Activities of the Underground Railroad in Oswego County

This essay was originally published in the 1940 OCHS Yearbook. Please note that this essay was published over 80 years ago. While still useful for general education, language may be outdated and at times offensive. The Oswego County Historical Society does not stand by the language used in this essay. All photos were added in 2024 when this article was uploaded to the web. To view the original document, please visit NYHeritage.org.

Paper Presented Before The Oswego Historical Society January 9, 1940 By Miss Frieda Schuelke Of The History Department Of The Oswego High School

A Syracusan, Rev. Samuel Joseph May, related this story in 1869. A fine-looking, well-dressed young man whose hands were soft and fine came to Rev. May. The fugitive had served as a driver for the carriage of his master’s daughters. One of them came to him with the message, “Harry, father is going to sell you.” She put five dollars in his hand and turned away weeping. From Kentucky he started at night and reached the Ohio River before morning. He crossed to Cincinnati and hurried on board a steamer, the steward of which was a black man of his acquaintance. On board he was concealed until the boat had returned to Pittsburgh where he was introduced to a gentleman known to be friendly to colored folks. That gentleman sent him to a friend in Meadville and he directed Harry to go to Rev. May. With a letter of introduction to a gentleman in Kingston, Harry was sent to Oswego and a few days afterwards Rev. May received news of his safe arrival in Canada.

Let me use Rev. May’s phraseology. “Everybody has heard of ‘the Underground Railroad.’ Many have read of its operations who have been puzzled to know where it was laid, who were the conductors of it, who kept the ‘stations’, and how large were the profits. As the company is dissolved, the rails taken up, the business at an end, I propose now to tell my readers about it.” With these words he revealed his cooperation with the system devised by friends of the fugitive slaves to aid them in their escape to Canada and freedom. “So long ago as 1834, when I was living in the eastern part of Connecticut,” the narrative continues, “I had fugitives addressed to my care. . . Even after I came to reside in Syracuse, I had much to do as a stationkeeper or conductor on the Underground Railroad, until slavery was abolished by the Proclamation ot President [sic] Lincoln, and subsequently by the according Acts of Congress. Fugitives came to me from Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Louisiana. They came, too, at all hours of day and night, sometimes comfortably—yes, and even handsomely clad, but generally in clothes very unfit to be worn, and in some instances too unclean and loathsome to be admitted into my house.” In the latter cases, Rev. May furnished the unkempt ‘passengers’ with hot water, towels, soap, and a complete suit of clean clothes from a deposit which his kind parishioners kept pretty well supplied. After tarrying a few days, the ‘passenger’ went on his way to Canada, exulting in his escape from tyranny.

Workers’ Identities Concealed

Utica, Oneida, and Syracuse were important ‘receiving stations’ on the U. G. R. R. in this state. Many escaped slaves were transported through Onondaga county and from thence to Northern New York. Those who guided the fugitives and sometimes transported them were known as ‘conductors.’ Those who received them into their homes were called ‘station-masters’, while those who took no active part in the work but aided by giving money were called ‘share-holders’. The work of the organization was so secret that often one worker did not know who the other workers were in his immediate vicinity.

The managers availed themselves of all manner of facilities for traveling; railroads and steamboats, canal boats and ferry boats, stage coaches, gentlemen’s carriages and lumber wagons were pressed into active service when needed. The large rivers were the chief obstacles in their way when they were not bridged with ice. In 1858 it was asserted that slaveholders had employed Douglass to advocate in Congress a bill to abolish the North Star and make it a penal offence [sic] for the Ohio river to freeze over.

The history of the U. G. R. R. in Oswego County is as inseparable from the great net-work of ‘tracks’, ‘stations’, and ‘conductors’ developed by sympathizers with the poor wretches who were subject to the slave market as the abolitionists themselves are inseparable from the institution of the U. G. R. R. Oswego’s location on Lake Ontario gave it the added significance of being one of the last links separating the fugitive from the freedom which would be his if he reached Canadian soil. Before revealing the activities of agents engaged in underground work in Oswego, it is necessary to view the larger questions of the spread of slavery and the growing opposition to its extension.

So long as slavery was general throughout the colonies, every slaveholder in every colony was a member of a voluntary association for catching and returning fugitives, since fugitive slaves made slavery inconvenient and expensive. After the adoption of the Constitution, State after State provided for its abolition until it was limited to the states south of the Mason and Dixon’s line and the Ohio river. In 1799, New York provided by statute for gradual abolition. On the 4th of July, 1827, all slaves in New York State were set at liberty by an Act passed in 1817. The invention of the cotton gin and the profitableness of cotton culture and cane sugar enhanced the value of slave labor. Since Congress had forbidden the importation of slaves from foreign soil after 1808, the demand for slaves was met by raising slaves for the Southern market in the Northern Slave States. In the eye of the law slaves were as much property as horses and cattle, and should be returned if they strayed from their master.

