USA > Ohio > Columbiana County > Salem in Columbiana County > A souvenir history of ye old town of Salem, Ohio, with some pictures and brief references to ye people and things of ye olden time > Part 4
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The Salem Journal was established by John Hudson, the first number being printed Febru- ary 17, 1865. It passed through many hands of proprietorship, the owners and publishers being,
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Sixth Street Friends' Church.
at successive periods, John Hudson, Vernon & Hutton, J. R. Vernon (for about three years), Vernon & Baird, J. R. Vernon, and finally Vernon & Baker. By the last named firm the paper was sold August 24, 1872, to Major W. R. Snider, and shortly afterwards discontinued in
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Salem, the plant being removed to Crestline.
In 1870 the Ohio Educational Monthly, a Columbus (Ohio) publication, was published by William D. Henkle, and removed to Salem, where its publication was continued up to the year of Mr. Henkle's death, 1881. In January, 1875, Mr. Henkle commenced the publication of Educational Notes and Queries, continuing it as a monthly publication until 1881. It is said of this publication that before the first year of its existence it had subscribers in 35 States and Territories.
The National Greenbacker, a radical weekly newspaper, promising to devote its energies to monetary and labor reforms, was started in Salem in 1878, by a stock company, G. W. Cowgill's name appearing as publisher and edi- tor. It did not receive the requisite support to make of it a financial success, and soon went out of business.
J. W. Northrop in 1883 removed the Buck- eye Vidette from Bryan, Ohio, to Salem and commenced its publication here. It professed to be in the interest of the laboring classes, and advocated the "issue and control of all
kinds of money by the government and making the government responsible for its real value." The paper did not enjoy a long or over-prosper- ous existence.
The Salem Weekly Democrat was started by Asa H. Battin and Thomas Dillon, and contin- ued just one year, from August, 1854, to August, 1855. In the later '80's J. D. Fountain started the Salem Tribune. a weekly Republican news- paper. It had an existence of less than six months. Earlier in the century the Dollar Age, a weekly started by Alfred A Sipe, survived but a few months, Mr. Sipe dying during a visit to Virginia. J. R. Murphy and J. C. Kling bought the outfit and started the Salem Times, which lasted but a short time. Dr. Hardman issued at intervals a nondeseript publication which he called the Clipper, but it went the way of the ephemeral train of local prints and reprints which successively failed to prove themselves the mediums through which "a long felt want " was to be supplied. In January, 1896, Willis Whin- nery commenced publishing a paper entitled the Swine Advocate. It was published in the inter- est of the business in which he was engaged, and
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continued for two or three years. The Daily Holiday News was established in the '70's by J. S. Rentz, a practical printer, and issued inter- mittently for many years, daily for the week in each year preceding Christmas. June 12, 1902, Charles Bonsall and J. S. Rentz began the pub- lication in Salem of the American Worker, de- voted to the interests of trades unions and workingmen generally. It was discontinued January 22, 1903.
"The Quaker," a magazine published under the auspices of students in the Salem high school, completes its third volume with the June issue, 1906. It is published monthly during each school year. At the present (1906) Frederick Hole and Fritz Mullins are business managers, and John Mead is editor.
"The Self-Examiner" was a small eight- page (two columns to the page) publication, issued monthly for a year or two at Goshen, by Aaron Hinchman, the first number being dated Sep- tember 3, 1842. It was "Devoted to Moral and Social Reform, to the Natural Rights of Man, and to the Interest of the Day Laborer." Hinch- man afterwards (in 1846) entered into partner- ship with Benjamin B. Davis in the publication
James Brown.
of the Village Register, and later became sole proprietor and editor of the paper.
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It will be seen that the newspapers and other publications of Salem have had a very wide range. The fields of education, human rights, political and social economy, labor, money, even the culture of swine, as well as the legitimate publication of the news of the day, have, in turn, had their organs in Salem. And, the talent en- gaged being generally of a high order, some of these publications have attained even a national reputation.
Thomas Horner.
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Chapter IV .- The Anti-Slavery Movement
Epoch in Country's History in Which Salem Played a Conspicuous Part-Im- portant Station on "Underground Railroad"-Some Exciting Incidents.
