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'''James Francis Brown''' (c. 1793–1868) escaped slavery in Maryland in 1828 and purchased his own freedom by working for the Verplanck family in New York, eventually becoming their head gardener. His diaries document the daily lives of people who constructed and maintained the elaborate gardens and landscapes commissioned by wealthy residents of the Hudson Valley in the mid-nineteenth century.
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'''[[James Francis Brown]]''' (c. 1793–1868) escaped slavery in Maryland in 1828 and purchased his own freedom by working for the Verplanck family in New York, eventually becoming their head gardener. His diaries document the daily lives of people who constructed and maintained the elaborate gardens and landscapes commissioned by wealthy residents of the Hudson Valley in the mid-nineteenth century.
 
==History==
 
==History==
James Francis Brown, also known as Anthony Chase and Anthony Fisher, was born in slavery around October 1, 1793, in northern Maryland.<ref>Myra B. Young Armstead, ''Freedom’s Gardener: James F. Brown, Horticulture, and the Hudson Valley in Antebellum America'' (New York: New York University Press, 2012), 11, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K/q/freedom's%20gardener view on Zotero].</ref> Little is known about his mother. His father, Robert Chase, was also enslaved, but died a free man on July 22, 1838.<ref>Armstead, 12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K/q/freedom's%20gardener view on Zotero].</ref> The historical evidence concerning James F. Brown’s early life is difficult to follow, and sometimes contradictory. Historian Myra Armstead convincingly argues that he learned how to read and write at one of the German Lutheran churches in Frederick County in his youth.<ref>Armstead, 14, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K/q/freedom's%20gardener view on Zotero]. Verplanck family history asserts that it was a daughter of the Verplancks who taught him. Alice B. Lockwood, ed., ''Gardens of Colony and State: Gardens and Gardeners of the American Colonies and of the Republic before 1840'' (New York: Charles Scribner’s for the Garden Club of America, 1931), 286, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JNB7BI9T/q/lockwood view on Zotero].</ref> She speculates that Brown may have been owned by Matthew Brown, a farmer and co-owner of a wool processing factory, before Brown was sold to the farmer William E. Williams (1797–1822).<ref>Armstead, ''Freedom’s Gardener'', 16–19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K/q/freedom's%20gardener view on Zotero].</ref> While working for the Williams family in 1818, James Brown was recorded on the Baltimore city tax list, residing on Frederick Street, where he may have enjoyed a “quasi-free” status.<ref>Armstead, 19–20, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K/q/freedom's%20gardener view on Zotero].</ref> In 1826, in anticipation of his own promised manumission, Brown married and paid for the manumission of a woman named Julia Chase (also known as Julia Williams), but upon the death of Henry Lee Williams, Brown’s new mistress Susan F. Williams refused to free him.<ref>Armstead, 22–23, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K/q/freedom's%20gardener view on Zotero].</ref> In 1827, Brown and his wife ran away from slavery.
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[[File:2196.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, William Wade, Detail of Verplanck house in ''Wade & Croome's Panorama of the Hudson River from New York to Waterford'' (1847), n.p.]]
  
By March of 1828, eight months after he fled Baltimore, Brown was living in New York City and working as a coachman and waiter for the judge and former congressman Daniel C. Verplanck (1762–1834). When Brown was recognized and his whereabouts made known to Susan Williams, Verplanck offered to pay her a security bond until Brown was able to purchase his own freedom for 300 dollars over the course of three annual installments.<ref>Armstead, 28–30, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K/q/armstead view on Zotero].</ref> Brown earned this money working as a waiter, coachman, and gardener for Verplanck and his family, first in New York City, and later at their Hudson River estate Mount Gulian in Fishkill (modern Beacon). In 1829, he began a series of diaries that he would continue until 1866, which provide almost all of the surviving historical evidence for his life.<ref>Garden historians were early to recognize the historical importance of these diaries as a source. See, for example, Joel Elias Springarn, [https://books.google.com/books?id=E9spAQAAMAAJ&lpg=RA10-PA36&dq=Henry%20Winthrop%20Sargent&pg=RA10-PA36#v=onepage&q&f=false Henry Winthrop Sargent and the Early History of Landscape Gardening and Ornamental Horticulture in Dutchess County, New York],” in ''Year Book of the Dutchess County Historical Society'', vol. 22 (Dutchess County Historical Society, 1937), 37–38, 63–66, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/2CMSH3K5/q/springarn view on Zotero].</ref> Between 1831 and 1832, Brown took a year-long hiatus from his work for the Verplancks, during which he lived and worked in New York City with the lawyer and anti-slavery activist Peter A. Jay (1776–1843).<ref>Armstead, ''Freedom’s Gardener'', 55–56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K/q/armstead view on Zotero].</ref> Upon his return to the Verplancks in 1832, Brown dedicated himself to gardening, and was promoted to the position of head gardener at Mount Gulian in 1836. Daniel Verplanck had died in 1834, so Brown answered to his forty-three-year-old daughter Mary Anna Verplanck (1793–1856) in his new role. Brown’s duties always included tasks like running errands for the family and transporting them across the Hudson river to Newburgh, but as head gardener he also supervised other employees in the gardens and grounds of the estate.<ref>Armstead, 60–61, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K/q/armstead view on Zotero].</ref>
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James Francis Brown, also known as Anthony Chase and Anthony Fisher, was born in slavery around October 1, 1793, in northern Maryland.<ref>Myra B. Young Armstead, ''Freedom’s Gardener: James F. Brown, Horticulture, and the Hudson Valley in Antebellum America'' (New York: New York University Press, 2012), 11, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> Little is known about his mother. His father, Robert Chase, was also enslaved, but died a free man on July 22, 1838.<ref>Armstead 2012, 12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> The historical evidence concerning James F. Brown’s early life is difficult to follow, and sometimes contradictory. Historian Myra Armstead convincingly argues that he learned how to read and write at one of the German Lutheran churches in Frederick County in his youth.<ref>Armstead 2012, 14, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero]. Verplanck family history asserts that it was a daughter of the Verplancks who taught him. Alice B. Lockwood, ed., ''Gardens of Colony and State: Gardens and Gardeners of the American Colonies and of the Republic before 1840'' (New York: Charles Scribner’s for the Garden Club of America, 1931), 286, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JNB7BI9T view on Zotero].</ref> She speculates that Brown may have been owned by Matthew Brown, a farmer and co-owner of a wool processing factory, before Brown was sold to the farmer William E. Williams (1797–1822).<ref>Armstead 2012, 16–19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> While working for the Williams family in 1818, James Brown was recorded on the Baltimore city tax list, residing on Frederick Street, where he may have enjoyed a “quasi-free” status.<ref>Armstead 2012, 19–20, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> In 1826, in anticipation of his own promised manumission, Brown married and paid for the manumission of a woman named Julia Chase (also known as Julia Williams), but upon the death of Henry Lee Williams, Brown’s new mistress Susan F. Williams refused to free him.<ref>Armstead 2012, 22–23, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> In 1827, Brown and his wife ran away from slavery.
  
The garden at Mount Gulian was already established by the time James F. Brown started work there in 1829. First laid out by Daniel Verplanck in 1804, it was about six acres in size, with formal flower beds near the main house, a wooded area, a brook, a pond, and long lawn providing a view across the Hudson.<ref>Lockwood, ''Gardens of Colony and State'', 284, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JNB7BI9T/q/gardens%20of%20colony%20and%20state view on Zotero].</ref> Although Brown never set out to describe Mount Gulian in his diaries, his records nevertheless constitute a valuable source for reconstructing its early design. <span id="Gravel_cite"></span>One entry from 1836 notes “laying out walk round the brooke in the garden” while an 1838 entry records that “Doctor VP and Mrs. VP layed out a circular roade in front of the house and layed some grabel [gravel] on it” ([[#Gravel|view text]]).<ref>Albert James Williams-Myers, “An African Voice Among the River Folk of the Hudson River Valley. The Diary of an Exslave, 1827-1866,” in ''On the Morning Tide: African Americans, History, and Methodology in the Historical Ebb and Flow of Hudson River Society'' (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2003), 86, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8QE6MRA5/q/williams-myers view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Dam_cite"></span> Another 1838 entry, one of only a few garden projects proudly included in the list of momentous occasions excerpted as a “Book of References” at the end of his final diary, records the completion of “a large dam in the garden” ([[#Dam|view text]]). According to Brown’s entries from that year, the damming of the brook was a substantial project that ran from August 20th until September 20th, coinciding with the construction of a pond. <span id="WinterTasks_cite"></span>Brown also installed and planted hotbeds, and “cleaned and fixed plants in the green house” ([[#WinterTasks|view text]]).<ref>January 23, 1832. Via Williams-Myers, 87, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8QE6MRA5/q/williams-myers view on Zotero].</ref>
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[[File:2194.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 2, James Francis Brown, Page from diary, vol. 1, 19 April 1832–2 June 1832.]]
  
