Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-03-06
"REMINISCENCES
ON SLAVERY DAYS
AND OF THE FAMOUS UNDER.
GROUND RAILROAD.
oUAkERS AS CONDUCTORS
Lovers of Peace Jealous violators of
the Law in Aiding Negroes to Es-
cape-Heroic Old AboIitionist Who
Afterward Became Badger
Scion.


sin people may not have much appre-
citation of the so-called underground
railroad" of ante-bellum days. but it
was, nevertheless. an institution of
vast importance to thousands OF
! slaves since by its means they were
| enabled to escape from bondage over
into Canada. Ohio was gridironed by
I these roads" and blacks from Ken
lucky and Virginia, just to the south,
found buckeyes in plenty to help
! them on their way to freedom. The Bel
mont (Ohiol Chronicle publishes an
interesting "reminiscences of the old
time and it is especially interesting
: from the fact that one of the con
ductors," William Palmer. afterward
became a Wisconsin legislator. He
resided near Flushing. village in
Belmont county. only 20 miles over
in Ohio from Wheeling. one of the
mos important Giles of the old Vir-
ginia of that day, now the metropolis
of West Virginia. Palmer came to
| Wisconsin before the civil war. iocat.
ing rear Loganvile in Sank county.
Later he resided in Baraboo. He left
that place in 1868 and moved back to
his fine farm, and there he died some
ii. Reighard who owns a beautiful
place on the fertile and picturesque
Narrows prairie adjoining the Palmer
homestead, and Palmer's daughter is
Mrs. Flora Bunker of Wonewoc. while
| a grandniece is Mrs. Frank Rowland
wife of a prominent lumberman at
| Reedsburg. Palmer was member of
the assembly in 1866. and played a
| prominent part in the concluding war
| time legislation of that dramatic pc
Rod He was dogmatic old Quaker
a model type of the fearless. uncom.
promising abolitionist.
But to the underground railroad
The Ohio paper says:
Belmont county being on the Dor
J derland between slave and free states
IL afforded a field for the operation OF
the underground railroad in the ex
citing period before the civil war
when the fugitive slave was an i'm
.
mont county many men who hat
most positive convictions against sla
very, and among these were man,
who had believed they were but obey
ing a higher law when they violated
the civil law in giving aid to escaping
| slaves. Almost all those who were
| active in the operation of the under
ground railroads are dead. There
were several routes passing through
Belmont county.
ID. b. Hogue of Louisville SAYS
, there was an underground railroad
station at or near Somerton. a few
miles from the Monroe county line.
kept by DR.. Schooley. The road ran
in northeasterly direction to Bel
mont, the next station. which was
kept by William Dillon; thence on to
Louisville, or near that place. where
Eli Nichols and Travis George were
operators. and so on to New Athens
or just north of the Harrison county
line. where the Rev. Walker welcomed
the foot-sore fugitives
'Mr. Hogue was. himself conduct
or on the lines and reported other
conductors to be living, namely:
Granville s. Dillon I'd Joshua VI.
Houge. both born and raised i'm Bel
mont county, and living near the town
OF Belmont. Mr.. Dillon died since
He says that Mr.. Dillon conveyed a
fugitive slave to New Athens on his
way to Canada. and that the slave re.
turned within a year on his way back
TO Kentucky to get his wife and his
two children. The negro was sue
cessful in finding and obtaining them
and before two months had rolled
round came to Mr.. Dillon once more
to be helped to New Athens. These
conductors report that they never ex-
perienced much trouble and were al.
ways successful in their operations.
SO far as Mr. Houge knows all the sta
ton keepers of Belmont county are
dead. Eli Nichols took a most active
part in underground work at Loyds-
vile until 1874. when he moved to
Coshccton county o. The runaways
were taken from Mr. Nichols place to
New Athens or to Cadiz.
"A way station between GAINESVILLE
and New Athens was Flushing. in the
vicinity of which Jacob and Isaac HoI.
loway kept open house. According
to tradition Nichols sometimes sent
passengers to these Flushing stations
himself receiving parties from Horton
Howard of ST. Clairsville. Other per.
sons engaged in the secret business
near Flushing were William and John
Wright (Quakers). station keepers
and John Reynolds and Robert Kirk
conductors. In Flushing were DIR
Jesse Bailey and William Palmer. both
Quahers. These men received their
passengers usually from the town Of
Belmont. an old Mr.. Palmer-no re-
iation Of withdrawing as guide or
pilot. The next depot was perhaps
Harrisville or Cadiz. where lived the
Quaker merchant. Joseph Wilson.
Slaves escaping across the Ohio
river at Wheeling or north or south
OF that city did not find 1t difficult tn
get clue which would take them To
an abolitionist refuge. whence they