Ann Smith honored in Maryland

HAGERSTOWN, MD. >> Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith of Peterboro, N.Y., was inducted into the Circle of Achievement at Memorial Park in Hagerstown, Md., on Saturday, May 18.

In his remarks, Mayor Robert E. Bruchey II described Smith as providing consistent support for the activities of her family members in the 19th century human rights movements. Smith worked with her husband Gerrit for the abolition of slavery, partnered with her daughter Elizabeth Smith Miller and granddaughter Anne Fitzhugh Miller for women’s rights, and supported her son Greene in environmental conservation efforts.

Ann Fitzhugh was born in 1805 in Hagerstown and was raised in the slaveholding Fitzhugh family with the aid of Harriet Sims, an African American nanny. In 1799, Ann’s father William Frisby Fitzhugh and two Hagerstown business associates — Charles Carroll and Nathanial Rochester — began to in

vestigate the developmental potential of a water power mill site on the Genesee River in upstate New York. The three purchased one hundred acres in November of 1803.

After receiving title to the property in 1811, Rochester moved to New York to conduct surveying while Carroll and Fitzhugh stayed in Maryland until after the end of the War of 1812.

In 1817 Fitzhugh sold his Maryland property and 61 slaves, and the family moved to New York where he, Rochester, and Carroll founded the city of Rochester.

Ann married Gerrit Smith in 1822 and moved to Peterboro. The Smith home was an active Underground Railroad site and haven for social reformers. At invitation, the inaugural meeting of the New York State Antislavery Society was held in Peterboro in 1835.

In 1841, Gerrit and Ann Smith purchased the freedom of the Harriet Sims Russell family of seven slaves. The Russell family came to Peterboro, where they were employed, and where some descendants live today.

Dr. Norman K. Dann, Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark in Peterboro, an author of several books on the Smith family, was completing his biography on Ann when learning of Ann’s dedication ceremony. He attended the ceremony and researched the Fitzhugh family in two Hagerstown cemeteries.

His book “God, Gerrit, and Guidance: The Life of Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith” will be available at www.logcabinbooks.com.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Plaque dedicated to Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith of Peterboro, N.Y., at her induction to the Circle of Achievement at Memorial Park in Hagerstown, Md., on May 18.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Norm Dann of the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark in Peterboro, N.Y., stands beside the plaque dedicated to Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith at her induction to the Circle of Achievement at Memorial Park in Hagerstown, Md., on May 18.

COURTESY PETERBORO AREA HISTORICAL MUSEUM Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith of Peterboro, N.Y., was inducted into the Circle of Achievement at Memorial Park in Hagerstown, Md., on Saturday, May 18.