National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior

136 Fall Street
Seneca Falls, NY 13148

315-568-2991 phone
315-568-2141 fax

Women's Rights National Historical Park

Release Date: August 30, 2002
Contact: name: Anne Derousie
Phone: 315 568-2179

VISIT THE SPIRIT OF THE QUAKERS
IN WATERLOO IN THE 1800s

WATERLOO - They came here to seek a better life for themselves and their fellow men and women. They were farmers, business men, abolitionists, teachers, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters. The Quakers who lived in Waterloo in the 1800s left their mark on the Finger Lakes area. Women’s Rights National Historical Park invites the public to meet their spirit in a special tour of the Quaker Cemetery on Nine Foot Road. The tour will be held on Friday, Sept. 13. ADMISSION IS FREE. Those attending should meet at 7:30 PM at the M’Clintock House on East Williams Street to caravan to the cemetery north of Route 96.

"We hope people will come to learn about these remarkable people who played key roles in the major issues of their day; women’s rights, abolition, business, education, agriculture and religion ." said Anne Derousie, historian at Women’s Rights National Historical Park. "Quakers were among the organizers and leaders of the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls. Many of the people in the Quaker Cemetery attended the convention and signed the Declaration of Sentiments."

More than a dozen men and women volunteers will portray the Lundys, Dells, Schooleys, Bonnels and other Quakers buried in the cemetery. Bonnie Hosford, Waterloo village trustee and deputy mayor, will portray Rhoda Palmer, the only woman who signed the Declaration that called for the women’s right to vote and who lived to vote in 1918. Connie Morse of Geneva, an organizer of the Finger Lakes Chapter of the Friends of Women’s Rights National Park and active in Republican Women’s organizations, will portray Phoebe Mosher. She will discuss the anti-slavery petition movement. Joni Pontius of Seneca Falls, a member of the Park Players and a high school language teacher, will portray Margaret Schooley, and discuss the role of education, especially of women, in the 1800s. Barbara VanKirk of Seneca Falls will portray Sarah M’Clintock Hunt, second wife of Richard Hunt She will describe motherhood and child rearing in Quaker households.

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wori.septevent                                                  -30-                      date prepared: August 30, 2002

Updated: Wednesday, 22-Dec-2004 10:08:55 Eastern Standard Time
www.nps.gov/archive/wori/archives/cemeterytourPR.htm
Author: David Malone