-abolitionist mob. This incensed rural millionaire real-estate magnate Gerrit Smith, who’d attended the Utica meeting partly out of curiosity. He invited delegates to reconvene at a church in his village of Peterboro, some thirty miles from Utica, where Smith could ensure the meeting would not be disturbed. Several hundred delegates took him up on it. New York’s first formal antislavery meeting went forward, and Smith committed himself to the cause of abolition, which he would generously support over several decades.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:first-completed-nys-antislavery-meeting/.

Amy Post (1802–1899), abolitionist, feminist, and (after her way) freethinker, was among Rochester’s foremost reform activists.

1842, Rochester, New York: First meeting of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society.

Quaker radicals Amy and Isaac Post hosted the meeting at their home, which became a hub of Underground Railroad and fundraising activity. The society was unique in that it welcomed without distinction men and women, African Americans and persons of European descent, as members.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/trail-map/location:post-home-western-new-york-anti-slavery-society/.

August 22–23, 1843, Rochester, New York: First convention of Fourier Society of the City of Rochester.

The eccentric social theories of French author François Marie Charles Fourier swept America, prompting the creation of hundreds of short-lived utopian communities in the early 1840s. Several hundred delegates from six counties attended. The convention led to the founding of no less than five more-or-less Fourierist communities in the region, including the Sodus Bay Phalanx, half of whose members were freethinkers.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/trail-map/location:an-early-fourierist-meeting-site/.

Lydia Maria Child (left) was an abolitionist, woman’s rights activist, freethinker, and journalist. Lucretia Mott was a Quaker abolitionist and feminist who helped plan the 1848 woman’s rights convention at Seneca Falls.

June 8, 1847, near Macedon, New York: First political convention allowing women to vote; first votes for women as presidential nominees.

This convention of the small but historically significant Liberty League, an antislavery political party, was attended by abolition and woman’s rights activists Lydia Maria Child and Lucretia Mott. They were permitted to vote on nominations, a first in American politics. Moreover, each received a vote, marking the first time in history that women received votes for president of the United States at a bona fide political convention.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:liberty-league-convention/.

The National Park Service has restored the shell of the Wesleyan Chapel where the 1848 convention was held.

July 19–20, 1848, Seneca Falls, New York: First formal call for woman suffrage.

At a convention hastily organized by, among others, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, several hundred delegates adopted a “Declaration of Sentiments” patterned on the Declaration of Independence and approved a resolution making the first formal call for women to get the vote. That dream would not be fulfilled until 1920, pursued by one of the largest reform movements in American history. The abolitionist chapel where the convention was held now anchors Woman’s Rights National Historic Park.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/trail-map/location:womans-rights-national-historical-park/.

August 2, 1848, Rochester, New York: First woman presides at a public event open to both sexes.

At a convention billed as a follow-on to the Seneca Falls convention, Rochester abolitionist Abigail Bush was elected to preside, the first time that a woman was elected president of a public meeting open to both sexes. Amazingly, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, two organizers of the Seneca Falls convention, walked off the platform in protest! (Future woman’s rights meetings were often presided over by women.)

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:1848-womans-rights-convention/.

From 1849 to 1898, Corinthian Hall was Rochester’s foremost venue for lectures and other public events.

November 14, 1849, Rochester, New York: First public demonstration of spiritualist “phenomena.”

A paying audience at Rochester’s Corinthian Hall beheld the debut of the Fox sisters, who simulated the “rapping” of spirits by (as it was later discovered) flexing their toe joints. Dubious as it was, this event sparked the emergence of the spiritualist movement and the religion of Spiritualism, which swept the world especially in the years after World War I.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/trail-map/location:corinthian-hall-academy-of-music/.

The Bloomer costume. This etching is thought to depict Elizabeth Smith Miller wearing the garment.

Early 1851, Peterboro, New York: Debut of the “Bloomer” reform costume.

Consisting of a practical knee-length skirt over pantaloons, the style was invented by Elizabeth Smith Miller at her Peterboro home. Miller was an activist and financial supporter of woman’s rights/suffrage causes and the daughter of Peterboro reformer-philanthropist Gerrit Smith. The new style became known as “Bloomers,” after woman’s rights journalist Amelia Bloomer, who would publicize it in her reform paper The Lily. For several years, Bloomers were worn by most leaders of the emerging woman’s suffrage movement.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:suffragists-adopt-then-abandon-the-bloomer-costume/; https://freethought-trail.org/causes/cause:dress-reform/.

