THE "UNDERGROUND RAILROAD" SYSTEM
From The History of Carroll, Harrison Counties, Ohio, Volume 1, Chapter XXI, Miscellaneous Items of Interest
What was styled the "underground railroad" in slavery times, was a route or trail over which negroes were spirited from the slave states north into Canada where they became free. Such routes ran through parts of Harrison County. In his "Pathfinders of Jefferson County," William H. Hunter, the author, has this to say concerning the underground railroad in this county:
"The Short Creek valley from Cadiz to Mt. Pleasant and including the region about New Athens and Crabapple church, just over the divide, on the headquarters of Wheeling Creek, was noted for its warmth of abolition sentiment from 1820 down to the close of the irrepressible conflict abolition of slavery, pure and simple; the hard headed austere Seceders, the followers of Dr. John Walker, and other ministers of his kind, would tolerate no compromise and they looked upon Benjamin Lundy's colonization schemes with almost the same disrespect that they would consider any half way measure proposed by the pro slavery advocates. Franklin College, founded by John Walker, was long recognized as the fountain head of the abolition sentiment of eastern Ohio, and it is but natural that the people first to drink of the stream were powerfully influenced; and further,it was in accordance With the eternal fitness of things that numerous `underground stations,' so called because slaves were surreptitiously conveyed along certain routes kept hid during the day and hurried during the night season from one station to another on their way to Canada, should be established in this valley.
"Of course, there were stations at the mouth of Short Creek, one kept by George Craig and one by William Hogg. One was kept by Joseph Medill, on Warren Ridge, near Hopewell Methodist Episcopal Church. There were many in Mt. Pleasant, the slaves being kept during daylight in any of the houses of the villages and there is an authority for the statement that one good Friend kept a number of strong negroes on his farm from corn planting until after harvest. The house of Rev. Benjamin Mitchell was a noted station, there being, a trap door in the kitchen floor through which runaway slaves reached a large hole in the ground when slave hunters were searching the premises. The Updegraff house, a mile west of Mount Pleasant, and that of David Robinson, west of Trenton, were also well known to the slave on his way to liberty. The Bracken house in Mount Pleasant, was so constructed that the negroes could enter an attic by means of a trap door in the roof after climbing a ladder. Benjamin Ladd, the Quaker philanthropist, kept the Smithfield station. The one at Lloydstown, named for Jesse and Isaac Lloyd, was kept by Eli Nichols. One at Unity kept by Rev. John Walker, the courageous Seceder minister; at Hammond's crossroads, by Alexander and John Hammond John Hammond, Jr., and Joseph Rogers, now of Cadiz, being conducted between this point and Hopedale; one at the house of James Hanna (brother of Rev. Thomas Hanna) near Georgetown; one at the house of Silas McNeely (founder of Hopedale College), between Hopedale and Unionvale; one at the house of judge Thomas Lee, near Cadiz; one at Miller's station, by David Ward; one at Richmond, by James and William Ladd; and from here, the negroes were conducted to the home of judge Thomas George, on Yellow Creek, then to Salem, in Columbiana County, from which point they had comparatively safe passage into British possessions."
Those who harbored fugitive slaves in those days ran great risks, the penalty being a thousand dollars fine and imprisonment.
Just as this chapter is being compiled in December, 1920, an obituary of Benjamin Cope, of Cadiz, in the local paper appears, he having passed from earth's shining circle last week. The following explains its appearance in this connection:
"As a young man Benjamin Cope was an ardent abolitionist, and since his father's home was one of the "stations" on the "underground road," on numerous occasions he acted as guide to runaway slaves who were temporarily sheltered at the Cope homestead, at one time there being twenty one at the Cope home, who had escaped from their masters in Virginia, in the part of the State that is now West Virginia, some of them coming from Wheeling. They remained in hiding during the day time, and in the night time Benjamin, sometimes accompanied by his brother Oliver would guide the runaways to the home of Cyrus McNeely at Hopedale, a distance of fourteen miles, the next station on the underground railroad."