How Frank Became Francis: The Rediscovery of a Free Black Community in Staatsburg

Staatsburgh’s former Historic Site Assistant, Zachary Veith, published an essay in the Dutchess County History Society's 2025 Annual Yearbook, which is a compilation of work he did while at Staatsburgh, researching the African American residents of Staatsburg, Hyde Park and Rhinebeck.  His entire essay can be found HERE, but this blog essay includes excerpts from the article that are most closely related to the hamlet of Staatsburg.

The Dutchess County Historic Society is located in Rhinebeck, NY and the organization is committed to serving as archival repository, providing interpretation, and presenting the history of Dutchess County to the public. Image: Dutchess County Historical Society

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For years, Hawktown was a rumor.

As part of a state-wide initiative to tell “Our Whole History,” Staatsburgh State Historic Site has been researching the free and enslaved populations both on the Staatsburgh estate and the surrounding hamlet of Staatsburg. Staatsburgh has been exploring the forced labor that built the estate and generated the generational wealth of the Livingston family. However, it is important to shine a light on Black narratives beyond bondage. One elusive narrative has been the location and existence of “Hawktown” —up until now a rumored Black community somewhere in the surrounding hamlet. Brief mentions of the location appear in historical sources discussing the Black community of Hyde Park. A local 19th century historian wrote Frank Peters “owned a few acres in Hawktown” and Jack DeWitt “had some property, in Hawktown.” The Dutchess County Yearbook briefly mentioned Jack DeWitt walked “from where he lived, Hawktown…” and declared “Hawk Town, now extinct” in 1919.1 For years, those brief references were the extent of our knowledge of Hawktown. Researching the life and community of Frank Peters and Jack DeWitt, this essay will highlight stories of Black lives in the early 19th century beyond slavery. What follows is the beginnings of a story of resilience and strength within a larger society that discouraged Black agency. Hawktown underscores how Black history in Dutchess County has been previously marginalized and the existence of a diversity of historical narratives in Staatsburg beyond the wealthy families and their tenant farmers. 

Bill Jeffway, Executive Director of the Dutchess County Historical Society, compiled local newspaper clippings mentioning Hawktown from the Rhinebeck Gazette spanning the 1880s. These articles include vague mentions of “young men went to Hawk Town on Sunday afternoon” or “a barn in Hawktown was blown down.”2  An increasing number of brief Hawktown mentions were discovered in the Poughkeepsie Journal: Henry Burroughs, “a dilapidated character, formerly of ‘Hawktown,” was accused of theft from a local store; talk of “Hawktown Dutchmen” being employed locally; Samuel Swartout, a working-class laborer, received building materials for his new residence in Hawktown; his neighbor, Irishman Henry Warren, “has been confined to his residence at Hawk Town” due to illness.3 Every mention of the community—no more than a sentence or two—is consistently listed in the ‘Staatsburg’ section of the “Vicinity Correspondence” column of the Poughkeepsie Journal alongside sections for other municipalities from Tivoli to Wappingers Falls. Evidently, during the Gilded Age, Hawktown was a well-known entity. The community was so well known that it appears to need no explanation in the Poughkeepsie Journal (at least to local readers). Every mention of Hawktown residents in the “Vicinity Correspondence” we have seen are either local White farmers or Irish-born laborers. There is no sign of a Black community in Hawktown during the late 19th century.

Frank Peters is one of only two documented Black residents of Hawktown, and his story was one of the few scraps of information that indicated a Black community lived in an area known as Hawktown sometime in the 19th century. Peters’ story survived thanks to the work of local historian Edward Braman. The wealthy son of a prominent Hyde Park river family, Braman served as a historian in Hyde Park and collected oral histories in his notebooks stretching from 1874 to 1899.4 

In one section from 1876 titled “Old Hyde Park Negroes” Braman recounted: 

Frank Peters owned a few acres in Hawktown. He was from “Varmount,” as he used to say. His wife, Sukey was a Bard darkey. Nanny, a very ugly featured negress, sister to one of them, lived with them. Frank and Sukey died and were buried on their place. They left no heirs to their few acres, their house went to decay and tumbled down. Not being on the taxlist, by some over-sight, it has escaped being sold for taxes.5

It is unclear where Braman received his information from in “Old Hyde Park Negroes.” However, a brief legal notice in the Poughkeepsie Journal from the 1880s was the first key to unlocking the earlier Black history of Hawktown. On Sunday, September 26, 1886, in a section titled “Sold for Taxes” listing wood lots and estates sold across Dutchess County for “non-payment of taxes,” the final notice stood out: “A vacant lot in Hawktown, assessed to the Frank Peters estate at $2.83, to Henry Ward for $6.50.”6 Braman mentions Peters’ property “escaped being sold for taxes;” the 1886 sale of “a vacant lot in Hawktown” to Henry Ward is thus the rectifying of this land on the tax roll. But who were Frank and his wife Sukey? 

