Hezekiah Joslyn

Hezekiah Joslyn
Born1797 (1797)
Cicero, New York, U.S.
DiedOctober 1865 (aged 67–68)
Fayetteville, New York
OccupationPhysician
Known forAbolitionist activity
RelativesMatilda Joslyn Gage, daughter; L. Frank Baum, grandson-in-law

Hezekiah Joslyn (1797 – October 30, 1865[1]) was an American physician and abolitionist.

Joslyn homesteaded at what is today (2020) 8560 Brewerton Rd. in Cicero, New York.[2] The homestead is now considered a potential archaeological site.[3] He was an Onondaga County, New York, doctor after 1823 and in 1865 an officer in the county medical society.[4][5][6]

Joslyn was a founding member of the Liberty Party, an early advocate of abolitionism founded in the 1840s. His daughter Matilda Joslyn Gage was a suffragist as well as a prominent abolitionist.[7] Their home in Fayetteville, New York, where Hezekiah died, was a station on the Underground Railroad.[8][9] His tombstone near his former home in Cicero reads "AN EARLY ABOLITIONIST".[10]

Hezekiah's daughter Matilda was mother-in-law of L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.[11]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference obit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Sarah Moses (October 17, 2011), "Town of Cicero unveils historical marker at Matilda Joslyn Gage's childhood home", Syracuse Post-Standard, Syracuse, New York
  3. ^ Sites Relating to the Freedom Trail, Abolitionism, and African American Life in Syracuse and Onondaga County, Preservation Association of Central New York
  4. ^ v.d. Luft 2009, p. 43 "Hezekiah Joslyn, a freethinking physician in private practice since 1823 in Cicero, New York, tried in the 1840s to get his daughter Matilda into Geneva Medical College, but there is no record of her ever applying for admission."
  5. ^ New York Legislature 1852.
  6. ^ *"List of officers of county medical societies". Transactions of the Medical Society of the State of New York: 372. 1865.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference syracuse special collections was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Snodgrass 2015, p. 208.
  9. ^ Onondaga Historical Association 2015.
  10. ^ "Hezekiah Joslyn Grave Site". Freethought Trail. 2020. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
  11. ^ "Matilda Gage Book Signing, Lecture". Seneca Daily News. November 15, 2015. Archived from the original on February 12, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2017.