Anti-Slavery Protests in Oswego

In the meantime the moral sense of many of the people of the North was aroused to the enormity of the crime of slavery. The Quakers protested against holding human beings in bondage and petitioned the Constitutional Convention for its abolition. Antislavery societies were formed in several states with New York joining the list in 1835. A comment relative to the proposed abolitionist meeting which was called to meet in Oswego county appeared in the Oswego Palladium of September 30, 1835. It was filled with regret that “the few abolitionists among us have resolved upon calling a meeting in this county—not that their meeting will tend to promote their principles or add converts to their cause, but that it is calculated to stir up a spirit in this community which will not be quieted until much ill feeling is engendered among our citizens” . “Verily these men are assuming a dreadful responsibility; and we hope every citizen who has one spark of humanity or who would save this Union from dissolution, will pause and reflect before he gives his aid in the work of destruction . . . we hope it (the meeting) will be avoided by every citizen who wishes the peace of the community.” In the same paper, in a parallel column, appeared a report of strong resolutions adopted at an anti-abolitionist meeting in the town of Richland, Oswego county, in the village of Pulaski on the 11th of September with Hon. Hiram Hubbell in the chair.

On October 7, 1835, the Oswego Palladium reported that a State Convention of Abolitionists “has been called at Utica on the 21st of this month . . for the purpose of forming a state anti-slavery society.” Of 362 persons who signed the notice, 58 were clergymen. The editor’s comments closed with regret that the Abolitionists have taken this course since “the great body of our citizens are hostile to the abolitionists.” On October 28, 1835, the paper carried a report of the breakup of the Convention in Utica by the committee from the Court Room. Dr. Samuel Joseph May described the event in these words: “So soon as it became public that a Convention for the formation of the state antislavery society was to be held in Utica, certain very prominent and respectable gentlemen set about to avert the calamity and disgrace. Six or eight hundred delegates arrived at the court-house to find assembled a crowd of their vociferous opponents. They quietly repaired to the Second Presbyterian meeting-house, where they adopted a Constitution unanimously but were prevented by rioters from doing other business. Mr. Gerrit Smith, a leading abolitionist, was so disgusted, shocked, alarmed, at the proceedings of the gentlemen of property and standing in Utica that he invited all of the members of the Convention to repair to Peterboro.” Thus, was launched New York’s Anti-Slavery Society with the full support of a man upon whose generosity and fervent effort the abolitionists in our State depended.

In aiding the fugitive slaves, the abolitionist was making the most effective protest against the continuance of slavery. For some forty years the fugitives, guided by the North Star to the land of freedom, made their way through the Northern States and across the border. Scattered through the country were people who believed in the “higher law” and who protected the fleeing fugitive, secreted him from his pursuers, and conducted him from station to station till he was landed in Canada. The U. G. R. R. was simply a form of combined defiance to national laws on the ground that these laws were unjust and oppressive. It had the excitement of piracy, the secrecy of burglary, the daring of insurrection.

Contemporary Records Scanty

The task of the historian of the U. G. R. R. in gathering material is difficult since actual contemporary records are scanty. Reminiscences furnish an insufficient basis for historical generalization. Very few of the persons that harbored runaways were so indiscreet as to keep a register of their fugitive visitors. The liability of U. G. R. R. operators to serve penalties for harboring fugtives [sic] explains the dearth of evidence in the form of letters, diaries, and scrapbooks; such evidence would have been incriminating. Only vague and rare references to the U. G. R. R. and its workings appeared in newspapers of the pre-war days, and these are of little value. Garrison’s “Liberator” was fierce in its opposition to the Fugitive Slave Laws but the editor observed a discreet silence concerning the secret efforts of his co-laborers.

The enactment of personal liberty laws by the various Northern States, with the purpose of impairing the efficiency of the Fugitive Slave Laws is characteristic of the period during which the underground system had its most rapid expansion; namely, the two decades from 1840 to 1860. These laws may be fairly considered as a guarded expression of opposition to a federal policy which had granted increasing concessions to the powerful minority of the slaveholding aristocracy of the nation.

Among these concessions to slavery in the federal Constitution, we find that “No person held to service or labor in one state under the laws thereof,escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on the claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.” (Art. IX, Sec. 2.) The South was pleased over the supposed security gained for its slave property.

Heavy Penalty For Harboring Runaways

Early in 1793, Congress passed the first Fugitive Slave Act which provided for the reclamation of fugitives from justice and labor. Under this concession, the owner, his agent or attorney were empowered to seize the fugitive and take him before a United States Circuit or District judge within the state where the arrest was made, or before any local magistrate within the county in which the seizure occurred. The oral testimony of the claimant, or an affidavit from a magistrate in the state from which he came, must certify that the fugitive owed service as claimed. Upon such showing the claimant secured his warrant for removing the runaway to the state or territory from which he had fled. Five hundred dollars fine constituted the penalty for hindering the arrest, or for rescuing or harboring the fugitive after notice that he or she was a fugitive from labor.

In spite of the severity of its penalties, secret or “underground” methods of rescue were already well understood in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by 1804. The first well established line of the U. G. R. R. had its Southern terminus in Washington, D. C , and extended in a pretty direct route to Albany, New York, thence radiating in all directions to all the New England States, and to many parts of this State. Comparatively few crossed over tc Canada until the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, al which time the aforesaid route had been in successful operation about eleven years.

