USA > Michigan > Calhoun County > History of Calhoun county, Michigan : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 13
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The main route, known as the Central Michigan line, passed through Battle Creek. There was another route through Michigan via. Adrain. Mrs. Laura Haviland had charge of the latter line. She resided either at Adrain or Tecumseh, and conducted a school for colored girls. The station at Battle Creek was one of the most prominent centers of the work in Michigan, and was in charge of that famous old Quaker, Erastus Hussey,3 who spent his time and money freely in assisting the colored people to Canada. There was no graft in those days. The work was done because of a love for mankind, and a sense of duty from a moral purpose. Like all Quakers, he would not recognize laws that sanctioned slavery-they were man-made laws; he obeyed only divine laws. Dur- ing the existence of the Underground Railway, which was continued from 1840 to the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Lincoln, Mr. Hussey secreted and fed over 1,000 colored persons, and then sent them through to the next station, which was at Marshall.+
Realizing that the history of this institution, particularly of the
1 Read at midwinter meeting, Albion, January, 1909.
2 Charles E. Barnes died at his home in Battle Creek, Oct. 17, 1911.
3 Erastus Hussey. Sketch, Vol. XIV, p. 79, this series.
4 See "Marshall Men and Marshall Measures," preceding article.
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work in Battle Creek, was of more than local importance, and should be preserved, the writer visited Mr. IInssey in May, 1885, and made a record of his story, which is reproduced in his own words:
"One day in 1840, when I was in Detroit on a business trip, a man by the name of John Cross, from Indiana, called at my house in Battle Creek and inquired for me. IIe was very anxious to see me, but would not tell even my wife what he wanted. My wife sent for Benjamin Richard, who worked for Jonathan Hart, but neither would he confide the objeet of his visit to him, and so departed. I was in Detroit three or four days. After my return home I received a letter from Cross. He wrote me that he was establishing a route from Kentucky and Ohio to Canada through which escaped slaves could be conducted without molestation and wanted me to take cliarge of the station in Battle Creek. This was the first time that I had ever heard of the Under- ground Railway. I preserved Cross's letter for many years as a relie, but it is now lost. This is how I commeneed to keep the station here. At that time there was only five anti-slavery men in Battle Creek be- sides myself: Silas Dodge who afterward moved to Vineland, N. J .; Abel Densmore, who died in Rochester, N. Y .; Henry Willis, Theron H. Chadwiek and a colored man by the name of Samuel Strauther. The eolored Masonie lodge was named after him-Stranther lodge No. 3. Other anti-slavery men came afterward to this place among them Dr. S. B. Thayer and Henry J. Cushman, who built the old flouring mill opposite Hart's mill. He was an earnest worker. He moved to Plain- well. There was Charley Cowles, a young man who was studying medi- eine with Drs. Cox and Campbell. Also that good worker, Dr. E. A. Atlee, and his son-in-law, Samuel S. Nichols, in Jonathan Hart's store. In Battle Creek township were Harris, William MeCullom, Edwin Gore and Herman Cowles; in Penfield, David Boughton, and in Emmett, Elder Phelps.
"Our work was conducted with the greatest secrecy. After crossing the Ohio River the fugitives separated, but came together on the main line and were conducted through Indiana and Michigan. Stations were established every fifteen or sixteen miles. The slaves were seereted in the woods, barns and cellars during the daytime and carried through in the night. All traveling was done in the dark. The stationkeepers received no pay. The work was done gratuitously and without priee. It was all out of sympathy for the escaped slaves and from principle. We were working for humanity. When I first accepted the agency [ lived in a wooden building on the present site of the Werstein & Halla- day block (now Larkin-Reynolds-Boos block) opposite the Williams house (now Clifton house). Before the present block was built the old building was occupied as a livery stable by J. L. Reade, and be- fore him by Pareel Brinkerhoff as a second-hand store. There was the Underground Railway station. This building was constructed by August P. Rawson in 1836 or 1837, and when I bought it, it was oecu- pied as a cabinet shop by John Caldwell, our village marshal, father of James T. Caldwell, the undertaker. I repaired the building and oe- cupied the front as a store and used the upstairs and the rear lower end for my dwelling. Here I secreted the runaway slaves. After the
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Union Block was built, just adjoining this building on the west (the first brick block erected in Battle Creek) I frequently secreted them there. In 1855 I moved to my new home on the present site of the Seventh Day Adventist College. It was reported that the cellar under this house was built with secret places expressly for the purpose of hiding the fugitives. This was not strictly true. I will guarantee, however, that if any slaves were secreted there that they were never cap- tured. We did not assist as many of them as formerly, because a shorter route had been opened through Ohio, by way of Sandusky and thence to Fort Malden and Amherstburg.
