OUR HISTORY
The hauntingly beautiful Dennis Farm was originally settled by the family of Prince Perkins, free African Americans who moved to Northeastern Pennsylvania from Connecticut in 1793, and later expanded by their descendants, the Dennis family.
OUR LOCATION
The 153-acre Dennis Farm is located in the Endless Mountains of Susquehanna County, Northeastern Pennsylvania and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
OUR MISSION
The mission of the Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust is to continue to develop the more than 225-year-old farm into an educational and cultural site for scholars, researchers, educators, and others interested in this extraordinary history.
Bristol Budd Sampson:
Patriot of the American Revolution
By Margaret Denise Dennis
Illustrations By Kimberley Lyles-Folkman
Beautifully written by Margaret Denise Dennis and exquisitely illustrated by Kimberley Lyles-Folkman, Bristol Budd Sampson: Patriot of the American Revolution, tells the true story of Bristol Budd Sampson, an African American man from Connecticut who in March 1777, when he was a teenager, enlisted in the Continental Army and served in the 2nd Regiment of the Connecticut Line until the end of American Revolutionary War, in 1783. Written for a juvenile audience, the book is a rhyming, 31-verse, narrative poem of four lines per verse with fifteen full-color illustrations. It is based on Bristol Budd Sampson’s Revolutionary War Pension File and history books from the Northeast Pennsylvania county and township where lived from the early 19th century until he passed away in 1848.
In addition to his service, which included the skirmish at Whitemarsh, PA in 1777, the brutal winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge, the 1778 Battle of Monmouth, NJ, and the Elite Light Infantry’s taking of Stony Point, NY, the book describes Sampson’s quest to receive his pension after the war. By 1818, when the US government made pensions available to disabled veterans of the Revolutionary War, Bristol Budd Sampson was blind and living with his in-laws, free African Americans, on their farm in Pennsylvania. The book reveals the determination he showed in petitioning for his pension and the arduous journey he made to New Canaan, Connecticut in order to secure written confirmation of his service from his former commanding officer. It also describes the final years of his life, when and his wife Phoebe Perkins Sampson lived with their children on a farm adjacent to her parents’ farm.
The book’s author, Margaret Denise Dennis, is a direct descendant of Bristol Budd Sampson’s in-laws and is President and CEO of The Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust that maintains the family cemetery where he is buried, the Perkins-Dennis Cemetery, on The Dennis Farm in Pennsylvania. The Farm is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This is her fourth book, the others including Black History for Beginners, are written under the name Denise Dennis.
Bristol Budd Sampson: Patriot of the American Revolution is now available in hardcover online.
Keystone College Press: www.keystone.edu
Amazon: Bristol Budd Sampson: Patriot of the American Revolution by Margaret Denise Dennis
America 250 PA Dedicates the First
Semiquincentennial Bell at the
Dennis Farm
Semiquincentennial Bell at the
Dennis Farm
The first Semiquincentennial Bell will bring attention to a rare and beautiful historical and cultural resource in the Endless Mountains of Susquehanna County, PA, the Dennis Farm. This 200+ year-old farm, originally settled by free African Americans who moved to northeastern Pennsylvania from Connecticut after the Revolutionary War and continuously in the stewardship of their descendants, represents an overlooked and remarkable story in American history that holds lessons for us today. Learn more about this historic project.
Why Preservation
“There are very few places like the Dennis Farm where we can walk for acres and acres and know that when the nation was young, free African Americans owned and worked this land – by and for themselves – and that even today it is in the stewardship of the same family. ‘The Farm’ as we call it, represents a little-known chapter in the story of the United States; and with our partners we are working to ensure that the property with its rich history and natural environment is preserved for future generations.”
– M. Denise Dennis, President & CEO, DFCLT
The Dennis Farm Needs Your Support
The Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. We appreciate all donations. Your tax-deductible gift will help us meet our goals: to restore and rebuild its 195-year-old Dennis Farm Farmhouse to repurpose as a museum that will be used as an educational and cultural site for scholars, researchers, educators, and others interested in the farm’s extraordinary history.
The Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust has been selected as a recipient of the Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH). In order to receive the awarded funding, The Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust is responsible for raising $1,200,000.
The Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust
P.O. Box 2583
Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004
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Copyright 2023 | The Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust