Black Adirondack pioneer John Thomas is honored
ONCHIOTA — More than 100 people gathered on the side of county Route 60 earlier this month to see the unveiling of a plaque commemorating John Thomas Brook, once named using a racial slur that many locals have found “shameful and embarrassing” for years.
Paul Smith’s College professor Curt Stager, who filed to have the name changed, read the yellow lettering on the blue sign out loud: “‘John Thomas escaped from slavery in (Maryland) and lived near this brook in Vermontville as (a) prosperous farmer and’ ... I can’t say it.”
He swelled with emotion and got choked up.
The last two words — “respected citizen” — are an official acknowledgement to Thomas’ existence as an American, finally coming 129 years after his death.
The words refer to a letter Thomas wrote to the abolitionist Gerrit Smith, who first granted him land in the North Country, giving him the right to vote in a time when Black men faced barriers to participating in democracy.
“I have breasted the storm of prejudice and opposition until I begin to be regarded as an American citizen,” Thomas wrote.
He had found a home in the Adirondacks where he was no longer in danger, but where he still didn’t feel fully accepted. This can be seen in the beautiful brook with an ugly name and a complicated history.
Many maps leave it unlabeled rather than printing the offensive word, which in 1963 replaced by an even more offensive racial slur.
John Thomas Brook is a 15.3-mile long stream that flows from Onchiota to Bloomingdale, runs under the Bloomingdale Bog Trail at times and connects with Twobridge Brook, Sumner Brook and Ricketson’s Brook.
The brook was labeled with the slur because around a dozen Black families lived along its waters between the 1850s and 1870s, farming the land. They were granted that land by Smith, and because they owned land, that allowed them to legally vote. Around half of Franklin County was Black-owned at that time, Stager said.
These “Black Adirondack pioneers” were a part of the Adirondack community, but were treated by some with disrespect.
‘Words matter’
Adirondack Diversity Initiative Director Tiffany Rea-Fisher was at the brook with her 2-year-old daughter on Saturday.
“This was a place that I would never, ever, ever bring anyone to,” Rea-Fisher, who is Black, said. “And now I feel pride and I feel privileged to be here.”
People have long talked about the brook’s offensive name, and she said it is a very challenging thing to take something in theory and make it a reality.
Oftentimes there are good ideas, but the logistics of changing a name can be so intimidating that people lose steam.
“Words matter,” Rea-Fisher said. “They speak to what our cultural values are. When this brook was originally named, that was the value. That was not a fluke. That was not by mistake. That was intentional, and intentionally hurtful.”
She said the offensive former name was reflective of the culture here, that it was deemed acceptable for so long, but she added that the name change is also reflective of a changing culture.
Rea-Fisher is the great-great granddaughter of a woman who was born on a plantation in Mississippi.
“So when people talk to me and tell me that we haven’t progressed, I know that’s not true,” she said. “Because this story that is here of slavery, of bondage, of bounty hunters, there is no Black American in this county whose life has not been tapped by that, in a very real way.”
She said Stager’s efforts have changed the course of Black history in the Adirondacks.
The renaming was officially approved by the U.S. Board of Geographical Names on April 13.
The plaque installed Saturday was paid for by the Draper-Lussi Endowment, which supports Stager’s faculty position at the college.
The sign is placed near a bridge over the brook, on land owned by Paul Smith’s College on county Route 60, around 150 yards east of the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center.
Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center Director David Fadden said an “Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen” or “words before all else.” It is a native thanksgiving address delivered before events, thanking the many parts of the natural world which make life possible and whole.
This included a thanks to the waters of the brook which run behind the museum. But for years, that brook has been a place of shame for Fadden.
“It’s always been an embarrassment,” he said. “We just call it ‘the brook.’ ”
Maps and official records still always held the hidden name.
“Names are so important,” Fadden said.
As the museum expands, he said new maps now say “John Thomas Brook.” Fadden said he hadn’t known the history of John Thomas before.
The Black pioneers are a part of history that many people don’t know because their stories have only recently been uncovered. Fadden said he knows of a camp down the road from the museum where Black people who worked on the railroad camped because no one would take them in at the time.
Thomas, his wife, Mary, and their son, Richard, are buried in Union Cemetery in Vermontville.
Some of Thomas’ descendants still live in the North Country. Susan Hendrie Morrow, who lives in the Plattsburgh area, is John Thomas’ greatgreat-great-granddaughter on her mother’s side and has grandchildren and a brother who live up here. They were not able to make it to the unveiling, but Stager said they sent their full approval.
Community effort
Rea-Fisher said Stager told her he struggled with being at the center of this Black story. But she told him not to. He was the one who got the name change and he did it because it was the right thing to do. Stager said it was a community effort that changed the name. While he spent months collecting everything he needed for the application to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, he collected signatures of support from the community.
Elected officials like town of Franklin Supervisor Dot Brown and Franklin County Legislator Lindy Ellis wrote in support; Paul Smith’s College students and faculty wrote letters; organizations like Historic Saranac Lake, ADI, the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center and the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association gave their support; and numerous other locals documented their support for the change.