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Draft:William and Sarah Storum

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  • Comment: Some of the sources are not reliable (blogs, social media or others that have no editorial oversight) and others are primary which cannot be used to establish notability. This also skews into WP:NOTGENEALOGY. What I suggest is focusing on one member of the family who can meet WP:NBIO, start an article about them and work from there. S0091 (talk) 19:46, 29 August 2024 (UTC)


William Storum (1788 Hartford, Connecticut - 5 September 1874 Busti, New York) and Sarah Gomer (1790 Massachusetts – 30 July 1856 Busti, New York) were a prominent African American couple in western New York engaged in the abolitionist movement and active in the Underground railroad. Their children and descendants were involved in later women's and civil rights movements in the United States.[1]

The Storum family in Busti, Chautauqua County, New York

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Location of Storum farm in Busti, Chautauqua County in 1854 map

William Storum purchased land in New Hartford, Oneida County, New York, New York in 1812.[2] In January 1814 Storum married Sarah Gomer, the widow of Martin Wills and mother of two young children. Their first child was born in Oneida County in October of 1814.

In 1816, William and Sarah Storum and their children moved west, purchased land from the Holland Land Company, and became pioneers in the Town of Busti, Chautauqua County, New York.[3][4][5][6] They established a prosperous farm and added six more children.

1851 The abduction of Harrison Williams

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The Storum farm was invaded in September 1851 by bounty hunters who detained William Storum and took Harrison Williams captive.[7] The bounty hunters were successful in returning Williams to Virginia through a court in Buffalo, New York under the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and received newspaper attention nationally.[8][9] The episode likely resulted in the relocation of Lewis Clarke to the safety of Canada and the sale of his adjacent farm to William Storum. 

Within a year, in 1852, the Storums sold the Clarke house and 57 acre farm to a Swedish immigrant family. It is conjectured that the sale to Elias and Charlotta Sanbury was motivated by security – Sanbury served in the Swedish army before emigration in 1851 and the Sanbury men were known for their physical strength.[10]

1854 Organizers of the Sugar Grove Convention and host of Frederick Douglass

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Frederick Douglass was the guest of the Storum family for the weekend abolitionist convention held in nearby Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania. Douglass noted in his article about the event published in his paper[11] that:

The responsibility for getting up this meeting rested on the Storum family at Busti – an enterprising family of farmers, well to do in the world and when I tell you that these industrious and well-to-do farmers are of the color of you and me, you will derive from it the right lesson, and draw from it the right hopes for our whole people.

The anti-slavery convention of abolitionists was held on 17-18 June 1854 in Sugar Grove at the farm of James Younie[12][13] on the western edge of the village. Frederick Douglass, Lewis Clarke, and Jermain Loguen gave speeches during the weekend event. Local abolitionist Cynthia Catlin Miller hosted Douglass for tea. The convention was a considered by Douglass to be very successful.

The Storum children

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  • William H. Storum (1814-1888) worked the 140 acre farm and did not marry. He was a delegate to the National Liberty Party Convention in Buffalo in September 1851. Rev. J.W. Loguen and Gerrit Smith were also delegates and the National Committee included Frederick Douglass and James Caitlin of Sugar Grove.
  • Caroline Storum (1820-1867) married AME minister J.W. Loguen and publicly worked for anti-slavery efforts in Syracuse, New York.
  • Juliette Storum (1821-1885) worked the farm and did not marry.
  • Sarah Marinda Storum (1825-1904) moved to Syracuse, New York in the 1850s. Sarah is said to have been a confidant of the abolitionist John Brown.[14]
  • Catherine Storum (1829-1850) married abolitionist speaker Lewis Clarke in 1849 but died ten months later.
  • Edward Lloyd Garrison Storum (1835-1838) and Richard Storum (1838-1857) both died young.

The Storum grandchildren

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  • Helen Amelia Loguen (1843-1936) married Lewis Douglass, the son of Frederick Douglass, in 1869.
  • Sara Marinda Loguen (1850-1933) became one of the first female African-American medical doctors in the United States, and later became the first female doctor in the Dominican Republic.[15]

The Origin of the Storum family

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The progenitor of the family was Charles Storum (1751 Duchess County, New York – 20 June 1843 Warren County, Pennsylvania). Storum is said to have been of African American and Native American parentage.[1] Charles Storum served during the American Revolution in Fishkill, New York in the hospital and for the supply depot under the command of Col. Hugh Hughes.[16] After the war, Storum was a sailor, possibly on whaling ships.

About 1783, Charles Storum married Mary Ann Fowler (1749 – 1805) who was said to be European American. They lived in East Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut and had at least four children: Samuel, William, Charles, and John. They were among the free black community in East Windsor.

After about two decades in Hartford County, the Storum family moved to Oneida County, New York. After the War of 1812, William Storum and moved west to Chautauqua County in 1816, and in the 1820s Charles Storum, Sr, and sons Samuel and John Storum joined. In the 1830s, Charles Storum, Sr. and Samuel Storum settled across the state line in Warren County, Pennsylvania. Charles Storum died at the house of his son Samuel in 1843 at about age 100.

The Samuel Storum family of Warren County, Pennsylvania

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Samuel Storum (1784 Hartford, Connecticut - 31 September 1853 Glade Township, Warren County, Pennsylvania).[17] In the 1820s he moved to Busti, New York and then relocated to nearby Warren County, Pennsylvania, first to a farm in Pine Grove township about 1830 and in 1839 to the farm in Glade township.