Under the law of 1850 the refusal of a United States marshall or his deputies to execute a commissioner’s certificate involved a fine of $1,000. The failure to prevent the escape of the negro after arrest, made the marshall liable, on his official bond, for the value of the slave. The testimony of the alleged fugitive could not be received in evidence. A fine not exceeding $1,000, and imprisonment not exceeding six months was the penalty for any act meant to obstruct the claimant in his effort to bring about the arrest of a fugitive or any attempt to rescue, harbor, or conceal the fugitive, laid the person liable to the same penalty. In all cases where proceedings took place before a commissioner he was “entitled to a fee of $10 in full for his services,” provided that a warrant for the fugitive’s arrest was issued; if, however, the fugitive was discharged, the commissioner was entitled to $5 only. This law increased the number of recruits in underground work and created a widespread reaction against slavery.

Two Terminals in Oswego County

The severe penalties inflicted by this law for feeding, or aiding in the escape, or harboring “fugitives from labor”, made it necessary to extend the lines of the U. G. R. R. directly through to Canada. It had four main lines across the State of New York, and scores of laterals. Three of them in the Central and Eastern part of the State connected with Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. One passed through New Jersey to New York City, up the Hudson and Mohawk rivers to Utica, Syracuse, and Oswego or turned eastward at Albany into the New England States. Another led from Philadelphia through Wilkesbarre, Waverly, and Montrose in Pennsylvania to Plymouth, Lebanon, Peterboro, Mexico, and Port Ontario. The third connected Gettysburgh, Pennsylvania, with Elmira, the Finger Lakes section, Morganville, and Lockport. The fourth passed from Summit, Pa. to Buffalo and Niagara Falls by way of Fredonia and Collins, New York.

Used Gerrit Smith’s Coach For Escape

Let me quote from a letter addressed to me by Mrs. Elmer S. Wood, who is now a resident of “Woodholm,” Oswego, R. D. 2: ” . . . I will tell you the story as told to me by Gerrit Smith’s grandson — Gerrit Smith Miller. At one time a slave woman was driven away from Peterboro in the family coach, by the usual coachman, who usually drove for Mrs. Gerrit Smith when she took her daily ride. The negress was dressed in Mrs. Smith’s clothes, cloak, bonnet, veil, etc., and accordingly gave the impression to onlookers of Mrs. Smith out for her daily airing. The negress was conveyed safely to her next destination via ‘underground’. My interest in all this is because these Gerrit Smiths and myself branch from the same family tree, of which I am but a very small twig.” Mr. George C. Bragdon, Rochester, New York, on August 11, 1896, wrote concerning the runaways harbored by his father near Port Ontario: “I believe they usually went to Cape Vincent, near the mouth of the St. Lawrence and were taken over to Canada from there. . . I believe some of the slaves received by him were sent on from Peterboro by Gerrit Smith to Asa S. Wing or James C. Jackson (Mexico), and came from there to our house. They steered clear of the villages as a rule. Our farm was favorably situated for concealing them and helping them on”. From Siebert’s “The Underground Railroad”, I learned that he had gathered the names of about 3,200 persons known to have been engaged in underground work. Among them appear Hon. Gerrit Smith of Peterboro in Madison County, Reverend Samuel J. May of Syracuse, and eight operators in Oswego; namely, George L. Bragdon, Edward Fox, Mr. French, James C. Jackson, George Salmon, William Lyman Salmon, Ard. H. Stevens, and Asa S. Wing.

Gerrit Smith’s Oswego Interest

Although Gerrit Smith’s residence was located at Peterboro, a little village in Madison county on the road between Morrisville and Canastota, which links the Cherry Valley with the Mohawk Valley highways, Oswego looks upon him as one of her prominent sons. Her claims rest upon a number of circumstances which link his career with Oswego. The legislation providing for sale at auction of the remaining State lands in Oswego was enacted in 1827. This Act permitted the commissioners of the Land Office to hold the sale in Oswego. Gerrit Smith, Abram Varick and Samuel Stocking were the principal buyers.

The next year Smith built the Fitzhugh House, known at first as the Oswego Hotel. Later it became known as the Munger House. E. A. Huntley operated ii for Smith. In 1835, Moses P. Hatch purchased the hotel for $25,000, built verandas and added a cupola, with other improvements. The next year he sold it to a Mr. Baldwin for about $120,000 but the sale was not perfected, and the property again passed to Gerrit Smith. About 1855, he sold it to O. G. Munger, an experienced landlord. On August 22, 1887, it was demolished to make room for the new block of the Second National Bank. In 1828 a large share of the Hydraulic Canal Company’s stock was purchased by Gerrit Smith. His investment was about $14,000.

On March 31, 1830, the east side cove property was acquired by the village and was leased to Gerrit Smith the same year for 999 years at $300 a year. Later he purchased it outright and received a State patent. In 1895 the property was still held by Smith’s heirs. In 1852 the city authorities made a permanent lease to private parties of the land under water which was sheltered by the east pier, and which was known as Grampus Bay, being so named after the barque “Grampus” wrecked there in 1847. The city had obtained this land by grant from the State in 1851. The lease was transferred to Gerrit Smith, and under its conditions the partly wrecked east pier was rebuilt by him and was extended upstream along the east side of the channel for 900 feet, forming the east channel pier. Six barge wharves with an aggregate length of 2,100 feet and average width of 100 feet were built, from the rentals of which the owner received large sums—$60,000 per year at one time.

