Hello Christopher,

Your three elements of Assistance, Connections and Continuity are certainly primary to the discussion of the Underground Railroad movement, point well taken. I would like to use those elements, expand them a little and include Community and Religion .

The example I cite will be from my personal research, but I’m sure will hold true wherever there was and UGRR movement. The current U.S Route 68, or the Simon Kenton Trace, was an Indian path that runs from Ripley, Ohio on the Ohio River to Toledo on Lake Erie and was a well-traveled UGRR route. The area from Springfield, Ohio to Findlay, Ohio is an 80 mile stretch that was the home of connected AA families (Community) . This was one of several routes used by Free Persons of Color. (FPOC’s)
The timeframe for their operation was from the early 1820’s to the early 1860’s.

From Springfield to Urbana, Bellefontaine, West Liberty, Kenton, Mt. Victory, Arlington and finally Findlay, there were FREE Black family relationships (direct & collateral) that were involved with the UGRR. Each of these communities also had a connection to the African Methodist Episcopal.church. (Religion) This church connection started around 1824.

In reading Siebert intervews, UGRR diaries, County histories and other Newspaper accounts mention of the above involvement is limited, very limited, at best. The Springfield U.G.R.R. Association has in the pamphlet “Springfield, Sketches of Yester Year” a roster of members which includes the Publisher of the Springfield Republic, a State Senator, Presbyterian minister, a wealthy socialite and several white businessmen by name. In what appears to be an afterthought it mentions a colored porter and his mother, a colored barber, a colored farmer and drayman, and an old colored Wood Sawyer……none by name.

The colored Wood Sawyer…his home built in 1850, by him, is one of the FEW remaining AA owned & operated safe-houses in the entire State of Ohio and is currently undergoing restoration. (Gammon House) The Barber (Piles) left an estate valued in excess of $100,000 at the time of his death. The farmer & drayman (Byrd) is pictured in Siebert’s book as one of the wealthiest men in the three county area of Champaign, Logan & Shelby counties with sizeable acreage in all three counties. The Porter and his mother (Durgans) , a well known seamstress, owned an Inn, Tavern and Livery stable in Springfield. All people who certainly could have been named, not just merely mentioned. But I guess we should be thankful they were mentioned in the larger scheme of things.

Oh, btw, in “Sketches”, these folks are mentioned with the statement that they are not “cut from the mold” of “regular” colored folks . This was probably a true statement, their Assistance,, Connections, Continuity, sense of Community along with their Religious convictions placed them a “cut above” and from a different mold than MOST folks, regardless of color.

More to follow.

Art Thomas