In addition to these horticultural responsibilities, Brown managed a budget for garden, which he used to make purchasing trips to New York City and to order seeds and plants from well-known seedsmen and nurseries of the period, including Parmentier’s, Prince’s, Thorburn’s (view text), Higg’s, and Bridgeman’s.<ref>Armstead, ''Freedom’s Gardener'', 50, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K/q/james%20f.%20brown view on Zotero].</ref> Many of the plants listed in later descriptions of Mount Gulian are mentioned in Brown’s diaries, including magnolia from New York, Isabella grape vines, rose bushes, and peach, plumb, and apricot trees. Not all of the plants in the garden were purchased from seed catalogs or nurseries. One entry recounts how Brown “took a walk in the woods this day and found a very pretty bunch of water flowers, brought them home and gave them a place in the flower garden among the wild plants of our collection” (view text).  
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By March of 1828, eight months after he fled Baltimore, Brown was living in New York City and working as a coachman and waiter for the judge and former congressman Daniel C. Verplanck (1762–1834). When Brown was recognized and his whereabouts made known to Susan Williams, Verplanck offered to pay her a security bond until Brown was able to purchase his own freedom for 300 dollars over the course of three annual installments.<ref>Armstead 2012, 28–30, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> Brown earned this money working as a waiter, coachman, and gardener for Verplanck and his family, first in New York City, and later at their Hudson River estate Mount Gulian in Fishkill (modern Beacon) [Fig. 1]. In 1829, he began a series of diaries that he would continue until 1866, which provide almost all of the surviving historical evidence for his life [Fig. 2].<ref> Garden historians were early to recognize the historical importance of these diaries as a source. See, for example, Joel Elias Springarn, “[https://books.google.com/books?id=E9spAQAAMAAJ&lpg=RA10-PA36&dq=Henry%20Winthrop%20Sargent&pg=RA10-PA36#v=onepage&q&f=false Henry Winthrop Sargent and the Early History of Landscape Gardening and Ornamental Horticulture in Dutchess County, New York],” in ''Year Book of the Dutchess County Historical Society'', vol. 22 (n.p.: Dutchess County Historical Society, 1937), 37–38, 63–66, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/2CMSH3K5 view on Zotero].</ref> Between 1831 and 1832, Brown took a year-long hiatus from his work for the Verplancks, during which he lived and worked in New York City with the lawyer and anti-slavery activist Peter A. Jay (1776–1843).<ref>Armstead 2012, 55–56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> Upon his return to the Verplancks in 1832, Brown dedicated himself to gardening, and was promoted to the position of head gardener at Mount Gulian in 1836 [Fig. 3]. Daniel Verplanck had died in 1834, so Brown answered to his forty-three-year-old daughter Mary Anna Verplanck (1793–1856) in his new role. Brown’s duties always included tasks like running errands for the family and transporting them across the Hudson river to Newburgh, but as head gardener he also supervised other employees in the gardens and grounds of the estate.<ref>Armstead 2012, 60–61, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref>
  
Thanks to Brown’s position on the Hudson River he met and worked with some of the most celebrated figures in early nineteenth-century American landscape gardening. Foremost among them was Andrew Jackson Downing, whose family nursery and botanic gardens was located just across the Hudson in Newburgh. Brown’s diaries contain many references to the Downing nursery, where he purchased fruit trees and other supplies for the garden at Mount Gulian, and where he attended a “Grand Gala” in 1836 (view text). Brown may also have acted as a representative of the Downing nursery when he attended the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Show in Philadelphia during the autumn of 1840.  
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[[File:2197.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 3, [[Alexander Jackson Davis]], ''Mount Gulian, Residence of G. C. Verplank, Esq.'', n.d.]]
  
Brown’s acquaintances included other owners of great gardens and horticultural collections in the Hudson Valley. Mary Anna’s brother-in-law John W. Knevels (d. 1855) collected exotic and tropical plants, and Brown visited him frequently to store plants in his green houses and to obtain cuttings for Mount Gulian. In 1842 and 1845 Brown noted developments at Henry Winthrop Sargent’s estate Wodenethe, just a few miles away on the other side of Fishkill, including “a fine Grapery and a new Green House” Sargent built (view text). Brown also knew and visited gardeners who worked at nearby estates, including William Bennett at Wodenethe; B. Manning who gardened for Robert Bayard, a neighbor of the Verplancks; Michael Ross and William Lucas at the Downing nursery; and Mrs. Deacon, the wife of a gardener in Wappingers Falls. These gardeners exchanged plants with each other, and must also have shared gardening tips and social news when they met.
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The garden at Mount Gulian was already established by the time James F. Brown started work there in 1829. First laid out by Daniel Verplanck in 1804, it was about six acres in size, with formal flower [[Bed|beds]] near the main house, a [[Wood/Woods|wooded]] area, a brook, a [[Pond|pond]], and long [[Lawn|lawn]] providing a view across the Hudson.<ref>Lockwood 1931, 284, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JNB7BI9T view on Zotero].</ref> Although Brown never set out to describe Mount Gulian in his diaries, his records nevertheless constitute a valuable source for reconstructing its early design. <span id="Gravel_cite"></span>One entry from 1836 notes “laying out [[Walk|walk]] round the brooke in the garden” while an 1838 entry records that “Doctor VP and Mrs. VP layed out a circular roade in front of the house and layed some grabel [gravel] on it” ([[#Gravel|view text]]).<ref>Albert James Williams-Myers, “An African Voice Among the River Folk of the Hudson River Valley. The Diary of an Exslave, 1827-1866,” in ''On the Morning Tide: African Americans, History, and Methodology in the Historical Ebb and Flow of Hudson River Society'' (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2003), 86, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8QE6MRA5 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Dam_cite"></span> Another 1838 entry, one of only a few garden projects proudly included in the list of momentous occasions excerpted as a “Book of References” at the end of his final diary, records the completion of “a large dam in the garden” ([[#Dam|view text]]). According to Brown’s entries from that year, the damming of the brook was a substantial project that ran from August 20th until September 20th, coinciding with the construction of a [[Pond|pond]]. <span id="WinterTasks_cite"></span>Brown also installed and planted [[Bed|hotbeds]], and “cleaned and fixed plants in the [[Greenhouse|green house]]” ([[#WinterTasks|view text]]).<ref>James F. Brown, diary entry, vol. 1, [http://digitalcollections.nyhistory.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A152252#page/5/mode/2up 23 January 1832], James F. Brown Papers, Digital Collections, Collection of the New-York Historical Society. Via Williams-Myers 2003, 87, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8QE6MRA5 view on Zotero].</ref>
  
As Armstead has pointed out, Brown’s career in gardening anticipated later calls for African Americans to embrace the profession. Early African American newspapers such as the Colored American reprinted articles from agricultural newspapers, which praised the benefits of gardening “for health, for pleasure, and for profit.”  In 1853, the abolitionist Lewis Woodson wrote a letter to Frederick Douglass’ Paper arguing that for African Americans, gardening was “an easy, practical, and certain means of bettering their condition, and increasing their happiness and respectability.”  Extending the arguments of Barbara Mooney, Armstead suggests that African Americans like Brown may have associated early American garden theory and practice as they developed in northern states with freedom. Brown kept a small garden for his wife and himself in which he planted vegetables, fruit trees (view text), and a rose bush.
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<span id="NewYork_cite"></span>In addition to these horticultural responsibilities, Brown managed a budget for garden, which he used to make purchasing trips to New York City and to order seeds and plants from well-known seedsmen and [[Nursery|nurseries]] of the period, including Parmentier’s, Prince’s, Thorburn’s ([[#NewYork|view text]]), Higg’s, and Bridgeman’s.<ref>Armstead 2012, 50, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> Many of the plants listed in later descriptions of Mount Gulian are mentioned in Brown’s diaries, including magnolia from New York, Isabella grape vines, rose bushes, and peach, plumb, and apricot trees.<ref>Williams-Myers 2003, 87, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8QE6MRA5 view on Zotero].</ref> Not all of the plants in the garden were purchased from seed catalogs or [[Nursery|nurseries]]. <span id="Wildflower_cite"></span> One entry recounts how Brown “took a walk in the woods this day and found a very pretty bunch of water flowers, brought them home and gave them a place in the [[Flower garden|flower garden]] among the wild plants of our collection” ([[#Wildflower|view text]]).<ref>Brown, vol. 4, [http://digitalcollections.nyhistory.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A152619#page/20/mode/2up 3 May 1829]. Via Williams-Myers 2003, 89, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8QE6MRA5 view on Zotero].</ref>
  
In addition to his work on the garden at Mount Gulian, James F. Brown also worked to establish a “coloured peoples burying place” in Fishkill (view text). In 1851, just one week after returning from a funeral for his friend Hester Purnell Thompson at the famed rural cemetery Greenwood in Brooklyn, New York, Brown organized a meeting to buy a plot of land adjacent to the local Methodist cemetery for the new burial place. The cemetery itself is a flat, rectangular grass lawn surrounded by trees at the corner of Walnut Street and Verplanck Avenue known as the Colored Peoples Union Burying Ground. Brown’s efforts to support the purchase and his role as a trustee may reflect how cemeteries like Greenwood and Mount Auburn inspired African American communities across the region. As a gardener, Brown must have been especially aware of the dignifying potential of landscapes for the dead.
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Thanks to Brown’s position on the Hudson River he met and worked with some of the most celebrated figures in early nineteenth-century American landscape gardening. Foremost among them was [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Andrew Jackson Downing]], whose family [[Nursery|nursery]] and [[Botanic garden|botanic gardens]] was located just across the Hudson in Newburgh. <span id="Gala_cite"></span>Brown’s diaries contain many references to the [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing]] [[Nursery|nursery]], where he purchased fruit trees and other supplies for the garden at Mount Gulian, and where he attended a “Grand Gala” in 1836 ([[#Gala|view text]]).<ref>For his purchases from Downing, see Armstead 2012, 44–46, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero]. For the gala at Downing’s, see Brown, vol. 1, [http://digitalcollections.nyhistory.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A152252#page/71/mode/2up 13 September 1836], mentioned also in Williams-Myers 2003, 88, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8QE6MRA5 view on Zotero].</ref> Brown may also have acted as a representative of the [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing]] [[Nursery|nursery]] when he attended the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Show in Philadelphia during the autumn of 1840.<ref>Armstead 2012, 58–59, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref>
  
