{"id":646,"slug":"john-b-and-lydia-edwards-house-new-york","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["John B. Edwards was the point man — Gerrit Smith's agent in Oswego, the man through whom the great abolitionist's network reached the lake. The Greek Revival house at 144 East Third was his from 1836 until his death in 1895 — and it is, in the National Register's phrasing, 'well documented as a way station.' Edwards hosted fugitives himself and arranged shelter and transportation for many more; when the Littlefield House sheltered a fugitive in 1853, it was Edwards who had brought him.","Edwards was the model of respectable lawbreaking — president of the village, alderman, president of the Oswego County Savings Bank, trustee of the orphan asylum and the public library, member of Trinity Methodist — and simultaneously the coordinator of illegal passage to Canada. Oswego's network ran through his address book: the eleven National Register Underground Railroad sites in the county connect through agents like Edwards, who knew which houses would take whom and which ships would carry them across the lake.","The house stands in the densest documented cluster of the whole system — East Third Street, a few blocks from the harbor, in the town where Gerrit Smith's money met the water that was freedom. The station keepers of Oswego were its leading citizens; the agent's house was the village president's.","The Edwards House is the archive's agent file — the home of the man who ran Gerrit Smith's Oswego operations while running the town, the documented way station where the banker-alderman coordinated the passages his officeholder status let him conceal."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The John B. and Lydia Edwards House is the archive's agent file — the 1834 Oswego home of Gerrit Smith's local agent, who sheltered fugitives and dispatched them to stations like the Littlefields', while serving as village president and bank president.","An agent's house keeps its ledger — the file's suggestion being that the Edwards House's hold is the double life: the pillar of the community who was simultaneously the link in a criminal network, in the port city where the Railroad's last miles ran to the lake."]}],"name":"John B. and Lydia Edwards House","aliases":[],"type":"HISTORIC_SITE","type_label":"Historic Site","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD_HISTORY","AFRICAN_AMERICAN_HISTORY","HISTORIC_SITE","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD"],"groups":["dark-history","historic-sites"],"desc":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","full_desc":"John B. and Lydia Edwards House is a historic site in Oswego, New York, a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing. NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad. It sits in the archive under dark history, Underground Railroad history and the Underground Railroad. The dossier holds 3 documented facts — the record is history-forward, no paranormal claims on file. Access is restricted — check current rules before planning anything.","address":"144 East Third Street","city":null,"county":"Oswego","state":"New York","postal":null,"region":"Northeast","lat":43.45044,"lon":-76.17026,"coord_kind":"COUNTY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"RESTRICTED","access_notes":"NPS public listing access field: No. This is a listing snapshot; current arrangements still require confirmation.","ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":"National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing","current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 02NY07, source row 42. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened. ","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":62.1,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.35,"identity_confidence":0.85,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":1,"paranormal_claim_provenance":null,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[],"history":[{"description":"NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01' documents the entry. It is the kind of fact the rest of the dossier leans on.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01","url":"https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"John B. and Lydia Edwards House is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. Sources including 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' carry the record. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"The house’s UGRR role is documented. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. The record appears in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"legends":[],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Access is restricted; check with the managing agency or landowner before visiting; check nps.gov for current hours and alerts.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01","url":"https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"Underground Railroad","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[{"field_name":"short_description","existing_value":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","incoming_value":"The Edwards house—the family’s station.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"public_access","existing_value":"RESTRICTED","incoming_value":"PUBLIC","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"historic_designation","existing_value":"National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing","incoming_value":"NPS Network to Freedom","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"research_notes","existing_value":"Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 02NY07, source row 42. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened. ","incoming_value":"UGRR enrichment wave 2; VERIFY task auto-queued.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."}],"wiki":{"title":"John B. and Lydia Edwards House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._and_Lydia_Edwards_House","desc":"Historic house in New York, United States","extract":"John B. and Lydia Edwards House is a historic home located at Oswego in Oswego County, New York.   It is a two-story, rectangular frame residence built between 1834 and 1835.  Its owner John B. Edwards was abolitionist Gerrit Smith's agent at Oswego and the house is well documented as a way station on the Underground Railroad.\nIt was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.","img":null,"score":89,"lat":43.45472222,"lon":-76.50444444},"counts":{"claims":0,"history":3,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":3}}