"I can't tell about the stations in Indiana. The route came into Mich- igan to the famous Quaker settlement near Cassopolis. The leader was that good old Quaker, Zachariah Shugart,5 also Stephen Bogue and Joel East. At Cassopolis, Parker Osborn was the agent. The next station was Schoolcraft, in charge of Dr. Nathan Thomas. Then came Climax, with the station a little ways out of the village. I think the man there was called William Gardner. Battle Creek came next. Jabez S. Finch was the agent at Marshall and was a gentleman with plenty of means and stood high in the community and the first nominee on the Liberty ticket for governor. Of course, he was not elected, but we always there- after called him governor. Then came Albion and Edwin M. Johnson. I have forgotten the name of the agent at Parma, but I think that it was Townsend E. Gidley." He was not strictly identified with the Liberty Party, but always rendered assistance in furthering the escape of the slaves.
"At Jackson were three agents: Lonson Wilcox, Norman Allen and one that I cannot remember. In the large places we had more than one man, so that if one chanced to be out of town another could be found. At Michigan Center, Abel F. Fitch ? was the man. He was one of the men involved in litigation many years ago with the Michigan Central Railroad. I have forgotten the name of the agent at Leoni also the one at Grass Lake. At Francisco was Francisco himself who was a good worker. At Dexter we had Samuel W. Dexter and his sons. At Scio was a prominent man-Theodore Foster, father of Seymour Foster of Lansing. At Ann Arbor was Guy Beckley, editor of the Signal of Liberty, the organ of the Liberty party, who published the paper in connection with Theodore Foster. At Geddes, was John Geddes, after whom the town was named, and who built a large flouring mill there. He was an unele of Albert H. Geddes of this city. I can't tell the names of the agents at Ypsilanti or Plymouth. At the former place the route branched, leaving the Michigan Central for Plymouth. Sometimes they went to Plymouth from Ann Arbor. From Plymouth they fol-
5 These Quakers had made a settlement at Young's Prairie, had established a school and were prospering. A few Kentucky fugitive slaves had made their homes among them and were highly respected. See story of "Raid in Michigan" in Reminiseences of Levi Coffin, pp. 366-73.
& Townsend E. Gidley. See Vol. XIV, p. 402, this series.
7 It was Abel F. Fitch who was involved in the railroad conspiracy case and died during the trial.
Luther Ko. Houlton
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lowed the River Rouge to Swartburg, then to Detroit.8 The principal man in Detroit was Ilorace Halloek, also Silas M. Holmes and Samuel Zug. They were men who could be relied upon.
"We had passwords, the one commonly used being: 'Can you give shelter and protection to one or more persons ?' This was addressed to the agent by the person or persons looking for a place of safety. 1 usually drove the fugitives through to Marshall myself, in the night, but often got some one to go with me. Isaac Mott, then a boy, worked for me, and used to frequently take the slaves through. Sometimes others went. I used my own horse and buggy.
"It was just four weeks after John Cross had appointed me agent that the first fugitives came. They were two men, William Coleman and Stephen Wood. These men came through under fictitious names and always retained them. This the fugitives frequently did. While Cole- man and Wood were yet secreted at my house Levi Coffin, the originator of the Underground Railway, and John Beard, a Quaker minister, came through on the route. They were a committee appointed by the Quakers of Indiana to visit the colored people of Canada and to learn how they were succeeding, and to ascertain what assistance they were in need of. They went home on the other ronte, and so I did not see them on their return. Coffin was acquainted with Wood, and Beard with Coleman. The two eolored men, when they saw their old friends, were overcome with joy. By the way, I never met John Cross until eight years after- ward, at the great Free-Soil convention at Buffalo. Some of the slaves were frightened upon their arrival, while others were full of courage and joy. From one to four usually came along together. At one time forty-five came down upon us in a bunch. It was when the Kentucky slave owners made a raid upon the slaves at the famous Quaker settle- ment in Cass County. One night a man by the name of Richard Dilling- ham came to my house and informed me that there would be forty-five fugitives and nine guards here in two hours. What to do I did not know. My wife was sick in bed. I met Abel Densmore, then Silas W. Dodge and Samuel Strauther, and we talked the matter over. We had to act quickly. Lester Buckley owned a small unoecupied dwelling house on the rear of the lot where J. M. Caldwell's block now stands ( the present site of J. M. Jacobs' clothing store). Buekley was a Whig, but sympathized with us. He said that we could have the use of the building. There happened to be a stove in the house. I got some wood and then went over to Elijah T. Mott's mill, on the site of the present Titus & IIicks flouring mill, and he gave me sixty pounds of flour. Silas Dodge went to a grocery store and bought some potatoes and Dens- more got some pork. We heard them coming over the West Main street bridge. Everybody had heard of their coming and every man, woman and child in the city was upon the street and it looked as if a
8 In Detroit a society was formed to aid the refugees. Among the most active were Alanson Sheley, Horace Hallock, Samuel Zug and the Rev. C. C. Foote. They purchased a tract of land ten miles from Windsor and parceled it into farms of ten of fifteen acres each. These were given to refugees, many of whose descendants are still living in Windsor. Detroit Tribune, Dec. 27, 1889, Obituary of Samuel Zug.