While Brown’s salary as a master gardener is unknown, it afforded him a comfortable life. Based on figures for comparable skilled trades, Armstead speculates that he may have earned been between 490 and 630 dollars annually, which was between one third and one half of the White House gardener’s annual salary in 1840 (1200 dollars).  With income from his job, Brown was able to buy a house and reserve a pew at the same local church as his employers. He voted in the New York elections of 1837, when full participation in the democratic process still hinged on property ownership. As a subscriber to the New York Sun and a reader of the Fishkill Standard, Brown was informed about both local and global events. He participated in celebrations for historic occasions, including the manumission of slaves on the West Indian Islands in 1856 and the completion of the transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858. Brown also enjoyed leisure activities like attending “Barnum’s Caravan,” the traveling circus of P.T. Barnum, which visited Newburgh in the fall of 1851 (view text).
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Brown’s acquaintances included other owners of great gardens and horticultural collections in the Hudson Valley. Mary Anna’s brother-in-law John W. Knevels (d. 1855) collected exotic and tropical plants, and Brown visited him frequently to store plants in his [[Greenhouse|green houses]] and to obtain cuttings for Mount Gulian.<ref>Armstead 2012, 46–47, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Sargent_cite"></span>In 1842 and 1845 Brown noted developments at Henry Winthrop Sargent’s estate Wodenethe, just a few miles away on the other side of Fishkill, including “a fine Grapery and a new [[Greenhouse|Green House]]” Sargent built ([[#Sargent|view text]]).<ref>Brown, vol. 4, [http://digitalcollections.nyhistory.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A152619#page/145/mode/2up 29 September 1845]. Armstead 2012, 47, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> Brown also knew and visited gardeners who worked at nearby estates, including William Bennett at Wodenethe; B. Manning who gardened for Robert Bayard, a neighbor of the Verplancks; Michael Ross and William Lucas at the [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing]] [[Nursery|nursery]]; and Mrs. Deacon, the wife of a gardener in Wappingers Falls.<ref>Armstead 2012, 48–49, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> These gardeners exchanged plants with each other and must also have shared gardening tips and social news when they met.
  
Denied a formal education first by slavery in Maryland and then by prejudice in New York, Brown never received schooling in subjects like history or botany. His literacy and his experiences on the job, however, offered him opportunities to acquire knowledge in both areas. Brown’s diaries mention a copy of Richard and John Lander’s Travels that Mary Anna Verplanck gave him as a gift in 1833. Armstead focuses on the political significance of Lander’s abolitionist activism, but it may likewise be useful to consider how Brown would have imagined the African royal gardens that are briefly mentioned in the text. Other books could also have played an important role in mediating between the tastes and goals of garden owners like Mary Anna and literate gardeners like Brown. A list of recipes for remedies in the back of one of his diaries reveals that Brown’s botanical knowledge extended beyond purely horticultural applications to include practical medicine.
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As Armstead has pointed out, Brown’s career in gardening anticipated later calls for African Americans to embrace the profession. Early African American newspapers such as the ''Colored American'' reprinted articles from agricultural newspapers, which praised the benefits of gardening “for health, for pleasure, and for profit.”<ref>“The Farmer’s Garden,” ''The Colored American'', July 28, 1838. Originally published in the Albany ''Cultivator'', April 1838, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/Q6LY6KTE view on Zotero]. Armstead 2012, 93, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> In 1853, the abolitionist Lewis Woodson wrote a letter to ''Frederick Douglass’ Paper'' arguing that for African Americans, gardening was “an easy, ''practical'', and certain means of bettering their condition, and increasing their happiness and respectability.”<ref>Lewis Woodson, “Communications: Gardening,” ''Frederick Douglass’ Paper'', September 23, 1853, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/2SQVD8YE, view on Zotero]. Via Armstead 2012, 94, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> Extending the arguments of Barbara Mooney, Armstead suggests that African Americans like Brown may have associated early American garden theory and practice as they developed in northern states with freedom.<ref>Barbara Burlison Mooney, “The Comfortable Tasty Framed Cottage: An African American Architectural Iconography,” ''Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians'' 61, no. 1 (2002): 49–50, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/7ACU57Y4 view on Zotero]; Armstead 2012, 82, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Wife_cite"></span>Brown kept a small garden for his wife and himself in which he planted vegetables, fruit trees ([[#Wife|view text]]), and a rose bush.<ref>Armstead 2012, 81–82, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref>
  
Racism posed professional challenges for Brown as a head gardener. African Americans were barred from official membership in most gardening and horticultural organizations, and, as a consequence, denied the benefits that such organizations could provide their members. Although it was unusual for women and black men to show plants at horticultural and botanical exhibitions, Brown displayed plants and produce on behalf of Mary Anna on several occasions: first in 1830 at an exhibition in Newburgh, then in 1839 at Downing’s Horticultural Association for the Valley of the Hudson show in Manhattan, and finally in 1949 at the Farmers and Gardeners Association.
+
<span id="Cemetery_cite"></span>In addition to his work on the garden at Mount Gulian, James F. Brown also worked to establish a “coloured peoples [[Cemetery/Burying ground/Burial ground|burying place]]” in Fishkill ([[#Cemetery|view text]]).<ref>Brown, vol. 6, [http://digitalcollections.nyhistory.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A152933#page/74/mode/2up 1 September 1851]. Armstead 2012, 148–49, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> In 1851, just one week after returning from a funeral for his friend Hester Purnell Thompson at the famed rural [[Cemetery/Burying ground/Burial ground|cemetery]] Green-Wood in Brooklyn, New York, Brown organized a meeting to buy a [[Plot/Plat|plot]] of land adjacent to the local Methodist [[Cemetery/Burying ground/Burial ground|cemetery]] for the new [[Cemetery/Burying ground/Burial ground|burial place]].<ref>Brown, vol. 6, [http://digitalcollections.nyhistory.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A152933#page/74/mode/2up 29 August 1851].</ref> The [[Cemetery/Burying ground/Burial ground|cemetery]] itself is a flat, rectangular grass [[Lawn|lawn]] surrounded by trees at the corner of Walnut Street and Verplanck Avenue known as the Colored Peoples Union Burying Ground. Brown’s efforts to support the purchase and his role as a trustee may reflect how [[Cemetery/Burying ground/Burial ground|cemeteries]] like Green-Wood and [[Mount Auburn Cemetery|Mount Auburn]] inspired African American communities across the region. As a gardener, Brown must have been especially aware of the dignifying potential of landscapes for the dead.
  
Brown may have enjoyed the time he spent working and walking in the garden at Mount Gulian, but his diaries also records the physical toll of its maintenance. He injured his back moving a log in 1839, cut his hand while pruning grape vines in 1841 (view text), endured a skin infection in 1842, suffered a “very severe fall” in 1844, and sprained his ankle so badly that he required surgery in 1853. Brown finally retired from his position in 1864, and died in 1868. His tombstone, which has been re-erected [fig. __], reveals that he was buried not in the cemetery that he helped found, but across town at the congregation he attended with his employers, the Church of Saint Luke (founded as the Episcopal parish of Saint Anna). His wife Julia remained in Fishkill until her death in 1890.
+
While Brown’s salary as a master gardener is unknown, it afforded him a comfortable life. Based on figures for comparable skilled trades, Armstead speculates that he may have earned been between 490 and 630 dollars annually, which was between one third and one half of the White House gardener’s annual salary in 1840 (1200 dollars).<ref>Armstead 2012, 92, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> With income from his job, Brown was able to buy a house and reserve a pew at the same local church as his employers.<ref>Armstead 2012, 64 (home ownership), 130 (pew at St. Anna's), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> He voted in the New York elections of 1837, when full participation in the democratic process still hinged on property ownership.<ref>Armstead 2012, 112, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> As a subscriber to the ''New York Sun'' and a reader of the ''Fishkill Standard'', Brown was informed about both local and global events.<ref>Armstead 2012, 124, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> He participated in celebrations for historic occasions, including the manumission of slaves on the West Indian Islands in 1856 and the completion of the transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858.<ref>Williams-Myers 2003, 93–94, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8QE6MRA5 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Barnum_cite"></span>Brown also enjoyed leisure activities like attending “Barnum’s Caravan,the traveling circus of P.T. Barnum, which visited Newburgh in the fall of 1851 ([[#Barnum|view text]]).<ref>Brown, vol. 6, [http://digitalcollections.nyhistory.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A152933#page/79/mode/2up 22 October 1851].</ref>
  
Although the survival of the diaries detailing them is extraordinary, the daily tasks recounted by Brown may be typical of the experiences of other African-American gardeners employed at northern estates in the early nineteenth century, such as Alexander Gilson (1823–1889), the head gardener of Montgomery Place. Brown’s garden vocabulary, focused on individual species that he purchased from seedsmen and nurseries and collected in the wild, and physical facilities including the greenhouse, hotbeds, and dams he oversaw, is largely free of the aesthetic categories that structured early nineteenth-century literary debates about garden and landscape design. His attention to weather patterns and his planting experiments reflect the pragmatic concerns of someone responsible for the establishment and upkeep of a garden, while his participation in horticultural shows demonstrates the pride that he and the Verplanck’s took in his accomplishments. In the field of landscape studies, Brown’s diaries attest to the significance of African Americans who maintained early American gardens, as well as a range of experiences distinct from those of patrons, owners, and designers.
+
Denied a formal education first by slavery in Maryland and then by prejudice in New York, Brown never received schooling in subjects like history or botany. His literacy and his experiences on the job, however, offered him opportunities to acquire knowledge in both areas. Brown’s diaries mention a copy of Richard and John Lander’s ''Travels'' that Mary Anna Verplanck gave him as a gift in 1833.<ref>Armstead 2012, 79, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> Armstead focuses on the political significance of Lander’s abolitionist activism, but it may likewise be useful to consider how Brown would have imagined the African royal gardens that are briefly mentioned in the text.<ref>Robert Huish, ''The Travels of Richard and John Lander into the Interior of Africa for the Discovery of the Course and Termination of the Niger...: With a Prefatory Analysis of the Previous Travels of Park, Denham, Clapperton, Adams, Lyon, Ritchie, &c. into the Hitherto Unexplored Countries of Africa'' (London: Saunders, 1836), 297, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJCDY4TX view on Zotero].</ref> Other books could also have played an important role in mediating between the tastes and goals of garden owners like Mary Anna and literate gardeners like Brown. A list of recipes for remedies in the back of one of his diaries reveals that Brown’s botanical knowledge extended beyond purely horticultural applications to include practical medicine.<ref>Armstead 2012, 81, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on  Zotero].</ref>
 +
 
