| The Underground Railroad was by common consent the
designation given to a body of men practically unorganized
though acting in harmony, whose aim and mission was to assist
fugitive slaves to Canada and to freedom.
The activities of these humanitarians commonly called
abolitionists began, chronologically in the early part of the
nineteenth century, and geographically north of the Mason and
Dixon line.
Most of the runaway slaves who were "routed" through
Southport or Kenosha first crossed the Ohio River from Kentucky
into Illinois or Indiana on a "night run."
Kenosha and other Lake Michigan ports were sought as
"junction points" by the fugitive becasue here could be secured
passage as a stowaway in the hold of a sail vessel laden with
wheat from our warehouses, consigned to Buffalo.
During the period between arrival of the scaping slave and
his departure for Canada he was concealed in the attic or barn
of some agent of the "system" and then, carefully guarded under
cover of darkness, he was given bon voyage and assigned to his
apartment aboard.
The "stations" of the Undergrond Railroad in Kenosha that are
known to the writer were Deacon Joseph V. Quarles' barn, now 431
Chicago Street; the attic of Rev. R. H. Deming's home, now 426
Park Avenue; the barn of Deacon W. H. Smith, now 109 Congress
Street; and the cramped space over the music room in the home of
John Bullen, Jr., that stood from the early '40 to the middle
'50s on the present site of the offices of the Allen Tannery.
(See Mr. Lathrop Bullen's letter in this volume.)
It is difficult to obtain recorded data on this interesting
subject because those who, impelled by the law of humanity,
aided the fugitive bondman to obtain freedom by that very act
violated the explicit terms of the Fugitive Slave Law.
My schoolmate, Ed Smith, son of Deacon W. H. Smith above
mentioned, has told that on several occasions during boyhood, he
had taken food prepared by his mother, to negroes concealed in
the barn awaiting transportation by grain vessel to Canada.
On some occasions when it was too cold to partake of
hospitality comfortably in the barn the fugitive was with great
caution taken into the kitchen.
The crews of the grain vessels were as a matter of course in
full sympathy with the undertaking.
When reaching Lake Huron the craft was steered eastward into
Georgian Bay where the fugitive was put ashore in a yawl boat at
Collingwood or some other convenient point in Canada.
Sometimes to avoid the long detour the negro was, at some
risk, landed at Windsor opposite Detroit.
Those who wish to read up on this subject are advised that a
very interesting and exhaustive work by Professor Siebert (The
Macmillan Company) may be found in our public library.
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