Francis and Susan Peters 

Let’s start with Sukey.

The Records of the Town of Hyde Park, edited by then-local historian Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1928 and containing “A Copy of the Records of St. James’ Church” compiled by Edward Braman, are a wealth of information on local Black residents. Founded in 1811, St. James’ Episcopal Church brought together some of the most influential and wealthy members of the Hyde Park community. Its first church wardens included Dr. Samuel Bard, founder of the medical school at today’s Columbia University and personal physician to George Washington, and Morgan Lewis, third governor of New York State and the founder of the Staatsburgh estate. Church vestrymen included Dr. Bard’s son William, his son-in-law Judge John Johnston, as well as Nathaniel Pendleton, Alexander Hamilton’s second in his famous duel with Aaron Burr.7 All of these men—Bard, Lewis, Johnston, Pendleton, and others—were documented enslavers. Some of the earliest baptisms recorded by Braman at St. James’ included the men and women enslaved by the wealthy church founders. William, Stephen, Mary, and Dinah, “slaves belonging to Morgan Lewis,” were baptized on December 1, 1811—the year the church is founded—alongside enslaved people from the households of Nathaniel Pendleton and John McVickar, the church rector. Yet, in addition to this enslaved community, there were free Black congregants within St. James’. Local Black residents, including residents of the nearby New Guinea community—another free Black community in the town of Hyde Park— were baptized at St. James’, attended Sunday school, and celebrated weddings.8 This is the congregation that Sukey will eventually join.

The Peters family only appears in the St. James’ records towards the end of their lives. Susan, a “colored” woman noted as the “widow of Frank Peters,” is baptized on March 26, 1851. So Sukey is also Susan Peters. Susan was sponsored by Miss Mary Johnston and Nanny–the latter appearing also in Braman’s brief description of Frank and Sukey Peters. The widow is later confirmed by Rev. DeLancey on September 10, 1851, alongside members of prominent river families such the Rogers and Bramans as well as two other free people of color, Harry and Diana Anthony. Sadly, we learn Susan Peters passed away on April 3, 1852.9 Susan and Frank perhaps had full, active lives long before St. James’ was founded in 1811. To piece together more clues about their lives and community, we need to look beyond this one church.

The Rhinebeck Reformed Church, whose congregation included the Governor of New York and Black residents of Hawktown.  Photo by Zachary Veith

Knowing the names of Francis and Susan Peters is powerful for finding more information on these individuals—and Hawktown. The earliest census listing for Francis Peters is the 1810 census. The household of Francis Peters contained three “Free Blacks” —presumably Francis, Susan, and Nanny—in the hamlet of Staatsburg. Yet, on the following page another household of Frank Peters is again listed with three free Black people. Both listings for the Peters households consistently appear following Levi Pawling’s family.12 

A Wood Lot in Staatsburg 

David Mulford once owned nearly 400 acres of profitable agricultural land stretching from the Hudson River towards the Crum Elbow Creek. Underscoring his position as a wealthy landowner, Mulford ordered a survey of his lands in 1813 by surveyor R. Spencer. His two-story farmhouse, depicted by Spencer in great detail, included matching chimneys and three front windows and attests to the wealth of his farming operation in Staatsburg. On the eastern edge of Mulford’s holdings, in Lot 16 of the original Pawling Patent, Spencer marked “Sherrell’s [sic] Wood Lot” outlined in red.13 At the time, Hunting Sherrill—Mulford’s brother-in-law—was an early-career physician speculating on land. As his Hyde Park practice grew, he relocated to Poughkeepsie, where he authored several books, submitted articles to medical journals, and was made a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy. Beginning as early as 1814, the young doctor was buying and selling several lots throughout Hyde Park along the Crum Elbow Creek.14 Mulford appears to have sold undesirable sections on the outskirts of his property to his brother-in-law Sherrill, who in-turn sold part of this land to Black families.

Detail of 1813 R. Spencer survey map of David Mulford farm.  Courtesy of the Dutchess County Historical Society

The deed for lands sold to Francis Peters and Jack DeWitt offers clues to the location of the Hawktown community. In 1817, Jack DeWitt bought roughly 3.25 acres of land from Dr. Hunting Sherrill and Margaret Sherrill for $60. The following year, the Sherrills sold 3.5 acres to Francis Peters for $63.50. Both indentures note the land is within the Staatsburg patent and was formerly part of the Mulford farm property.15  Spencer’s earlier survey of the Mulford property noted the coordinates of all this land, including the 73-acre wood lot. The outer coordinates of Sherrill’s lot match several of the coordinates outlined in the Peters and DeWitt deeds. In addition, Peters’ deed confirms many of the neighboring families seen on the later 1820 census, included David Mulford and Elijah Baker, who erected the prominent Greek revival house along modern-day Route 9 during the period.16 

