December 13, 2001

The following information was found in several old bulletins of the Historical Society of Northwestern Ohio:

April 1936 - Article titled:  "Fugitive Slaves In Ontario"

One thing of interest that was mentioned in this article regarding Ohio was the following:

· Professor W.H. Siebert, of the Ohio State University, years ago worked out the routes by which the fugitives from the south came to safety in Canada.  The ports through Ohio brought more slaves to Canada than any other state.  (Professor Siebert became an outstanding authority in the subject of the Underground Railroad by mapping out the routes and interviewing families in about 1891).

April 1937 - Article titled:  "Fugitive Slaves In Ohio"

Some of the highlights of this article included the following (Comments in parenthesis were included by Mrs. Gindy):

· This article was written mostly from information gathered by Professor W.H. Siebert of the History Department of Ohio State University, who had gathered so much material on the subject of the Underground Railroad that when it was bound, it occupied 13 large volumes which he placed in the custody of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society.

· The heaviest aid was rendered to the fugitive slaves from 1850 to 1860 after the Fugitive Slave Laws were passed in 1850.

· The Free Soil party, formed principally by abolitionists, were known to render help to fugitive slaves (Lucian B. Lathrop and David Harroun of Sylvania were both members of the Free Soil party).

· Many Ohio ministers aided the fugitives. (Lucian Lathrop was a preacher for the Universalist Church and his obituary notice in 1873 says that he labored in this capacity for 10 years.  Prior to the Civil War the Universalist Church took a strong stand against slavery).

· There were possibly twenty-five or more escape lines across Ohio.  The routes were many and were complex routes to create diversions.

· Secret rooms were fitted out behind Dutch ovens, in barns, houses, etc.  (An interesting fact:  In telephone interviews with Helen Fallis Pomeranz, granddaughter of James Fallis who lived in the Lathrop home from 1915 to 1934, she said there were ovens built into the wall in the basement of the home.  One was used for cooking and the other was used as an entrance way to a room behind where the slaves were hidden).

· Great secrecy was used in passing on these fugitives.  Private carriages, stage-coaches, farm-wagons, railroad coaches, steam-boats, canal boats, and ferry boards were used. (A farm-wagon is what David Harroun had that his granddaughter Alice Harroun Shaw referred to).

· Many hid the runaway slaves in a basement room, which had been walled off in such a way that it could not be detected from the main cellar.  The only entrance into this hiding place was by means of some sort of trap door.  (The Lathrop house had this basement room as well as a hidden door leading to it.  That being the door to the oven that Mrs. Pomeranz keeps referring to).

· When transporting fugitive slaves, "They were often disguised, conveyed in covered wagons, or under false bottoms of the vehicles, or piled with bags of wool or potatoes.  (The Harroun family had wagons like this).

· Some operators had a number of secret rooms and tunnels leading from a cellar to a barn or corn crib. (Mr. Vogt, who lived in the home at 5362 S. Main Street from 1954 until his death in 1999, reported that he was able to detect voids in the backyard of this home leading from the basement area leading to the ravine on this property).

October 1939 - Article titled:  "The Underground Railroad Again"

Some of the highlights included in this article were as follows:

· The article was prepared by members of the Historical Society of Northwestern Ohio and their references were, research items recorded by Professor W.H. Siebert, Stanley W. McClure and Edward O'Connor, three of the most outstanding authorities on the subject of Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroads in Ohio.

· Toledo was an important "station" on the railroad, but more frequently, the route led through back country roads and farming districts where secrecy was more easily attained.

· "Recently the Editor was driven by Mrs. Ernest W. Shaw to a farm near Sylvania, west of Toledo, which had for many years been owned and occupied by her ancestor, David Harroun.  The old farm house built in 1858 on the site of the original log cabin has recently been torn down since its purchase by Mr. Rudolph Barnard who is preserving the ancient trees and shrubbery.  This farm was one of the old "stations" of the underground railroad.  Mrs. Shaw has in her possession a photograph of the old barn, still standing, in which the slaves were formerly hidden and showing two of the wagons in which they were usually conveyed to the next "station"."  "They were innocent looking farm or lumber wagons but they had false bottoms in which the fugitives could be concealed in a small space covered by planks; hay or other farm produce was then piled on top of the planks and they were then driven by night over back roads to the next "station" from which they could be taken by boat to Canada and freedom."

· "Within a few hundred yards of the Harroun house is another house formerly known as the old Colonial House.  This has been recently purchased by Mr. Fallis and handsomely restored to its ancient condition.  It, too, was, in the old slave days, a "station" of the railroad and, when the house was remodeled, a concealed room in its cellar (formerly reached by an outside stairway) was discovered, with the beds still in it, where the slaves were hidden until an opportune time came for sending them on to the next station."  (Note by Mrs. Gindy:  This statement also falls in line with the fact that according to the recorded minutes of Sylvania Village Council, Linton Fallis obtained a building permit on 6-3-1938 for alterations to this dwelling home).

· "These Sylvania "stations" lying some miles west of Toledo and on roads then rarely traveled were probably more frequently used than the Toledo "stations" because they were less likely to be visited by the pursuing slave owners especially after the Federal agents, acting under the "Fugitive Slave Laws" became so active."