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Back in the '30's, '40's and 50's Salem was known as headquarters of the Western Anti- Slavery Society, and, what was not a matter of general publicity then, but sub rosa, a station on the " Underground Railroad." The Anti-Slavery Bugle, published here for many years, was, dur- ing its existence, known as the organ of the society. The walls of the Old Town Hall-which is still standing on East Main street and serving its purpose as it has done for more than fifty years as the municipal building-have many times resounded to the voices of such advocates of universal freedom as William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Fred. Douglass, Cassius M. Clay, Abby Kelly, Parker Pillsbury, John Pier- pont, and many lesser lights which shone during the troublous times prior to the Civil War of 1861-'65. The old Hicksite Friends Church,
which still stands on Ellsworth avenue, and "Liberty Hall," also on Ellsworth avenue, near the old church, which was years ago remodeled and partially rebuilt for a residence, were also rendered historic by their having furnished meet- ing places for the anti-slavery agitators of those days, or "Abolitionists" as they were more commonly called. The remodeled "Liberty Hall" was for many years the residence of the late Dr. J. M. Hole, in his day a prominent anti-slavery worker, and is still the home of his daughter, Mrs. James Park, and her husband. The dust of Edwin Coppock, one of the famous John Brown raiders, who had been a resident of the vicinity of Salem, and who came of Quaker stock, rests in Hope Cemetery, and helps to render that old, but now improved and handsome burying-ground, historic. References to the stirring events of
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Monument to Edwin Coppock, Lieutenant Under John Brown, In Hope Cemetery.
those old Abolition days, with some reminiscent sketches of the good people known as the Friends
or Quakers, who did so much to populate, build up and render prosperous Salem and the adjacent section of country, contribute much to the inter- est of Salem's first Centennial.
The rescue from a life of bondage, and escape usually across the border to Canada, of many a fugitive slave, was aided and abetted by the peo- ple of Salem, during the days when the town was known as a station on the "Underground Rail- road." Such incidents are remembered by some of Salem's older residents even yet. On one occasion, sometime in the year 1854, when the anti-slavery feeling was running high here and in other parts of the North, information came from a member of the Anti-Slavery, or a sympa- thizer in its work, then in a northern city, that a young slave girl was being taken through by her master and mistress on their way South, and that the train which bore the party would be due in Salem at a certain hour on that day. There was an Ohio law at that time prohibiting the carry- ing of slaves into bondage over Ohio railroads, but no such prohibition existed in Pennsylvania and some other States. Forthwith a force of abont thirty men was raised in Salem, and
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marched to the Fort Wayne station to rescue the young slave. A detail was made from the com- pany to board the train on its arrival, and another to uncouple the car containing the party and to stand guard outside. M. L. Edwards (still liv- ing) was a member of the last named detail. The train arriving on time, the squad of men designated for the duty sprang aboard and ob- tained possession of the girl without any resist- ance on the part of her reputed owners. The latter simply offered a formal protest. It was said, however, that a secret agent afterwards visited Salem and endeavored to obtain a clew to the "fugitive," but failed. She was kept in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Joel McMillan, and in other Salem homes, for a number of years. The girl, who was about fourteen years old when rescued, was given the name of Abby Kelly Salem, and lived for many years in the city to which she owed her freedom and whose name she bore. Mrs. McMillan is still living, at the old home near Grandview Cemetery, which, with her hus- band Joel, a well-known anti-slavery advocate and worker, she occupied at the time of the in- cident above related. In the Centennial year,
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First Baptist Church.
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Mrs. McMillan, though quite ad- vanced in years, re- members the cir- cumistance of Abby Kelly Salem's rescue quite well, and fre- quently tells of the incident, and of the trouble she after- wards had with the girl, who proved a veritable "Topsy." Joel Bonsall. It was found neces- sary to punish her now and then, to which she rebelled, declaring on one of these occasions :
"Ma Suthe'n missus nevah beat me." But a day or two later she gave herself away thus : "Mis- sus, didn't you nebber lib in de Souf ?" "No, Abby," Mrs. McMillan replied ; "but why do you ask ?" "Oh, kase you all heah whups 'zactly like ma old missus down Souf done whupped me."
