Anna Marie Resseguie & Phillis Dubois

Residents from 1829 to 1907

Phillis Dubois and unknown girl

Anna Marie Resseguie was the daughter of Abijah and Anna Resseguie. Born in 1830, Anna Marie kept a daily diary for decades, and it provides powerful first-person testimony to what her life was like in Ridgefield, including through the tumultuous years of the Civil War. After her mother’s death in 1862, Anna Marie began operating the hotel with Phillis Dubois, a Black woman who lived with and worked for the Resseguies for many years. In 1907, Anna Marie sold the Resseguie Hotel – by that point in a state of disrepair – to Cass Gilbert.

Phillis Dubois was born in 1822, and we have little information about her early years or family. What we do know about Phillis comes almost exclusively through records written and kept by other people: legal documents such as censuses and her death certificate, as well as newspaper articles and a diary written by Anna Marie Resseguie. KTM&HC is also fortunate to have a photograph of Phillis, although not much context about the image is available. In the late 1820s, records held by KTM&HC indicate that Phillis was “taken in” by Abijah and Anna Resseguie as a young child, and she lived in the home until her death on April 8, 1905. The 1830 and 1840 censuses list Phillis as a “Free Colored Person,” and beginning in the 1860 census her profession is listed as “Servant” or “Domestic Servant.” Though Phillis was not legally enslaved, records show that she was not treated as a member of the Resseguie family and she worked for decades for the family without being paid for her labor. Learning more about Phillis is one of KTM&HC’s current research priorities.

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