OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Ohio and The Underground Railway-- Pt 4
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
December 17, 1999
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Historical Collections of Ohio
Diaries of S. J. Kelly
Plains Dealer
Know Your Ohio
by Darlene E. Kelley
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Ohio and the Underground Railroad.  Pt 4

Myth, Legend, or Truth--

We definately know there was an underground railroad, which aided the
escape of the fugitive slaves. We know there were routes mapped to aid
these unfortunate souls. We know the people of Ohio could not stand by
and not do something to aid them, with the threat of perhaps, being
arrested, jailed, and fined. 
Some the threat may have meant death and ridicule of the family. But the
people of Ohio knew how it felt to be free. without fear, hunger, and
ignorance. So they did something about it---

Today sites are being authenticated and documented. Legends and myth
deciphered. Stories handed down investigated and historians are doing a
tremendous job to document and prove the sites, history, and truth.

During the era of slavery in the United States, many slaves fled to
freedom they knew they would find in the North. In order to reduce the
numbers of escaping slaves, owners kept slaves illiterate and totally
ignorant of geography. Owners even went so far as to try to keep them
from learning how to tell directions. Nevertheless, the slaves knew
perfectly well that freedom lay to the North, and they knew how how to
locate North. They used the North star.or what is more correctly named,
Polaris. Polaris lies directly north in the sky. They fled using the
simple direction by walking towards the North star. However, unable to
plan a route, they risked walking into impassable or dangerous terrain.

Members of the Underground Railroad were fully aware of the predictament
of fleeing slaves. In about 1831 the Railroad began to send travelers
into the South to secretly teach them of specific routes they could
navigate using the north star. By the beginning of the civil war in
1861, about 500 people a year were traveling in the South teaching
routes to slaves, and well established escape routes had been
established. Many scholars estimate that 60,000 to over a 100,000 slaves
sucessfully fled to freedom.

The North star became a symbol of freedom, as well as a guide star. All
slaves learned as soon as they could understand how to locate the North
Star by using the Big Dipper. They passed the travel information from
plantation to plantation by song. Slaves had brought from their tribal
cultures of Africa the custom of creating songs to transmit factual
information. In America they turned song into codes that secretly
transmitted information they wished to keep secret from their
slaveowners.

" Follow the Drinking Gourd " is a coded song that gave the route for
escape from Alabama and Mississppi. Of all the routes out of the deep
south, this is one that survived in code with details on how to escape.
The route instructions were given by an old carpenter named by the
slaves as Peg Leg Joe. This man worked as a itinerant carpenter who
spent winters in the South, moving from one plantation to another,
teaching slaves this escape route. Unfortunately. we know nothing about
Peg Leg Joe, nor his true name.

The song and its translation are as follows;

"When the sun comes back and the first quail calls. Follow the Drinking
Gourd.
For the old man is waiting for to carry you to freedom, Follow the
Drinking Gourd."

"When the sun comes back" means winter and spring when the altitude of
the sun at noon is higher each day. Quail are migratory bird wintering
in the South. The Drinking Gourd is the big dipper. The old man is Peg
Leg Joe. The verse tells slaves to leave in the winter and walk towards
the Drinking Gourd. Evetually they will meet a guide who will escort
them for the remainder of the trip.

Most of the escapees had to cross the Ohio River, which is too wide and
too swift to swim. The Railroad struggled with the problem of how to get
escapees across, with the experience, came to believe the best crossing
time was winter. The river was frozen, and they could walk across on the
ice. Since it took most escapees a year to travel from the south to the
Ohio, the Railroad urged slaves to start their trip in winter in order
to be at the Ohio the next winter.

" The river bank makes a very good road
The dead trees show you the way, 
Left foot, peg foot, traveling on
Follow the Drinking Gourd. "

This verse taught slaves to follow the bank of the Tombighee River north
looking for dead trees that were marked with drawings of a left foot and
a peg foot. The markings distinguished the Tombighee from other
north-south rivers that flow into it.

" The river ends between two hills
Follow the Drinking Gourd.
There's another river on the other side,
Follow the Drinkig Gourd."

These words told the slaves that when they reached the headwaters of the
Tombighee, they were to continue north over the hills until they met
another river. Then they were to travel norh along the new river which
is the Tennessee River. A number of the southern escape routes converged
on the Tennessee.

