When I moved to this area some 30 plus years ago, I was informed of a number of places that were associated with the Underground Railroad. Perhaps, you are aware of some of these areas as well: Chimney Rocks in Hollidaysburg, the Russ’ Home on 421 Union Avenue in Hollidaysburg, Colonel Jack’s home on North Juniata. I was also informed that the First Presbyterian Church in Hollidaysburg has tunnels and St. Luke Episcopal Church in Altoona had church members sympathetic to this cause and their rector, Rev. Oliver housed John Brown as he traveled through this part of the country. Dr. Charles Blockson notes his book; “The Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania” that Tyrone, PA is also associated with the Underground Railroad. The most frustrating thing with the listings is that there is no primary source to indicate that these places listed are indeed associated with Underground Railroad locations.
The Wellman Scale for determining if an area is associated with the Underground Railroad list 5 items: The highest level (Level 5) list that a primary source must be given, also an obituary written by someone who knew the person can also be used in documenting these activities. Level 4 indicates that the place has a strong oral tradition, along with strong written information that lacks primary sources. Level 3 indicates that African Americans lived in the area, especially those who moved to the area from the South or Canada, that there existed an antislavery organization, and antislavery church membership.
I hope that in the next few paragraphs, I can address some items that have been shared with me or that was rediscovered in my research that may help in showing that this area had connections to the Underground Railroad. I am also hopeful that the information listed may help those who are also researching this area to continue and share.
The Allegheny Portage Railroad was honored with the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom in 2011. Their staff, along with a Penn State Altoona intern, found the primary documentation of an incident that happened in October of 1855 in the Gaysport/Hollidaysburg area of Blair County that was associated with the Underground Railroad. The reader can look at the primary sources on this incident in their web site: http://www.nps.gov/alpo/historyculture/index.htm The Blair County Genealogical Society also has an article written about this incident from the April 12, 1883 Altoona Tribune newspaper.
William Nesbit (1822 to 1895) moved from Carlise, PA and lived in Hollidaysburg from 1844 to 1855. He then moved to Altoona in 1855 and lived in that city for the rest of his life. He is buried in the Union Cemetery in Hollidaysburg, PA (his obelisk is the largest one in the cemetery). According to his obituary, he was involved in the Underground Railroad. He was an abolitionist, who knew Frederick Douglass, Martin Delany, Ocatvius Catto, William Howard Day, Henry Highland Garnet, James Forten, Morris Chester and many others from his work as his traveled around the commonwealth and the United States. He went to Liberia in 1853 as part of the American Colonization Society’s efforts to determine if this country was appropriate place for African Americans to move to, rather than deal with issues like the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. His experiences are highlighted in a book called “Four Months in Liberia” in which he declared that this movement was a sham and African Americans should stay in America. After the Civil War, Nesbit is elected as President of the Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League (1865 to 1877), which focused on obtaining the right to vote for African American men, travel on desegregated transportation, have their children attend desegregated schools and fully participate in the political system of the commonwealth and the United States. After the passage of the 15th Amendment granting the right to vote, Nesbit selected April 26, 1870 as the date to celebrate this “Jubilee”.
Nesbit’s friend, Daniel Williams, Jr. ( -1867), a barber and landowner, was listed as attending the State Convention of the Coloured People of Pennsylvania held in Harrisburg, PA of 1848 and the National Convention of Colored Men held in Syracuse, NY in October, 1864, which established the National Equal Rights League. He and Nesbit also were agents for Delany’s newspaper “The Mystery” (published from 1843 to 1847). His son, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, mentions that runaway slaves were housed in his home in the book, Doctor Dan: Pioneer in American Surgery. By Helen Buckler. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1954. Daniel Williams moved to Hollidaysburg from the Lewistown area and often traveled back home for supplies and to stay in touch with family still living there.
http://www.info-ren.org/projects/btul/exhibit/neighborhoods/downtown/down_n105.html
Census records indicated that African Americans have lived in Blair County area since the census began in 1790. Blair County came into existence in 1846.
The African American community of Altoona participated in the Prince Hall’s Free Masonry organization. In early March of 1855, the lodge was destroyed by fire. This incident was noted in Frederick Douglass’ paper, the “North Star”.