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circus was coming to town. It was a lovely moonlight night. There were nine white men with them who acted as guards. Ahead of them rode Zach Shugart, the old Quaker, with his broad-brimmed white hat and mounted upon a fine horse-he always had good horses. He met me in front of my house and shook hands with me. I told him of my ar- rangements. Ile took off his white hat and with a military air and voice said : 'Right about face!' They all about-faced and marched down to the house and took possession. The nine white men stopped at the hotel and our friends cared for their horses. The darkies cooked their own supper of bread, potatoes and pork, and as they were very hungry they relished it keenly. The next morning the majority of them went on to Canada, but a few remained, who became honored citizens and well- known. Among them were William Casey, Perry Sanford, Joseph Skip- worth and Thomas Henderson.
"I expected every day to be arrested, but I escaped all legal proceed- ings. Once word came that thirty armed men were on their way to capture the slaves in Battle Creek. Dr. Thayer and myself had 500 bills printed, stating that we were prepared to meet them, and advised them to stay away. Many persons condemned me for this and I made enemies. Dr. Moffit said that it was treason against the government. I sent the bills along the railroad by an express messenger by the name of Nichols, who was in sympathy with us. He threw the bills off at every station. At Niles he met the party of southerners on the train coming east. They read the bills and turned back. The Quaker station in Cass County and the ones at Schoolcraft and Battle Creek, were well-known through- out the south as the headquarters for many escaped slaves and the names of the men who kept the stations were equally well-known.
"I could tell hundreds of interesting incidents. One day a slave woman who had been here about a week was assisting my wife with her work when a party of slaves drove up. Among the number was a daughter whom she had not seen in ten years. The recognition was mutual and the meeting was a very affecting sight. One slave with his wife and two children were overtaken by the slave catchers in Indiana. The fugitive put up a hot fight with the southerners while his wife and children escaped to the woods. In the fight the negro was shot in the leg. The men brought him back to the hotel, and while they were eating their dinner they left him in charge of the landlord's young son. The little fellow whispered to the darkey, 'Uncle, do you think that you can run? If so, the woods are only forty yards away. You had better run.' And he did, although badly wounded in the leg. When the slave catchers came out from dinner and found that the fugitive had escaped they were furious and their rage knew no bounds. The little boy looked very meek and said that he was not strong enough to stop such a great, big man. The slave overtook his family at Schoolcraft and they came ou here together. He was suffering severely from his wound, but I hustled him and his family through to Canada.
"There had been a barber working here for some time by the name of Jim Logan. He was a dandy sort of a fellow. One day a fugitive and his wife came to my house for shelter. He had been a slave of Wade HIampton, and so we called him by that name. Hampton worked about
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here for three days. One day while we were at dinner Jim Logan came walking in. The colored woman gave a shriek, jumped from the table and almost fainted away. She and Jim had been engaged to be married in Kentucky, but not having heard from him in two years she married Wade Hampton. I could fill a book with incidents."
To his position as Battle Creek agent for the Underground Railway, which was one of constant excitement, resulting in the most unexpected happenings, Mr. Hussey added the strenuous life of editor of the Liberty Press, the state organ of the Abolitionists of Michigan, printed in this city. The feeling against the paper became so strong that the building in which it was printed, old Eagle Hall block, located on the present site of the block on East Main street, now occupied by J. M. Jacobs, the clothier, was set on fire and burned on the night of June 9, 1849, and all of the printing material destroyed. The persecutions of this old Abolitionist editor and the vicissitudes of the paper would make a story in itself.