" Where the great big river meets the little river, 
Follow the Drinking Gourd.
For the old man is waiting to carry you to freedom if you
Follow the Drinking Gourd."

This verse told the slaves the Tennessee joined another river. They were
to cross that river ( which is the Ohio River), and on the north bank,
meet a guide from the Underground Railroad.

Here is another found in Fayette County, Ohio. Supposedly it was found
in a hiding place. It is yet to be proven--

" The massa is coming,
I've got to run--
To find a shelta 
before the rising sun--
My bellie is aching
For lack of food
my coat is torn--
from hiding in wood.
Wait--a door opens
for me to hide--
To canada I go
on boat I ride.
Bless this folk
who hep me fine
freedom at las
an peace of mine

Author unknown--

There were slaves in Fayette County, Ohio for years before the civil
war. They came from the South by various ways for several underground
routes crossed the county. A large number of them were smuggled into
peoples homes, who were part of the Underground Railroad and hidden away
for a day or a week or even longer, if necessary. They were then taken
to another place of safety, going north each time they started out.

There were houses with secret rooms built to care for the fleeing
slaves.They were well fed and clothed. If any of them were ill, they
were given kind, attentive care until they were well enough to travel
and in some cases, were given a home there at that place as long as they
chose to stay.

The Friends or Quakers, around New Martinsburg, had stations. The one we
are sure of is the Jacob Todhunter house in the sight of Walnut Creek
Church. The basement was arranged with false partions and trick doors
for hiding of the slaves. The road used to run back of the house. This
made it easy to get the fugitive slaves into the house after dark and
out again when it was best for them to continue their journey. The
stations were eight or ten miles apart. The Todhunter place near the
city of Washington was frequently used. The home where Moses Rawlings
lived had a hidden room at the side of the basement and one at the end,
with entrances through manholes in the downstairs closets.

About two miles from the city of Washington, Ohio was the house known as
the Stewart-Matthew's house and it had a secret room on the side under
the eves in the attic which was used for hiding slaves. Pickaway County
is ten miles from this point. 

The W.A. Ustick homestead had a number of places where slaves were kept
secret until traveling could be assured safe. Most of the hiding places
have been destroyed in its remodeled condition, as was the condition
with the Presbyterian and Methodist parsonages in Bloomingburg which
served as Underground stations, as was the old hotel.. James Alexander
built a home with hiding places for the slaves that passed his way.

The George Stewart home near Danville Pike, was a station for the
Underground Railroad. A little boy was brought there with a wagon load
of men. When the men left, Mrs. Stewart would not let them take little
John Hunter along because he was too ill to travel. He was brought up in
he Stewart home and was educated to be a surgeon. He pacticed in
Lexington, Kentucky.

There were a number of places in Jeffersonville where shelter and aid
was provided for the fleeing slaves. This was where that double stirrups
were first used. The men rode on large horses using double stirrups so
they could pick up one man and let him sit behind the rider, or two boys
could ride each of them with a foot in the stirrup and hanging on until
they reached safety.

This recognition of human rights was so general among Fayette Countians
that when the war between the States developed, a high percentage of
volunteers, according to the populations, more came from this county
than other of the counties.

Erie County, Ohio, because of its location on Lake Erie and the number
of railroad lines that went through the city of Sandusky was a major
terminal on the Underground Railroad. It was known by the code name, "
Hope." Marsh Tavern that stood at the corner of Water and Wayne,
documented the first runaway to seek refuge in Sandusky and hidden
there. The Sandusky Docks were the departure point for many of the
runaways escaping by boat to Canada. The docks at the foot of Columbus
Ave is the one described by Ohioan Harriet Beecher Stowe in her book "
Uncle Tom's Cabin."
There were many documented sites in Sandusky.

The Town of Huron was built just east of Sandusky, where the Huron River
flows into Lake Erie. Because of its location, it too became an active
Terminal along the Underground Railroad.

Many sites are being documented by the Historians and the Parks
department in Ohio, hoping to preserve the sites as a whole. They are a
monument in our history that should be preserved and kept in condition,
to be a reminder of what took place in a nation who believes that all
men are created equal and freedom is the rights of all.
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