I am 5 or 6 years old and walking up a hill on the farm, with my father. It is summer. We are surrounded by trees, which shade and keep us cool and are in a clearing, making it easier for us to climb. My father holds my hand; a carved wooden walking stick is in his free hand. We stop. He points to a low stone wall among the leaves and moss and tells me this is where our people lived when they came to Pennsylvania from New England. I know, from the tone of his bass voice, that what he is telling me is important and that I must remember. We continue up the hill, navigating stones in the rocky soil; sunlight flickers between green leaves. At the hilltop, we come to a cemetery enclosed by a stone wall and, at the entrance, an iron gate, curved like the gates of heaven. Daddy looks into the cemetery, then back to me, and explains that our ancestors are buried here. I sense, even more deeply, that Daddy is sharing something significant and sacred with me. I watch and listen. Daddy is telling me who I am; I am more than myself. I began with those who lived and died here. I will not forget.

Everyone should have someone in her life as inspiring as my aunt, Hope Dennis. We are true “kindred spirits,” close in heart and mind. She is the standard to which I aspire. A high school guidance counselor and alumna of Northwestern and University of Michigan, she advised me to apply to Swarthmore. Now, Aunt Hope has made possible the most rewarding work of my life. In 2001, we founded the Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust (DFCLT) for the historic and environmental preservation of the more than 100-acre Pennsylvania farm, in Susquehanna County, where our free black ancestors settled approximately 200 years ago. Among our partners are the Endless Mountains Heritage Region and Preservation Pennsylvania. Swarthmore students will be involved in the educational component. I serve as DFCLT president.

“I don’t want the farm to go out of the family on my watch,” Aunt Hope told me. As sole owner, she sought a feasible plan for preserving it. The site includes a vernacular, federal-style farmhouse, originally constructed around 1825, modernized in the 1930s, and in need of restoration; the Perkins-Dennis Cemetery, where the family, including a Revolutionary War veteran, are buried; and the grounds, crowned by a deep forest. The cemetery, at the forest hilltop, is surrounded by an elegant wall of stone quarried from the property and built by our forebears around 1800. The countryside property—with preserved hardwood trees, wildflowers, and a pristine creek—has not been a working farm since the early 20th century but remained a family summer home.

As I researched a plan, I outlined our concerns and goals for the site. Besides security and preservation of the cemetery, the house, books, and documents (dating back to the mid-19th century), photographs, and the land, Aunt Hope wanted to ensure that the property would retain “The Dennis Farm” name and that its significance as land owned by generations of an African American family would not be lost.

My first step was to call the Historic Preservation Department at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Fine Arts (GFSA), where, as a communications officer in the 1980s, I had written about preservation projects. They directed me to the state historic preservation officer in Harrisburg, who led me to Elizabeth Watson, a nationally renowned planning consultant, specialist in heritage development, and co-author of Saving America’s Countryside. Ms. Watson was familiar with the farm through her work with the Endless Mountains Heritage Region, was aware of the site’s potential, and contributed invaluable services. We have worked together over the past six years.

My Aunt Edith Dennis owned and “kept watch” over the farm until her death in 1980, when it passed to her youngest and only remaining sibling, Hope. Born in 1899 and an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania, Aunt Edith was a distinguished, loving influence in my life.

Education has always been a priority in our family, and we want the Trust to serve an educational purpose. Our goal is to develop a body of research on themes relevant to the farm and to build a library/ museum on the beautiful site to host scholars and conferences and annual symposia.

More than 50 years before the Civil War, our ancestors came to northeastern Pennsylvania from New England—as free African Americans—and purchased their own property. My great-great-great-great grandparents, Judith and Prince Perkins (1750– 1839) came from Connecticut in 1792. At that time, black people were one-quarter of the American population, but a mere 10 percent were free. Among the first settlers in the area, the family is fully documented in the Susquehanna County Historical Society. This continuous documentation of an African American family is rare. In a 1988 article, historian and former Kent State professor Curtis Stone wrote: “[These] pioneers arrived in the Brooklyn, Pa., area in 1793, led by Prince Perkins. The Perkins family formed the nucleus of pioneer blacks moving in and out of the region for the next century … these early settlers were free men and women, were accepted in the larger community, and appear to have been the basis of anti-slavery sentiment in the community and county.” In his book, The Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania, Charles Blockson writes that the farm served as a stop on the daring route to freedom.

The Perkins-Dennis Cemetery served as the cemetery for black people in the region. One family member buried there was a veteran of the American Revolution, having enlisted in the Connecticut Line in 1777 and served under Washington. His military record is in the National Archives.

On April 24, 1852, Angeline Perkins, Prince Perkins’ granddaughter, married Henry Dennis, who was born in Vermont and whose family—originally from Massachusetts—came to Pennsylvania in the early 19th century. Henry and Angeline combined their properties and had three surviving children; the youngest was my great-grandfather, Sumner Dennis (1866–1950), named for Charles Sumner, the senator from Massachusetts who led passage of the Civil Rights Bill of June 1866. Sumner moved to Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in 1886; in 1895, he married Mary Kinslow, and they had five surviving children: Norman, Edith, Marion, Carl, and Hope. Norman Dennis married Harriette Payne in 1926, and they had two daughters, Margaret, who is my mother, and Edith. My “grand”parents, Norman and Harriette Dennis, reared me from infancy and, in 1962, legally adopted me—protecting me with the nom de famille. Margaret is also the mother of Darryl Gore ’79, and has one granddaughter. Edith has one son, Lonnie Moore, and three grandchildren.

In pursuing guidance for the Trust’s educational component, I contacted Swarthmore. In the past year, several key faculty members and administrators have encouraged me in the project, including Associate Professor of History Allison Dorsey, Cooley Curator of the Swarthmore Peace Collection Wendy Chmielewski, and Curator of the Friends Historical Library Christopher Densmore.

Everything in my life seems to have prepared me for this challenging work.

I am une femme d’un certain age, and I am on the farm with our partners. They are examining the flora and fauna, and someone just showed me an asparagus plant, asking whether or not my ancestors grew asparagus. They also discovered, beneath the tall grass, markings indicating a well near the old barn wall. They look at the ground; I am looking up the hill. The light falling down the hillside is golden and radiant, and it fills my spirit. More than light, I feel the warm presence of all their spirits looking down—all my loved ones. They are smiling; they know we have not forgotten.

Denise Dennis, author of A Century of Greatness and Black History for Beginners, may be reached at Dennisfarmtrust@aol.com.