There is respect in remembrance. Too often, persons of color have been written out of history. Preserving and retelling their stories now, though, is one small way to work toward a better future for everyone — internationally, across the country, and right here at home in the Dunkirk/Fredonia area.

In 1943, the 88-year-old barber William A. Wheeler was featured in a local newspaper called the Grape Belt. Wheeler was an African American whose parents had arrived in Dunkirk before the Civil War.

The 1943 article included a photo of Wheeler in his shop at 309 Park Ave. With him in the photo were three of his longtime customers, all of whom were also in their eighties: H. K. Williams, J. G. Curtis, and Mathew Callagee.

Wheeler had the distinction of having been one of 48 persons of color who resided in the town of Pomfret in 1855, the year of his birth. Although the 1854 county map showed only 15 African Americans in Pomfret, that number was too low, because it was based on the 1850 census. The next census, five years later, showed the increase in enumeration.

Submitted Photo This is a scan of the May 18, 1943 issue of the Grape Belt. William A. Wheeler (second from right) is pictured at 88 in his barbershop with customers H. K. Williams, J. G. Curtis, and Mathew Callagee.

In 1855, Pomfret still included the city of Dunkirk and the town of Dunkirk. Pomfret’s overall population had doubled since 1850, from about 4,000 to about 8,000, because the Erie Railroad had opened in 1851. The new railway was the result of a 15-year effort to connect New York City with the Southern Tier and Lake Erie.

In the 1855 census, Wheeler was listed as an infant in the Park Avenue home and barbershop of his parents Alonzo Wheeler Sr. (1817-1890) and Lucy Wheeler (1833-1917). Other children in the family would later include William’s brother Aaron, and together they learned the barbering profession in their father’s shop.

According to the Grape Belt, William A. Wheeler was the first African American to attend the Fredonia Normal School. While doing so, he worked as a barber at Fredonia’s Taylor Hotel  and served as a page at the Fredonia wedding of the Civil War hero William B. Cushing. At the time of the Grape Belt article in 1943, Wheeler was believed to be the oldest practicing barber in the United States.

Additional persons of color who were listed as heads of households in the Pomfret censuses of 1850 or 1855 included: Joseph Adams (b. 1795), Joseph Bowen (b. 1812), Henry G. Davis (1805 – 1879), William Davis (b. 1805), Jefferson Grisim (b.  1801), John Little (b. 1805), Thomas Medley (b. 1835), George Morton (b. 1818), Edward Sanders (b. 1824), Lucy Shorter (b. 1795), Mary Smith (b. 1805), Roderick Waller (b. 1805) and James Williams (b. 1820).

Of those heads of households, the following were identified as barbers: Adams, Bowen, Henry Davis, William Davis, Little and Medley. The others were listed as laborers or farmers. John Little was also a documented conductor in the Underground Railroad, and at least two of Little’s sons served in the Civil War.

Persons of color who were identified as laborers living alone or in white households in 1850 and 1855 included Julia Adams (b. 1841), Fredrick Holland (b. 1800) and Rebecca Williams (b. 1830). Two adopted daughters who were listed as African Americans in white households were Ann French (b. 1842) and Lydia Corbett (b. 1846). Mary Johnson (b. 1845) was listed as a person of color in the household of her Scottish mother Jane Johnson (1822-1897).

Four persons of color were listed in 1855 among a total of 40 crewmen on two propeller boats in the Dunkirk harbor. They were John Bowen (b. 1825), John Free (b. 1815) and John Thomas (b. 1820) on the Owego, and Samuel Shirack (b. 1827), a cook on the California.

William A. Wheeler died in 1952 and was buried at Fredonia’s Forest Hill Cemetery along with several other members of his family. His legacy was well established, and he was pictured with other barbers in the Dunkirk OBSERVER’s “Do You Remember” column in 1978.

Much is also known about John Little, whose family members later lived in Arkwright, Perrysburg and Jamestown. Also known are many details about the Henry G. Davis family, whose family members lived and worked in Fredonia. However, nothing further is known about the four boatmen or several of the other laborers and barbers listed as persons of color in the censuses of 1850 and 1855.

This is partly due to the fact that the railroad and the city suffered numerous financial setbacks over the ensuing decades, and workers often left the area when jobs became scarce. Wives and daughters, whose names changed when they married, are especially difficult to trace. It is also possible that some African Americans were using pseudonyms for their own safety. Several may have been refugees because the locations listed as their birthplaces included states where slavery was still legal in 1855.