Sodus & The End of Slavery:  

UGRR, Abolitionists and USCT Civil War Veterans from the Maxwell Settlement 

The year 2026 gives us pause to commemorate two significant creation events in our nation’s history: our nation’s birth 250 years ago and the designation of Negro History Week. The first we have recognized since its inception with our annual Independence Day festivities. The second, created 100 years ago by Carter G. Woodson, was a corrective for America’s penchant to consistently overlook the contributions of Black Americans and other people of color to our national history.  The centennial of Woodson’s achievement is an opportunity to inform our semiquincentennial celebrations with the contributions of people of color, not only during the American Revolution, but throughout the two and a half centuries since that time. The history of the challenges faced, and the contributions made, to America’s story by both people of color and women is especially important today. Why? Because the current historical policy of the federal administration is to attack the telling of that traditionally marginalized history. Since January 2025, Presidential Executive Orders and departmental directives have required many of our most esteemed public historical institutions to reconsider carefully researched historical facts that the administration finds objectionable. The result has been to set in motion the removal and erasure of displays, exhibits, and signage at such preeminent historical storytelling institutions as the Smithsonian and the National Park Service. The resulting impact on teaching that history has been chilling.

This article will warm up rather than chill the undervalued role that Black Americans have played in our history. It will tell the story of soldiers from Sodus who fought in the United States Colored Troops (USCT) during the Civil War to end slavery and the many people who created the conditions for their contributions to freedom. Those soldiers’ personal lives can be traced to the small Sodus community that shows up on early maps as the “Colored Settlement” and has come to be referred to as the Maxwell Settlement. Today there are virtually no traces of the little community that, according to local historian, Marjory Allen Perez, never had more than 80-100 residents. 

The Maxwell Settlement story starts with Colonel Peregrine Fitzhugh, who came to the Sodus Point area in 1803 with approximately thirty enslaved men, women, and children. When Colonel Fitzhugh, an aide-de-camp to George Washington during the last two years of the Revolutionary War, returned home to Maryland following the siege of York, the census of 1790 recorded forty-six enslaved people living on his land. Since Fitzhugh’s financial status was not always stable, he sold off his holdings, both land and human beings, from time to time. For example, a look at the 1800 census shows that the Fitzhughs enslaved only twenty people, down from the forty-six recorded in 1790. Three years later the Fitzhugh family left Maryland for Upstate New York, with thirty enslaved people. Focusing just on the rise and fall of the colonel’s human property, though, evades the horrific experience that his enslaved population must have endured. Most or all forty-six of the captives held as chattel by Peregrine Fitzhugh had to live through being purchased and enslaved. Still others among them were resold, separated from their loved ones and/or loaned to others to continue to labor without wages. Fortunately, four years prior to the move, a glimmer of hope for the enslaved appeared in New York with the passage in 1799 of the NYS Emancipation Law. The law set in motion the gradual freedom of all enslaved New Yorkers by 1827. Even more hopeful was a provision of the law that granted immediate freedom to anyone born after 1799, although those children could still be held as indentured servants. 

Given this new status for the people Colonel Fitzhugh enslaved, it is interesting that he still chose to move his family and estate to New York.  To be clear, as with all major changes, the devil is in the details, and the implementation of New York’s Emancipation Law was no exception. One of the first challenges was exactly how to count the enslaved. In the case of the Fitzhugh estate, the historical record shows that although thirty enslaved people arrived with them in 1803, only fifteen were listed in the 1810 census. Past business practices by the colonel would suggest the sale of some of his human property, but it is also likely that the formerly enslaved children could no longer be counted as “slaves.” We also know that enslaved men, women, and children, spurred by the indignity of gradual emancipation and heartened by the abolitionist fervor and the availability of nearby safe houses in the area, began seeking their freedom by leaving. 

The Fitzhughs had chosen the wrong time to move their slaveholding household to New York.  Within the decade, Peregrine Fitzhugh died, leaving his wife, Elizabeth, to attend to his estate. Probated and inventoried two years later, it listed eleven enslaved persons, including at least three children, inventoried at a total value of $325. Although the children would have been born after 1799 and, therefore, were technically free, they were listed as property, nonetheless, along with the enslaved adults. Subsequently, Elizabeth made a bold move. She freed all those listed as inventory. Can we speculate that the confusion caused by the Emancipation Law’s implementation might have encouraged Elizabeth to free herself from the responsibility for those enslaved and formerly enslaved household members listed under her care? One way to provide for them and diminish her burden would have been to allow them to leave her care but continue to live on her land. We will never know her motivations, but, as previously mentioned, we do know that during the time of the enactment of the Emancipation Law (1799-1827), enslaved people were exercising their agency by leaving their bonded lives behind and taking their labor where it could earn them wages. Some of those local freedom seekers became well-known. Austin Steward was brought to Sodus Bay to clear land for his enslaver, Captain William Helm, and later seized his freedom and wrote about it in his book Twenty-Two Years a Slave and Forty Years a Freeman (1857). His historic marker can be found on Ridge Road in Huron just east of the Sodus Bay bridge on the Thomas Farm.

