How do we know that Henry & Jane Bakeman were involved with the underground railroad?

No evidence links Henry and Jane Bakeman directly with the underground
railroad. They were among the earliest settlers of the Fulton area, however, and
the presence of them and their children provided a context for African Americans who came after them.

Henry and Jane Bakeman, African Americans, were among the first post-Iroquois
residents of Oswego County. About 1800, they settled in what is now Fulton, part of lot number 4 in the Military Tract, on the west side of the Oswego River in the Town of
Granby just above the falls. When they moved here, no roads existed, except from one
small clearing to another. The river was the only way to travel to the outside world.
Henry Bakeman had first seen this area in February 1783, as a soldier in Colonel
Marinus Willet's regiment, one of 470 men--both black and white-- sent to capture Fort
Ontario from the British. The cold was bitter. Sloshing along the icy river, several soldiers froze their feet so badly that they remained crippled for the rest of their lives. Henry Bakeman was one of these. Another was his friend Joseph H. Perrigo. One black man was frozen to death. Another, reported an early source, "with his fiddle and his song, did much to keep up the spirits of the men, and to induce them to active exercise, by which they were saved from the fate of their comrade." Was this Henry Bakeman? Henry Bakeman had enlisted in the Revolutionary Army in 1781 at Stone Arabia, New York, when he was only sixteen years old. He acted as a courier, eluding Tories and Native Americans in the Mohawk Valley until he was sent with his unit to attack Fort Ontario. He was discharged at Poughkeepsie in February 1784. Unsuccessful in making their surprise attack on Fort Ontario, Willet's regiment turned back, but Henry Bakeman and his old comrade Joseph Perrigo remembered the falls and its potential water power, and they returned with their families to set up a cooper shop (and perhaps a mill) on the west bank of the river. By 1818, Henry had accumulated enough money to purchase land. He bought 100 acres for $500, immediately sold half of it for $276, and two months later sold another 34 acres. The depression of 1819 brought financial trouble, however, and Henry Bakeman lost his land through foreclosure in March 1820. Benjamin Bakeman, almost certainly a relative, bought this land, however, and Henry and his family continued to live there. Jane Bakeman (whose name appeared on a deed as "Jinny") married Henry in 1792 and moved with him to Granby where they raised their children--Laney, Rachel, Mary, Andrew, and Benjamin, and Jacob. Jane Bakeman was probably white, since a white female of her age was listed in the 1830 census as part of the Bakeman household.
Many of their descendents would continue to live in Oswego and Onondaga Counties
until the 1950s. Jacob Bakeman owned two mills at the little settlement of West Granby. John Bakeman (perhaps a grandson of Henry and Jane), ran a mill near the Oneida Street Bridge. In September 1834, Henry Bakeman was granted a pension for his service as a soldier. In his application he listed his assets: no real property; several livestock, including a cow, a five-year-old heifer, seven sheep, one calf, and three hogs; coopering tools; and a few household furnishings, including two tea kettles, six plates, six knives and forks, one platter, one chest, and four beds. He received only one pension payment before his death on February 36, 1835. Jane, too, received only one pension payment before her death in 1856. Both Henry and Jane were buried in the Barnes burial ground, across the street from the present Fulton Public Library, along with several other Revolutionary War soldiers.

Sources:
Henry and Jane Bakeman, Pension Records, National Archives.

"Henry Bakeman," Obituary, n.d.
Joshua V.H. Clark, Onondaga (Syracuse: Stoddard and Babcock, 1849), 277-9.
"Land in Lysander Sold," Palladium, March 30, 1820.
Petition of Juliett Bakeman to Surrogate's Court, Onondaga County, April 12, 1865.
Melissa Vaughn, "Jacob Bakeman: Who and Why?" Paper on file in Special Collections, Penfield Library.
Thanks to Barbara Dix, Joanne Bakeman and Barbara Bakeman Fero for locating much of this material.

Bakeman, Henry and Jane
Wellman
10/98