OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 873 Today's Topics: #1 Fw: Bio History--Know your Ohio-- ["Maggie Stewart" that contains in the body of the message the command unsubscribe and no other text. No subject line is necessary, but if your software requires one, just use unsubscribe in the subject, too. ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #1 Date: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 15:28:44 -0500 From: "Maggie Stewart" > To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0dbe01bf53cd$a2a84100$0300a8c0@local.net > Subject: Fw: Bio History--Know your Ohio-- Ohio and The UndergroundRailroad. Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: kathi kelley > To: > Sent: Friday, December 17, 1999 5:54 PM Subject: Bio History--Know your Ohio-- Ohio and The UndergroundRailroad. *********************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio Know your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley *********************************************** 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. *********************************************** ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 16:33:29 -0500 From: "Maggie Stewart" > To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0e0301bf53d6$afe52500$0300a8c0@local.net > Subject: Fw: Bio History-- Know Your Ohio-- Some Travel Recollections Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: kathi kelley > To: > Sent: Sunday, December 19, 1999 1:23 AM Subject: Bio History-- Know Your Ohio-- Some Travel Recollections Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley December 18. 1999 ********************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio From the diaries of S.J. Kelley Know your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley *********************************************** Some Travel notes of Henry Howe-- Historian-- found in back of diary-- When I first knew Cleveland, now about a half a century ago, it was a small place with only a few thousand people. Even then it had a distinction of being an attractive spot from the beauty of its situation and adornments of trees and shrubbery and was called " the Forest City." The people of the town largely lived in small houses, but many of these were pretty, simple cottages, showing refinement from their social porches and surroundings of flowers and shrubbery. The city had a grand start from the character of its human stock. Indeed, I think the historian Bancroft somewhere has said, speaking of the entire Western Reserve, that the average grade of intelligence in its population exceded that of any other equal era of people on the globe. Euclid Avenue, where I once lived near Giddings, was aquiring a reputation for beauty. One residence upon it, that of Judge Thomas M. Kelley ( he spelled it Kelly like mine, however Kelley is the correct way, now.) was where many fine citizens of Cleveland and other fine dignitaries were entertained in elogant fashion. Judge Kelley had fine children and did him great honor. Judge Kelley and I were the best of friends and had many personal times together. General Harrison once said it was the handsomest in Ohio. It is yet a fine home-like domicile, but cannot compare with the palatial mansions now there. But magnificient as these are, there is standing today upon this avenue, one little cottage that, to my eye, is more attractive then them all, and because it had long been the home of the late Charles Whittlesey, the most learned of Ohio's historians; the most original, philosophic and varied in his investigations, alike in the realms of science and events. The Whittlesey home-place is about three miles from the centre, a white cottage, standing a few rods back from the avenue, partially hid by evergreens. As I approached it on this tour to make a call upon my old friend, whom I had not seen in many years, I was surprised at the discovery at the pathside of what seemed to me an original sort of door-plate. It was a small white boulder, dotted with red-spots-jasper. The front side was polished, and on it was carved Charles Whittlesey. It was a block of brecca, conglomerated quartz, limestone, and jasper, the natural home of which was the north shore of Lake Erie. Only four such have been found in Cleveland, brought here in the ice age, though common in Michigan. This identical block was procured by Mr. Whittlesey and shipped from the north shore of Lake Erie by Irad Kelley and his brother Datus Kelley from Kelley's Island, Ohio. My visit was on a bright, summer afternoon. I found the Colonel, as everybody called him, not in his cottage, but in his garden, and the way I went thither was interesting--in the front door and then out the back door, through the little low rooms, filled with books and utilities of the old student and scientist. life-long loves and companions, silent teachers of God, man and the universe. In the garden, in the rear of a little old bown barn, old soldier-like, I found him, with his tent