Charles Smith's Barbershop, corner of West First and Bridge Streets.

This 1850s stereopticon view of Oswego, looking east across the Bridge Street bridge,
shows a barber pole at the corner of West First and Bridge Streets. In the basement of
the building at the northeast corner of this intersection, Charles Smith had a barbershop
from the 1850s until the week before his death in 1882.

Photo from Special Collections, Penfield Library, Oswego State University

How do we know that Charles and Flora Ann Smith were involved with the underground railroad?

Charles Smith, African-American, listed his birthplace as Maryland. His obituary noted that he was born in slavery.

Charles and Flora Ann Smith were one of many African-American families in Oswego
who incorporated at least one fugitive from slavery. When Charles died in 1882 at the
age of 70, his obituary outlined his biography:

Charles H. Smith, the colored barber, one of the "stand-bys"of the town, died last night, aged 70 years. He was born in slavery in Baltimore and served his master a long time as a house servant. In 1840 he escaped and reached Oswego by "underground railroad." He went on to Canada and for several years sailed on the lakes, but at length started a barber shop here 30 years ago. For 25 years he occupied the shop under Ould & Klock's building, but moved out the forepart of this week, the rooms being wanted for another purpose. Last Saturday night he served his old customers, of whom he had a regular line, whom he had shaved for many years--in the old place for the last time. He seemed much affected at leaving, and after moving out, fell sick and grew worse till he died. His family think that his worry over the breaking up of his little business was a fatal aggravtion of a long standing
difficulty. Mr. Smith was an honest, industrious and economical man and a good citizen.
His old friends and customers who had stood by hom so long more out of personal
kindness for the old man, are sincerely sorry he is gone. He has relatives in Baltimore.

Oswego Palladium, April 1, 1882.

In 1839, Charles Smith signed a call for an abolitionist convention to be held in Fulton in
September. Perhaps this was shortly after he arrived from Maryland. Although Smith was listed as one of six African Americans in Oswego to receive grants of land from Gerrit Smith in 1850, Charles Smith apparently never owned property in the city. Instead, he and his wife Flora Ann lived in a building on West Fourth Street from the 1850s until he died in 1882. They had no children. Beginning in the late 1850s, Charles ran his barbershop from the basement of a building on the northeast corner of West First and Bridge Streets. Often called the Buckhout building or the Ould and Klock building, it still stands today. Flora Ann, born in Onondaga County about 1812, worked as a washerwoman in Oswego. She died on April 29, 1899, aged 86, and was buried in Riverside Cemetery.

Sources:
Oswego Palladium, September 8, 1839.
"Forever Free from Bondage," Oswego Palladium, April 1, 1882. Thanks to Eleanor
Cali for finding this.
City directories, maps, deeds, and censuses from 1850 to 1882. Research done by
Elisabeth Dunbar and Rebecca Ludens.

Smith, Charles and Flora Ann
Wellman
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