On July 17, 1853 Gerrit Smith, known as a noted public benefactor and a large property owner in Oswego, addressed a letter to a number of leading business men of the city and offered the sum of $25,000 for the purpose of founding a public library. His sole stipulation was that it should be situated on the east side of the river, where his property interests were mainly located and had been devastated by a sweeping fire. The privileges and benefits of the library should be conferred on all persons without regard to race, color, or condition. He declined to have the institution called by his name. The trust was accepted and on April 15, 1854, the library was incorporated. The trustees purchased a lot on the corner of East Second and Oneida streets and erected the present building. During the Civil War, Smith made an additional gift of $1,000 to the Public Library In Oswego. In 1868 he gave $41,000 more. The next year he gave twenty-five hundred dollars to an orphan asylum here.

Smith’s Abolitionist Record

The most complete account of Gerrit Smith’s abolitionist activities has been recorded by Dr. Ralph V. Harlow in a recent biography of the great reforme. According to this record, Gerrit Smith was one of the prime movers in the organization of the Liberty party at Arcade, New York, in 1840, and was its candidate for the presidency in 1848 and 1852. He was elected to Congress in 1853 for one term. It is said that during the decade from 1850 to 1860 he aided habitually in the escape of fugitives and paid the legal expenses of persons accused of infractions of the Fugitive Slave Law.

The father of Gerrit Smith, like most other gentlemen of his day in New York, was a slaveholder until many years after the Revolution. Gerrit rejoiced when the law of the State in 1827 prohibited utterly the continuance of slaveholding. He early joined the Colonization Society and retained his confidence in it until near the close of the year 1835. He had contributed at least $10,000 to the society. He not only joined both the American and New York State Anti-slavery Societies and gave in all not less than $50,000,—but, he set about endeavoring to get as many free colored men as possible settled upon lands and in homes of their own. Before the middle of 1847 he had given an average of forty acres apiece to three thousand colored men, in all 120,000 acres.

Smith Worked For Greater Oswego

His Congressional district, the twenty-second, included Oswego as well as Madison County, and Oswego was deeply interested in a proposed reciprocity treaty with Canada. In 1850 the business men of Oswego were talking of sending a lobby to Washington to promote this project, and John B. Edwards, Smith’s agent, considered reciprocity as the primary issue in the local campaign. Gerrit Smith seemed best qualified to push the cause of reciprocity. In the election Smith’s Whig opponent received 5,620 votes; the Democratic candidate, 6,206; Smith as the representative of the independent party received 8,049 votes.

Knowing that the abolitionists were decidedly not favored in Washington, he disarmed his foes and treated his associates with utmost courtesy. His first official act in Congress, December 12, 1853, was the presentation of a petition of the New York City Temperance Alliance, asking for the suppression of liquor traffic in Washington, D. C. Although the Judiciary Committee returned it with an adverse vote, he continued in his efforts to promote temperance whenever an occasion presented itself in Congress. With less consistency he urged the building by the government of the new customs houses for both Buffalo and Oswego, because rented buildings then in use were too small and badly arranged for their purposes.

Early in April, 1854 Gerrit Smith made a long speech against the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. One of its most serious faults was the recognition of slavery in the territories. He admitted that the hope of abolishing slavery was small so long as the slaveholders dominated the federal government and the American churches. His opinion of both institutions was expressed by him in these words: “A bastard democracy, accommodated to the demands of slavery, and tolerating the traffic in human flesh, is our national democracy: and a bastard Christianity, which endorses this bastard democracy, is the current Christianity of our nation . . . . American religion is a huge hypocrisy.” He admitted that the North had shared in the profits of slavery, but he was ready to authorize a federal appropriation of $400,000,000 to set the slave’s free.

Smith loved applause, but in Congress he found himself continually subjected to the charge of being out of order. Perhaps he recognized the futility of his work in Congress. On August 7, 1854, he submitted his resignation to E. W. Leavenworth, Secretary of State. The abolitionists believed he had made a mistake in leaving Congress but as events moved, he accomplished more and acquired greater fame after he had left Congress than before.

Smith’s Relations with John Brown

On June 22, 1857, John Brown, of Harper’s Ferry fame, had a conference with Smith at Chicago. From Brown’s diary and letters it appears that Gerrit Smith figured prominently in the “Railroad” business of a somewhat extended scale . . . “I now have a measure on foot that I feel sure would awaken in you something more than a common interest,” wrote Brown. On February 18, 1858, Brown arrived at Smith’s home; four days later Sanborn joined him there. On the evening of February 22, Smith, Brown, Morton, and Sanborn talked over the proposed plan for his commonwealth. As a result of this conference Brown wrote to his wife: “Mr. Smith and family go all lengths with me.” According to a statement under oath made by John Brown, Jr., in 1867 in describing his father’s plans and Smith’s connections with them, he admitted that Brown intended to use guerilla bands in making forays upon individual slaveholders, seizing the slaveholders as hostages, and thus rendering slaveholding insecure and unprofitable, and that Gerrit Smith “did assent and cooperate. He aided by advice and money, and by counsel.”

