The Forgotten School Paper That Refuses to Stay Buried.

The College Hill Mercury is a rediscovered 19th-century publication from the Poughkeepsie Collegiate School at College Hill — a Christian institution known for welcoming students from across America and as far as Mexico, China, and the Philippines. Though erased from public memory, College Hill once stood at the crossroads of faith, education, abolition, and coded resistance.

Rumored, like Oberlin and Knox, to have aided the Underground Railroad, the Mercury’s surviving issues reveal:

• A diverse and international student body

• A bold abolitionist spirit, confirmed by Frederick Douglass’s major 1858 address on the hill

• Coded messages and memory arts woven into satire, riddles, and reflections

• Evident ties to Harriet Tubman, including two “Moses” articles and a narrative explaining an attempted clandestine meeting with the young prophetess

The Mercury also preserves glimpses of remarkable figures: founder Charles Bartlett, mathematician Charles Warring, visionary writer Fitz Hugh Ludlow, and the moral leadership influencing their era.

Now restored, its voice speaks again:

It is a reminder of what Christian education once dared to be,
a witness to hidden abolitionist courage,
and a call to remember what the Lord has already done.

The Mercury lives again — for all who have eyes to see.

© 2026 Michael J. Bentley. All rights reserved.

The College Hill Mercury project, including its transcription, commentary, annotations, interpretations, essays, website text, research, arrangement, and presentation, is the copyrighted work of Michael J. Bentley. No portion of this website, manuscript, or original scholarship may be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, adapted, or used for commercial purposes without written permission, except as permitted by law.