The (Mis)adventures of Jyl: Seneca Falls

Jyl takes a trip to one of the most historic towns in Upstate New York, from Women’s Rights to Guardian Angels…

Welcome back, misadventurers!

I’m taking you somewhere a little different this week. This place isn’t haunted by ghosts. Not the usual kind, anyway. I am taking you back to the area where I grew up. Some places have energy you can feel before you even get out of the car. Seneca Falls, New York, is one of them. What lingers is something louder: memory, momentum, a push toward justice that never quite lets up. It’s where movements began. Where ideas first took shape. And where some of the most powerful voices in American history left their mark—especially those fighting for the rights of women and people of color.

Seneca Falls is often called the birthplace of the women’s rights movement in the United States, and for good reason. In 1848, a small group of reformers organized the first Women’s Rights Convention in the Wesleyan Chapel downtown. The names on the declaration they signed—names like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott—still echo through textbooks. But the real power of the place isn’t just historical. It’s the way Seneca Falls feels alive with purpose, even now. The streets, the statues, the preserved buildings aren’t frozen in time. They’re reminders that equality is never finished work.

A few blocks away, you’ll find the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who raised seven children while drafting speeches and fighting tirelessly for suffrage, divorce reform, and the rights of enslaved people. Not far from there stands a statue of three women having tea, Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Amelia Bloomer, talking strategy in the shadow of a revolution. It’s a quiet monument, but it hits hard. These were women who reimagined what America could be.

Susan B. Anthony never lived in Seneca Falls, but she visited often. Her influence here is everywhere. She partnered with Stanton for decades, co-writing speeches and lobbying Congress for the vote. Her likeness appears on plaques and historical markers around town, one of many reminders that social change doesn’t happen in isolation, it happens in networks, friendships, and persistence.

The story gets even richer when you look beyond just women’s suffrage. Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery and went on to lead dozens of others to freedom through the Underground Railroad, lived not far from Seneca Falls in nearby Auburn. She wasn’t at the 1848 convention, but her presence in the region is just as vital. Her home and final resting place are open to visitors, and standing in that space, knowing all she risked, all she endured, adds weight to every conversation about freedom and rights.

There’s another piece of Seneca Falls that lives in our cultural memory, even if you don’t know it yet. If the town looks a little familiar, it might be because it inspired Bedford Falls, the fictional setting of It’s a Wonderful Life. Director Frank Capra passed through Seneca Falls in the 1940s, and while he never confirmed a direct link, the resemblance is uncanny. The bridge, the layout, the spirit of the place—it’s all there. There’s something timeless there. Something rooted in the belief that individual lives matter, that kindness counts, and that communities can stand up for one another. Not just in movies, but in real life.

This wouldn’t be a true misadventure without something unusual to report. Cayuga Lake is vast and still and startlingly deep. It’s also loud, when it wants to be. Strange booming sounds known as the Seneca Drums have been reported here for hundreds of years. Sudden, echoing claps that roll across the water with no storm in sight. According to folklore, the sounds are a message from the Iroquois who inhabited the area hundreds of years ago. Scientific explanations have ranged from shifting ice to underground movement, mini-earthquakes, geothermal reactions, or the lake’s unique geological shape. But the truth is, nothing has ever been proven, so no one really knows. And somehow, that feels exactly right for a place that’s always made noise in unexpected ways.

Jyl Glenn is a writer, editor, formatter, anthologist, poet, and a medical-legal writer and consultant. Her lifelong love affair with horror began at a very early age when she was left unattended on the weekend Poltergeist debuted on HBO. And then she figured out she could read any horror book she liked as long as she hung out at the public library, even if the librarian deemed it not to be age appropriate. Jyl was born and raised in New York and now lives in Tulsa with her dog. She loves creepy art, dark poetry, and pink dinosaurs. When she isn’t dabbling in the macabre—she’s most likely asleep.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing. Thank you for understanding.