On April 11, 1859, John Brown was back at Peterboro for a four day visit with Gerrit Smith. On May 16, Brown recorded in his diary that he wrote ‘urgently’ to Smith and Smith’s reply, expressing full sympathy with Brown’s purpose, was found with Brown’s effects after the affray at Harper’s Ferry. Brown’s attack of October 16, 1859, was followed by his capture on the 18th, his trial at Charlestown o.i the 25th, and his sentence on November 2nd. One month later he was hanged.

On October 21, the New York Herald editorially accused Gerrit Smith and Frederick Douglass of being “accessories before the fact”, after having commented on some letters found in Brown’s effects. After these disclosures in the daily press Gerrit Smith became suddenly repentant and he destroyed all the evidence in his possession bearing upon Brown’s plans and directed others to do likewise.

During the latter part of October. Smith consulted a physician, Dr. John McCall of Utica. Five days after John Brown was sentenced to death, Gerrit Smith was taken to the New York State Asylum for the Insane at Utica. Various statements suggest that Smith was suffering from an extreme case of guilty conscience and from a terrific nervous strain resulting therefrom. This illness saved Smith from further embarrassment on account of his complicity in Brown’s work. Later he publicly denied the facts of his association with Brown.

Rescue of Jerry McHenry

Another leading abolitionist whose associations brought less grief to Gerrit Smith was Samuel Joseph May. As ‘conductor’ in Syracuse, he, together with Dr. Hiram Hoyt and Gerrit Smith, planned the “rescue” of Jerry McHenry, a mulatto, who had been residing in Syracuse for a number of years. He had been claimed as a slave, arrested by the police, and was taken to the office of the Commissioner. There was a one-sided trial in v.hich the agent of the claimant was heard in proof, that the prisoner was an escaped slave belonging to a Mr. Reynolds, of Missouri. The doomed man was not allowed to state his case. Jerry had made an unsuccessful bolt for freedom, when Rev. May was summoned to quiet him at the police station.

Jerry listened to the plans being made for his escape. Let me repeat them as they are recorded in Rev. May’s “Recollections”: “It was agreed that a skilful and bold driver in a strong buggy, with the fleetest horse to be got 8 in the city, should be stationed not far off to receive Jerry, when he should be brought out. Then to drive hither and thither about the city until he saw no one pursuing him; not to attempt to get out of town because it was reported that every exit was well guarded, but to return to a certain point near the centre of the city, where he would find two men waiting to receive his charge. At a given signal the doors and windows of the police office were to be demolished at once, and the rescuers to rush in and fill the room, press around the officers, overwhelming them by their numbers, not by blows, . . . several men were to take up Jerry and bear him to the buggy.

“About eight o’clock in the evening of October 1, 1851, the plan was executed. The driver of the buggy managed adroitly, escaped all pursuers and about nine o’clock delivered Jerry into the hands of Mr. Jason S. Hoyt and Mr. James Davis. Jerry was housed with Caleb Davis at the corner of Genesee and Orange Streets for five days. The next Sunday evening, just after dark, a covered wagon with a span of very fleet horses was seen standing at the door. Mr. Hoyt and Mr. Davis were seen to help a somewhat infirm man into the vehicle, jump in themselves, and start off at a rapid rate.” Suspicion was awakened and a chase of eight or ten miles ended when Jerry’s deliverers outdistanced the pursuers.

“They took him that night about twenty miles to the house of a Mr, Ames, a Quaker, in the town of Mexico. There he was kept concealed several days, and then conveyed to the house of a Mr. Clarke, on the confines of the city of Oswego. This gentleman searched diligently nearly a week for a vessel that would take Jerry across to the dominions of the British Queen. . . . At length the captain of a small craft agreed to set sail after dark and when well off on the lake to hoist a light to the top of his mast . . Mr. Clarke took Jerry to a less frequented part of the shore, embarked with him in a small boat, and rowed to the little schooner of the friendly captain. By him he was taken to Kingston, where he soon was established again in the business of a cooper.”

Episode At New Haven

Next, let us examine another problem of ‘conductors’ of the U. G. R. R. Mr. Eber M. Pettit, who for many years was a ‘conductor’ at Fredonia, New York, related a curious experience of Mr. French. This story is quoted from Pettit’s “Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad.” “One of our most active agents lived in the town of New Haven, Oswego County, within sight of Lake Ontario. He was a farmer by the name of French.” One evening as French was returning his cows to pasture, he saw a man in the woods trying to hide. The negro attempted to flee but was so weak from the lack of food that he fell to the ground. When Mr. French told him that he was an abolitionist and not to be frightened, the negro, Moses, replied: “Yes, massa, but de ye see I’se so pore, only bones and skin; I’se eat nuffin amost dese six weeks—do massa, let me lib!” “Come with me,” said French, “and I will feed you and take care of you”. It required a long continued and patient effort to induce the negro to tell the cause of his fear.

