History connects him most often to Rochester, but a man who fought to end slavery after freeing himself from its bonds will be remembered this month in the Finger Lakes community where he finished his life's work. 

Chester Freeman couldn't believe he'd never heard of the man. The retired college chaplain and Ontario County minister learned about Austin Steward from a friend at lunch.

Steward spent 22 years as a slave to a Virginia military captain who came to the Finger Lakes with his master in the early 19th century; first to Sodus, then to Bath. 

Freeman learned how Steward freed himself from slavery and, at 22, sat in a classroom with 8-year old's in Farmington to learn from a Quaker family how to read, write and do business. He became Rochester's first black businessman; a grocer along the Genesee River. 

Steward paid the educational gift he received forward by opening a school Canandaigua. He also delivered Rochester's emancipation speech that proclaimed the end of slavery in New York State in 1825, and was elected a trustee of the First AME Church in Rochester.

"How can this person be and I knew nothing about him," Freeman said. "We've got to spread the word about this guy. He's incredible."

As the minister learned more about Steward, Freeman knew he and Ontario County needed to to something more. Working with the Ontario County Historical Society, he arranged to get a memorial marker at his grave site at West Avenue Cemetery in Canandaigua. When no funding or support for the idea was presented, Freeman paid for it himself.

"He is worth making a point of public remembrance," Ed Varno, historical society leader said. "So others in the future will recognize his efforts and remember who he was."

In Steward's book "Twenty Two Years A Slave, And Forty Years A Freeman," the minister found a humble titan. 

"I really want this.  And if I'm the only one who wants it, I'll do it," Freeman said. "This was a humble man of greatness"

Freeman will join more than 100 people at a dedication of the new marker February 15th at the historical society building in Canandaigua. Come spring, the memorial will be installed near the obelisk marking Steward's grave.