Emery Hanson, born in Maryland around 1830, first appeared in the 1850 U.S. Census as a 23-year-old laborer living in Elizabethtown, Essex County, New York. He resided in the household of Enos Wise alongside a 14-year-old named Jasper Miller—likely working together on the Wise family farm. By the 1855 New York State Census, Emery was the head of his own household in Elizabethtown, living with his wife, Almira Hinson.
During the Civil War era, Emery’s surname appeared as Hanson in federal draft registration records dated 1863–1865. Classified as Black and about 30 years old, he was living in Chesterfield, New York. Soon after, the 1865 New York State Census placed Emery in Lewis, Essex County, where he lived with Almira and their two young children, Nancy (7) and John (4).
Emery’s final appearance in public records came in the 1870 U.S. Census. Listed as a 39-year-old Black laborer born in Maryland, he was still residing in Lewis with his wife—recorded as “Edmira”—their 9-year-old son John, and Edmira’s father, Chester Wheeler, a 78-year-old Black man. Emery could not read or write, and no occupation industry was provided. After 1870, no additional census records of Emery have been found.
This record trail preserves the outline of a man who migrated north, built a household in Essex County, and lived out his life in the rural communities of Elizabethtown, Chesterfield, and Lewis.