In Georgia, where Moses lived, the slaves were taught by their mothers to find the North Star and by their masters to prefer death by the dogs which hunted fugitives than to fall into the hands of abolitionists, a kind of people living in the North, who, when they could catch a negro, would fatten him, if he would eat, and then kill and eat him. Moses had therefore avoided the abolitionists and wandered to the shores of Lake Ontario, where he was found and disillusioned by 9 the kind ministrations of Mr. French.

Among the early active abolitionists in Oswego county we must include the name of Dr. James C. Jackson of Mexico. In a letter dated April 3, 1838, and addressed to Edwin W. Clarke, Esq., of Oswego he begged to be excused from nonattendance at the Court House on the following evening, because of illness of his little son. If his physician would grant him permission to leave his home, he would not fail of addressing the people of Oswego. In a postscript he added: “It would not hurt the cause of freedom if the abolitionists of Oswego should spend an evening in discussing the question among themselves.”

(Dr. Jackson, a cousin of Mr. Clarke, was the man who afterwards established at Dansville, N. Y., the sanatarium which long bore his name; it was one of the first sanatariums [sic] opened in the United States. Editor’s Note)

The first house over the city line on the East Oneida Street State highway between Oswego and New Haven is a reputed ‘underground station’. The property seventy years ago belonged to a Mr. Robinson, a colored man, who sold it to Mr. George Dick. A resident who has lived in the vicinity of this house for the past sixty-eight years of her life has some recollections of tales related to her by her mother which pertain to the use of the house as a shelter for escaping slaves during the Civil War.

Activities At Hannibal “Way Station”

In the western section of Oswego county abolitionists seemed equally determined to evade the Fugitive Slave Law. According to an account of the Underground Railroad prepared by Miss Grace Hawkins for her commencement address in June, 1912, and published in the Hannibal News of June 27, 1912, ‘underground activities’ were encouraged by Messrs. Brewster, Barstow, Bunnel, Worster, Phelps, Farnham, Fitch, Reed, and Kent. These people kept the fugitives secreted by day and at night took them on to Oswego, Fair Haven, or some other place bordering the lake so that they could cross by boat to Canada. “One day Dr. Dillon F. Acker (then a small boy) was playing ‘I-spy’ with several of his companions in the old Brewster barn. He knew of a hole in the corner of a haymow and went there to hide. As he removed some of the hay, much to his surprise, he uncovered a negro who was hiding there until Mr. Brewster could help him on to the next station.”

In the town of Ira, about 1845, one evening sometime after dark, a rap was heard on the door of Mr. Hirma Bradt. When he went to answer the call he saw a negro, who asked to stay all night. This permission was granted but Mr. Bradt said to his wife. “Now, Mary,” we must not let cousin Ben know of this because he would report us to the government.” Hiram Bradt was a neighbor of Stephen Roy Lockwood of North Hannibal retired principal of of [sic] Hannibal High School in the latter’s boyhood days. The latter furnished the information that the D. W. Braga home on the Oswego road one mile north of the village of Hannibal has a secret closet that was used to conceal contraband negroes. Another ‘station’ is to be found at Sterling Center in the house next to the school house and occupied at present by Mrs. Bell Kirk McRae.

With so many ‘stations’ around Oswego City, it is only reasonable to conclude that there were a number of active “station-masters” within the city. Recent research has tended to lend credence to this belief.

From a paper prepared by Mrs. John Post Miller for the D. A. R. in 1907, I learned that Mrs. Miller’s grandfather, Mr. Samuel Stillman Whitman, was a prominent member of the abolitionist society in Little Falls and a ‘station-master’ there. Because of her interest in the U. G. R. R., she acquired information about ‘stations’ in Oswego when she moved here. From interviews with older residents of the city, she discovered that one-of the most active in ‘underground work’ was Hamilton Littlefield, a wealthy lumber merchant and farmer, who was particularly useful because his vessels, which carried lumber between Osewgo and Canada, were manned by Canadian sailors. His vessels furnished an easy and safe means of smuggling slaves directly across the lake. Mr. Littlefield lived at the corner of East Oneida and Fourth Streets in the house later occupied by Mr. Frost. He had fitted up a room in the cellar of his house as a place for concealing fugitives. His house was considered the most important station in Oswego.

Hamilton Littlefield’s Ships Aided

On one occasion Mr. Littlefield told of a party of fifteen or sixteen runaways who arrived at one time. One of their number was sent to him to say that the party were hidden in some woods at the edge of the city. Guided by the messenger, Mr. Littlefield with some of his co-workers took lanterns and found the whole bunch armed with clubs broken from branches, their eyes gleaming with fear and desperation, huddled in the hollow made by a tree that had been uprooted by the wind. They were divided into separate parties and smuggled into Mr. Littlefield’s cellar with the greatest caution, for that night Mr. Littlefield had as his guest the manager of one of his farms who had been in his employ but a short time and it was not known where his sympathies lay. After several days Mr. Littlefield sent one of his vessels down the lake to a point where the slaves could be loaded during the night and carried to Canada. Mr. Littlefield told Mr. S. A. Coon that he and his co-workers had helped enough slaves out of Oswego to make a good sized town and that there was a town then named in his honor by fugitives.

