We’re delighted to welcome back Doreen Stratton, writer/researcher, photographer and docent at the Doylestown Museum who, two years ago, provided us with insight into the history of the Underground Railroad in our region. This time, she’ll provide a glimpse into the lives of African Americans in the latter half and the Nineteenth Century and early part of the Twentieth.
Doreen is a descendent of Civil War veteran Joseph B. Stratton, known affectionately by the family as “JB.” He served with the Union Navy during the Civil War and returned home to take Lily Counsellor as his third wife. They settled in Doylestown in 1886 in the home where one-hundred-and-thirty years later Stratton descendants still live.. This brief journey will touch on JB’s Civil War service and Lily’s struggle to keep their eight children together after her husband died in 1900.