Finding Frank

​Found Frank today! Burton Francis (Frank) Blackall was the dad in the Blackall family. He’s been hiding from me in Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester. I knew what area he was buried in, but his headstone has eluded me for years.
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Early on, Frank used his position as a telegraph operator to support Frederick. In 1859, the abolitionist was out of town when he learned officials were looking for him in connection with John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry. Frederick sent a telegram to Frank, then 26 years old, “a friend and frequent visitor at my house, who would readily understand the meaning of the dispatch: ‘B.F. Blackall, Esq., Tell Lewis (my oldest son) to secure all the important papers in my high desk,’” he wrote in his third autobiography. “I did not sign my name, and the result showed that I had rightly judged that Mr. Blackall would understand and promptly attend to the request.”

​Frank and Frederick had a long friendship, even after Douglass moved to D.C. Photo by Gia Lioi

Originally published 10/20/2013

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