Jikonsaseh, The Mother of Nations (1712-1722)
Ganondagan State Historic Site (7000 County Rd. 41, Victor, N.Y.)
At Ganondagan State Historic Site, history is not only preserved but deeply felt.
Long before this peaceful stretch of western New York welcomed visitors, it was part of a vibrant Seneca homeland within the Haudenosaunee. Here, the land itself becomes a gateway into stories of diplomacy, survival, and courage—including the legacy of one of the most remarkable women in Haudenosaunee tradition: Jikonsaseh, remembered as the Mother of Nations.
Generations ago, before the Haudenosaunee Confederacy unified the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca nations, the region was marked by cycles of conflict. Peace was fragile, and mistrust ran deep. Into this world came Deganawida, carrying a bold and radical vision—that the nations could unite under a shared Great Law of Peace. Such a vision required more than persuasion. It required allies of uncommon wisdom.
Jikonsaseh was among the first to listen. Tradition tells that she did not accept the Peacemaker’s message lightly; she questioned, evaluated, and tested his ideas. Her support was not passive, it was decisive. By lending her authority and guidance, she helped transform a hopeful ideal into a movement capable of reshaping the political future of entire nations.
Alongside this effort stood Ianwenta (also known as Hiawatha), whose skill as an orator carried the message of unity across communities.
The path to peace was not without its greatest challenge: the powerful Onondaga leader Tadodaho. At Onondaga Lake, ceremony, patience, and spiritual tradition achieved what conflict could not, clearing the way for the Confederacy’s formation. In these traditions, transformation was not merely political, it was deeply human through the song of the Hi:hi and the words of Kienashekowa. With Jikonsaseh’s guidance, The Peacemaker and Ianwenta turned the Onondagas into the “firekeepers” of the Confederacy. And through it all, Jikonsaseh’s presence remained foundational.
Her title, Mother of Nations, reflects more than symbolic honor. It represents the enduring authority of women within Haudenosaunee society, where leadership roles were balanced, and where women held essential responsibilities in governance, decision-making, and community continuity.
For modern visitors, Ganondagan offers a rare opportunity to encounter this perspective. Walking its trails or engaging with its programs is not simply an exploration of a 17th-century Seneca town. It is an invitation to reconsider familiar narratives of history, recognizing that diplomacy, political innovation, and societal strength were often shaped by women whose names are less widely known but whose impact was profound. Ganondagan is, in many ways, a tribute to brave women.
Women like Jikonsaseh, whose courage was expressed not through conquest, but through vision, discernment, and leadership—qualities that continue to inspire long after the events of history have passed into memory. For travelers seeking meaning as much as destination, few places offer a story as powerful.
Sarah Hopkins Bradford (1818-1912)
Tucked into the charming streets of Geneva, New York, lies a home connected to one of America’s most inspiring stories.
Most travelers have heard of Harriet Tubman, the courageous freedom seeker who escaped slavery and then bravely returned south again and again, guiding others to freedom along the Underground Railroad. Her extraordinary life didn’t end there. During the Civil War, Tubman served the Union as a cook, nurse, scout, and spy. Later, in nearby Auburn, New York, she opened her home to care for elderly African-Americans, continuing her lifelong mission of compassion and service.
But here’s a fascinating twist many don’t know: much of what we understand about Tubman’s life comes from a writer who lived right here in Geneva. Meet Sarah Hopkins Bradford, a popular 19th-century author best known for her moral and educational books for children. In the late 1860s, Tubman was struggling financially and had been denied a military pension. Determined to help, a group of supporters devised a creative solution—commission a biography that could be sold to raise funds for her.
They turned to Bradford.
After conducting numerous interviews with Tubman, Bradford published Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman in 1869, followed later by Harriet Tubman, Moses of Her People. Tubman, who could not read or write, shared her stories orally, and through this collaboration the two women formed a lasting friendship. Bradford’s work would go on to shape how generations of Americans learned about Tubman’s courage and legacy.
Today, Bradford’s former residence at 629 South Main Street has a new purpose. The elegant Gothic Revival home, built in 1840 and now part of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, serves as the school’s admissions office. Long before that, after the death of her husband, Bradford ran a school here known as “Mrs. Bradford’s School for Young Ladies and Little Girls.”
For history lovers, it’s a quietly powerful stop—a reminder that even modest homes can play a role in preserving world-changing stories. Walking past the house, you’re not just seeing beautiful architecture; you’re glimpsing a place where an important chapter of American history was written.