 +
Racism posed professional challenges for Brown as a head gardener. African Americans were barred from official membership in most gardening and horticultural organizations, and, as a consequence, denied the benefits that such organizations could provide their members. <ref>Armstead 2012, 45, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> Although it was unusual for women and black men to show plants at horticultural and botanical exhibitions, Brown displayed plants and produce on behalf of Mary Anna on several occasions: first in 1830 at an exhibition in Newburgh, then in 1839 at [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing’s]] Horticultural Association for the Valley of the Hudson show in Manhattan, and finally in 1949 at the Farmers and Gardeners Association.<ref>Armstead 2012, 52, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref>
 +
 
 +
[[File:2195.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 4, Tombstone of James F. Brown repaired and moved from its original location, Cemetery of the Church of St. Luke, Beacon NY, accessed February 28, 2019.]]
 +
 
 +
<span id="Injury_cite"></span>Brown may have enjoyed the time he spent working and walking in the garden at Mount Gulian, but his diaries also record the physical toll of its maintenance. He injured his back moving a log in 1839, cut his hand while pruning grape vines in 1841 ([[#Injury|view text]]), endured a skin infection in 1842, suffered a “very severe fall” in 1844, and sprained his ankle so badly that he required surgery in 1853.<ref>Armstead 2012, 68, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RRSFIU4K view on Zotero].</ref> Brown finally retired from his position in 1864, and died in 1868. His tombstone, which has been re-erected [Fig. 4], reveals that he was buried not in the [[Cemetery/Burying ground/Burial ground|cemetery]] that he helped found, but across town at the congregation he attended with his employers, the Church of Saint Luke (founded as the Episcopal parish of Saint Anna). His wife Julia remained in Fishkill until her death in 1890.<ref>Frank Hasbrouck, ed., [https://archive.org/details/cu31924028853327/page/312 ''The History of Dutchess County, New York''] (Poughkeepsie, NY: S.A. Matthieu, 1909), 313–14, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MP9CPG46 view on Zotero].</ref>
 +
 
 +
Although the survival of the diaries detailing them is extraordinary, the daily tasks recounted by Brown may be typical of the experiences of other African-American gardeners employed at northern estates in the early nineteenth century, such as Alexander Gilson (1823–1889), the head gardener of [[Montgomery Place|Montgomery Place]]. Brown’s garden vocabulary, focused on individual species that he purchased from seedsmen and [[Nursery|nurseries]] and collected in the wild, and physical facilities including the [[Greenhouse|greenhouse]], [[Bed|hotbeds]], and dams he oversaw, is largely free of the aesthetic categories that structured early nineteenth-century literary debates about garden and landscape design. His attention to weather patterns and his planting experiments reflect the pragmatic concerns of someone responsible for the establishment and upkeep of a garden, while his participation in horticultural shows demonstrates the pride that he and the Verplanck’s took in his accomplishments. In the field of landscape studies, Brown’s diaries attest to the significance of African Americans who maintained early American gardens, as well as a range of experiences distinct from those of patrons, owners, and designers.
  
 
—''Alexander Brey''
 
—''Alexander Brey''
Line 32: Line 40:
  
 
==Texts==
 
==Texts==
*James F. Brown, May 3, 1829, recording the use of wild flowers in the garden at Mount Gulian (Brown, vol. 4)
+
*<div id="Wildflower"></div>James F. Brown, May 3, 1829, recording the use of wild flowers in the garden at Mount Gulian (Brown, vol. 4)
:“Sund 3rd All this day has been Raining. Went To the D.R. [Dutch Reformed] church at the Landing. Mr. Hyer’s Text was from 10th Chapter 19 verse of the Book of Numbers. Took A walk in the woods this day and found a Very pretty Bunch of water flowers brought them home and gave them a place in the flower garden among the wild plants of our collection.”
+
:“Sund 3rd All this day has been Raining. Went To the D.R. [Dutch Reformed] church at the Landing. Mr. Hyer’s Text was from 10th Chapter 19 verse of the Book of Numbers. Took A walk in the woods this day and found a Very pretty Bunch of water flowers brought them home and gave them a place in the [[Flower garden|flower garden]] among the wild plants of our collection.” [[#Wildflower_cite|Back up to History]]
  
*<div id="WinterTasks"></div>James F. Brown, January, 1832, describing winter tasks for garden maintenance (Brown, vol. 1) [[#WinterTasks_cite|back up to History]]
+
*<div id="WinterTasks"></div>James F. Brown, January, 1832, describing winter tasks for garden maintenance (Brown, vol. 1)
:“January 14th this day brought home a Frame for hot beds, made by Mr. Ward.
+
:“January 14th this day brought home a Frame for hot [[Bed|beds]], made by Mr. Ward.
 
:“16th went to Newburgh got glass, putty, oil, paint, and some Radish & Salad seeds
 
:“16th went to Newburgh got glass, putty, oil, paint, and some Radish & Salad seeds
:“[--]th Began painting hot bed frame. Hauled Dung in the garden & formed one hot bed 8[?] foot long, the frost much out of the ground. 19th glazed and mended all The hot bed lights. Snow nearby off and Much Water in the ground.
+
:“[--]th Began painting hot [[Bed|bed]] frame. Hauled Dung in the garden & formed one hot [[Bed|bed]] 8[?] foot long, the frost much out of the ground. 19th glazed and mended all The hot [[Bed|bed]] lights. Snow nearby off and Much Water in the ground.
:“23rd I cleaned, and fixed the plants in the Green house.”
+
:“23rd I cleaned, and fixed the plants in the [[Greenhouse|Green house]].”
 +
: [[#WinterTasks_cite|Back up to History]]
  
*James F. Brown, March 17, 1832, describing an experimental planting technique for fruit trees purchased at the Downing family nursery in Newburgh (Brown, vol. 1)
+
*James F. Brown, March 17, 1832, describing an experimental planting technique for fruit trees purchased at the [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing]] family [[Nursery|nursery]] in Newburgh (Brown, vol. 1)
:“March 17th The greater part of this day has Been raining and in the afternoon came on a very severe snow storm which continued all night. On Friday the 16th Removed the old hot bed and Trans-planted some cherry trees that stood by it. Michael also finished a stone wall on one side of the brooke in the garden. Monday 19th Very cold and three or four inches of snow on the ground, so there can be no work done in the garden as yet. On Wednesday the 14th of March set out 6 Peach Trees of assorted kinds, from Mr. Downing’s, and have tryed an Experiment to prevent the fruite from droping off, by laying Some flat stones at the bottom of the roots and also tryed the Experiment with an Apricot.”
+
:“March 17th The greater part of this day has Been raining and in the afternoon came on a very severe snow storm which continued all night. On Friday the 16th Removed the old hot [[Bed|bed]] and Trans-planted some cherry trees that stood by it. Michael also finished a stone wall on one side of the brooke in the garden. Monday 19th Very cold and three or four inches of snow on the ground, so there can be no work done in the garden as yet. On Wednesday the 14th of March set out 6 Peach Trees of assorted kinds, from [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Mr. Downing’s]], and have tryed an Experiment to prevent the fruite from droping off, by laying Some flat stones at the bottom of the roots and also tryed the Experiment with an Apricot.”
  
*James F. Brown, September 13, 1836, mentioning a gala at the Downing family nursery in Newburgh (Brown, vol. 1)
+
*<div id="Gala"></div>James F. Brown, September 13, 1836, mentioning a gala at the [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing]] family [[Nursery|nursery]] in Newburgh (Brown, vol. 1)
:“Tuesday 13th Warm & Cloudy but no rain. A Grand Galla at Downings Garden. Received a letter [. . . .]”
+
:“Tuesday 13th Warm & Cloudy but no rain. A Grand Galla at [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downings]] Garden. Received a letter [. . .]” [[#Gala_cite|Back up to History]]
  
*<div id="Dam"></div>James F. Brown, August 3, 1838, summarizing the completion of a project to dam the brook in the garden at Mount Gulian in August and September of 1838 (Brown, vol. 8) [[#Dam_cite|back up to History]]
+
*<div id="Dam"></div>James F. Brown, August 3, 1838, summarizing the completion of a project to dam the brook in the garden at Mount Gulian in August and September of 1838 (Brown, vol. 8)
:“August 3rd Finished a large Dam in the Garden.”
+
:“August 3rd Finished a large Dam in the Garden.” [[#Dam_cite|Back up to History]]
  
*<div id="Gravel"></div>James F. Brown, October 18, 1838, (Brown, vol. 2) [[#Gravel_cite|back up to History]]
+
*<div id="Gravel"></div>James F. Brown, October 18, 1838, (Brown, vol. 2)
:“Thurs 18th This morning was frosty, but after the Early part of the day it was warm and pleasant. Dug up the crooked border in the garden and sowed the Rose Larkspur seed. The women busy cleaning house. Doct[o]r VP and Mrs. VP layed out a Circular Roade in front of The house and layed some grabel on it.”  
+
:“Thurs 18th This morning was frosty, but after the Early part of the day it was warm and pleasant. Dug up the crooked border in the garden and sowed the Rose Larkspur seed. The women busy cleaning house. Doct[o]r VP and Mrs. VP layed out a Circular Roade in front of The house and layed some grabel on it.” [[#Gravel_cite|Back up to History]]
  
*James F. Brown, March 19, 1841, noting an injury from a gardening accident (Brown, vol. 2)
+
*<div id="Injury"></div>James F. Brown, March 19, 1841, noting an injury from a gardening accident (Brown, vol. 2)
:“Frid 19th To day the weather has been very pleasant more so than yesterday. Went to NewBurgh and bought a small water Pot. Cut my hand Triming Grape Vines.”
+
:“Frid 19th To day the weather has been very pleasant more so than yesterday. Went to NewBurgh and bought a small water [[Pot|Pot]]. <u>Cut</u> my <u>hand</u> Triming Grape Vines.” [[#Injury_cite|Back up to History]]
  
*James F. Brown, March 24–27, 1841, describing a trip to New York to purchase plants and seeds (Brown, vol. 2)
+
*<div id="NewYork"></div>James F. Brown, March 24–27, 1841, describing a trip to New York to purchase plants and seeds (Brown, vol. 2)
:“Wed 14th The weather to day has been very fine. Went to New York at 5 oclock with The steam boate Jam[es] Madison, arived in Town half past 10 oclock.
+
:“Wed 24th The weather to day has been very fine. Went to New York at 5 oclock with The steam boate Jam[es] Madison, arived in Town half past 10 oclock.
 
