The Story of Jennie

The Story  of Jennie
This portrait, by the artist Edwin White in 1844, of Maria Birch Coffing and Jane Elizabeth Winslow is on display at the Salisbury Association Academy Building. Photo submitted by Salisbury Association

Two of the portraits hanging in the Salisbury Association’s Academy Building are those of John Churchill Coffing and his wife, Maria Birch Coffing. If you look closely at Maria Coffing’s portrait, you will see a young Black girl looking around the corner of a door frame in the background.

This is Jane Elizabeth Winslow, who worked for the Coffings for over 40 years. What is so unusual about this painting is that very few portraits of this time period include the likeness of a person of color.

Jane Elizabeth Winslow, known as Jennie, was born circa 1825 to John and Elizabeth Winslow. In 1830, 5-year-old Jennie came to live with the Coffings after both of her parents died. The 1840 U.S. census lists a “free colored person between the ages of 10 and 23” in the household of John Churchill Coffing.

This was probably Jennie, as she appears by name on the 1850 census as a member of the household of Maria Birch Coffing and again on the 1860 census. John Coffing died in 1847, and Jennie continued to live with Maria and her family until Maria died in 1865. Jennie stayed on caretaking the Coffing house in Salisbury for another five or six years before moving to Massachusetts.

A search of vital records in Great Barrington shows that a Jane E. Winslow, age 47 of Salisbury, was married on Nov. 8, 1871, to Egbert Lee, age 71, in VanDeusenville, Mass. The marriage was recorded as her first and his second, as he was widowed. Egbert’s death, recorded on Dec. 23, 1881, shows that he was born an enslaved person in Georgia. Jennie Winslow Lee is buried in the Salisbury Cemetery and her gravestone reads “Lee, Jane E. Winslow, wife of Edward (Egbert) d. April 15, 1872,” just five months after she married.

 

This information was gathered from the Salisbury Association Historical Society’s archives by Board President Jeanette Weber.

Related Articles Around the Web

Latest News

Stanford home market sees nine sales in July and August

Built in 1820, 1168 Bangall Amenia Road sold for $875,000 on July 31 with the transfer recorded in August. It has a Millbrook post office and is located in the Webutuck school district.

Christine Bates

STANFORD — The Town of Stanford with nine transfers in two months reached a median price in August of $573,000 for single family homes, still below Stanford’s all-time median high in August 2024 of $640,000.

At the beginning of October there is a large inventory of single-family homes listed for sale with only six of the 18 homes listed for below the median price of $573,000 and seven above $1 million.

Keep ReadingShow less
Out on the trail
Nathan Miller

Hunt club members and friends gathered near Pugsley Hill at the historic Wethersfield Estate and Gardens in Amenia for the opening meet of the 2025-2026 Millbrook Hunt Club season on Saturday, Oct. 4. Foxhunters took off from Wethersfield’s hilltop gardens just after 8 a.m. for a hunting jaunt around Amenia’s countryside.

Millbrook Library dedicates pollinator pathway garden

Joining in the fun at the dedication of the new pollinator pathway garden at The Millbrook Library on Saturday, Oct. 4, local expert gardener Maryanne Snow Pitts provides information about a planting to Lorraine Mirabella of Poughkeepsie.

Leila Hawken

MILLBROOK — Participating in a patchwork of libraries that have planted pollinator pathway gardens to attract insects and birds to their native plantings was one of the accomplishments being celebrated at the dedication of a new pollinator garden at the Millbrook Library on Saturday, Oct. 4.

“A lot of work went into it,” said Emma Sweeney, past President of the Millbrook Garden Club, who started the local library’s initiative two years ago.

Keep ReadingShow less
Amenia Town Board continues discussing board alternates

Amenia Town Hall on Route 22.

Nathan Miller

AMENIA — After gathering comments from the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals, as it considers adding alternate members to those boards, the Town Board discussed possible changes to local laws governing those boards at its meeting on Friday, Oct. 3. The meeting date, usually on a Thursday, had been changed to accommodate a holiday.

In recent weeks Town Board attorney Ian Lindars has been compiling comments from the affected boards along with comments from the Town Board. The new laws may bring the appointment of two alternate members to each board. Alternate members are likely to be required to attend all meetings and be prepared to be seated if needed and be familiar with the applications being discussed. They would also need to take training required of all board members.

Keep ReadingShow less