In addition to the threat of disasters such as fires or floods, other factors also played a role in determining what material has survived to provide the basis for our understanding of the past.  For example, there is often a great difference between what those in the 19th century believed to be worthy of posterity and what we in the 21st century might wish to know. As the historian for the Town of Gaines, I am lucky that my family has lived here for nearly 200 years. History and circumstance have, in my case, been such that a significant number of heirlooms, documents, photographs, trinkets, curiosities—and stories—have been handed down over the generations.  Among one such pile of ancestral documents—this one containing papers belonging to Robert J. Anderson (1787-1873)—was a printed sheet with a repeated listing of names and state offices, but no date. A quick internet search revealed that this early political ad contained a listing of Liberty Party candidates for the New York State election of 1850.  

The connection of the Liberty Party to abolition was an especially interesting piece of information because family lore maintains that the Andersons, who lived on Ridge Road (Route 104), harbored fugitive slaves. Obviously, it made sense to do some additional research on the party, its members and activities. As it turned out, the tenuous connection of Robert Anderson to the Liberty Party, suggested by the presence of this political document, was nothing compared to the next clue. 

In Wikipedia, of all places, I discovered a Robert Anderson listed as a candidate for Lieutenant Governor of New York with the Liberty Party in 1848—but was it our Robert Anderson? The subsequent discovery of a September 1848 article in the Oneida Morning Herald, reporting on the Liberty League and National Reform party convention at Canastota, NY, provided hope for answering this question. Since the article enumerated who the party officers and speakers were, as well as from what county each came, I eagerly anticipated the announcement and locale of the nominated candidates. It was deflating to find that, while the candidates for the national and state elections were listed, including Robert Anderson, there was no mention as to whence they hailed.

As it turns out, however, our Robert Anderson’s belief in the abolitionist cause was much more than family legend. First, he had been a member of the Congregational Church. By 1847, it appears the Congregationalists, much like the rest of the nation, had many heated debates about the questions of slavery, resulting in a split. Thus, Robert withdrew his membership from the Congregational Church and became a constituent member of the First Free Congregational Church of Gaines that was created in December of that year.  An unpublished history of the Gaines Congregational Church records two of 12 articles of faith put forth by the new church:

Believing slavery a sin of blackest hue-- Resolved that we will not fellowship as Christians with either the slave holder or his apologist or supporter.

Believing the making, handling and use of alcoholic liquors as a beverage to be a sin therefore

Resolved that we will not fellowship as Christians or support in office any who are engaged in this work of death.

As several histories of Orleans County mention the formation of the First Free Congregationalist Church, it seemed the records of the original Congregationalist Church would be a good place to look for answers. Perhaps they might reveal the parameters of the argument and give insight into the major players. Photocopied decades ago for the town historian’s files, these records go back to the founding of the church in the 1820s. While the files contain the annual meeting minutes, those of the regular meetings are missing from the late 1830s to the early 1860s, so they were no help in learning how the disagreements were framed. The church records did, however, provide a picture of Robert as a man of high ideals, willing to act on his convictions despite the cost. From 1839-1843, he turned up each year in the annual meeting minutes for the church, often serving as chairman. So strong were his convictions relative to abolition, however, that he chose to leave the church in which he had invested so much time and where he had likely been a long-time member. That must have been a difficult decision, not lightly made. 

Having researched the Liberty Party and consulted local newspapers on microfilm and online, an inquiry was made to the New York State Board of Elections, but they didn’t have any information going back that far. Attempts to contact local historical societies that seemed to have connections with the Liberty Party also proved fruitless. Just as I was ready to give up, I remembered a history professor from whom I had taken a class on American slavery. Contact with him led to a collection of Liberty party documents at Syracuse University. As luck would have it, there is direct evidence that my Robert Anderson was, indeed, involved with the Liberty Party. Among the documents at Syracuse is a receipt showing that a Robert Anderson of Gaines, NY, purchased an early subscription to the Liberty Party Paper in 1849, a month after its first issue.

In 1848, the platform of the Liberty Party, in effect, declared that any law allowing slavery was null and void. The party called for the immediate emancipation of slaves without any recompense to slaveholders. Of course, there are no records of the Andersons actually harboring fugitive slaves, as illicit activities are generally undocumented. But, if that household was willing to disregard the law in order to help runaway slaves, then the Liberty Party would have been quite appealing.

