For the month of February, the Hagen History Center will be recognizing African Americans in Erie County: A Trail of Shared Heritage (The Trail).
Trail #27: Gospel Hill Cemetery – 4056 Staton Road, Harborcreek Land surveyor Thomas Rees brought two enslaved children to Northwest Pennsylvania in the 1790s. Robert McConnell and James Titus were freed under state law at age 28, each receiving 50 acres if and. McConnell became prosperous, eventually owning 242 acres. He and his descendants are buried here near Rees. There are also 183 unmarked graves—believed to be those of children, freed persons, and slaves. A Historical marker interprets and commemorates the history.
The deed photographs were given to us digitally via Charles Bliley.
For the month of February, Hagen History Center will be recognizing African Americans in Erie County: A Trail of Shared Heritage (The Trail).
The Trail is a community history project that dates back to 2013, that continues to inspire us about Erie’s Black History. Hagen History Center planned to present multiple images for each stop on the Trail, but then realized our collections lack visual materials for a few of the stops.
To help us rectify this, we are inviting readers to become Citizen Archivists.
A Citizen Archivist is a term coined in 2010 by the National Archives and describes a virtual volunteer who helps professional archivists by locating and uploading relevant information, tagging, and adding metadata to already established online archives.
Click the link for the Trail, and if you happen to have documents, photographs, maps, or other images associated with a trail number, send us a message on social media! We will be posting a few times a week, so stay tuned!