:“Thurs 25th Bought some flower seed &c from Thorborn
 
:“Thurs 25th Bought some flower seed &c from Thorborn
 
:“Frid 26th Fine weather. Went over to New Ark [Newark]. Bought a Macranthan Geranium from Mrs. Webb.
 
:“Frid 26th Fine weather. Went over to New Ark [Newark]. Bought a Macranthan Geranium from Mrs. Webb.
:“Satur 27th Bought stock Gilly flower at The fulton market for Miss Mary VP. Left New York at 4 oclock in the S.B. Highlander for Fishkill, her first trip on Saturday this seasons.”
+
:“Satur 27th Bought stock Gilly flower at The fulton market for Miss Mary VP. Left New York at 4 oclock in the S.B. Highlander for Fishkill, her first trip on Saturday this seasons.” [[#NewYork_cite|Back up to History]]
  
*James F. Brown, April 1, 1841, recording work in the garden that he maintained for himself and his wife (Brown, vol. 2)
+
*<div id="Wife"></div>James F. Brown, April 1, 1841, recording work in the garden that he maintained for himself and his wife (Brown, vol. 2)
:“Thurs The first Day of April Set out some fruit trees in my own garden which I bought of Mr. Downing. The weather Cleared off in the afternoon pleasant.”
+
:“Thurs The first Day of April Set out some fruit trees in my own garden which I bought of [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Mr. Downing]]. The weather Cleared off in the afternoon pleasant.” [[#Wife_cite|Back up to History]]
  
*James F. Brown, September 29, 1854, recording observations on the new grapery and greenhouse at Wodenethe (Brown, vol. 4)
+
*<div id="Sargent"></div>James F. Brown, September 29, 1854, recording observations on the new grapery and [[Greenhouse|greenhouse]] at Wodenethe (Brown, vol. 4)
:“Mond 29th To day the weather has been Very pleasant. Finished gathering and packing grapes for winter. Mr. Sergant has built this summer a fine Grapery and a new Green House, And Mr. R. G. Ranking has commenced to Build a Cotton Factory on The Matteawan Creek above Mr. Newlins. And Mr. Newlins Mill has all been this year turned into Manufactory. There is great talk of War With Texes JC”
+
:“Mond 29th To day the weather has been Very pleasant. Finished gathering and packing grapes for winter. Mr. Sergant has built this summer a fine Grapery and a new [[Greenhouse|Green House]], And Mr. R. G. Ranking has commenced to Build a Cotton Factory on The Matteawan Creek above Mr. Newlins. And Mr. Newlins Mill has all been this year turned into Manufactory. There is great talk of War With Texes JC” [[#Sargent_cite|Back up to History]]
  
*James F. Brown, August 20–October 31, 1851, describing the burial of Hester Thompson at Greenwood Cemetery, as well as fundraising and purchase of land for the Fishkill Coloured peoples cemetery (Brown, vol. 6)
+
*<div id="Cemetery"></div>James F. Brown, August 20–October 31, 1851, describing the burial of Hester Thompson at Green-Wood Cemetery, as well as fundraising and purchase of land for the Fishkill Coloured peoples [[Cemetery/Burying ground/Burial ground|cemetery]] (Brown, vol. 6)
 
:“Wed. 20 Something like rain
 
:“Wed. 20 Something like rain
 
:“Hester P. Thompson Died in Brooklin
 
:“Hester P. Thompson Died in Brooklin
:“Thurs 21 Went to New York in the S Boate Henry Clay. . . .
+
:“Thurs 21 Went to New York in the S Boate Henry Clay. . .
:“Frid 22 Hester was buried this day in Greenwood Cementry. Bought some greenhouse plants.
+
:“Frid 22 Hester was buried this day in Greenwood Cementry. Bought some [[Greenhouse|greenhouse]] plants.
 
:“Sat 23 Returned from New York in the Cars
 
:“Sat 23 Returned from New York in the Cars
 
:“Sund 24 Heard the New Pastor preach at the Reformed Duch Church
 
:“Sund 24 Heard the New Pastor preach at the Reformed Duch Church
:“Mon 25 Very warm. Received some greenhouse plants from Mr. Phealius N. York by the way of NewBurgh
+
:“Mon 25 Very warm. Received some [[Greenhouse|greenhouse]] plants from Mr. Phealius N. York by the way of NewBurgh
:“Tues 26 Sowed Corn Salid and Cauliflower seed and hauling the muck that cleared from the Doctors pond
+
:“Tues 26 Sowed Corn Salid and Cauliflower seed and hauling the muck that cleared from the Doctors [[Pond|pond]]
:“Wed 27 The Fishkill Plank Roade began This day near the long Dock. L. Wilcox inlargeing the stage in the Greenhouse. The Mornings & evenings very coole at this time. Sowed spinach, cale & cornsaled
+
:“Wed 27 The Fishkill Plank Roade began This day near the long Dock. L. Wilcox inlargeing the stage in the [[Greenhouse|Greenhouse]]. The Mornings & evenings very coole at this time. Sowed spinach, cale & cornsaled
 
:“Thurs 28 John D. Holden & wife came up
 
:“Thurs 28 John D. Holden & wife came up
:“Frid 29 A meeting to buy Burying ground
+
:“Frid 29 A meeting to buy [[Cemetery/Burying ground/Burial ground|Burying ground]]
:“Sat 30 Wilcox finished green house
+
:“Sat 30 Wilcox finished [[Greenhouse|green house]]
 
:“Sund 31 The weather Very warm and dry.
 
:“Sund 31 The weather Very warm and dry.
 
:“Mon 1 Day of September dry weather still continues. Agreed for a lot of land For the Coloured peoples burying Place at a Meeting held in the Zion Church Fishkill Landing.
 
:“Mon 1 Day of September dry weather still continues. Agreed for a lot of land For the Coloured peoples burying Place at a Meeting held in the Zion Church Fishkill Landing.
 
:“Tues 2. This morning it began to Rain in small showers but was soon over
 
:“Tues 2. This morning it began to Rain in small showers but was soon over
 
:“Wed 3 Warm and dry Mr J D L Verplanck very sick
 
:“Wed 3 Warm and dry Mr J D L Verplanck very sick
:“Thurs 4 Glazeing green house and earthing Celery
+
:“Thurs 4 Glazeing [[Greenhouse|green house]] and earthing Celery
 
:“Frid 5 Very warm weather
 
:“Frid 5 Very warm weather
:“Sat 6 Went out to collect Money to To buy a burieng ground For the Coloured People of Fishkill Landing and vicinity [. . . .]
+
:“Sat 6 Went out to collect Money to To buy a [[Cemetery/Burying ground/Burial ground|burieng ground]] For the Coloured People of Fishkill Landing and vicinity [. . .]
:“Tues 16 Went out to collect money for a burying place for the Coloured People of Fishkill Landing [. . . .]
+
:“Tues 16 Went out to collect money for a [[Cemetery/Burying ground/Burial ground|burying place]] for the Coloured People of Fishkill Landing [. . .]
:“Tues 23 There was a very small quantity of rain Began to house the Green Plants. Went over to NewBurgh to Collect some Money for a buriing ground [. . . .]
+
:“Tues 23 There was a very small quantity of rain Began to house the Green Plants. Went over to NewBurgh to Collect some Money for a [[Cemetery/Burying ground/Burial ground|buriing ground]] [. . .]
:“Sat 4 [October] Paid 65 dollars to Ja[mes] Mackin For the Coloured burying place [. . . .]
+
:“Sat 4 [October] Paid 65 dollars to Ja[mes] Mackin For the Coloured [[Cemetery/Burying ground/Burial ground|burying place]] [. . .]
 
:“Tues 14 Clear and pleasant
 
:“Tues 14 Clear and pleasant
:“Paide all The Money for the Colored Peoples Union burying ground To James Mackin for john P. Dewint also Choesed five trustees namely Samuel Sampson, James F. Brown, Edward Bush, Christian A. Reynolds, and Samuel Gommer [. . . .]
+
:“Paide all The Money for the Colored Peoples Union burying ground To James Mackin for john P. Dewint also Choesed five trustees namely Samuel Sampson, James F. Brown, Edward Bush, Christian A. Reynolds, and Samuel Gommer [. . .]
:“Mon 20 Went up to Poukeepsie to have a Deed Recorded for the Colored Peoples burrying ground went up in the cars and came down to NewBurgh in the steam Henry Clay [. . . .]
+
:“Mon 20 Went up to Poukeepsie to have a Deed Recorded for the Colored Peoples burrying ground went up in the cars and came down to NewBurgh in the steam Henry Clay [. . .]
 
