Ohio History Journal

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A QUAKER SECTION OF THE UNDERGROUND

A QUAKER SECTION OF THE UNDERGROUND

RAILROAD IN NORTHERN OHIO

 

 

BY PROFESSOR WILBUR H. SIEBERT,

of the Ohio State University

 

One of the main lines of the Underground Railroad

which traversed Ohio from south to north, began at

Ripley in Brown County on the Ohio River and ran

through Highland, Fayette, Madison, Franklin, Dela-

ware, Marion, Morrow, and Richland counties to Green-

wich in Huron whence branches ran to the lake north

through Erie County and northeast through Lorain and

Cuyahoga counties. This line of slave travel from Ken-

tucky had, of course, its switches and loops and at fre-

quent intervals its short-line connections with other

more or less parallel routes to the east and west.

Early in December, 1926, General Edward Orton

and the writer drove to the Alum Creek Friends' Settle-

ment, or Marengo, in Peru Township, Morrow County,

which was for many years an important station for har-

boring fugitive slaves on the line roughly traced above.

General Orton had his camera with him and acted as

the official photographer of the "expedition," taking pic-

tures of certain houses in the settlement where fugitives

had been secreted until they could be sent on to neigh-

boring stations on their way to Canada and freedom.

The first settlers on Alum Creek were Cyrus Bene-

dict, his wife, and their three children, who removed

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