Others prominent in the work were Mr. Edwin W. Clarke, the father of Frederick O. Clarke, and John B. Edwards, who occupied the house now (1907) owned by Mr. L. C. Rowe on Syracuse Avenue, just where the street cars turn; his home served as an underground station.

Mr. John Jackson Clarke retired superintendent of Mexican railways, now a resident of Mexico City, Mexico, who visited Oswego last summer, the nephew of the famous Edwin W. Clarke, prepared a paper on the “Memories of the Anti-Slavery Movement and the ‘Underground Railway, ‘ in December, 1931, which is now en file at the Oswego Historical Society’s headquarters. In it he related the operations of his father and uncle who were ‘conductors’ of the U. G. R. R. Fugitives were more often sent to Oswego from a “station” in Phoenix, although a few were relayed from Fulton, all having found previous refuge in Syracuse. Others came up via Elmira and Auburn and were sheltered at Sterling before reaching Oswego.

His uncle, who lived in a brick house at the corner of East Seventh and Mohawk Streets, hurried the slaves out to the farm owned by Sidney and Olive Jackson Clarke, the parents of John Jackson Clarke. It was located two miles east of the Oswego river on the North side of the Oneida Street road about 100 yards immediately west of the present Scriba boundary line, where in 1807 Dr. Deodatus Clarke, established his home as the first practicing physician of Oswego. (The foundation wall of Dr. Clarke’s home still stands and he is buried in the small walled-in 11 enclosure on the farm.) Sailing vessels were used to convey the slaves to Canada and Sidney Clarke found that ship captains gladly cooperated in the transfer of the refugees at the rate of one dollar for one or two persons.

Clarke Family Gave Help

On one occasion John J. Clarke’s father conferred with the captain of a vessel that lay at the dock near the foot of East First Street. The captain was anxious to sail before dark and, in order to get the human cargo on board without detection, the fugitives were placed on their backs in the box of a farm wagon and covered with a light sprinkling of hay, taken to the dock, and transferred to the vessel unobserved.

Sidney Clarke kept no record of the number of his ‘passengers’ but said that he had shipped over eighty to Canada. His wife was equally positive that the number entertained at the farm was over 125.

There is mention of but two occasions in which the Clarke family was in danger of detection. Once, when they were entertaining a fugitive, his wife, and three children, a messenger came to warn Mr. Clarke’s father that he was under suspicion. Shortly after the fugitives had been transferred to the woods some 200 yards to the north, a buggy drove up with a Southern emissary and a constable. After a fruitless but very persistent search they left the farm.

Among the “Clarke papers” there is a circular letter dated May 6, 1843, and addressed to Edwin Clarke by James C. Jackson of Utica, New York, (the same man mentioned earlier as a resident of Mexico) in which the “Tract scheme” was advocated for the purpose of keeping the slavery question before the public since hard times prevented many villages from employing lecturers. Each abolitionist, male and female, should agree to pay a t least six-pence a month, to create a fund for the purchase of tracts on various topics, which were to be distributed in the villages. The letter and 1000 tracts were brought to Oswego by Mr. Littlefield and left with Asa Wing, who was the agent in Oswego County.

John B. Edwards’ Role

On August 29, 1850, he wrote: “I am very glad to see that the Proceedings of Cazenovia Fugitive Slave Convention is shaking the Nation.” On October 10th, he exulted: “since the great antislavery meeting held in this place last Monday evening Fugitive slaves have become almost contented to remain in this place & Nockley will probably remain. The meeting was verry [sic] large & took high ground. . . Such meetings’ gives some reason to hope that this wicked nation may possibly yet reform instead of going to destruction.” On October 12th, 12 he added: “Anti-slavery is working gloriously in this place now. I hope it will continue to work. We had a sound & wholehearted political antislavery sermon preached in our Methodist Church last Sabbath by our Local Preacher Mr. Colburn. Mr. Judson preached ably last Sabbath evening on the moral character of the ‘Fugitive Law. He took position that the Law is founded on a lie.”

The next year on March 18, he wrote: “I see by the papers that Samuel J. May is to be at this place this evening to lecture on the Fugitive Slave Law. I will give him $168 that you directed me to do.” Considerable correspondence passed upon the subject of the “Jerry Rescue” trials. The gem of proof appeared in a letter dated April 29, 1852, in which Edwards wrote to Smith a line, which, if exposed at the time, would have incriminated both men. It reads as follows: “The Fugitive Slave Dorsey came to me today with your letter. I have put him aboard of a vessel bound for Canada & gave him $1. he appears more inteligent [sic] than a slaveholding family by the name of Dorsey with whom I was acquainted in Lyons when I was a boy.”

Edwards Worried After Brown’s Capture

On July 20, 1852, Edwards seemed worried as he wrote to Smith: “I was not before aware that you was expecting 40 or 50 colored people from New Orleans. It will be doubtful about them all finding employment here but when they arrive I will do the best I can to get them employment.” His correspondence shows his deep interest in Smith’s election to Congress, his painstaking care to relieve him from business worries, and his deep concern and fear for the safety of his employer when John Brown was captured after the Harper’s Ferry episode. (At this point I wish to acknowledge the kindness extended to me by Dr. W. Freeman Galpin of Syracuse University who made the Edwards-Smith correspondence available for my use.)