:“Thur 30 John Henry Rouse Died last night
 
:“Thur 30 John Henry Rouse Died last night
:“Frid 31 The weather warm and pleasant. Let the water off from the lower pond. J. Henry Rouse was buried in the Coloured Peoples New Burying Place, it being the interment in that ground.”
+
:“Frid 31 The weather warm and pleasant. Let the water off from the lower [[Pond|pond]]. J. Henry Rouse was buried in the Coloured Peoples New Burying Place, it being the interment in that ground.”
 +
: [[#Cemetery_cite|Back up to History]]
  
*James F. Brown, October 22, 1851, mentioning a visit to P. T. Barnum’s travelling circus in Newburgh (Brown, vol. 6)
+
*<div id="Barnum"></div>James F. Brown, October 22, 1851, mentioning a visit to P. T. Barnum’s travelling circus in Newburgh (Brown, vol. 6)
:“Wed 22 Began to rain last night, and it has continued to rain the greater part of the night. Barnum’s Caravan at NewBurgh.”
+
:“Wed 22 Began to rain last night, and it has continued to rain the greater part of the night. <u>Barnum’s Caravan</u> at NewBurgh.” [[#Barnum_cite|Back up to History]]
  
*Anonymous, January 18, 1868, Obituary for James F. Brown in the Fishkill Standard<ref>https://beaconcemeterytrail.wordpress.com/tag/james-f-brown/</ref>
+
*Anonymous, January 18, 1868, Obituary for James F. Brown in the ''Fishkill Standard''<ref>“James F. Brown,” ''Beacon Cemeteries'' (blog), Beacon Historical Society Cemetery Committee, August 30, 2013. https://beaconcemeterytrail.wordpress.com/tag/james-f-brown/.</ref>
 
:“Mr. James Brown, a colored citizen who has been a resident of this village for nearly forty years, died at his residence on the Verplanck estate, on Tuesday. Mr. Brown was well-known to nearly all our citizens. He was formerly a slave in Maryland, but his master giving him his freedom, he came north, and by industry accumulated funds enough to purchase the freedom of his wife. For about thirty-six years, he has lived with the Verplanck family, first as a coachman, but for the last twenty years as head gardener. He was, as near as we can learn, about 73 years of age. He assisted at the building of the Episcopal Church, Matteawan. Mr. Brown was an old landmark, a prominent man among the colored people, always courteous and deferential, with a good education, probably self-acquired, and his death will be regretted by many.”
 
:“Mr. James Brown, a colored citizen who has been a resident of this village for nearly forty years, died at his residence on the Verplanck estate, on Tuesday. Mr. Brown was well-known to nearly all our citizens. He was formerly a slave in Maryland, but his master giving him his freedom, he came north, and by industry accumulated funds enough to purchase the freedom of his wife. For about thirty-six years, he has lived with the Verplanck family, first as a coachman, but for the last twenty years as head gardener. He was, as near as we can learn, about 73 years of age. He assisted at the building of the Episcopal Church, Matteawan. Mr. Brown was an old landmark, a prominent man among the colored people, always courteous and deferential, with a good education, probably self-acquired, and his death will be regretted by many.”
  
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==Images==
 
==Images==
 
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">
 
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">
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 +
File:2197.jpg|[[Alexander Jackson Davis]], ''Mount Gulian, Residence of G. C. Verplank, Esq.'', n.d.
 +
 +
File:2194.jpg|James F. Brown, Page from diary, vol. 1, 19 April 1832–2 June 1832.
 +
 +
File:2196.jpg|William Wade, Detail of Verplanck House (Mount Gulian), in William  Wade and William Croome, ''Wade & Croome's Panorama of the Hudson River from New York to Waterford'' (1847), n.p.
 +
 +
File:2195.jpg|Tombstone of James F. Brown repaired and moved from its original location, [[Cemetery/Burying ground/Burial ground|Cemetery]] of the Church of St. Luke, Beacon, NY, accessed February 28, 2019.
 
</gallery>
 
</gallery>
 +
 
<hr>
 
<hr>
  
 
==Other Resources==
 
==Other Resources==
 +
[http://digitalcollections.nyhistory.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A152251 James F. Brown Papers (New-York Historical Society)]
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[http://www.mountgulian.org/ Mount Gulian Historic Site]
  
 
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<hr>
 
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[[Category: People|James F. Brown]]
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[[Category:People|Brown, James Francis]]

Revision as of 10:16, September 11, 2020

James Francis Brown (c. 1793–1868) escaped slavery in Maryland in 1828 and purchased his own freedom by working for the Verplanck family in New York, eventually becoming their head gardener. His diaries document the daily lives of people who constructed and maintained the elaborate gardens and landscapes commissioned by wealthy residents of the Hudson Valley in the mid-nineteenth century.

History

Fig. 1, William Wade, Detail of Verplanck house in Wade & Croome's Panorama of the Hudson River from New York to Waterford (1847), n.p.

James Francis Brown, also known as Anthony Chase and Anthony Fisher, was born in slavery around October 1, 1793, in northern Maryland.[1] Little is known about his mother. His father, Robert Chase, was also enslaved, but died a free man on July 22, 1838.[2] The historical evidence concerning James F. Brown’s early life is difficult to follow, and sometimes contradictory. Historian Myra Armstead convincingly argues that he learned how to read and write at one of the German Lutheran churches in Frederick County in his youth.[3] She speculates that Brown may have been owned by Matthew Brown, a farmer and co-owner of a wool processing factory, before Brown was sold to the farmer William E. Williams (1797–1822).[4] While working for the Williams family in 1818, James Brown was recorded on the Baltimore city tax list, residing on Frederick Street, where he may have enjoyed a “quasi-free” status.[5] In 1826, in anticipation of his own promised manumission, Brown married and paid for the manumission of a woman named Julia Chase (also known as Julia Williams), but upon the death of Henry Lee Williams, Brown’s new mistress Susan F. Williams refused to free him.[6] In 1827, Brown and his wife ran away from slavery.

Fig. 2, James Francis Brown, Page from diary, vol. 1, 19 April 1832–2 June 1832.

By March of 1828, eight months after he fled Baltimore, Brown was living in New York City and working as a coachman and waiter for the judge and former congressman Daniel C. Verplanck (1762–1834). When Brown was recognized and his whereabouts made known to Susan Williams, Verplanck offered to pay her a security bond until Brown was able to purchase his own freedom for 300 dollars over the course of three annual installments.[7] Brown earned this money working as a waiter, coachman, and gardener for Verplanck and his family, first in New York City, and later at their Hudson River estate Mount Gulian in Fishkill (modern Beacon) [Fig. 1]. In 1829, he began a series of diaries that he would continue until 1866, which provide almost all of the surviving historical evidence for his life [Fig. 2].[8] Between 1831 and 1832, Brown took a year-long hiatus from his work for the Verplancks, during which he lived and worked in New York City with the lawyer and anti-slavery activist Peter A. Jay (1776–1843).[9] Upon his return to the Verplancks in 1832, Brown dedicated himself to gardening, and was promoted to the position of head gardener at Mount Gulian in 1836 [Fig. 3]. Daniel Verplanck had died in 1834, so Brown answered to his forty-three-year-old daughter Mary Anna Verplanck (1793–1856) in his new role. Brown’s duties always included tasks like running errands for the family and transporting them across the Hudson river to Newburgh, but as head gardener he also supervised other employees in the gardens and grounds of the estate.[10]

Fig. 3, Alexander Jackson Davis, Mount Gulian, Residence of G. C. Verplank, Esq., n.d.

The garden at Mount Gulian was already established by the time James F. Brown started work there in 1829. First laid out by Daniel Verplanck in 1804, it was about six acres in size, with formal flower beds near the main house, a wooded area, a brook, a pond, and long lawn providing a view across the Hudson.[11] Although Brown never set out to describe Mount Gulian in his diaries, his records nevertheless constitute a valuable source for reconstructing its early design. One entry from 1836 notes “laying out walk round the brooke in the garden” while an 1838 entry records that “Doctor VP and Mrs. VP layed out a circular roade in front of the house and layed some grabel [gravel] on it” (view text).[12] Another 1838 entry, one of only a few garden projects proudly included in the list of momentous occasions excerpted as a “Book of References” at the end of his final diary, records the completion of “a large dam in the garden” (view text). According to Brown’s entries from that year, the damming of the brook was a substantial project that ran from August 20th until September 20th, coinciding with the construction of a pond. Brown also installed and planted hotbeds, and “cleaned and fixed plants in the green house” (view text).[13]

In addition to these horticultural responsibilities, Brown managed a budget for garden, which he used to make purchasing trips to New York City and to order seeds and plants from well-known seedsmen and nurseries of the period, including Parmentier’s, Prince’s, Thorburn’s (view text), Higg’s, and Bridgeman’s.[14] Many of the plants listed in later descriptions of Mount Gulian are mentioned in Brown’s diaries, including magnolia from New York, Isabella grape vines, rose bushes, and peach, plumb, and apricot trees.[15] Not all of the plants in the garden were purchased from seed catalogs or nurseries. One entry recounts how Brown “took a walk in the woods this day and found a very pretty bunch of water flowers, brought them home and gave them a place in the flower garden among the wild plants of our collection” (view text).[16]

Thanks to Brown’s position on the Hudson River he met and worked with some of the most celebrated figures in early nineteenth-century American landscape gardening. Foremost among them was Andrew Jackson Downing, whose family nursery and botanic gardens was located just across the Hudson in Newburgh. Brown’s diaries contain many references to the Downing nursery, where he purchased fruit trees and other supplies for the garden at Mount Gulian, and where he attended a “Grand Gala” in 1836 (view text).[17] Brown may also have acted as a representative of the Downing nursery when he attended the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Show in Philadelphia during the autumn of 1840.[18]

Brown’s acquaintances included other owners of great gardens and horticultural collections in the Hudson Valley. Mary Anna’s brother-in-law John W. Knevels (d. 1855) collected exotic and tropical plants, and Brown visited him frequently to store plants in his green houses and to obtain cuttings for Mount Gulian.[19] In 1842 and 1845 Brown noted developments at Henry Winthrop Sargent’s estate Wodenethe, just a few miles away on the other side of Fishkill, including “a fine Grapery and a new Green House” Sargent built (view text).[20] Brown also knew and visited gardeners who worked at nearby estates, including William Bennett at Wodenethe; B. Manning who gardened for Robert Bayard, a neighbor of the Verplancks; Michael Ross and William Lucas at the Downing nursery; and Mrs. Deacon, the wife of a gardener in Wappingers Falls.[21] These gardeners exchanged plants with each other and must also have shared gardening tips and social news when they met.

