Every reference to my father's family that I heard growing up, and every visit my family made to Roscoe NY included "The Dudleys". There were two Black households in Roscoe when my father was a boy - the Jones and the Dudleys. My dad lived with his grandparents, Charles and Helen Rogers Jones on Railroad Avenue a few doors down from the Dudleys. The Dudley house was large and they rented out rooms during hunting season. When I was young I knew the Dudleys were somehow related to us but it wasn't until I was older that I figured out the connection. Helen Rogers' older sister Lorena Rogers, adopted daughter of William Street, had married John L. Dudley. They would eventually have a total of 10 children*. According to 1880 census, they first lived in Sydney NY: John Dudley's occupation is listed as switchman. By 1892 they had settled in Roscoe. Their house was a stone's throw from the RR tracks. Other members of the family provided a cleaning service for the trains. I imagine their house also rented rooms to the mostly black Pullman Porters who worked on the trains. Just beyond the Dudley house was The Roscoe Hotel - a large white shingled building. Roscoe was at that time a popular train stop for Jewish families from New York City on their way to the many resorts in the Catskills that were part of the "Borsch Belt".
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| Aunt Teen with my brother Barry 1949. |
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| Uncle John in back of the Dudley house. |
By the time my family started visiting Roscoe, the only people living in the Dudley house were Lorena and John Dudley's daughter Faustina (Aunt Teen) and the youngest of the Dudley children John and Willard. Another daughter, Esther (Aunt Essie) Dudley Shippin lived in Queens NY as did her 2 married daughters Fran & Betty. Since my father was an only child, and he had no relatives on his father's side, the Dudley's children (his great aunts & uncles) and their children (his 2nd cousins), who visited Roscoe often, provided him with an important extended family growing up.
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Possibly Lorena Dudley (rt.). Unknown lady
on left and toddler on steps. |
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Willard Dudley. He attended Columbia
University for a time. |
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John Dudley with ? Note Main Street
across the tracks. |
I am pretty sure that, in terms of African-American history in upstate NY in the 1800s, the
Dudleys (John L. and Lorena)
of Roscoe NY, the
Rogers (Lorin F and Mary M. Rogers)
of Norwich NY, and the
Jones (Samuel and Elizabeth)
of Unadilla NY were 3 well-known black Catskill families.
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Ms. Roberson
with John and Willard.
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| A Dudley 2nd cousin, Jean Newkirk |
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Lillie Gwendolin Dudley, June 1897
Graduation from Walton High |
* The names of John and Lorena Dudley's children: Kity, Lula May, William, George, Faustena aka Tena or Teen, Esther, Leona, Lillie, John Jr. and Willard (adopted).
Growing up in Queens NY, I had exactly 2 cousins on my father's side. They were Gary and Cheryl Pitchford, grandchildren of Esther Dudley whom we called Aunt Essie. She had married a Shippen
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Betty Shippen Amato and
Fran Shippen Pitts |
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| Frances |
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| Betty |