Samuel D. Erwin, now living in Alliance, in his 83d year, told the writer of a similar attempt,
in which he participated, to rescue a slave girl named Lucy, under like circumstances as that just related. Erwin was then (in the later '50's) living at Marlboro, seven or eight miles west of Alliance, on the railroad. He and a party were summoned from Cleveland to intercept a train on the P., F. W. & C. road, at Lima, and rescue a slave girl being taken back to bondage. The party at once took a train for Lima, reaching the town before the train arrived from the other direction. But the party of Southerners had obtained wind of the proposed rescue, and per- suaded the conductor to run the train through without stopping; and so they got away. Erwin's place, near Marlboro, was in those days a sub- station on the Underground Railroad, and he helped quite a number of fugitive blacks on their way to freedom. But scores and even hundreds of such cases could be related in which citizens of Salem took part ; but nearly all of those good people, who were devoted to the cause of human- ity, have long since passed to their reward.
George D. Hunt gives the following, which will aid to an understanding of some of the doings in those old anti-slavery days: "Not
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alone did the white brethren give voice to the demand for universal freedom. The escaped slave himself joined in the mighty anthem, whose quickening burden, swelling to am- plest tempest, rolled from sea to sea. Among the fugitives were William M. Brown, called William 'Box' Brown, from his having es- caped from slavery while concealed in a box, and Joe Mason, supposed to have been a natural son of James Mason, ex-United States Senator and ex-Governor of Virginia. They cheered on the cause with vigorous songs, adapted from plantation melo- dies, but not weighted with planta- tion sentiment.
The following, with additional verses, as sung by Brown, was a favorite :*
" Ho, the car, Emancipation, Rides majestic through the Nation, Bearing on its train the story - Liberty, a Nation's glory. Roll it along - Through the Nation, Freedom's car, Emancipation ! "
Polo's
Mais Enit
Broadway in 1887-Looking South.
"A carpenter-shop, about 18 by 48 feet in size, was built by Samuel Reynolds about the year 1840, the upper room of which was used as the general meeting-place of the people of the town for the discussion of all manner of subjects. When the anti-slavery question came to be so warmly discussed in the churches that difficul-
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ties arose, and the churches and schoolhouses were closed to the defenders of universal brother- hood, they went to the room over the carpenter- shop. This building was christened 'Liberty Hall', and was the cradle of the society which was evolved from that whirlpool of opinion caused by the counter-currents of thought respecting the slavery question. For many years it was kept as a place for discussions and caucus meetings, and within it a course of lec- tures was planned in which some of the best talent of the country was engaged. This course of lectures was delivered in the Town Hall, and Wendell Phillips, Abby Kelly, John Pierpont and William Lloyd Garrison were among the many speakers. In June, 1845, the largest church in Salem was closed against Abby Kelly, the Abolitionist lecturer. The trustees of the Church gave as a reason for their refusal : ‘We think the principles of the lecturer are danger- ous to our common country.'"
A number of fugitives from the South, after attaining their freedom through the interposition of Salem people, became life-long residents of this place. Mr. Hunt refers to one of these as
follows : "Sometime in the '20's a fugitive slave woman named Maria Britt came to Salem. Here she found a place of employment among the Quakers, especially in the family of Samuel Davis. By the proceeds of her labor she got a lot from him on what is now Green street. It is now occupied by a small dwelling-house which, for some years, was used as the Methodist church. On this lot a small brick house was built in which she passed most of the remainder of her life. She had a husband who was still held in bondage in the South, and like any true wife, she wished to have him with her. Wherefore she got some of her white friends to write a let- ter to him. By some mishap this letter fell into the hands of her old master, who set about the job of reclaiming her. A relative of Dr. Stan- ton, who lived at Steubenville, got wind of the plot, and sent word that the master was coming here to look for her. Thereupon Maria was clandestinely sent to Conneaut, a settlement of Friends in Trumbull county, where she remained until it was deemed safe for her to return to Salem. During her absence a mysterious stran- ger came to Salem and stopped for some days at
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Mckinley Avenue-A Handsome Residence Street
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one of the taverns. He frequently walked the streets and peeped into the houses, especially the kitchens, but he did not find his lost 'proper- ty'. Maria Britt made some true friends here besides the Quakers, and she earned a fair living by doing washing, housecleaning, cooking, wed- ding dinners, etc. She made herself very use- ful to the people here. Being of a pious turn of mind, she took delight in attending religious meetings. But in these meetings even the preju- dice of color often existed and she felt much embarrassed.