As Armstead has pointed out, Brown’s career in gardening anticipated later calls for African Americans to embrace the profession. Early African American newspapers such as the Colored American reprinted articles from agricultural newspapers, which praised the benefits of gardening “for health, for pleasure, and for profit.”[22] In 1853, the abolitionist Lewis Woodson wrote a letter to Frederick Douglass’ Paper arguing that for African Americans, gardening was “an easy, practical, and certain means of bettering their condition, and increasing their happiness and respectability.”[23] Extending the arguments of Barbara Mooney, Armstead suggests that African Americans like Brown may have associated early American garden theory and practice as they developed in northern states with freedom.[24] Brown kept a small garden for his wife and himself in which he planted vegetables, fruit trees (view text), and a rose bush.[25]

In addition to his work on the garden at Mount Gulian, James F. Brown also worked to establish a “coloured peoples burying place” in Fishkill ().[26] In 1851, just one week after returning from a funeral for his friend Hester Purnell Thompson at the famed rural cemetery Green-Wood in Brooklyn, New York, Brown organized a meeting to buy a plot of land adjacent to the local Methodist cemetery for the new burial place.[27] The cemetery itself is a flat, rectangular grass lawn surrounded by trees at the corner of Walnut Street and Verplanck Avenue known as the Colored Peoples Union Burying Ground. Brown’s efforts to support the purchase and his role as a trustee may reflect how cemeteries like Green-Wood and Mount Auburn inspired African American communities across the region. As a gardener, Brown must have been especially aware of the dignifying potential of landscapes for the dead.

While Brown’s salary as a master gardener is unknown, it afforded him a comfortable life. Based on figures for comparable skilled trades, Armstead speculates that he may have earned been between 490 and 630 dollars annually, which was between one third and one half of the White House gardener’s annual salary in 1840 (1200 dollars).[28] With income from his job, Brown was able to buy a house and reserve a pew at the same local church as his employers.[29] He voted in the New York elections of 1837, when full participation in the democratic process still hinged on property ownership.[30] As a subscriber to the New York Sun and a reader of the Fishkill Standard, Brown was informed about both local and global events.[31] He participated in celebrations for historic occasions, including the manumission of slaves on the West Indian Islands in 1856 and the completion of the transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858.[32] Brown also enjoyed leisure activities like attending “Barnum’s Caravan,” the traveling circus of P.T. Barnum, which visited Newburgh in the fall of 1851 (view text).[33]

Denied a formal education first by slavery in Maryland and then by prejudice in New York, Brown never received schooling in subjects like history or botany. His literacy and his experiences on the job, however, offered him opportunities to acquire knowledge in both areas. Brown’s diaries mention a copy of Richard and John Lander’s Travels that Mary Anna Verplanck gave him as a gift in 1833.[34] Armstead focuses on the political significance of Lander’s abolitionist activism, but it may likewise be useful to consider how Brown would have imagined the African royal gardens that are briefly mentioned in the text.[35] Other books could also have played an important role in mediating between the tastes and goals of garden owners like Mary Anna and literate gardeners like Brown. A list of recipes for remedies in the back of one of his diaries reveals that Brown’s botanical knowledge extended beyond purely horticultural applications to include practical medicine.[36]

Racism posed professional challenges for Brown as a head gardener. African Americans were barred from official membership in most gardening and horticultural organizations, and, as a consequence, denied the benefits that such organizations could provide their members. [37] Although it was unusual for women and black men to show plants at horticultural and botanical exhibitions, Brown displayed plants and produce on behalf of Mary Anna on several occasions: first in 1830 at an exhibition in Newburgh, then in 1839 at Downing’s Horticultural Association for the Valley of the Hudson show in Manhattan, and finally in 1949 at the Farmers and Gardeners Association.[38]

Fig. 4, Tombstone of James F. Brown repaired and moved from its original location, Cemetery of the Church of St. Luke, Beacon NY, accessed February 28, 2019.

Brown may have enjoyed the time he spent working and walking in the garden at Mount Gulian, but his diaries also record the physical toll of its maintenance. He injured his back moving a log in 1839, cut his hand while pruning grape vines in 1841 (view text), endured a skin infection in 1842, suffered a “very severe fall” in 1844, and sprained his ankle so badly that he required surgery in 1853.[39] Brown finally retired from his position in 1864, and died in 1868. His tombstone, which has been re-erected [Fig. 4], reveals that he was buried not in the cemetery that he helped found, but across town at the congregation he attended with his employers, the Church of Saint Luke (founded as the Episcopal parish of Saint Anna). His wife Julia remained in Fishkill until her death in 1890.[40]

Although the survival of the diaries detailing them is extraordinary, the daily tasks recounted by Brown may be typical of the experiences of other African-American gardeners employed at northern estates in the early nineteenth century, such as Alexander Gilson (1823–1889), the head gardener of Montgomery Place. Brown’s garden vocabulary, focused on individual species that he purchased from seedsmen and nurseries and collected in the wild, and physical facilities including the greenhouse, hotbeds, and dams he oversaw, is largely free of the aesthetic categories that structured early nineteenth-century literary debates about garden and landscape design. His attention to weather patterns and his planting experiments reflect the pragmatic concerns of someone responsible for the establishment and upkeep of a garden, while his participation in horticultural shows demonstrates the pride that he and the Verplanck’s took in his accomplishments. In the field of landscape studies, Brown’s diaries attest to the significance of African Americans who maintained early American gardens, as well as a range of experiences distinct from those of patrons, owners, and designers.

