About the Trust
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The Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust, a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization, was created to preserve a rare–and beautiful–historic and cultural resource in the Endless Mountains of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania.
The purpose of The Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust is to develop the Dennis Farm into an educational and cultural site for scholars, researchers, educators, cultural heritage tourists, school groups and others interested in this extraordinary history. [/intro]
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, with the original wave of settlement into the region following the American Revolution. Descendants of the Perkins’ granddaughter, Angeline Perkins Dennis, and her husband, Henry Dennis, have retained ownership of the 153-acre property into to the twenty-first century, although it hasn’t been a working farm since the early twentieth century. The history of the Perkins Dennis family and the Farm are fully documented. This continuous, documented ownership of property by African Americans, in a largely white county in the northeast, represents a little-known and remarkable story in American history and holds lessons for us today.
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[quote] “The Dennis Farm represents a rare, and perhaps unique case…. As plans for the museum unfold…we envision the Dennis family history playing an important role in bringing to life the story of free Africans Americans from the late 18th century through the Civil War.” [/quote]
—Jacquelyn D. Serwer, Chief Curator
Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture
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[quote]“The Dennis Farm represents a truly exceptional example of a well-documented landscape owned by free African American over two-hundred years. …Its significance extends well beyond the boundaries of Pennsylvania and its research potential is unparalleled.”[/quote]
—Brent Leggs, National Trust for Historic Preservation
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The site’s historical features include:
The Perkins-Dennis Cemetery
The remains of family members born in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including veterans of the Revolutionary War, are resting in the Perkins Dennis Cemetery. One Civil War veteran who was a friend of the family and men and women who died on the Underground Railroad are among the fifty souls interred in the cemetery.
The Prince Perkins Archeological Site
The Perkins’ early homestead including the foundation of the house, spring, garden markings, and well are located at the hilltop.
Fieldstone Walls
An elaborate series of stone walls, built during the nineteenth century, define the perimeter and individual sections of the property. The walls help track changes in the farm throughout the century.
The Farmhouse
Built in the first quarter of the nineteenth century and restored in 1939, the farm house is an example of a classic timber frame saltbox, reflecting the family’s New England background.
Barn Complex Ruins
The stone walls of the original barn complex foundation, also, trace the growth of the farm from the early 19th to the early 20th century.
Because it was never modernized, the Dennis Farm has the footprint of a New England farm circa 1800.
According to a study prepared by a team of archeological and historical researchers, “The Dennis Farm represents an exciting opportunity to blend archeological and environmental history at one location… There are presently no other locations in the northeast that combine these ingredients and that are trying to actively interpret them, preserve them, and present them to the public. The property’s African American ownership for over two centuries is unique in northeastern Pennsylvania and is an important story that needs telling…Pennsylvania scholars have also identified the Dennis Farm as a location associated with Underground Railroad History.”
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[quote]“As a Pennsylvania farm that was originally settled by free African Americans in 1793, this site has unique historical significance.”
–Robert P. Casey, Jr., United States Senator[/span][/quote]
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