Father & Daughter: Views on Racial Justice Across Two Generations
The Bolin Family
Born in the nearby Quaker stronghold of the Town of Dover in 1826, Abram Bolin moved to this house on North Clinton Street in Poughkeepsie with his wife, Alice Ann Lawrence Bolin, before 1860. See their photos below.
Among the children raised at the house was Gaius Bolin. Born in 1864, Gaius became the first Black man to graduate from Williams College (Class of 1889). He returned to this home until he set up his practice, and married in 1899.
The home of Abram and Ann Bolin stands today on North Clinton Street. It is the birthplace of Gaius Bolin.
Gaius Bolin (shown below) married Matilda Emery in 1899. A native of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, Matilda came to Poughkeepsie as a child. At the home shown below, they had four children: Ann May, Gaius, Jr., Ivy Rosalind, and Jane.
Matilda died in 1917, several months before realizing their plans to move to a larger house they were building on Grand Avenue.
The home of Gaius and Matilda Bolin. Birthplace of Jane Bolin, the first Black judge in the United States.