" One negro came here and worked for Joseph Fawcett for eleven years, and during that time paid a visit to his old home, even going into his old master's kitchen without being detected. This is only one sample of the ingenuity exer- cised by many of them in escaping from slavery. In April, 1850, a white woman and a negro wo- inan stopped at Webb's tavern. The colored people of the town interrogated the negress as to her residence and destination, and they were thus led to believe that she was being decoyed into Virginia to be sold as a slave. She declared that she had never been a slave, and refused to go any further ; and thus she was rescued."
Joel S. Bonsall, long connected with the Buckeye Engine Works of Salem, and son of Daniel Bonsall, who came to the Salem commun- ity in 1820, often told, prior to his death which occurred in 1902, stories of the exciting events of his boyhood in connection with the "Under- ground Railroad " operations. He remembered many instances of fugitive slaves, who, having crossed the Ohio, made their way through to Salem during the night, and sought refuge with his father and others of the active anti-slavery workers. He remembered one night in particular, when as many as thirteen fugitives were hidden in his father's house. One of the most active lieutenants of his father was Dr. Stanton, a pio- neer physician, and his student, Keyser Thomas. They kept constantly on the lookout for fugitive slaves, and, when finding them, took them to the Bonsall home, often using as a conveyance the horse and wagon of William Waterworth. The home of Mr. Bonsall was only one of many which were made a place of refuge and safety for slaves fleeing from bondage to the liberty which they deemed was their God-given right. They would be sheltered and hidden during the day,
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and then during the following night helped on to another place of refuge, or sub-station on the "Underground." Joel McMillan, James Bonaty, Charles Grizell, James Barnaby, Dr. Stanton, Dr. Carey, Dr. John Whinery, Allen Boyle, Wm. Silver, Benjamin Hawley, and many others, most of them members of the Society of Friends, par- ticipated in this humane movement.
In the "Pathfinders of Jefferson County," one of the Ohio Archæological Society's publica- tions, some very interesting data are found re- garding the early history and operations of the "Underground Railroad." Prof. Wilbur H. Seibert, of Akron, a well-known Ohio educator, writes : "Slaves were thirsting for liberty, and were finding relief with the secret help of a few scattered, principle-abiding, if not law-abiding, people. These were the Simon-pure Abolition- ists, who braved public prejudice for years, and ostracised themselves by helping the deserving negro to his liberty. Taken together they con- stituted that mysterious organization known as the 'Underground Railroad.' It was the self- imposed business of those concerned to 'receive, forward, conceal and protect fugitives.' It got
Barbara Phillips.
its name by its operations. The way the name was received was as follows : A fugitive named Tice Davids traveled one of the Ohio routes in
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1831, from Ripley to Sandusky. The slave set out upon his journey under unusual circumstances, no doubt, for his master, a Kentuckian, was at his heels from the start until the Ohio river was reached. There the master was delayed by his search for a skiff, but found one in time to keep the runaway in sight, who was now swimming his best, and to land only a few minutes later than he. His subsequent hunt failed to secure his property, and the master was much mystified. At his wits end, he said : 'That nigger must have gone off on an underground road.' The aptness of the title was seen at once, and the rapid transmission of the story within and beyond the State soon fixed the designation on the 'system.' Up to 1835 it was known as the 'Under- ground Road.' After that the name naturally changed to the 'Underground Railroad.' "The Underground Railroad System," continues Prof. Seibert, "was far more extensive than was gen- erally supposed. There were branches through all the zone of Free States from England to Kan- sas and Iowa, while in the Southern States there were at least four great lines of travel from the South to the North used by the fugitives. One
was along the coast from Florida to the Potomac. The second was that route protected by the Great Appalachian range and its abutting mountains, a rugged, lonely, but comparatively safe route to freedom." This line was much used. Richard J. Hinton, in his book on 'John Brown and His Men,' tells us that Harriet Tubman, the remark- able black woman who made her escape from the South unassisted, when a young girl, and then gave herself to the work of fetching out others, was a constant user of the Appalachian route.' Her people lovingly called her 'Moses,' and John Brown introduced her to Wendell Phillips by saying, 'I bring to you one of the best and brav- est persons on this continent-General Tubman, as we call her.' Harriet Tubman is said to have assisted, in all, several thousand slaves to freedom."
The valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi constituted the third great channel of the fugi- tive slaves' travel northward, while the fourth route ran from the southwest slave section through Kansas, Iowa and Northern Illinois to Chicago. Prof. Seibert declares there were not less than 23 ports of entry for runaway slaves
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along the Ohio river front of this State. Thir- teen of these admitted the fugitive from the 275 miles of Kentucky shore on our south and south- west, while the other ten received those from the 150 miles of Virginia (now West Virginia) soil on our southeast. From these initial depots the Ohio routes ran zigzag lines, trending generally in a northeastern direction, linking station with station in mysterious bonds, until a place of de- portation was reached on Lake Erie. One of these way stations was Mount Pleasant, Jefferson county, and another was Salem, Columbiana county.
One of the leading spirits in the anti-slavery movement in Salem-and he won a national reputation for his work in the cause-was Marius R. Robinson. Having been a student at Oberlin College, and imbibed the spirit of abol- itionism, he became a resident of Salem, and was for a number of years editor of the Anti-Slavery Bugle. M. R. Robinson Council No. 350, Royal Arcanum, of Salem, was organized in 1879. It was named for him. Oliver Johnson, also a well- known worker in the anti-slavery cause, who edited the Bugle for several years while a res-
Jacob Heaton.
ident of Salem, was also author of the book, "Garrison and His Times". In the latter work Johnson refers to Marius R. Robinson as follows : "Of Mr. Robinson there is a tale to be told which coming generations ought to hear. A
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more gentle, sweet-spirited and self-consecrated man I have never known. He was exceedingly modest, never seeking conspicuity, but willing to work in any place, however obscure, to which duty called him. For a time, after leaving the theological seminary, he devoted himself to the welfare of the colored people of Cincinnati, and for auglit that I know was one of those who were so 'imprudent' as to sometimes take a meal with a colored family. It would have been just like him to do so, simple-hearted man that he was. Then he was for a time in the office of Mr. Birney's Philanthropist, and when the mob came to destroy the types, it was his tact and courage that saved the 'forms' from being broken up, so that the paper of the week was printed in an adjoining town and delivered to its subscribers on time. At a later day he entered the lecture field in Ohio, where he did noble service, endur- ing all manner of hardness like a good soldier of freedom. He was a capital speaker, with much that we call magnetic force for lack of a better term; and he was sure to make a deep impression wherever he could get a hearing. It was during the 'reign of terror', and he was
often harried by mobs and other exhibitions of anti-slavery malevolence. At Granville, Licking county, he was detained some time by a severe illness. One day a constable obtruded himself into liis sick-room and served upon him a paper, a copy of which I herewith present as a specimen of the pro-slavery literature of that day :
"Licking County, Granville Township, ss .:
"To H. C. Mead, Constable of Said Township, Greeting :
"WHEREAS, We, the undersigned, overseers of the
poor of Granville township, have received information that there has lately come into said township, a certain poor man, named Robinson, who is not a legal resident thereof, and will likely become a township charge, you are there- fore hereby commanded to warn the said Robinson, with his family, to depart out of said township. And of this warrant make service and return. Given under our hands this first day of March, 1839.
" Charles Gilman,
" S. Bancroft,
"Overseers of the Poor.
"It was nearly two years before this that he went into Berlin, Mahoning county, to de- liver several lectures. On Friday evening, June 2, 1837, he spoke for the first time, and notice was given that on the following Sunday he
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would deliver a lecture on the Bible against the charge of supporting slavery. This was more than the public sentiment of Berlin could bear ; and on Sunday evening he was seized by a band of ruffians-two of them, I am told, members of the Presbyterian church, dragged out of the house of a friend with whom he lodged, carried several miles away, and, besides many other in- sults, subjected to the indignity of a coat of tar and feathers. In this condition he was carried some miles further, and in the darkness and chilly Sunday morning, having been denuded of much of his clothing, left in an open field, in a strange place, where he knew no one to whom to look for aid. After daylight he made his way to the nearest house, but the family were frightened at his appearance, and would render him no aid. At another house he was fortunate enough to find friends, who, in the spirit of the good Samaritan, had compassion on him and supplied his needs. The bodily injuries received on that dreadful night affected his health ever afterwards, and even affected his dying hours. But they brought no bitterness to his heart, which was full of tenderness even toward those
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