Others who sought freedom were less well known. David Cooper, who eventually purchased Maxwell Settlement land, bravely sought his freedom with a price on his head (see below), although the reward of 6 cents, even in 1811, was a paltry sum.

Source: Geneva Gazette, 9 October 1811, 3:1

William Hoylarts was a son-in-law of Peregrine Fitzhugh. The grave marker of David Cooper can be found in the Bushnell Rural Cemetery on Lake Road in Sodus. By the time of the 1820 Federal Census, the Maxwell Settlement was taking shape. According to Marjory Perez,

“…the survey of the outlots of Sodus Point (Troupville) was completed in June 1813. Initial settlement most likely began shortly after by former slaves of Peregrine Fitzhugh, who died in 1811. It is established that Abraham and Ven Bradington were slaves of Peregrine Fitzhugh, and Mr. Bradington was paying taxes on the property in 1818. Mr. Bradington completed the purchase of his first ten acres in 1819 and recorded the purchase of another ten acres in 1831. David Cooper, another former slave of Mr. Fitzhugh, was also paying taxes on 20 acres of land in 1818, but no deed has been located. His daughter, Ellen Cooper, in 1853, purchased a small piece out of the 20 acres her father had paid taxes on between 1817 and 1823. 

Sources: 1810 US Census, Sodus, Ontario Co., NY, NARA Microfilm M252-33, p. 859; 1820 United States Census, Sodus, Ontario County, New York, M33-62, 121; Tax Assessment Records, Sodus, Ontario County, New York, 1813-1823 Microfilm, Ontario County Records and Archives Center, Canandaigua, New York, David Cooper and Abraham Bradington records for 1818; Peregrine Fitzhugh, Probate File and Inventory, Ontario County Records and Archives Center, Microfilm #118/25. NOTE: Mr. Fitzhugh died intestate. Inventory dated 21 Oct 1813.

Maxwell Settlement’s Founding Families

The 1820 census for Sodus includes heads of household, identified as free persons of color including: Thomas Loyd, William Newport, Abraham Bradenton [sic], Alexander Lee (son-in-law of Abraham Bradington), David Cooper, and Joseph Wilber (son-in-law of Abraham Bradington). Rose Loyd, Abraham Bradington, David Cooper and William Newport are listed as free persons of color and heads of household in the 1830 census. Material supporting the founding families’ role in creating Maxwell Settlement. 

Sources: 1820 US Census, Sodus, Ontario County, New York, M33-62, 121; 1830 US Census, Sodus, Wayne County, New York, M19-117, 130-133; 1840 US Census, Sodus, Wayne County, NARA Microfilm M704-350, 82; Wayne County, New York Deeds, Book 2/390 and Book 40/430. (Grantee, Abraham Bradington). Book 64/536 (Grantee, Ellen Cooper) Wayne County, NY, Surrogate Court Records, Will Book D, pp. 480-484 1853 Walling Map of Wayne County, New York, Town of Sodus and detail of Maxwell Settlement. Original research by Marjory Perez.

The Maxwell Settlement was now comprised of several out lots of land previously owned by the Fitzhugh estate east of the North Geneva Road and mostly south of Lake and Margaretta Roads in what is now Sodus Point. Once established, the small community grew its population with the next generation of children and their children. From 1820 to 1861, as the little community thrived, the nation was aflame with tension. Indigenous nations were under constant pressure as newly arriving immigrants joined in the post-Revolutionary push to settle new lands. At the same time, Upstate New York became a cauldron where anti-slavery sentiment was brewed. Frederick Douglass, renowned for his abolitionist activity, was not the only activist in Upstate New York. Several less well-known abolitionists operated in and around Sodus.  Samuel Ringgold Ward became the first Black pastor in South Butler. He helped members of the Sodus Presbyterian Church form the Free Congregationalist Church in Sodus after failing to convince their congregation to officially oppose slavery. The break-away members, Jacob Buys, Lucy Buys, Dr. William Darby Cooke, Seth Coleman, Dr. Levi Gaylord, Eli Clark and Kitchell Bell included among them several dedicated safe house owners who harbored freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad circuit (from the book, “Uncovering the Underground Railroad, Abolitionism, and African American Life in Wayne County, New York, 1820-1880” written by Judith Wellman and Marjory Allen Perez, with Charles Lenhart and others, Wayne County Historian Office, Peter Evans, Historian). 

During this time in the decades leading up to the outbreak of the Civil War, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed increasing the costs to assist former slaves to escape to freedom by denying suspected slaves a jury trial and the right to testify on their own behalf. If caught, valiant freedom activists like Cook and the Newport sisters were subject to a $1,000 fine (worth $30,000 today) and risked imprisonment for up to six months. Further, most bounty hunters were adept at not only returning former slaves to their owners but capturing free persons of color and selling them into slavery. 

