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From: "Joyce Cooper" <>
Subject: Re: [PAFRANKL] Blacks/Mulatto's in Franklin county
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 11:47:37 -0700 (Pacific Daylight Time)
References: <D1DF776C-253A-11D9-9C5E-000A95940806@adelphia.net>


Hi Shelley and researchers,
I have a book which I bought recently from ebay.com. It is called "PA,
Franklin County, Excerpts from Historical Collections by Sherman Day.
In it, it gives some information about the Underground Railroad and where
some Negros lived. I will summarize it for you.

Mercersburg (590 Alt., 1, 634 pop.) was settled in 1729 or 1730 was named
for General Hugh Mercer, soldier and physician in the Revolution.
The narrow passes in surrounding North, South, and Cove Mountains, together
with Mercersburg's proximity to the Mason-Dixon line, made it an ideal
theater in the 1840's and 1850's for abolitionist activity. "Centering here
and extending through the tiny settlements from Rouzerville to Dickey's
Mountain, a difficult area of 100 square miles, were the tangled "lines" of
the Underground Railroad. Here too, the agents of the slaveholders worked
achieving their aims by ruse or violence. On one occasion, when fugitive
slaves chose to fight, an officer was killed and two others wounded.
Fugitives were concealed and fed by day, then guided after dark to stations
farther north. Pursuers complained that the ground had "swallowed up" their
quarry, and one declared that there must be an "underground road somewhere,"
an expression that caught the popular fancy."
Many of the fugitives were headed for Canada, others established small
colonies in the Mercersburg area. Twenty-five families of Negroes lived in a
settlement called Africa.

I hope some clues may be found in this information. I did not see the Davis
name mentioned in the book.

Joyce in CA
http://www.geocities.com/jarmscoop


-------Original Message-------

From: Shelley Murphy
Date: 10/23/04 14:32:39
To:
Subject: [PAFRANKL] Blacks/Mulatto's in Franklin county

hi has anyone came across information on the blacks or mulatto's living
in franklin county before 1850. I have family (DAVIS) that was in the
1850 census, but trying to find out more about the area. Actually have
a William Davis born 1817.
Thanks Shelley

.

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