THE
"UNDERGROUND RAILWAY."
A. J. BAUGHMAN.
One of the most noted stations of the
old "Underground
Railway" in its time, was at
"Uncle" John Finney's, in Spring-
field township, Richland county, four
miles west of Mansfield,
(Ohio,) about a half mile north of the
Mansfield-Crestline trolley
line. From the windows of the swiftly
moving car, passengers
can see the place where many runaway
slaves found rest and
succor while enroute to Canada in the
ante-bellum days. But
few persons, however, who pass by that
historic spot now, know
of the scenes that were enacted there
fifty years ago.
It was during the administration of
Martin Van Buren that
the doctrine of the abolition of slavery
began to be propagated as
a political issue. At first there was a
distinction drawn between
those who were opposed to the extension
of slavery and those
who were in favor of its abolition; but
as revolutions seldom go
backward, the latter in time absorbed
the former.
John Finney, a Pennsylvanian, located in
Springfield town-
ship in 1820. He was a large
man, a man of strong convictions,
and organized the first temperance
society in his township. He
was a member of the United Presbyterian
church and endeavored
to live consistent with his profession.
He was opposed to secret
societies and to slavery. He was one of
the leading Abolitionists
in the county, and his place was for
years the most noted station
on the "Underground Railway"
in North-Central Ohio.
The fugitive slave law not only required
people to assist
in returning slaves to their masters,
but made it a penal offence
to refuse to do so, which made the law
so unpopular in the
North that many people prided themselves
more upon its breach
than upon its observance. Politics in
those days was a matter
of sentiment and of principle. Politics
to-day is largely a matter
of finance and of commerce.
During the many years that
"Uncle" John Finney assisted
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