The examples of four community members illustrate extraordinary bravery in this draconian legal atmosphere. The previously mentioned Dr. Cooke risked the penalties of the law by becoming a conductor on the Underground Railroad. He went even further in aiding the local freedom movement by employing and housing Polly Ann and Chloe Jane Newport, and they passed the kindness on by protecting fugitives from slavery themselves. The sisters, daughters of William and Sarah J. Newport of the Maxwell Settlement, married freedom seekers, Richard McKinney and Charles Oakley. In the face of imminent capture of their husbands, the two couples left for Canada and by 1857 were settled in Oxford County, Ontario, Canada. Some Maxwell Settlement residents who had been enslaved by Colonel Fitzhugh stayed. Mary Lee is our fourth example of bravery.  At age 50, she was the matriarch of a Maxwell household that included freedom seeker, Charles Dorsey (35), his two children, William Dorsey (8) and Madeline Dorsey (6), as well as Charles Baker (73) and Milla Baker (10). We can only imagine the surreptitious actions she had to employ to keep them safe.  We do know that by the 1860 census Charles and Milla Baker and Charles Dorsey were no longer listed in the household, but the Dorsey children were. 

The flames leading to the Civil War were intensifying. Many Black abolitionists, Frederick Douglass in particular, advocated for Black men to be allowed to take up arms for the Union. After two years of war and tens of thousands of casualties, President Lincoln relented and, with the Emancipation Proclamation, opened the doors for a segregated fighting force known as the United States Colored Troops (USCT). William Dorsey and seventeen other young men with ties to the community joined the United States Colored Troops along with approximately 160,000 Black men who fought in the war. A quarter of all Black soldiers (40,000) died in the conflict. Black Wayne County residents were no exception. William Dorsey never returned after his July 1863 enlistment. He died at Camp William Penn on December 23, 1863. (Information researched from Fold3.com)The table contains a trove of information that can be used to research the critical role free Black men played in 

the war to free other Black people who remained enslaved. It explodes many myths about their commitment to advance the cause of freedom. As the reader can see, five of the eighteen died because of battle wounds, disease, or accident related to their service. The Gregor family paid a particularly heavy toll. The rugged tenacity and valiant sacrifices made to end slavery were borne by many. Sodus was in the center of the battle. From Black and White abolitionists to the Underground Railroad network, run by a multicultural team of patriots, and all those who aided and abetted that effort, we recognize their valiant contributions to freedom. 

In addition, we celebrate all the soldiers of the Union forces whether they fought in the NY USCT 8th, 11th, 31st, 38th, and 43rd , as well as the 29th Connecticut units or the 111th Company of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). Each Company drew men from Wayne County and contributed immensely to the war effort. It is plain to see the residents of Sodus were not mere bystanders in our nation’s Second Revolutionary War. At the close of the Civil War, we had moved as a nation closer to racial and social justice at enormous human cost. We still had a long way to go to achieve true justice, but the commitment of many Soduskans to get us through one major step in the continuous process toward human equality is undeniable. Despite the present federal administration’s policies, it is a history that we need to continue to research, share, publicize, and teach to our children as well as each other.

AFTERWORD

By the time the USCT was in the field, the Union Army were fighting on several fronts and was pushing deep into the south. Deployment into the sweltering bayous and inhospitable communities of Florida and Louisiana proved deadly for the Cortright and the Gregor families. Bradley and Elijah Gregor were casualties of the Battle of Olustee in Florida where the Union strategy was to push into central Florida to gain control of critical supply lines of beef and salt. New York regiments were featured in the fighting along with the USCT 8th Infantry of New York and the 54th Infantry of Massachusetts. The casualty rate per combatants participating was the second highest of the Civil War. This was especially so for the USCT soldiers. According to the online resource, Battle of Olustee (Battle of Olustee), “A regrettable episode in the aftermath of the battle was the apparent mistreatment of Union black soldiers by the Confederates. Contemporary sources, many from the Confederate side, indicate that a number of black soldiers were killed on the battlefield by roaming bands of southern troops following the close of the fighting.” Two New York units fared the worst — the 47th New York (313 casualties) and the 8th USCT (310). It was the 8th USCT’s first battle, and they had yet to be fully trained for a full scale engagement (Battle of Olustee – The Battle Itself). Of course, the 8th USCT was the company for which the Gregor brothers, Bradley and Elijah, fought. The Cortrights, on the other hand, did not fall in battle but in defending the Union’s control of New Orleans. It was there that outbreaks of yellow fever were an annual occurrence due to many conditions, not the least of which were unsanitary drainage, poor drinking water resources, and the environmental devastation to any city’s resources that most wars create. Take those conditions and add the fact that it was unknown at the time that the vector for yellow fever was mosquitoes, and it is no wonder the Cortrights fell prey to the disease. Yellow fever continued to kill thousands in the lower Mississippi Valley in general, and in and around New Orleans in particular regularly, until the late 1800s.