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Farmhouse to Receive Historical Marker

BROOKYLN TOWNSHIP — There’s a lot of history to be told about one farmhouse that’s tucked away in Susquehanna County. It’s believed to h...
farm

BROOKYLN TOWNSHIP -- There's a lot of history to be told about one farmhouse that's tucked away in Susquehanna County.

It's believed to have been a stop along the Underground Railroad, a stop for people fleeing slavery.

The history of the property goes back to the family that moved there in 1793.

Throughout the years, the Dennis and Perkins family grew in rural Susquehanna County during a time that the country was still racially divided.

"So many of the black people were slaves in the country at that time. This is such a gem of a free man being able to do as he wished in America. Being able to purchase land and build a farm and raise a family and be a part of a community," Ralph Christianson of the Brooklyn Township Historical Society said.

More than 200 years later the Dennis family still owns the 153 acre farm outside of Montrose.

In 2001, Hope Dennis and Denise Dennis founded the Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

The organization has been able to raise money throughout the years to help preserve the property.

In the future they hope to have the farm fully renovated with a learning center nearby.

"With the history of the gentlemen that fought with George Washington in the cemetery that's up there on the hill with the farm house, I think it will be well worth it," Dan Anthony of Brookyln Township said.

Fifty people are buried in a cemetery near the farm.

Now the Pennsylvania Historic Museum Commission plans to put a marker here to recognize that history.

Both Dan Anthony and Ralph Christianson agree that the farm deserves the recognition.

"It would truly open up the sensitivity of people here in the area and how they reacted to people of different color or different culture. I know I'm excited about it," Christianson said.

A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Historic Museum Commission tells Newswatch 16 the historical marker could be placed near the property within a year.

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