News Archive

November, 2025

1795 Walter Wood Law Office Move

We have successfully moved and stored Walter Wood’s 1795 law office, which functioned as the first post office west of Canajoharie, New York. Read about the move in:

The Little Building Takes a Long Trip: A Serialized Adventure!

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November, 2025

Ely S. Parker Admitted to New York State Bar — 176 Years too Late

Ely S. Parker, a Tonawanda Seneca who went to school in Aurora, was just admitted to the New York bar—176 years after he was denied admission because he was a Native American. Parker studied at the Cayuga Academy in Aurora, where he was sponsored by Lewis Henry Morgan, for many years known as “the Father of American anthropology” and a leading figure in the relatively new field. During the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant’s chose Parker to be his secretary. Drafts of Robert E. Lee’s surrender documents at Appomattox Court House are thus in Parker’s handwriting. After the war Grant appointed Parker Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the first Native American to serve in that position.

See CNN’s story of Ely Parker’s November 14, 2025 posthumous admission to the New York bar.

See the story of Parker, Morgan, and the “Grand Order of the Iroquois” in Aurora on our website.

Ely Parker’s sister Caroline, an accomplished artist, also studied at the Cayuga Academy in Aurora. Morgan raised money to provide her and her Seneca friend Sarah Spring a year at the Academy. The Aurora Ledyard Historical Society recently devoted an exhibit in Historic Patrick Tavern (1793) to Caroline Parker’s life and work.