From Mr. Coon, Mrs. Miller learned that “Mr. Edwards was a large and powerful man of few words but great force of character. One of two slaves which were concealed by Mr. Edwards was traced to his home by the master who came to Oswego to recapture him. He called upon the U. S. marshal, a Mr. Tucker, to help him, which by law he must do. But whether from fear of Mr. Edwards’ influence or sympathy for the slaves, the marshal first went to Mr. Edwards to warn him that the slave’s master was in Oswego and advised Mr. Edwards to give the slave up peacefully. Mr. Edwards turned upon the marshal and reminded him that he was trespassing on his property and that he would be put out by force unless he left immediately. Mr. Tucker left precipitately and did not return with the slave’s master.”

In a house now owned by Henry F. Koberg at 531 West Fifth and Clark Streets was a “station” revealed to me for the first time by Mr. F. W. Barnes, whose father came to Oswego in 1839 at the age of sixteen and became an employee of Mr. Buckhout. Between 1850-1857 the elder Barnes entered into a partnership with Mr. Buckhout and they located their shop at the corner where the Rudolph jewlry [sic] store is now situated. Mr. Buckhout lived in a red brick house (now the Koberg property) to which was attached a barn so that the buildings appear as one structure. Slaves were secreted in the barn by Mr. Buckhout with Mr. Barnes’ assistance. The latter was an ardent abolitionist but was very careful not to disclose the fact as it might react on his business and family. Some of the slaves were moved directly from the docks in Oswego; others from the shore East and West of the city to avoid detection. As one drives along the West Fifth Street road and notes the ideal location of this structure, one can readily understand its value in “underground” work.

Secret Closet in Brown House

The Church of the Evangelist is located on East Oneida Street between Second and Third Streets. Beside it is a red brick house built by an Englishman, Mr. James Brown. He was an ardent abolitionist, also. He arranged to have a secret closet built in the side wall of his house and thereby hangs a tale. When federal officers came to search for a fugitive who was concealed there, Mrs. Brown was frightened beyond description. After their search failed to expose the location of the secret chamber, she breathed more freely. The house later came into the possession of Judge Harmon, whose granddaughter, Miss Anna Post, passed on the tale to me.

Another “station” may be found on the Hall road. The large brick house which is now in the possession of Paul Schneible, the dairyman, is known as the “Bennett house” and was used by the former owner, Jesse Bennett, to aid fugitive slaves. The cupola formed an excellent look-out, from which this station-master could watch for federal agents. Mr. Peter Hilbert gave the data about this station to Miss Gertrude Shepherd, who has passed it on to me.

Marker Placed By State Society

Of all the “stations” revealed to me, only one bears the distinction of official recognition by the New York State Historical Society. In a letter dated November 9, 1939, Mr. Irving S. Alder of the State Society admitted that a search through historic records and markers supplied to Jefferson, Cortland, Lewis, Monroe, Oneida, Oswego, and Wayne counties listed only four markers for “underground stations” in all of these counties. The one which should be of greatest interest for Oswego is located at Fruit Valley, Oswego County. It reads:

Site Of
Underground Station
Edwards Residence 1760-65
Slaves Transferred From
Here To “Old Homestead”

Upon investigation, I found that the house was built in 1826 by Daniel Pease, who died in 1847. He was the grandfather of Asa Pease, whose father was brought to the new home when he was but a year old. Mr. Pease told me that there was a1 * long wood-shed in the back of the house which was used to conceal slaves until they could be brought to Oswego for transportation by water to Canada.

It is more than likely that this report does not include all of the activities of “underground agents” in Oswego county. If it has created an interest in further research or fuller recognition of the Underground Stations here, your time and mine will have been well spent.

Bibliography:

• Churchill, John C. : Landmarks of Oswego County New York, D. Mason & Co.; Syracuse, 1895
• Clarke, James Freeman: Anti-Slavery Days, New York, 1883. (Personal Recollections)
• Faust, Ralph M.: The Story of Oswego, Palladium-Times Press, Oswego, New York, December 1934
• Harlow, Ralph Volney: Gerrit Smith, Henry Holt and Co., New York, 1939.
• Johnson, Crisfield. History of Oswego County, New York 1879-L. H. Everts & Co., Philadelphia, 1887.
• Landon, Harry Fay. The North Country: A History, Embracing Jefferson, St. .Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin Counties in 3 volumes, Historical Publishing Co., Indianapolis, Indiana. 1932.
• May, Samuel Joseph: Some Recollections of Our Antislavery Conflict, Fields, Osgood, and Co., Boston, 1869.
• Pettit, Eber M. : Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad, W. McKinstry & Son, Fredonia, N. Y., 1879.
• Siebert, Wilbur Henry: The Underground Railroad From Slavery to Freedom, Macmillan Co., New York. 1889.
• Documents on file in the Tanner Memorial Building, Oswego, N. Y.
• Files of the Oswego Palladium, 1835-1860, Oswego City Library.
• Gerrit Smith Correspondence, Syracuse University Library, Syracuse, N. Y.