The 1829 Townsend Block was renamed the Jerry Rescue Building after the 1851 raid.

October 1, 1851, Syracuse, New York: First forced release of an escaped slave from police custody.

Defying the reviled Fugitive Slave Law, a raiding party of abolition activists led by philanthropist Gerrit Smith and Underground Railroad leader Jermain Loguen stormed a Syracuse police station, freeing William “Jerry” Henry, an escaped slave who ultimately fled to Canada. Known as the “Jerry Rescue,” the event was a crowning triumph of northern abolition activism.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:jerry-rescue/.

Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826–1898) led the radical wing of the early suffrage movement alongside Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

September 8–10, 1852, Syracuse, New York: First woman’s rights convention attended by future suffrage leaders Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage; first public woman’s rights speech delivered by Gage.

The event was held in Market Hall, which was simultaneously Syracuse’s city hall and a meeting venue available for rental.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:national-womans-rights-convention-of-1852/.

October 2, 1852, Oswego, New York: First African American nominated on a presidential ticket by a bona fide national party.

At its nominating convention, the radical abolitionist National Liberty Party nominated Gerrit Smith for president and Samuel Ringgold Ward for vice president. Ward was the first African American nominated on a presidential ticket by a national political party.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:1852-national-liberty-party-convention-1/.

June 26–28, 1855, Syracuse, New York: First U.S. political convention chaired by an African American.

Gerrit Smith, Frederick Douglass, Lewis Tappan, and others formed the short-lived Radical Abolition Party. Its convention at Syracuse’s Market Hall was chaired by Dr. James McCune Smith, a Black abolitionist, the first time an African American is known to have chaired a political convention.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:formation-of-radical-abolition-party/.

Oswego’s 1857 Public Library is a classic example of the Norman Revival, or “castellated” style. Photo by Haley Karr.

Spring 1857, Oswego, New York: Main Public Library opens.

Construction of Oswego’s castle-like main library was funded entirely by contributions from Gerrit Smith. The building was added onto but never abandoned. Today Oswego’s is the only main public library in New York State that still occupies its original historic building.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/trail-map/location:oswego-public-library/.

Mary Edwards Walker (1832–1919) in the custom-made “Bloomer”-style U.S. Army physician’s uniform she wore during the Civil War.

October 24, 1864, Oswego, New York: Mary Edwards Walker addresses Democratic Party rally.

The pioneering woman physician and dress reformer was one of the first—maybe the first—women to address a major-party convocation.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:mary-edwards-walker-addresses-major-party-political-convention/; https://freethought-trail.org/profiles/profile:walker-mary-edwards/.

August 17, 1877, Huron (Wolcott), New York: First meeting of the future New York Freethinkers Association.

The then-Liberals and Freethinkers of Central and Western New York held its inaugural meeting on a rural farmstead. The group soon changed its name and held a series of nationally important freethought conventions.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:grove-meeting-of-liberals-and-freethinkers-of-central-and-western-new-york/; https://freethought-trail.org/trail-map/location:huron-wolcott-grove-meeting/.

October 26, 1877, Rochester, New York: First annual convention of the National Liberal League.

The event took place at Corinthian Hall in downtown Rochester. For the next eight years, the National Liberal League would be the nation’s most prominent freethought organization.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:rochester-convention-of-national-liberal-league/; https://freethought-trail.org/profiles/profile:national-liberal-league/.

August 22, 1878, Watkins (now Watkins Glen), New York: Matilda Joslyn Gage’s first public freethought lecture.

Already a seasoned suffrage campaigner, Gage “came out” as a freethinker before the New York Freethinkers Association, presenting a fiery speech whose thesis—that Christianity bore primary responsibility for women’s oppression—would also inform her masterwork, Woman, Church, and State.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:inaugural-convention-of-new-york-freethinkers-association/; https://freethought-trail.org/trail-map/location:freethinkers-meeting-site-park/.

The Maid of Arran premiered at Syracuse’s Grand Opera House (see sign at left). The Grand opened in 1879, burned in 1888, was quickly rebuilt, and was demolished in 1925.