While founded in Wyoming County, the Liberty Party was largely based in Central New York, around Syracuse. Although he lived more than 100 miles away from the hub of New York State’s abolitionist movement, Robert had the credentials to run for state office. He was an early settler, arriving in Gaines from Ira, VT, in 1816. After taking a year to upgrade from a log cabin to a frame house, he quickly became involved in local politics at the town, county and state levels, being appointed Justice for both the town and county between 1817 and 1824. He was elected the Town of Gaines Supervisor each year from 1818 to 1825 and served as the first chairman of the Board of Supervisors for Orleans County. In 1822, he served a term in the New York State legislature.

The Liberty Party failed to secure any positions at the national or state levels in the election of 1848, as their candidates at the state level garnered about 0.33 percent of the vote. While Orleans County voting records go back to the 1820s, the records for 1848 are predictably missing. Fortunately, the Orleans Republican published those results. The paper documents that Robert Anderson made a good showing, relatively, receiving about .8 percent of the vote in Orleans County, more than twice the percentage garnered by the party in the state as a whole. His strongest support was seen in the 11 votes cast in the Town of Gaines, followed by eight votes from Barre, District Three, and six from Ridgeway, District One. At the time, both Barre and Ridgeway were townships adjacent to Gaines. It is possible the 42 votes from Orleans County do not represent support from his relations and friends; they might simply reveal a pocket of staunch abolitionists.

This was all interesting information, but even given the documentation provided by the newspaper subscription receipt, there was no conclusive proof that the Robert Anderson listed in the Orleans Republican election results was, in fact, an ancestor.  A final effort to establish a conclusive identity, therefore, involved a process of elimination—a technique that would have been completely unfeasible 30 years ago. In 1990, a comparison of names with demographic information would have required mind-numbing hours of scanning microfiche census records in a large public or university library. Living in Gaines, NY, this would have also required leaving the county. In the 21st century, digitization has turned census records into databases. Thus, finding all the Robert Andersons who lived in New York State in 1850, and who might possibly have been eligible to run for state office, can now be done in less than an hour.

According to the 1850 census, there were about 50 Robert Andersons in New York. A quick survey of the candidates who ran for lieutenant governor between 1828 and 1848 shows that the youngest to run was 34 years old. Using this age criteria as a starting point left only ten Robert Andersons in New York who were old enough to run for lieutenant governor. Most of the candidates for this position had been in their 40s or 50s. Robert Anderson of Gaines would have been 61 years old in 1848.

Because the 1850 Census also recorded information about an individual’s occupation, ethnicity and country of origin, finding the correct Robert Anderson from this group of ten became a matter of probability and educated guesswork. Logically, both of the African American Robert Andersons could be eliminated, since they did not have the right to vote. And in 1848, it was definitely not the Irishman. Likewise, it was probably not the Scottish gardener, nor the day laborer in New York City. Additional unlikely candidates for state office were the German artist and the Robert Anderson living in a boarding house in Rensselaer.  Still another was ruled out on a technicality, as the records for one Robert Anderson in New York City Ward 6 are illegible.

All of these calculations narrowed the list to two distinct possibilities. In New York City’s Ward 14, there was Robert Anderson—an English printer in his 50’s, with a 24-year-old son working beside him and a house full of seven other children. Or there was the Robert Anderson of Gaines—a known abolitionist with political experience.

Shakespeare wrote that the course of true love never did run smooth. Nor does the path of historical research.  It seemed like any pertinent official document from the 1840s had vanished at some point—the Orleans County voting records from the 1840s are incomplete as are the Congregational Church records. There are extant records for the Liberty Party, but of course none from 1848. At times, such a string of research bad luck in the form of missing documents, lack of information and dead ends can feel like a conspiracy. And yet, there were enough dangling, broken threads in the search to tie together a plausible narrative.

At the end of the day, all the available evidence uncovered to date suggests that the Robert Anderson running for lieutenant governor of New York State on the 1848 ballot lived in Gaines, but unfortunately it is ultimately circumstantial. The Pioneer History of Orleans County includes this biographical passage about Robert: “Judge Anderson was never ambitious to hold public offices, generally taking office only when it was offered him without his asking, and resigning at the first proper opportunity.” If what Arad Thomas said of Robert’s character was true, then today we are more impressed with the prospect of his bid for state office than he would have been.  Perhaps at some future date, a scrap of information will turn up out of the blue that definitively proves Robert J. Anderson of Gaines ran for lieutenant governor in 1848. It has been known to happen.  Wish me luck.