Eunice Newton Foote (1819 - 1888)
A major topic of discussion in our current world, the Greenhouse effect, was discovered by Eunice Newton Foote. Foote is a relatively unknown American scientist, inventor, and women's rights activist. She came to Ontario County in 1820 with her parents and siblings, who settled in East Bloomfield, N.Y. Some people speculate that her interest in women rights activism, science, and abolitionists came from the culture of the Finger Lakes region, as well as being a distant relative to Sir Isaac Newton.
Foote attended the Troy Female Seminary, a pioneering school in women's education that was established to teach pupils dance, history, languages (English, French, Italian, Latin), literature, mathematics (general, algebra, geometry), music, painting, philosophy, rhetoric, and science (botany, domestic science). Some of these studies were provided by the nearby Rensselaer School.
On August 12, 1841, in East Bloomfield, Newton married Elisha Foote Jr., a lawyer who studied under Judge Daniel Cady, the father of women's rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They then moved to settle in Seneca County, where she was neighbor and friends with Stanton herself. Foote and her husband Elisha were signatories of the convention's Declaration of Sentiments that demanded women's social and legal rights equal to those of men, as well as the right to vote. Foote was one of the five women who prepared the proceedings of the convention for publication.
In 1856 Foote published a paper that summarized her research surrounding the effect of sunlight on carbon dioxide gas. From this research she was the first scientist to conclude that rising carbon dioxide levels resulting from emissions would impact our climate through changes in our atmospheric temperature caused by CO2. This is now commonly known as the Greenhouse effect, and in the years since, we have seen Foote's predictions come to life.
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)
When you think of the pioneers of American women’s suffrage, Susan B. Anthony’s name is at the top of the list.
Born into a Quaker family with strong abolitionist convictions in Massachusetts, Anthony was teaching school in Canajoharie, N.Y., when the first Women’s Rights Convention took place in Seneca Falls, N.Y. in 1848. A few years later, she was fortuitously introduced to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who would become her lifelong friend and sister soldier in the fight for the vote.
Anthony settled in Rochester and dedicated herself to many causes: abolition, labor, temperance, and women’s rights. However, it was suffrage that became her life work. In November 1872, Anthony, three sisters, and a few other women registered to vote in Rochester, and then voted in the general election in which Ulysses S. Grant was elected for a second term as president. She was arrested several days later.
Her trial took place in Canandaigua in June 1873 because the Rochester District Attorney was concerned that the jury would be too sympathetic to Anthony. The judge overseeing the Canandaigua trial steered that jury to convict her without discussion. She refused to pay the $100 fine, but the judge did not throw her in prison in order to keep her from appealing.
The courthouse where Anthony was tried still stands, though the room where that trial took place is long gone. You can see Lady Justice standing proudly on top. Sadly, Anthony did not live long enough to see the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote ratified. But with the statue of Lady Justice looking down on Canandaigua from the courthouse, you feel that Anthony’s legacy is one that has changed the world forever.
Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910)
If you spend any time in Geneva, N.Y., you will likely come across historic markers and public art that recognize Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in the United States to receive a medical degree. Blackwell graduated from Geneva Medical College (the predecessor to Hobart College) in 1849. She was 28 years old.
Born in England but raised in Ohio, Blackwell knew early on that she wanted to pursue a career in medicine. She taught school as a way to raise tuition money and applied to more than two dozen medical schools. Geneva Medical College was the only one to accept her, but it did so as a joke. The faculty at Geneva Medical College were uncertain about accepting a woman, so they put Blackwell’s application out as a vote among the 150 male students. They voted unanimously to let her in, not thinking she would actually show up for classes.
That was the first of many obstacles she had to overcome. It was hard to find housing as neighbors looked upon her with suspicion, anatomy lessons could be shockingly crude and unwelcoming, and fellow students often treated her with disdain. But when she was handed her diploma in 1849, the dean bowed to her, the press wrote about her with admiration, and the citizens of Geneva flocked to her residence to congratulate her. She had the best academic record of her class.
Blackwell’s time in Geneva was short, but the legacy she leaves is very long. She continued her medical studies in Europe and then opened a dispensary in New York City. In 1857 she and her sister Emily, the third woman in the United States to receive a medical degree, opened the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. By the time Blackwell died in 1910, she had left her mark as a well-traveled social reformer and activist, had written essays and books, and founded the National Health Society.
A bronze statue of Elizabeth Blackwell can be found on the campus of Hobart and William Smith Colleges. It was created by art professor Ted Aub and dedicated in 1994.
Brave Women FLX
Dive into a vibrant mix of history, culture, and adventure as you follow in the footsteps of pioneering women who have inspired change—from women’s rights activists and abolitionists, to modern-day entrepreneurs, winemakers, and...
Women's Rights
It has been said that well-behaved women seldom make history. If this is true, then the Finger Lakes has a long “her-story” of misbehaving.
