SCHOHARIE COUNTY — In 1914, John Daniels wrote “In Freedom’s Birthplace; a Study of the Boston Negroes.” Eighty-five years later, his son, Jack Daniels, wrote “Discovering the Forgotten History of African Americans in Schoharie County.”

The language like the location had changed, but the mission was the same: To uncover and tell a largely unwritten part of American history.

Jack Daniels writes in the introduction to his 1999 book, “I hope there will be others who wish to add to or amend the historical record; also to keep it up to date.”

Starting today, Oct. 21, the Schoharie County Historical Society is hosting a series of discussions on Jack Daniels’s book.

Katherine Hawkins is leading the first session and says one of the goals of the series is to inspire what Daniels had requested 22 years ago — that the history of Blacks in Schoharie County be updated and added to.

She stressed that anyone is welcome to come to the free sessions, which will be held at 7 p.m., starting Oct. 21, and will continue monthly through April at the Schoharie Presbyterian Church.

Daniels died in 2012 at the age of 96.

Hawkins was his friend and describes him in this week’s podcast at AltamontEnterprise.com/podcasts, as “someone you can’t help but fall in love with — he exudes peace,” she said.

Daniels, who was raised in New York City, educated at Dartmouth College, and worked for New York State in the budget division of public works, was active in Quaker affairs. When he moved to Cobleskill in the 1980s, he continued his work of peacemaking, founding the Peacemakers of Schoharie County.

“He’d always say good-bye by saying, ‘Peace be with you,’” Hawkins recalled.

Daniels’s book opens with the recounting of a stunning legend told by jazz musician Perry Van Ness — he recorded under the name Van Perry — whose parents lived in Schoharie. The legend, which was handed down in his family, through his Uncle Floyd, recounted the story of his forbearers.

They were on a slave ship in the early 1700s from Africa, bound for the American colonies when a devastating storm crippled the ship, and it drifted to the coast of northern Canada. Many of the enslaved Africans had died in the cramped, fetid ship’s hold; the 50 that were still alive with the remaining 20 crew members headed to the nearest slave market — in the colony of New York.

Heading through the wilderness, the band was directed to what is now Albany. Native Americans, probably Mohawks, the legend says, attacked the travelers and “killed all the whites but none of the Blacks.” 

“Now the Africans were no longer slaves but free persons, although possibly in danger of being recaptured and enslaved by white settlers ...,” the story goes. “So when the Mohawk Indians invited them to join their tribe, they gladly accepted, even though they had a lot of learning and adjusting to the Indians’ way of life to do.”

Daniels then goes on to look for genealogical support for the legend, citing local descendants of Africans and Native Americans. Hawkins notes that Daniels did his research before the era of ancestry.com and other online sources of genealogical information.

“He didn’t use the internet,” she said.

Some of the other highlights of Daniels’s book include his finding that African Americans played a key role in the Schoharie Valley becoming the “Breadbasket of the American Revolution” — raising the grain that fed George Washington’s troops. 

Daniels cites the 1790 census that showed, out of 304 families, 140 had enslaved people.

His book also includes a replica of a stunning 1845 handwritten document, calling the “Brothers of the Dusky Brow” to gather to discuss the “speedy amelioration of the condition of the Black race.” At that time, approximately 530 Blacks lived in Schoharie County, Daniels writes.

A village school was founded in the 1850s by the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Eventually, it became a public school, remaining segregated until 1903, Daniels writes.

By Daniels’s calculations, 85.7 percent of eligible Black men in Schoharie County signed on to fight for the Union in the Civil War. About 4.2 percent of the county’s white population fought for the Union compared to 12.4 percent of the 484 Blacks living in Schoharie County at that time.

So about three times as many Blacks, compared to eligible white men, served the Union. Daniels lists each of the African Americans who served.

After the Civil War, the population of the African-American community in Schoharie County declined steadily — Daniels cites many reasons why — until, at the time he wrote his book, just one descendent of the original families remained. He profiles a handful of the newcomers.

Hawkins herself has a personal interest in African Americans who fought in the Civil War. She is writing a history of the 3rd United States Colored Infantry Regiment, for which her great-grandfather, Lewis Merwin Hobbs, was chaplain.

“Rather die freemen than live to be slaves,” says the regiment’s flag.

Hawkins has a large tome of Merwin family history, which includes one of her relatives, Jesse Merwin, a Kinderhook schoolmaster who, by Martin Van Buren’s account, was the inspiration of Ichabod Crane in Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

Hawkins is continuing the legacy of Jack Daniels not just by instructing others about his life as they read his book in the upcoming series but also by continuing his work as a peacemaker.

She is a member of the Peacemakers of Schoharie County, which gather every Saturday at 11 a.m. in Cobleskill at Main and Union streets; regardless of the weather, the group stands on the corner for an hour, a visible testament of their beliefs.

“We have signs, we have flags, we have smiles,” said Hawkins. “We’re ready to answer questions.”

The group, she explained, believes there is a better way to deal with world problems than war. “We believe in democracy,” she said. “We believe in diplomacy.”

The current group formed after the terrorists’ attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. They gathered that first weekend in October because they believed going to war was not the right response to the attacks. They’ve stood on the corner in Cobleskill for well over 1,000 consecutive Saturdays, Hawkins said; sometimes the stalwart eight to 10 peacemakers are joined by 80 to 100 others.

Although they are often jeered at, Hawkins said, “What we do is present to the public a different narrative.”