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From: "Shelley L. Johnson" <>
Subject: [ILLASALL] Underground Railroad as mentioned in "Pioneer Days"
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 23:53:37 -0400


There has been some mention of underground railroad so I thought
you might enjoy an article included in (for newcomers I'll repeat
full credits) "Stories of Pioneer Days by Eighth Grade Graduates
of Village and Rural Schools Class of 1931 Commemorating The
Centennial Anniversary of LaSalle County, IL 1831-1931"
reprinted by LaSalle Co Historical Society May, 1988

The Underground Railway by Edna Hackman, Dist245
The underground railway was the name applied to the system by
which the fugitive slaves escaped from the South through the
North to Canada. The name was applied by the northern sympathizers
before the Civil War.
The underground railway was not a railway under the ground.
It was called this because the southern slaveholders and
pro-slavery men could not imagine how the slaves got away.
The slaveholders said, "There must be an underground railway
somewhere." So the northern Abolitionists gave the name
underground railway to the way by which they helped to free
the fugitive slaves. The name originated in Columbia, Pa.
Stations on this railway were people's farmhouses, barns
cribs, and other buildings. The owner of the house was the
engineer and conductor of the train. The horses, oxen or mules
were the engine, and wagons, hayracks, buggies, or whatever
they escaped in, were called the trains.
There were regular lines from the southern plantations to
the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, then toward Chicago and Milwaukee
and on toward Canada.
There were stations in LaSalle County at Lowell, Troy Grove,
Ottawa, Freedom and Fall River. Men in Freedom who aided the
slaves by using their homes as stations were J.H. HENDERSON,
Rev. GOULD and Rev. BATCHELLER. There were other poeple along the
way who kept slaves when their naeighbors were gone or when they
could not get to the real station whithout their pursuers catching
them. Of course, these stations or places were not so important.
The underground railway went in a diagonal direction through
Freedom township, from the southwest to the northeast.
Rev. GOULD's place was used as the first important station forthe
negroes. Rev. GOULD lived about three miles southwest of Freedom.
He lived on the second crossroad south of Freedom. You go west
until you come to the first crossroad going north and south. The
house is not where it used to be; it has been moved, but the land
is owned by Mr. Will McCUTCHEON.
Rev BATCHELLER lived about one-quarter of a mile north od Freedom,
on the west side of the road. The house in which Mr. Otis SHEPPARD
now lives is the house in which Rev. BATCHELLER lived.
Mr. J.H. HENDERSON lived about a mile north of Freedom, on
the first crossroad east. He lived in the first house on the
east and west road. Mr. HENDERSON was one of the persons who
escaped being massacred in the Indian Creek massacre. Mr. HENDERSON
died just before Mr. Duncan DUNN moved to this place. The house
which is now owned by Mr Duncan DUNN was the one Mr. HENDERSON
lived in.
The slaves came to the farmhouses very quietly at night. The men
who helped to free the slaves and used their buildings as stations
knew that whenever somebody tapped at hte door or on the window it
was a negro wanting to be hidden. Sometimes the slaves were hidden
in the house all day or for several days. Several were hidden by
staying in bed until their pursuers had left the place.
There were many ways by which the negro slaves were hidden when
they were escaping to Canada. Some ways by which they were
hidden are: the Abolitionists would put them in loads of hay or
straw; put them in wooden boxes and pretend they were merchandise;
put them in trunks and send them as clothing. Some negroes disguised
themselves: the men would dress as women and the women would dress
as men; the mulatto negroes would black their faces with burnt cork
and then ride on the same trian as the owner without being recognized.
There was a fine of five hundred dollars for anyone harboring or
aiding a negro to escape. This fine was later, in 1850, increased
to one thousand dollars and six months in prison. The people were
very careful when they told that they were helping slaves, because
they were too poor to pay the fine and could not stay in prison
because of their families.
Messages were sent between the people who had stations and
sub-stations. These messages were very secrettive and gave nothing
away if they could help it.
The station men who aided the negroes worked mostly at night
so his enemies, the pro-slavery men, could not tell whether he was
hiding a negro slave or taking his family away on a visit.
The negroes were treated very kindly by most northern people.
At the stations and sub-stations they were given food and rest.
They were hidden and given food and rest all the way to Canada.
LaSalle Co did her share in aiding fully 25,000 negroes to their
escape within twenty-five years.
{end}

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