It is likely that the Samuel Storum family were part of the route along the underground railroad that connected to William and Sarah Storum's farm in Busti, New York, a distance of about twenty miles (30 km). Their participation, however, is not yet corroborated.

The Charles Storum family of Lockport and Buffalo, New York

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Charles Storum, Jr. (abt 1790 Hartford, Connecticut – 5 May 1873 Lockport, New York) moved in the 1820s from Oneida County to Jefferson County, New York near Sackett's Harbor. He then relocated to nearby Watertown, New York before moving west and settling in Lockport, Niagara County.

His grandson, James Storum (21 March 1847 Buffalo, New York – 29 October 1910 Washington, DC) was the first head of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, (Virginia State University) serving from 1883-1885.[18] Storum Hall, the oldest building on the VSU campus, is named for him.[19] James Storum later moved to Washington, D.C. and was a professor at Wayland Seminary (Virginia Union University).[20]

The John Storum family of Lapeer County, Michigan

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John Storum (9 June 1793 East Windsor, Connecticut – 26 December 1870 Mayfield Township, Lapeer County, Michigan) moved from Busti to Lapeer County, Michigan where he bought a 140 acre farm in 1835.

Archival Material

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Storum family research, photographs and records are included in the Gregoria Fraser Goins Papers, The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University.[21]

References

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  1. ^ a b "The Loguen Family". Negro History Bulletin. 10 (8): 171–191. May 1947. JSTOR 44174692.
  2. ^ Wellman, Judith; et al. (Jan DeAmicis, Mary H. Gordon, Jessica Harney, Deirdre Sinnott, and Milton Sernett) (2022). We Took to Ourselves Liberty: Historic Sites Relating to the Underground Railroad, Abolitionism, and African American Life in Oneida County and Beyond (PDF). National Parks Service. p. 65.
  3. ^ Loguen, Jermain Wesley (1859). The Rev. J.W. Loguen, as a slave and as a freeman : a narrative of real life. J.G.K. Truair & Co. p. 355.
  4. ^ Hedley, Fenwick Y.; Downs, John P. (1921). History of Chautauqua County, New York, And Its People. Boston: American Historical Society. p. 118. hdl:2027/wu.89067471078.
  5. ^ Peake, Lucy Darrow (1960). Biographies of the early families of the town of Busti, Chautauqua County, New York. p. 49. OCLC 35241331.
  6. ^ The farm is identified on the 1854 map along today's Sanbury Road at 42° 0' 52" N, 79° 19' 30" W. See Rea, Samuel M. (1854). Map of Chautauque County, New York : from actual surveys. Philadelphia: Collins G. Keeney. Library of Congress
  7. ^ The Centennial History of Chautauqua County: a Detailed And Entertaining story of One Hundred Years of Development. Jamestown, NY: Chautauqua History Company. 1904. pp. 197–198.
  8. ^ Bailey, William S. (January 1935). "The Underground Railroad in Southern Chautauqua County". New York History. 16 (1): 57–59. JSTOR 23137324 – via JSTOR.
  9. ^ Shepard, Douglas H. (2014). "The Recapture And Trial Of Harrison, a working paper". Chautauqua County Underground Railroad Website.
  10. ^ Jones, John Everett (2018). "William H. Storum, Jr. and Elias Sanbury". Jamestown Swedes, Research about the early Swedish settlers in Chautauqua County, New York and Warren County, Pennsylvania.
  11. ^ Douglass, Frederick (23 June 1854). "Letter from the Editor". Frederick Douglass' Newspaper: 2.
  12. ^ "James Younie". Find A Grave.
  13. ^ Warren County Historical Society (2021). Franklin Miller Diary, 17-18 June 1854. Frank B. Miller Papers Collection, Warren County Historical Society, Warren, Pennsylvania.
  14. ^ Straight, Wendy J. W. and Douglas H. Shepard (2013). The Underground Railroad in Chautauqua County: Selected excerpts from sources shown on the county UGRR map of February, 2013. Working paper
  15. ^ v. d. Luft, E. (2000). "Sarah Loguen Fraser, MD (1850 to 1933): the fourth African-American woman physician". Journal of the National Medical Association. 92 (3): 149–153. ISSN 0027-9684. PMC 2640561. PMID 10745647.
  16. ^ Daughters of the American Revolution. "Ancestor Database: Charles Storum, A203908". D.A.R. Genealogical Research System. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
  17. ^ Book of biographies: this volume contains biographical sketches of leading citizens of the Thirty-seventh Judicial District, Pennsylvania. Buffalo, N.Y. : Biographical Pub. Co. 1899. pp. 242–243. hdl:2027/loc.ark:/13960/t7vm4hx6d.
  18. ^ "James Storum, Educator 3.21.1847". African American Registry.
  19. ^ "Restoration of Storum Hall". The Historical Marker Database.
  20. ^ Plummer, Nellie Arnold (1927). Out of the depths; or, The triumph of the cross. pp. 147–149.
  21. ^ Moorland Sprinarn Research Center Staff, Howard University (2015). "The Gregoria Fraser Goins Papers". Manuscript Division Finding Aids. Manuscript Division Finding Aids. 80.
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