May 15, 1882, Syracuse, New York: L. Frank Baum’s first theatrical success.

Premiering in his native Syracuse on his twenty-sixth birthday, L. Frank Baum’s sprawling musical romance The Maid of Arran went on to tour the country, including a run on Broadway. Baum composed the book, music, and lyrics and also played the lead role.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:syracuse-premiere-of-l-frank-baum-musical-the-maid-of-arran/; https://freethought-trail.org/trail-map/location:grand-opera-house/.

December 10, 1882, Rochester, New York: C. B. Reynolds’s first freethought address.

Speaking at a memorial for freethought publisher D. M. Bennett, minister-turned-freethought-preacher Charles B. Reynolds launched his new career as a freethought lecturer.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:memorial-meeting-honoring-d-m-bennett/; https://freethought-trail.org/trail-map/location:elias-h-gault-residence-site/.

Gifts from freethinkers around the country helped C. B. Reynolds purchase his “freethought revival tent” in 1885.

June 25, 1886, Palmyra, New York: First tent-based freethought “revival.”

Charles B. Reynolds brought the first and only known freethought “tent revival tour” to Palmyra’s fairgrounds. A month later, locals in a New Jersey town burned the tent. That fall, another New Jersey community charged him with blasphemy. He would be famously defended by lawyer and orator Robert Green Ingersoll.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:c-b-reynolds-freethought-lecture/; https://freethought-trail.org/trail-map/location:c-b-reynolds-palmyra-lecture-site/.

The Smith Observatory’s 1888 dome rises behind a later addition, a twentieth-century garage.

1888, Geneva, New York: First astronomical observatory.

Philanthropist and freethinker William Smith erected a well-equipped observatory, the first in the Finger Lakes region, and recruited noted astronomer William Robert Brooks. Brooks discovered numerous comets, bringing to Geneva the scientific renown Smith had hoped for.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/trail-map/location:smith-observatory/.

Emily Howland (1827–1929) was born into a Quaker “dynasty” of abolitionists. She later took up woman’s rights and education and became a philanthropist.

1890, Sherwood (now Aurora), New York: Emily Howland named first woman director of an American national bank.

Abolitionist, educator, and philanthropist Emily Howland was named to the board of the Aurora National Bank. She would serve until she died in 1929, age 101.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/profiles/profile:howland-emily/.

Juanita Breckinridge Bates (1860–1946) pioneering woman minister and woman’s rights activist.

June 28, 1892, Ithaca, New York: First woman ordained as a Congregationalist minister.

Woman’s rights advocate Juanita Breckinridge was the first woman to receive a bachelor’s of divinity degree and be ordained a Congregationalist minister. In 1911, she helped organize a statewide suffrage conference in her native Ithaca.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/trail-map/location:juanita-breckinridge-bates-home/.

Fall 1920, Syracuse, New York: First woman seeks statewide office as a major-party candidate.

Suffragist Harriet May Mills ran for election as New York Attorney General. She did not win, but she was the first woman to seek a major statewide office as the candidate of a major party. She went on to play indispensable roles in state-level suffrage campaign organizing.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/profiles/profile:mills-harriet-may/.

October 28, 1926, Sherwood (now Aurora), New York: First woman receives honorary doctorate from the State University of New York.

Emily Howland, age ninety-nine, received an honorary Doctor of Literature (Litt. D.) degree from the State University of New York, the first woman to be so honored by that institution.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:emily-howland-becomes-first-woman-to-receive-honorary-doctorate-from-suny/; https://freethought-trail.org/profiles/profile:howland-emily/.

Mary Livingston Ingersoll’s resting place bears a proper marker after 181 years of anonymity.

May 30, 2016, Cazenovia, New York: Ingersoll’s mother’s grave marked after 181 years.

At the request of the Freethought Trail, local historians identified the long-forgotten burial place of Mary Livingston Ingersoll, who died when her son Robert Green Ingersoll was three years of age. A proper gravestone was installed and dedicated some 181 years after her death.

Learn more at https://freethought-trail.org/historical-events/event:grave-of-mary-livingston-ingersoll-located/; https://freethought-trail.org/trail-map/location:mary-livingston-ingersoll-grave-site/.

Tom Flynn

Tom Flynn (1955-2021) was editor of Free Inquiry, executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism, director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum, and editor of The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief (2007).