The AME (African Methodist Episcopal) and AME Zion (African Methodist Episcopal) churches utilized “circuit” riders to meet the spiritual needs of smaller communities. This allowed information to be shared with each other about events and ideas happening in Central Pennsylvania and larger cities. (The pastor of a church assigned to Hollidaysburg would also travel to Altoona, Bellefonte, Huntingdon, Lewistown and maybe more places for sermons, baptisms, weddings, funerals and other religious rites.) The AMEZ Church in Hollidaysburg was established approximately 1835. The AME Church was established in 1854 in Hollidaysburg, but moves to Altoona in 1859. One minster that participated in this process was Rev. Thomas Henry. He was a circuit rider who was first assigned to the Chambersburg and Carlise circuit in 1845 but reassigned to the Lewistown and Hollidaysburg circuit in 1859. He was moved to the Lancaster circuit in 1862. His name was found among the papers of John Brown in Harpers Ferry, VA, now located in West Virginia. There were other African American preachers who traveled through Central Pennsylvania starting in the 1830s.
Other religious groups also participated in the Underground Railroad movement. For example, Quakers moved to the Morrison Cove area in Bedford and Blair County around 1793. One set of Quakers were the parents of “Annie Oakley”. They called Hollidaysburg home until 1855. They owned a tavern in Hollidaysburg, which burned down in that year.
The 1863 annual Tunker meeting (Church of the Brethren) held at the Clover Creek Church of Martinsburg, PA, addressed the issue of what to do with those who preached that slavery was right according to the scriptures. The church decided that those who continue to preach and promote this doctrine would be removed from the church if they would not repent.
The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) officers may also have been involved in the Underground Railroad or at least were very sympathetic to what was occurring, despite Pennsylvania Railroad’s official stance of neutrality to the abolitionist movement. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts came to Cresson, PA in September 1856 in order to recuperate from the assault that he received in the Senate by South Carolina’s representative Preston Brooks in May of 1856. Sumner is known to have visited Enoch Lewis in Altoona while staying at the Lemon House. Enoch Lewis was a PRR official and a Quaker. His daughter, Mary Thorn Lewis Ganett, became involved in the Women’s Suffrage movement, after the Civil War. Edgar Custer writes in his autobiography, “No Royal Road” in 1937 of his father, Benjamin Custer, another PRR official, assisting runaways who visited their home in the 1850s. Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish businessman and philanthropist, is mentored by Thomas Scott, the future president of the PRR and lived in Altoona from 1856 to 1859 and was a Free-Soiler.
As I stated earlier, there are levels of evidence associated with determining if a place or persons can be designated as associated with the Underground Railroad. I believe that I have made a case for Blair County and for a number of its former citizens to be considered as part of this history based upon the evidence that exists.
Bibliography
“Heart of the Alleghanies”, by George Parsons Lathrop, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, August 1883, pg.331
Four Months in Liberia: or African Colonization Exposed. By William Nesbit, of Hollidaysburg. Pittsburgh, 1855, New York: Arno, 1969
The Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League and the Northern Black Struggle for Legal Equality, 1864-1877
Author(s): Hugh Davis
Source: The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 126, No. 4 (Oct., 2002), pp. 611-634
Published by: Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20093576
“Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the Equal Rights League held in Cleveland Ohio, October 19, 20 and 21, 1865.” Philadelphia: E.C. Markley and Sons, printers, Goldsmith Hall, Liberty Street, 1865.
“Minutes of the State Convention of the Coloured Citizens of Pennsylvania”, convened at Harrisburg, December 13th and 14th, 1848.
Doctor Dan: Pioneer in American Surgery. By Helen Buckler. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1954.
United States Census Bureau. 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th and 10th Census. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.
“Black History and Heritage of Hollidaysburg”, Sylvia Shorter Lee, article for “Heritage of Hollidaysburg”, A Project of Hollidaysburg Area Women’s Club, 1981.
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/community/18326/religion/673925
“Mennonites and Tunkers: Silent Abolitionists of the Old South” by Reed Miller, copyright 2009. http://shalomcommwealth.blogspot.com
“Troubles over Slavery” by Freeman Ankrum, from Sidelights on Brethren History. 1962, The Brethren Press, Elgin IL, pg. 91-98.
“Charles Sumner, Doctor Jackson, and the Mountain” by Ronald L. Filippeli, pg 159
https://rrlc.org/winningthevote/biographies/mary-lewis-gannett/
http://www.wordowner.com/carnegie/chapter7.htm “The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie”