Elijah Baker's house in Staatsburg. His land bordered Francis Peter's lot in Hawktown.  Photo by Zachary Veith

While no physical descriptions of the land are provided in the deeds, it is assumed it was of a poorer quality. Around the time Sherrill sold land to DeWitt and Peters in Staatsburg, he sold land to residents of the free Black community New Guinea in Hyde Park. The land owned by the Black families in New Guinea—sold by Sherrill or members of the Bard family—was undesirable to White landowners. The Dutchess County Historical Society noted the “rocky and swampy nature of the land” was suited only for raising sheep and other livestock.17 The land in Hawktown was likely of a similar nature. An 1894 Poughkeepsie Journal article reporting the sale of Hawktown land from Murray Howard to Henry Warren noted that not all of the six acres of land was tillable.18 This wood lot was likely of a poorer quality, not suitable for farming by David Mulford, and available to purchase by Black landowners.

It is unclear exactly where in those 73 acres the Black families resided, but this does lead us to conclude that the DeWitts and Peters resided within this wood lot. A community of free, landowning Black families carved a space for themselves in the same hamlet as powerful landowners and enslavers. Today, this area that might have been Hawktown would appear to be located between Route 9 and Reservoir Road in Staatsburg.

Hawktown, 1820

Beginning in the summer of 1820, census takers across New York began counting the state’s residents. The census taker for the town of Clinton had already enumerated hundreds of people across various backgrounds and economic classes when he came to three Black households clustered in the hamlet of Staatsburg: Jack DeWitt, Caesar Clark, and Francis Peters. 

The enumerator moved their pen over the “Slaves” columns on the census towards the “Free Colored Persons” columns to begin recording. Jack DeWitt is counted as a male 45 years and older, alongside a woman of the same age range—likely Dinah, his wife—and a girl under 14 years old—likely either his daughter Jenny or granddaughter Sally. Caesar Clark is counted alongside a woman, likely his wife Sally. Two boys and two girls, all under the age of 14, are listed in the Clark household, including perhaps Elizabeth, Samuel, and Henry Clark—the next generation to live on the Clark’s land. Francis Peters is counted alongside two women 45 years and older, likely his wife Susan and Nanny, as well as two women between 26 and 45 whose identities are unknown at this point. Across the northeastern United States, countless Black families established households near each other in defense against the White supremacy of the early 19th century.19 These Black homeowners, such as the small grouping we see in Staatsburg, are forging their own community away from the overwhelmingly White communities of the Hudson Valley. Two households down the listing from Peters is David Mulford, the White farmer who sold Dr. Sherrill the land that he in turn sold to Peters. Eight lines away from this small community of formerly enslaved Black landowners is the former governor of New York, Morgan Lewis, who counted two enslaved men on his estate in 1820, alongside three free Black men and women. The hamlet of Staatsburg is a diverse area with multiple communities. We can clearly see a free Black community existed alongside an enslaved population in the same small Hudson Valley hamlet.

The subdivision of the Pawling Patent.  Morgan Lewis's Staatsburgh estate is in Lot 5. Dr. Sherrill's wood lot is in Lot 14. John DeWitt's mills are likely in Lot 13. Courtesy of Dutchess County Historical Society.

A Forgotten Past 

Today, the Mulfords are commemorated today along Mulford Avenue, as are the Bakers along Baker Street—two of the main residential streets in the village of Staatsburg. The Clarks, the DeWitts, and the Peters are not remembered as such. Morgan Lewis’s grave is prominent within the St. James’ graveyard, as is Hunting Sherrill’s obelisk in the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery. Braman noted Francis and Susan were “buried on their place”—likely on the Sherrill wood lot—yet their graves carry no markers today. In an appendix on Staatsburg by Braman in Documentary History of Rhinebeck from 1881, he notes “the negroes had their own burying ground, still known to the residents.”20 But no one today knows where that burying ground is located. That hallowed ground has been long buried from public memory alongside the names of those interred. 

For generations that was the story of these Black Staatsburg residents: extinct without a trace. For generations, it was a story that was not told to the wider public. Yet the story of Hawktown underscores the presence of Black landowners in Staatsburg before statewide abolition and offers clues to the lives of the formerly enslaved in Dutchess County. The research of how Frank became Francis Peters tells a story beyond slavery in the early 19th century. It is the beginnings of a story of resilience and strength in a society that looked down upon Black agency. No one knows where the term Hawktown comes from. But we do know there were free Black landowners in Staatsburg earlier than previously known. We can see clearly a free Black community lived, worshipped, and labored alongside an enslaved population for years.