Alexander Brey


Texts

  • James F. Brown, May 3, 1829, recording the use of wild flowers in the garden at Mount Gulian (Brown, vol. 4)
“Sund 3rd All this day has been Raining. Went To the D.R. [Dutch Reformed] church at the Landing. Mr. Hyer’s Text was from 10th Chapter 19 verse of the Book of Numbers. Took A walk in the woods this day and found a Very pretty Bunch of water flowers brought them home and gave them a place in the flower garden among the wild plants of our collection.” Back up to History
  • James F. Brown, January, 1832, describing winter tasks for garden maintenance (Brown, vol. 1)
“January 14th this day brought home a Frame for hot beds, made by Mr. Ward.
“16th went to Newburgh got glass, putty, oil, paint, and some Radish & Salad seeds
“[--]th Began painting hot bed frame. Hauled Dung in the garden & formed one hot bed 8[?] foot long, the frost much out of the ground. 19th glazed and mended all The hot bed lights. Snow nearby off and Much Water in the ground.
“23rd I cleaned, and fixed the plants in the Green house.”
Back up to History
  • James F. Brown, March 17, 1832, describing an experimental planting technique for fruit trees purchased at the Downing family nursery in Newburgh (Brown, vol. 1)
“March 17th The greater part of this day has Been raining and in the afternoon came on a very severe snow storm which continued all night. On Friday the 16th Removed the old hot bed and Trans-planted some cherry trees that stood by it. Michael also finished a stone wall on one side of the brooke in the garden. Monday 19th Very cold and three or four inches of snow on the ground, so there can be no work done in the garden as yet. On Wednesday the 14th of March set out 6 Peach Trees of assorted kinds, from Mr. Downing’s, and have tryed an Experiment to prevent the fruite from droping off, by laying Some flat stones at the bottom of the roots and also tryed the Experiment with an Apricot.”
  • James F. Brown, September 13, 1836, mentioning a gala at the Downing family nursery in Newburgh (Brown, vol. 1)
“Tuesday 13th Warm & Cloudy but no rain. A Grand Galla at Downings Garden. Received a letter [. . .]” Back up to History
  • James F. Brown, August 3, 1838, summarizing the completion of a project to dam the brook in the garden at Mount Gulian in August and September of 1838 (Brown, vol. 8)
“August 3rd Finished a large Dam in the Garden.” Back up to History
  • James F. Brown, October 18, 1838, (Brown, vol. 2)
“Thurs 18th This morning was frosty, but after the Early part of the day it was warm and pleasant. Dug up the crooked border in the garden and sowed the Rose Larkspur seed. The women busy cleaning house. Doct[o]r VP and Mrs. VP layed out a Circular Roade in front of The house and layed some grabel on it.” Back up to History
  • James F. Brown, March 19, 1841, noting an injury from a gardening accident (Brown, vol. 2)
“Frid 19th To day the weather has been very pleasant more so than yesterday. Went to NewBurgh and bought a small water Pot. Cut my hand Triming Grape Vines.” Back up to History
  • James F. Brown, March 24–27, 1841, describing a trip to New York to purchase plants and seeds (Brown, vol. 2)
“Wed 24th The weather to day has been very fine. Went to New York at 5 oclock with The steam boate Jam[es] Madison, arived in Town half past 10 oclock.
“Thurs 25th Bought some flower seed &c from Thorborn
“Frid 26th Fine weather. Went over to New Ark [Newark]. Bought a Macranthan Geranium from Mrs. Webb.
“Satur 27th Bought stock Gilly flower at The fulton market for Miss Mary VP. Left New York at 4 oclock in the S.B. Highlander for Fishkill, her first trip on Saturday this seasons.” Back up to History
  • James F. Brown, April 1, 1841, recording work in the garden that he maintained for himself and his wife (Brown, vol. 2)
“Thurs The first Day of April Set out some fruit trees in my own garden which I bought of Mr. Downing. The weather Cleared off in the afternoon pleasant.” Back up to History
  • James F. Brown, September 29, 1854, recording observations on the new grapery and greenhouse at Wodenethe (Brown, vol. 4)
“Mond 29th To day the weather has been Very pleasant. Finished gathering and packing grapes for winter. Mr. Sergant has built this summer a fine Grapery and a new Green House, And Mr. R. G. Ranking has commenced to Build a Cotton Factory on The Matteawan Creek above Mr. Newlins. And Mr. Newlins Mill has all been this year turned into Manufactory. There is great talk of War With Texes JC” Back up to History
  • James F. Brown, August 20–October 31, 1851, describing the burial of Hester Thompson at Green-Wood Cemetery, as well as fundraising and purchase of land for the Fishkill Coloured peoples cemetery (Brown, vol. 6)
“Wed. 20 Something like rain
“Hester P. Thompson Died in Brooklin
“Thurs 21 Went to New York in the S Boate Henry Clay. . .
“Frid 22 Hester was buried this day in Greenwood Cementry. Bought some greenhouse plants.
“Sat 23 Returned from New York in the Cars
“Sund 24 Heard the New Pastor preach at the Reformed Duch Church
“Mon 25 Very warm. Received some greenhouse plants from Mr. Phealius N. York by the way of NewBurgh
“Tues 26 Sowed Corn Salid and Cauliflower seed and hauling the muck that cleared from the Doctors pond
“Wed 27 The Fishkill Plank Roade began This day near the long Dock. L. Wilcox inlargeing the stage in the Greenhouse. The Mornings & evenings very coole at this time. Sowed spinach, cale & cornsaled
“Thurs 28 John D. Holden & wife came up
“Frid 29 A meeting to buy Burying ground
“Sat 30 Wilcox finished green house
“Sund 31 The weather Very warm and dry.
“Mon 1 Day of September dry weather still continues. Agreed for a lot of land For the Coloured peoples burying Place at a Meeting held in the Zion Church Fishkill Landing.
“Tues 2. This morning it began to Rain in small showers but was soon over
“Wed 3 Warm and dry Mr J D L Verplanck very sick
“Thurs 4 Glazeing green house and earthing Celery
“Frid 5 Very warm weather
“Sat 6 Went out to collect Money to To buy a burieng ground For the Coloured People of Fishkill Landing and vicinity [. . .]
“Tues 16 Went out to collect money for a burying place for the Coloured People of Fishkill Landing [. . .]
“Tues 23 There was a very small quantity of rain Began to house the Green Plants. Went over to NewBurgh to Collect some Money for a buriing ground [. . .]
“Sat 4 [October] Paid 65 dollars to Ja[mes] Mackin For the Coloured burying place [. . .]
“Tues 14 Clear and pleasant
“Paide all The Money for the Colored Peoples Union burying ground To James Mackin for john P. Dewint also Choesed five trustees namely Samuel Sampson, James F. Brown, Edward Bush, Christian A. Reynolds, and Samuel Gommer [. . .]
“Mon 20 Went up to Poukeepsie to have a Deed Recorded for the Colored Peoples burrying ground went up in the cars and came down to NewBurgh in the steam Henry Clay [. . .]
“Thur 30 John Henry Rouse Died last night
“Frid 31 The weather warm and pleasant. Let the water off from the lower pond. J. Henry Rouse was buried in the Coloured Peoples New Burying Place, it being the interment in that ground.”
Back up to History
  • James F. Brown, October 22, 1851, mentioning a visit to P. T. Barnum’s travelling circus in Newburgh (Brown, vol. 6)
“Wed 22 Began to rain last night, and it has continued to rain the greater part of the night. Barnum’s Caravan at NewBurgh.” Back up to History
  • Anonymous, January 18, 1868, Obituary for James F. Brown in the Fishkill Standard[41]
“Mr. James Brown, a colored citizen who has been a resident of this village for nearly forty years, died at his residence on the Verplanck estate, on Tuesday. Mr. Brown was well-known to nearly all our citizens. He was formerly a slave in Maryland, but his master giving him his freedom, he came north, and by industry accumulated funds enough to purchase the freedom of his wife. For about thirty-six years, he has lived with the Verplanck family, first as a coachman, but for the last twenty years as head gardener. He was, as near as we can learn, about 73 years of age. He assisted at the building of the Episcopal Church, Matteawan. Mr. Brown was an old landmark, a prominent man among the colored people, always courteous and deferential, with a good education, probably self-acquired, and his death will be regretted by many.”

Images


Other Resources

James F. Brown Papers (New-York Historical Society)

Mount Gulian Historic Site


Notes

  1. Myra B. Young Armstead, Freedom’s Gardener: James F. Brown, Horticulture, and the Hudson Valley in Antebellum America (New York: New York University Press, 2012), 11, view on Zotero.
  2. Armstead 2012, 12, view on Zotero.
  3. Armstead 2012, 14, view on Zotero. Verplanck family history asserts that it was a daughter of the Verplancks who taught him. Alice B. Lockwood, ed., Gardens of Colony and State: Gardens and Gardeners of the American Colonies and of the Republic before 1840 (New York: Charles Scribner’s for the Garden Club of America, 1931), 286, view on Zotero.
  4. Armstead 2012, 16–19, view on Zotero.
  5. Armstead 2012, 19–20, view on Zotero.
  6. Armstead 2012, 22–23, view on Zotero.
  7. Armstead 2012, 28–30, view on Zotero.
  8. Garden historians were early to recognize the historical importance of these diaries as a source. See, for example, Joel Elias Springarn, “Henry Winthrop Sargent and the Early History of Landscape Gardening and Ornamental Horticulture in Dutchess County, New York,” in Year Book of the Dutchess County Historical Society, vol. 22 (n.p.: Dutchess County Historical Society, 1937), 37–38, 63–66, view on Zotero.
  9. Armstead 2012, 55–56, view on Zotero.
  10. Armstead 2012, 60–61, view on Zotero.
  11. Lockwood 1931, 284, view on Zotero.
  12. Albert James Williams-Myers, “An African Voice Among the River Folk of the Hudson River Valley. The Diary of an Exslave, 1827-1866,” in On the Morning Tide: African Americans, History, and Methodology in the Historical Ebb and Flow of Hudson River Society (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2003), 86, view on Zotero.
  13. James F. Brown, diary entry, vol. 1, 23 January 1832, James F. Brown Papers, Digital Collections, Collection of the New-York Historical Society. Via Williams-Myers 2003, 87, view on Zotero.
  14. Armstead 2012, 50, view on Zotero.
  15. Williams-Myers 2003, 87, view on Zotero.
  16. Brown, vol. 4, 3 May 1829. Via Williams-Myers 2003, 89, view on Zotero.
  17. For his purchases from Downing, see Armstead 2012, 44–46, view on Zotero. For the gala at Downing’s, see Brown, vol. 1, 13 September 1836, mentioned also in Williams-Myers 2003, 88, view on Zotero.
  18. Armstead 2012, 58–59, view on Zotero.
  19. Armstead 2012, 46–47, view on Zotero.
  20. Brown, vol. 4, 29 September 1845. Armstead 2012, 47, view on Zotero.
  21. Armstead 2012, 48–49, view on Zotero.
  22. “The Farmer’s Garden,” The Colored American, July 28, 1838. Originally published in the Albany Cultivator, April 1838, view on Zotero. Armstead 2012, 93, view on Zotero.
  23. Lewis Woodson, “Communications: Gardening,” Frederick Douglass’ Paper, September 23, 1853, view on Zotero. Via Armstead 2012, 94, view on Zotero.
  24. Barbara Burlison Mooney, “The Comfortable Tasty Framed Cottage: An African American Architectural Iconography,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 61, no. 1 (2002): 49–50, view on Zotero; Armstead 2012, 82, view on Zotero.
  25. Armstead 2012, 81–82, view on Zotero.
  26. Brown, vol. 6, 1 September 1851. Armstead 2012, 148–49, view on Zotero.
  27. Brown, vol. 6, 29 August 1851.
  28. Armstead 2012, 92, view on Zotero.
  29. Armstead 2012, 64 (home ownership), 130 (pew at St. Anna's), view on Zotero.
  30. Armstead 2012, 112, view on Zotero.
  31. Armstead 2012, 124, view on Zotero.
  32. Williams-Myers 2003, 93–94, view on Zotero.
  33. Brown, vol. 6, 22 October 1851.
  34. Armstead 2012, 79, view on Zotero.
  35. Robert Huish, The Travels of Richard and John Lander into the Interior of Africa for the Discovery of the Course and Termination of the Niger...: With a Prefatory Analysis of the Previous Travels of Park, Denham, Clapperton, Adams, Lyon, Ritchie, &c. into the Hitherto Unexplored Countries of Africa (London: Saunders, 1836), 297, view on Zotero.
  36. Armstead 2012, 81, view on Zotero.
  37. Armstead 2012, 45, view on Zotero.
  38. Armstead 2012, 52, view on Zotero.
  39. Armstead 2012, 68, view on Zotero.
  40. Frank Hasbrouck, ed., The History of Dutchess County, New York (Poughkeepsie, NY: S.A. Matthieu, 1909), 313–14, view on Zotero.
  41. “James F. Brown,” Beacon Cemeteries (blog), Beacon Historical Society Cemetery Committee, August 30, 2013. https://beaconcemeterytrail.wordpress.com/tag/james-f-brown/.

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History of Early American Landscape Design contributors, "James Francis Brown," History of Early American Landscape Design, , https://heald.nga.gov/mediawiki/index.php?title=James_Francis_Brown&oldid=39038 (accessed March 28, 2024).

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