Juneteenth, Connections to Freedom
June 19 commemorates the day the last enslaved people learned of their freedom in 1865. Petaluma has a connection to that era.
Juneteenth commemorates the day when Union troops notified enslaved Texans of their freedom on June 19, 1865, over two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Remnants of that era remain in Petaluma with a close connection to one of "the most influential abolitionist families in American history," said Joanna Paun, a member of the Petaluma City Schools Board of Education, employee of the Sonoma County Office of Education, and Sonoma County Board of Supervisors District 2 candidate.
The Rankin family of Ripley, Ohio, helped between 2,000 and 3,000 enslaved people reach freedom along the Underground Railroad, and the Rev. Adam Rankin, his wife Margaret, and his son Lowry are buried at Cypress Hill Memorial Park.
This is “a story that deserves to be widely shared,” she told Petaluma Voice. “And this is not just a minor connection.”
In February, Rankin family descendant Rick DeGraf and his family visited the site in conjunction with the Sonoma County Office of Education and Petaluma City Schools.
The gravestone of the Rev. Adam L. Rankin, the son of John Rankin, an abolitionist based in Ohio who helped saved thousands of enslaved people along the Underground Railroad. (CRISSY PASCUAL/PETALUMA VOICE ©2026)
Petaluma City Schools board member Joanna Paun and Meryl-Mae Blomseth of the Sonoma County Office of Education helped bring the Footsteps to Freedom program to Petaluma, where staff from both organizations visited Rankin gravesites at the Cypress Hill cemetery on Tuesday, February 10, 2026. (CRISSY PASCUAL/PETALUMA VOICE ©2026)
Paun learned of the Rankin’s ties to Petaluma via Footsteps to Freedom, a program that offers fully immersive tours of the Underground Railroad spanning more than 3,000 miles from Kentucky to Canada.
“Connecting the past to the present is always a powerful experience,” and the February program was exemplary of that, she said.
“Bringing together Petaluma residents who are descendants of the Rankin family with former Footsteps to Freedom participants created a unique opportunity for dialogue, reflection, and deeper engagement,” she said. “These conversations help make history tangible and relevant, reminding us that its legacy continues to shape our lives today.”
The Rankins’ history remains immortalized in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Meanwhile, Paun has shared her experiences along the Underground Railroad in classrooms, at Black Student Union meetings, and as a keynote speaker for the Sonoma State Black Grad Celebration in 2024, she said.
Paun and her daughter Janessa returned to Cypress Hill on Memorial Day where, after a ceremony, they placed flowers on the grave of Rev. Adam Rankin, “honoring both his role as an abolitionist and his service as a Civil War veteran," she said. "It was a meaningful moment of remembrance and a powerful reminder that history is not as far away as we often imagine.”
For more information on Footsteps to Freedom, visit https://footstepstofreedom.com.