**The streets named after the Mulford and the Baker families are part of the site's ongoing Staatsburg Village Walking Tour.  To learn more about the village and take this free tour, click HERE for dates and  reservations.

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1 Edward Braman Notebooks, 1876, p. 44-45. Hudson River Valley and Dutchess County Manuscript Collection, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York; George S. Van Vliet, “The Town of Clinton.” Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 26 (1941): 51; “Original Dutchess County Settlements.” Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book (1919): 22.

2 “Staatsburgh.” Rhinebeck Gazette, October 1, 1887; “County and Vicinity: Doings in Neighboring Places.” Rhinebeck Gazette, September 20, 1884. 

3 “Staatsburgh.” Poughkeepsie Journal, October 1, 1882; “Staatsburgh.” Poughkeepsie Journal, May 31, 1885; “Staatsburgh.” Poughkeepsie Journal, October 21, 1888; “Staatsburgh.” Poughkeepsie Journal, March 18, 1888. DCHS YEARBOOK 2024 211 and collected oral histories in his notebooks stretching from 1874 to 1899. 

4 Christopher R. Lindner and Trevor A. Johnson, “Guineatown in the Hudson Valley’s Hyde Park,” in The Archaeology of Race in the Northeast, ed. Christopher N. Matthews, and Allison Manfra McGovern (Gainesville: University Press of Florida FL, 2015), 57 

5 Edward Braman Notebooks, 1876, p. 44. 

6 “Sold for Taxes.” Poughkeepsie Journal, September 26, 1886.

7 Edward Braman, “Church Records: A Copy of the Records of St. James’ Church, Hyde Park, Dutchess Co., N.Y.,” in Records of the Town of Hyde Park, ed. Franklin D. Roosevelt (Hyde Park: Dutchess County Historical Society, 1928), 290. 

8 Braman, “Church Records,” 291; Lindner and Johnson, “Guineatown,” 62-63.

9 Braman, “Church Records,” 327, 316, 321-322, 329; church records noted the death of “Frank (black.)” on decade earlier on February 28, 1841 – likely indicating Frank Peters’ death.

10 “History,” Rhinebeck Reformed Church, accessed November 18, 2024, https:// www.rhinebeckreformed.org/history. 

11 Rhinebeck Baptism, Marriage, and Religious Records, 1733—1888. New York Church Records, 1660-1954, image group 007856475, image 705. FamilySearch.org. 

12 1810 U.S. Federal Census, Clinton Dutchess, New York. Series M252, roll 30, p. 270-271 (stamped), images 216-217. FamilySearch; There is slight inconsistency with the Parting/Pawling households. The Levy Parting household is listed with two White men under 10, one White man ages 10 –15, two White women under 10, one White woman ages 10-15 for a total of six people. The Levy Pawling household also contains six people: one White man under 10, one White man ages 26 –44, two White woman under 10, one White woman ages 10-15, and one White woman ages 26 –44.

13 R. Spencer, David Mulford Esq. survey, 1813. Dutchess County Historical Society: On December 25, 1813, Mulford sold the seventy-three acre “tract of wood land lying in the Staatsburg Pattent [sic]” to Dr. Hunting Sherrill for $2,208.75. Deeds 25 & 26, liber 26, p. 400. Dutchess County Records Room, Dutchess County Office Building, Poughkeepsie, New York.

14 “Obituary” in The American Homeopathic Review Volume VI, eds. P.P. Wells, Carroll Dunham, and Henry M. Smith (New York: John T. S. Smith & Sons, 1866), 360; Harry T. Briggs, “The Crum Elbow Creek, Its Mills and Dams.” Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 34 (1949): 58-61. 

15 Deeds 41 & 42, liber 41, p. 385. Dutchess County Records Room, Dutchess County Office Building, Poughkeepsie, New York; Deeds 217 & 218, liber 217, p. 47. Dutchess County Records Room, Dutchess County Office Building, Poughkeepsie, New York.

16 John Clarke, “Building-Structure Inventory Form,” https://gis.dutchessny.gov/hrs/ PDFs/20090710104640771.pdf. 

17 “New Guinea, Hyde Park,” Dutchess County Historical Society, accessed October 9, 2024, https://dchsny.org/new-guinea-importance/. 

18 “Staatsburg.” Poughkeepsie Journal, July 29, 1894. 

19 1820 U.S. Federal Census, Clinton, Dutchess, New York. Series M33, roll 71, p. 27 (handwritten), image 37. FamilySearch; Lindner and Johnson, “Guineatown,” 73.

20 Edward Braman Notebooks, 1876, p. 44; Edward Braman, “Staatsburgh” in Documentary History of Rhinebeck, ed. Edward M. Smith (Rhinebeck, 1881), 238.