Happiness & Long Life for All its Residents #83
Wednesday Apr 6th, 2022
Last week’s retelling of the burning of the Steamship Erie (please look for blog #82 if you missed it) had me looking through old newspaper accounts. When I saw the names of Henry and Israel Vosburgh who were employed on board as a cook and waiter respectively, I had heard of those names before and knew exactly where to look. In 1996, the book “Journey from Jerusalem – An Illustrated Introduction to Erie’s African American History 1795-1995 by Sarah S. Thompson with additional research and essay by Karen James was published. In it is a wonderful account of this prosperous black family as well as many others. Unfortunately, the book has been out of print for a while. There is talk from time to time here at the Historical Society about reprinting, which I feel is important.