spread and in solitude. He was seated on a camp-stool at the tent door, the sun pouring full in his face, the afternoon of July 3,1886. As I approached he at first did not hear my footsteps; he was gazing into vacancy, his mind evidently far away amid scenes of a long, eventful life; at times, perhaps, on the far-away wilderness with savages. away back in the forties, surveying in the wintery snows of the Lake Superior country, or on the battlefield of Shiloh, or, perhaps, to his still earlier experiences when a boy, when this century was young, he was beginning life in a cabin among the struggling pioneers of Portage county. Yes, gazing into vacancy from the tent door, a rather small, aged man, a blonde, and bald and evidently an invalid. He wore a dressing gown, and, as I later saw, when he moved, it was slowly, painfully, in bent attitude and leaning on a cane. Around him, strewn on the boarded tent were a few books, a map or two and relics of by-gone days; the old military suit he wore in the Black Hawk war in 1832, when he was one of Uncle Sam's lieutenants of infantry, a stiff black hat, bell-crowed, with a receptacle for a pompon, ancient sword with curving blade, an old fashioned military coat with rear appendage of hanging flaps. He had saved it so long ( for fifty-four years ) that I fancied the moths must have owed him a grudge. The Colonel had heard I was coming and sent word he wanted to see me. I got an honest greeting. There was no gush about him. He was one of the most plain, simple of men, a terse talker, giving out nuggets of facts-- so terse that if perchance a listener let his mind go a wool gathering for a second and lost two or three words, he would be clear broken up. He told me that was the fourth summer in which he had passed several hours daily in his tent. This was to take sun baths, from which he thought then for the first time he was exerperiencing a decided benefit. Asking what his special ailment he replied: " I have five chronic complaints, and all in full blast," When asked why soldiers did not take cold in tents he answered: " Because the temperature is always even. Indoors we cannot avoid uneven temperatures and in changing from tent life to house life one is apt to take cold." No intelligent man could long listen to Mr. Whittlesey without feeling his intellect stimulated, and valuable facts were being poured in for storage. His conversation, too, was enlivened by little flashes of grim humor, which he gave forth apparently unconscious, with a fixed, sedate expression. And if you then smiled he gave no answering smile, and you would be apt to think you had not heard him aright. The learned man had helped me on my first edition; had contributed an article on the geology of the State. The science was then new and the article is now obsolete. He wanted to help me on this edition. and wrote for it " The Pioneer Engineers Of Ohio." There is another article also in this book by him, " Sources of Ohio's Strength." but of the great characters therein portrayed no one had greater breadth of knowledge, not one so varied knowledge, not one a finer intellect, not one was more worthy of the respect and veneration of the people of the commonwealth than Charles Whittlesey. And is singular gratification to me that he of all others of the many who contributed papers to my first edition should have contributed to this edition. And he was the only one of them all who was living and could do so. After this and another interview I saw him no more. His work was finished. He passed away in the Autumn, and the white boulder with blushing spots that adorned the front yard of the cottage is also gone and now rests over his burial spot in peaceful Woodlawn. With profound gratitude, I pen this tribute not only to one of Ohio's great men, but to all of the Nation's great men. --Henry Howe. *********************************************** ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #3 Date: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 17:04:00 -0500 From: "Maggie Stewart" > To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0e3201bf53da$f1426720$0300a8c0@local.net > Subject: Fw: Bio History-- KnowYour Ohio-- Money At Home-- Pt 1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: kathi kelley > To: > Sent: Monday, December 20, 1999 2:50 PM Subject: Bio History-- KnowYour Ohio-- Money At Home-- Pt 1 ********************************************** Historical Collections Of Ohio Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley *********************************************** Money at Home--- Banking in Ohio-- Creation of National Currency- Pt 1 Beginnings-- Because of their crucial importance to the life of the community, U.S. banks have always operated under rules more demanding than those applied to other businesses. In most states of the early Federal Union, bank organzers needed special permssion from the state government to open and operate. For a while, an additional layer of oversight was provided by the Bank of the