There’s a mystery afoot and the Cornwall Historical Society is looking for information about two former residents – Margaret Elizebeth Dubois and Harriet Josephine Terry.
Susan Kamlet, president of the historical society, recently spoke to Nyhisha Gibbs, of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, an international sorority for black women. Gibbs inquired about Harriet Josephine Terry, of Cornwall-on-Hudson.
Unfamiliar with the name, Kamlet and Jane Harkinson, with the help of Gibbs and her friend, Sonya Grant, began conducting some research.
Terry was born on Feb. 4, 1885 and graduated from Cornwall-on-Hudson High School in June of 1903. When she graduated, she made her way to Howard University, in Washington, D.C. where she and 12 other college students formed the first black sorority.
The quartet was able to locate her eulogy/obituary, which was printed in The Cornwall Local in 1967. It was written by a woman named Carrie Taft Harrison, a high school friend. They also found an article, dated 1908, mentioning Terry was heading south to educate black students. When Terry graduated from Howard University, she got a job teaching at Alabama A&M University. A dormitory was named after her.
Attempts were made to contact a Taft relative, who has made previous donations to the historical society’s museum.
Kamlet said the society has a class photo taken in front of the former Idlewild Avenue high school. The photo depicts 15 children, one being a black girl who is holding the hand of the girl next to her. There is no confirmation the young girl in the photo is Terry. The photo is not dated, said Kamlet, adding there were few black families living in Cornwall at the time.
A Google internet search for the sorority reveals paintings of Terry. Wikipedia has a brief biography.
Ancestry.com provided a little more information about her childhood in Jamaica, Queens where she went to Jamaica Normal School.
“It was a lot of detective work, and not a lot of information,” Kamlet said. “I’d love to know more about her. I don’t know where she lived in Cornwall-on-Hudson.”
Less is known about Margaret Elizebeth Dubois, who was eight years and 14 days old on Sept. 19, 1828.
Kamlet said she received a call from a woman in New Paltz who said her grandmother gave her a framed, embroidered sampler with flowers and vines all over it. It was made by Dubois. Most samplers have a poem or Biblical statement. This sampler had the former and read: “Let improvement be my toy, doing right my greatest joy. Minding of my parents’ nod and my duty to my God. This needle work of mine can tell when I was young I learned well. And by my parents I was taught not to spend my time at naught. Respect to parents must be always paid or they are injured and God disobeyed.” Dubois’ name, age, and location is listed at the end.
A call has been made to the Cornwall Methodist Church because one of the books about Cornwall’s history mentions a Dubois family affiliated with that church. Kamlet is waiting to hear if the church still has any baptismal records.
“Both are important,” Kamlet said of the historical society’s interest in learning more about these females. “Harriet, in the fact she grew up a minority in Cornwall-on-Hudson and achieving international status is really something special. Not too many women in our town and village have achieved international status. With the little girl, we don’t know if she ever grew up.”
The sampler, Kamlet notes, is one of the older items in the museum collection. She said she’s curious to know where Dubois lived, if her house is still standing, and who were her neighbors.
“That makes history real, when you can find out details,” said Kamlet.
If anyone has additional information on these two individuals, they can contact the Cornwall Historical Society by calling 845-458-5389 or e-mailing chsmuseum@hotmail.com.