After selling his beautiful homestead to the Seventh Day Advent- ists for the site of their college building, Mr. Hussey erected a com- modions residence on the corner of North Washington avenue and Man- chester street, now owned by W. K. Kellogg, where he died, January 21, 1889, after an eventful and useful life. Mrs. Hussey, who sympathized with and assisted her husband in his anti-slavery work, passed away March 22, 1899. The sole survivor of this prominent pioneer family is the daughter, Mrs. Susan Hussey, who resides on Oak Lawn farm, west of the city, on the interurban line. Mrs. Alice B. Stockham, of Chicago, famons as the author of "Tokology," was brought up in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Hussey.
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
By Burritt Hamilton
My lamented friend, Charles E. Barnes, interviewed the ex-editor of the Liberty Press-that grand old Quaker, Erastus Hussey-in 1885. Mr. IInssey was then in his eighty-fifth year. Twenty-seven years later, the writer visited Mrs. Susan T. Hussey, daughter of Erastus Hussey and sole survivor of that family, and, curiously enough, she also was then in her eighty-fifth year. The result of Mr. Barnes' interview appears in Vol. 38 of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections. The result of my interview is embodied in the present article, which is merely supplemental to his. No one will dispute that our information has been derived from witnesses of strong mentality and highest char- acter.
It may be of service to future historians to know that Susan T. HIussey, daughter of IIon. Erastus Hussey, Battle Creek station master of the Underground Railroad and sometime member of the Michigan Legislature, became the wife of Hon. Erastus Hussey, a gentleman of highest worth, sometime member of the Assembly of New York. That Mrs. Hussey's father and her husband possessed identical names and titles is a coincidence quite capable of producing confusion. The fore-
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going statement will explain why the daughter of Mr. Hussey, Battle Creek's most noted Quaker (and once its mayor) is referred to as "Mrs." Hussey in this article. Her mother's name, of course, was Mrs. Hussey also-Mrs. Sarah E. Hussey-but of this devoted Quaker heroine, the limitations of this article forbid mention, save that her able pen and dauntless spirit augmented the power of the Liberty Press, the leading and official Abolitionist paper of Michigan.
The writer had long enjoyed the friendship of Mrs. Susan T. Hussey. She willingly diseussed those events which had been of consuming inter- est during the impressionable period of her life. She spoke unhesita- tingly, clearly, and so eloquently that all repeated here seems lame and halting. Her words were history-its fire, its tears, its heroisms, its victories. The poise of her erect form, the flash of her fervid, dark eyes, the expression of her noble eountenanee, the music of her low voice-all lost in this transcription-vividly typified the spirit, the cour- age, the moral power, the broad philanthropy, which made the story of the Underground Railroad a chapter in the records of liberty.
In 1840, before Michigan's first steam railway had pushed its primitive traeks half-way across the state, another carrier-a so-called railroad- without a car, a rail or a pay-roll, was conducting a growing traffie between the Ohio river and Detroit. This line was known as the "Un- derground Railroad," because its operations were inscrutable as the tomb.
The passengers over the Underground Railroad were of one class- fugitive slaves. They traveled in one direction-toward Canada. There was no demand for return-trip tickets. These people, lash-marked and hound-hunted, were fleeing from "the land of the free" to eseape slavery. Across Michigan their route lay, first, to a settlement of Quakers, near Cassopolis, and thence eastward through Schooleraft, Climax, Battle Creek, Marshall, Albion, Parma, Jackson, Ann Arbor, and the other towns along that line of the road, to Detroit. The stopping places along . the line were called "stations." The managers of the traffic were known as "conductors." These officials were very popular, for they collected no fares from their passengers. Moreover, each conductor supplied food, shelter and transportation, without charge, to those committed to his care. The operations of the Underground Railroad were in direct violation of federal law; but, as railroads go, perhaps this was no unique distinction.
From 1793 until the beginning of the Civil war, there had been United States statutes requiring the surrender of fugitive slaves. Mich- igan was not in sympathy with these laws. Since the ordinance of 1787 there had been no such thing as lawful slave-holding on Michigan soil. In 1855 our legislature openly condemned slavery in strongest terms. The Fugitive Slave law passed by Congress in 1850 was roundly denounced by prevailing sentiment in this state. And with reason. That law attempted to make slave-eatchers of the citizens of free states. All persons were charged with the duty of assisting in the capture of escaped bondmen. The testimony of two witnesses was sufficient to authorize the surrender of a negro to any claimant. No jury trial was demandable, and the negro was not permitted to testify. This law
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the conductors of the Underground Railroad defied and violated. No word of justification is necessary. Until the race fails-until the human heart ceases to respond to the ery of mortal misery, who shall arise to condemn these liberators whose unselfish toil anticipated Lincoln's master-stroke by many years?