United States, a central bank founded in 1791 at the initiative of the nation's first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Its Congressional charter expired in 1811. A second Bank of the United States was created in 1816 and operated until 1832. In less settled parts of the country, lending stadards tended to be more liberal. There farmers could frequently obtain bank loans to buy land and equipment and finance the shipment of farm products to maket. Because of the unpredictability of weather and market conditions, loan losses tended to be higher too. When the second Bank of the United States when out of business in 1832, state governments took over the job of supervising banks. This supervision often proved inadequate. In those days banks made loans by issuing their own currency. These bank notes were suppose to be convertable, on demand, to cash-- that is, to gold or silver. It was the job of the bank examiner to visit the bank and certify that it had enough cash on hand to redeem its outstanding currency. Because this was not always done, many bank note holders found themselves stuck with worthless paper. It was sometimes difficult or impossible to detect which notes were sound and which were not, because of their staggering variety. By 1860 more than 10,000 different bank notes circulated throughout the country. Commerce suffered as a result. Counterfeiting was epidemic. Hundreds of banks failed. Throughout the country there was an insistant demand for a uniform National Currency acceptable anywhere without risk. In response, Congress passed the National Currency Act in 1863. In 1864, President Lincoln signed a revision of that law, the National Bank Act. These laws established a new system of national banks and a new governmet agency headed by a Comptroller of the Currency. The Comptroller's job was to organize and supervise the new banking system through regulations and periodic examinations. Banking in Cleveland-- As Cleveland grew from an agricultural outpost in the Northwest Territory to a center of trade and trans-shipment, the village economy and hinterland it served, gradually lost its local character as its population increased, and banks were organized to facilitate commercial transactions that were increasing in number and scope. Although the war of 1812, helped make Cleveland a trading center, barter still governed most exchanges of goods because specie (hard money made up of gold and silver coins) was scarce and paper money was of dubious value. The city's emergence as a commercial center still was uncertain whe its first bank, the Commercial Bank Of Lake Erie opened for business August 6, 1816, extending credit to merchants, making real estate loans. and issuing its own bank notes as currency. The Commercial Bank of Lake Erie. This bank was the first bank in Cleveland and briefly played an active role in the town's early economic life. Incorporated by 9 Clevelander's with $ 45,000 in capital and a twenty-five year state charter, the bank opened for business on August 6, 1816 in a house at the corner of Superior and Bank (w 6th) streets. With Alfred Kelley as President, the firm carried on a prosperous business in mercantile credits and real-estate loans for two years. However, it fell victim to the Panic of 1819 and in 1820 it was uable to redeem $ 10,000 worth of paper money with specie ( gold and silver coins ) to the Second Bank of the U.S. The bank reopened on April 2, 1832 after paying off its debt, with Leonard Case, president and Truman P. Hardy cashier. Reorganization coincided with a tremendous growth in Cleveland's canal trade in the 1830s, and the bank extended credit to Cleveland's merchants and financed shipments of Ohio farm surpluses. The enterprise was sucessful until the Panic of 1837, when the bank was unable to collect its heavy merchant loans and had to suspend payment of specie for over a year. Altough it survived the panic, the Comercial Bank never recovered, and when its charter expired in 1842, the state legislature refused to recharter it. By 1845, the bank's remaining assets had been distributed, including prime parcels of downtown real estate. Canals-- It was during the nation's canal building period that Cleveland's position as a provincial center of trade was established. The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, opened Great Lakes shipping to the eastern seaboard, and the Ohio and Erie Canal, finished in 1832 with Cleveland as its northern terminus, linked Ohio River traffic and the interior of the state to Lake Erie. With Ohio connected with eastern seaboard via the Erie Canal, commerce expanded into areas essentually bypassed in earlier good times, creating a need for banking services. Initially Cincinnati, which benefited from increased river traffic, was the state's major commercial and banking center. ********************************************* To be continued in part 2. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #873 *******************************************