John Turner’s Freedom

By Kelli Huggins, Education Coordinator

On October 30, 1904, the Elmira Telegram ran a single paragraph about a “remarkable colored man,” John Turner. That one paragraph outlined Turner's undeniably remarkable story, one that was also heartbreaking. Turner was the well-known manager of the stables at the Platt House hotel in Horseheads. Turner, who had lived in Horseheads for 18 years, started his life in the North as an escaped slave.

The Platt House

Turner was enslaved on the plantation of Turner family in Virginia, near Fredericksburg. From the little information given in the blurb, it is difficult to ascertain what plantation he was enslaved on, but it might have been Belle Grove in King George, VA. At the time of his Turner’s enslavement, the plantation was owned by Carolinus Turner.

During the Civil War, John Turner took one of his master’s horses and rode across Union lines. He asked for freedom, proving his master was an officer in the Confederate army. He was not made to return.

The article mentioned that Turner had since been working to locate his mother and brother, from whom he had been separated during his enslavement. He had written to former master George Turner (Carolinus had a son named George who would have been a child when John escaped) asking for assistance locating them. The report said that he had received two letters in response, but that neither could give him any information. It is unlikely he ever heard from them again.

Turner’s experience looking for lost family members was not unique. After emancipation, formerly enslaved people had little recourse to locate lost family. “Lost Friends” columns appeared in some newspapers and people placed ads looking for any information about loved ones. You can read some of their heartbreaking notes here: http://www.hnoc.org/database/lost-friends/index.html

Alsace S. Blandford: Painter by Trade and for Art

By Erin Doane, Curator 

I had never heard of local Elmira folk artist Alsace S. Blandford until recently which is not surprising.  The ex-slave painted during most of his life but few of his works seem to have survived.  The museum has three paintings donated by his son in 1966.  Our own archives only has a slim folder of information about him.  The few sources available provided just a tiny glimpse into his long life.

Alsace S. Blandford was born a slave on March 17, 1858 in Maryland.  He and his family lived on a plantation of 1,000 acres with more than 120 slaves in Prince George County, Maryland which was just 12 miles from Washington D.C.  When the Civil War broke out, Alsace’s father, Thomas Blandford, learned that they could become freedmen if they escaped Maryland.  This information set a plan in motion.  Thomas was the foreman at the plantation and was responsible for driving produce to Washington for sale.  He created a false bottom on the produce wagon under which he hid his wife and six children.  Alsace was just three years old at time.  Thomas placed a full load of potatoes in the wagon and left the plantation as he always did.  Since he was a common sight on the route Thomas was never challenged.  This time instead of going to market he took his family to freedom.

The story of the potato wagon is common among the few sources I found but after that some accounts differ.  A 1938 newspaper article reports that the family stayed in Washington until 1867 when they moved to Sherwood, NY and then to Poplar Ridge, NY a year later.  Alsace is said to have remembered the family’s former master coming to visit them in Washington after the war.  He asked Thomas to come back to work for him and offered the family 100 acres of land.  Thomas declined the offer.  Another source states that Thomas drove the wagon to the Northern part of Maryland where they made contact with some Quakers who were members of the Underground Railroad.  The family was passed from one station to another to Philadelphia before finally ending up at last in Poplar Ridge, NY.

It is known for certain that Alsace Blandford, himself, came to Elmira in 1879 at the age of 22.  He married an Elmiran named Helen Abigail Condol and they had six children together.  He made his living as a house painter and paperhanger even though he was told when he started that no one would hire an African American for such work.  He continued to support himself with that trade well into his 80s.  His real love, though, was painting landscapes and rural scenes.  He had always enjoyed painting pictures from an early age and his works show great skill even though he was never formally trained as an artist.  The walls of his home on Madison Avenue in Elmira were said to have been covered in oil paintings, pastel drawing and watercolors that he had created.  Alsace died on April 13, 1948 at the age of 91.