In the early days of the Underground system, critics were not few. Many of these were people of influence. For example, Dr. John M. Balcombe (Battle Creek's second postmaster) looked upon the work of the conductors with outspoken disfavor. More than once he said to his friend, Erastus Hussey : "Erastus, I don't believe in slavery, but this business of spiriting away negroes to Canada is a trespass upon property rights."
"Friend Balcombe," the vigorous Quaker "conductor," persistently replied, "that statement is unworthy thy character. Do bills of sale cover human souls? Is the law of man above the law of God? Am I to be the keeper of a covenant between Congress and infamy ?"
It remained for "Old Agnes," an ebony-black refugee, to convince Dr. Balcombe of his error. "Old Agnes" had been the joint property of two white men-men too poor to own more than a half-interest each in a slave-and these exalted proprietors of human "property" had taken turns in maltreating her. Her back and lower limbs were a network of bone-deep scars. When she reached the Battle Creek station -the home of Erastus Hussey-ahnost her first request was for a knife with which to perform upon her festering wounds some rude surgery.
What had been her offense? Not that she was debased: according to her light she was a Christian; according to her opportunity, she was a woman of rare mentality. Though unable to read, she had memorized and could repeat accurately a great portion of the scriptures. Without a guide, save the north star, she had pushed her way northward, alone, by night, four hundred miles toward freedom. Her offense was that she did not love her masters who beat her with a sled-stake.
"Old Agnes" had reached the age at which nature demands rest. Her hair was snowy-white. Across her forehead was a deep groove pro- duced by the strap of a water cask, for she had been a beast of burden- a water carrier. When her hopeless steps had become rheumatic and slow, her humane masters "gingered her up a bit" by beating. The last time they applied the remedy they overdid it-they beat her until she could not walk. The remainder of the story is given in her own words, as remembered and quoted by Mrs. Hussey :
"Soon's I got so's I could git aroun', I maiked up my min' to run away Norf. De fust night I only got a couple ob mile into de woods. Lawd! Lawd ! I kept a-prayin' in my misery, Sen' me a sign to show me I's agwyne to git free. I looked an' lissened, but dey waant no sign. I kep' on prayin', for I knowed He'd hear.
"By-um-by, 'way off, dey wuz a soun'. I know'd what dat wuz-it wuz de houn's on my trail. I know'd dey wuz trained to tear niggers to pieees. But I jus' kep' right on prayin': Lawd, sen' de sign! Sen' de sign !
"Dem houn's was agittin' elost-pow'ful clost. I stood up an' lifted my han's an' prayed : Lawd, ef you don' sen' de sign quick, it's agwyne
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to be too late! But I warn't afeard, bekase I wuz in de han's of de Lawd. I stood still, prayin' in my heart. De honn's rushed up, snarlin' an' yelpin'. Den dey stopped, suddent like, an' crep' up to me, whim- perin'. Dey squirm aroun' my feet, an' dey rub dey haids against me, an' dey licked my han's; but dey didn' try to do no harm. Den dey went tearin' off into de woods an' didn' come back no mo'. Praise de Lawd! He had gabe me my sign. He had promised to set me free- an' hear I is."
As Mr. Barnes has said, the Underground Railroad was organized by Levi Coffin, a Quaker of Cincinnati. This occurred in 1838. Prior to that time, escaping slaves were afforded no systematic aid. Under the encouragement of Levi Coffin and his associates, lines were established through Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as across Indiana and southern Michigan- all leading to Canada. It is estimated that not less than 30,000 slaves in all made good their escape over these various rontes. At times the traffic was so heavy that the resources of the conductors were severely taxed. Mrs. Hussey relates an incident which serves to illustrate this fact. It is as follows: "One night in the fall of 1844, I was awakened by a peculiar, mournful murmur of voices proceeding from the street in front of my father's house. (We were then living in a building which stood on East Main street in Battle Creek, on the site now occupied by the Werstein block). I knew the sound. I had heard it often before. It was the frightened, half- whispered conversation of colored refugees.
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