USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Chester > History of the Underground railroad in Chester and the neighboring counties of Pennsylvania > Part 17
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During their residence at Kennett Square, both he and his wife were untiring in their efforts to aid all per- sons of color, whether bond or free. Towards the close of the first decade of the anti-slavery agitation, they removed to West Vincent, Chester county, purchasing a
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farm adjoining that of their sister Esther Fussell Lewis, herself a well-known abolitionist, and there they con- tinued their work of receiving fugitives. About the year 1838, Lydia M. Fussell died, mourned by all who knew her and leaving a young and helpless family to the care of her husband.
After his second marriage with Rebecca C. Hewes, he removed to York, Pennsylvania, and opened a school there, doing anti-slavery work as formerly. Later he came to Hamorton, not far distant from his former residence, at Kennett Square. Here he gave a practical illustration of his principles by admitting colored youth to his school.
At all times he took an active interest in all educa- tional and moral reforms, but was addicted to the use of tobacco, which habit he had acquired while young. When he was about seventy years of age, a very aged relative earnestly remonstrated with him against the continuance of this habit, as being inconsistent with a life devoted as his had been to the advocacy of many different reforms. On his replying that a sudden cessa- tion from a practice so long indulged in might result in his death, her answer was, " Well, die then, and go to heaven decently." He delighted in after years to recur to this conversation, feeling that the faithfulness of his mentor, had stimulated him to the resolution of aban- doning a habit so much at variance with his otherwise exemplary life.
From early youth, owing to the aid rendered him by his eldest sister, he had been led to consider the fitness of women for the study and practice of medicine. On his own graduation, he mentally resolved that if ever
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he had the opportunity, he would do what he could to aid them in acquiring a knowledge of the principles and practice of medicine. This purpose he frequently con- versed about, and in it he had the cordial sympathy of his wife before she died. Even as early as 1840 he had given regular instruction to a class of women. In 1846 he communicated to a few liberal-minded men of his own profession, a plan for the establishment of a college of the highest grade for the medical education of women, holding a meeting for the purpose in his own house. Those comprising the meeting were Dr. Ezra Mitchener, Edwin Fussell, M. D., Franklin Taylor, M. D., Ellwood Harvey, M. D., and Sylvester Birdsall, M. D., including himself, six physicians. In inviting a beloved niece to be present, he reminded her that it was for her mother's sake-she who had more than any one else, moulded his character, and inspired him with the purpose. This niece still lives to testify that it was from the germ of his thought, hallowed by brotherly affection, that the Woman's Medical College of Philadelphia, grew into existence, one of its early graduates being Ann Preston, so long a part of the life of the college. Although never at any time officially connected with this institu- tion, he yet regarded it as the result of one of his best efforts, and he continued through life to consider its welfare with the deepest interest.
Like other early abolitionists, he had his share of persecution to endure, and was occasionally mobbed while making anti-slavery speeches. This occurred once in West Chester, but he was supported and protected by the best citizens, more particularly by Hon. William Everhart, who lost no opportunity of allying himself
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with the oppressed and their defenders, at that period so unpopular.
At another time, while speaking at Centreville, Dela- ware, he was attacked by a party of Irish from Dupont's Powder Mills, who were incited to violence by a person who told them that Dr. Fussell had said that " the colored persons made better citizens than did the Irish." During the most vigorous period of the anti-slavery agitation his life was an almost continual warfare with the opponents of that cause, he being prompted by no hope of reward, present or prospective, but like other abolitionists, solely by benevolent purposes, and by a sense of justice and of right ; and no aspersion, however infamous, no contumely, however vile, no ostracism, how- ever cold, could turn these from the fulfillment of what they conscientiously held as a Christian duty. A part of his days towards the close of his career, were spent with his son, Joshua, at Pendleton, Indiana, and as age and infirmity increased, he was most faithfully and tenderly cared for by his children, in the home of his son, Dr. Morris Fussell, near Chester Springs, Chester county, where he died on the fourteenth of Second mo., 1871. His mortal part was interred near those of his ancestors and by the side of his wife, Lydia M. Fussell, in Friend's grave yard at Pikeland, where formerly stood a meeting house, now gone to decay.
His son, Joshua L. Fussell, contributes a few inci- dents which he can remember connected with the escape of fugitive slaves. There was an old man named " Davy," who gained a livelihood by selling peaches, fresh fish, and other commodities, purchased in Delaware, and sold in the neighborhood of Kennett Square. This person
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became a very important agent between Thomas Garrett and Dr. Fussell. His business being known it excited no suspicion to see his frequent journeys to Wilmington and back, nor was there anything remarkable in his being accompanied by friends of his own color, either by day or night. There can be no doubt that many loads other than fish or peaches, came in the dark from Thomas Garrett's to the house of Dr. Fussell, and were forwarded by him in safety.
One fugitive from the far South, was guided alone by the " dipper." He knew there was a land of liberty somewhere at the North, and that if he directed his course to the right or to the left, as that constellation turned around the polar centre, he would reach the land he sought. This much he seemed to have learned even in the darkness of slavery. Where freedom de- pended on observation, these bondmen became intense watchers of the stars at night.
All who were interrogated as to why they left their homes, gave nearly related answers. In the majority of cases it was the fear of being sold to go further South. Being " sold to Georgia" was the terror of plantation life, although the testimony usually was that very few slaveholders would do this unless com- pelled by needy circumstances. Hence the slaves learned to look with dismay on extravagances which sooner or later would bring the anguish of parting upon themselves. Some escaped rather than submit to pro- mised punishments. Two good looking women, digni- fied and upright in department and conversation, left for the most womanly of all reasons. They prized their native purity as highly as do the most chaste and re-
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fined of their sex, and only by escaping to a land of freedom, could they preserve it.
One man leaving the South in mid-winter, had his fingers frozen so that the flesh was sloughing off, the ends of the bones protruding half an inch, yet the idea of liberty was so dear to this man that his suffering seemed trivial in comparison with the bondage he had endured.
After Dr. Fussell had left Kennett Square, and resided in West Vincent, as formerly mentioned, a girl named Eliza came to them. She had been a field hand, was only 18 years of age, and was quite masculine in appearance. She had charge of the horses belonging to her master, and being a good rider, she one evening selected a suitable steed, and as soon as it was safe, started northward. Pressed by the fear of capture, she rode bare-backed, about forty miles that night, and towards morning, dismounting, she turned the horse homeward, hiding the bridle to thwart the suspicion that she had ridden the horse away. Tired as she must have been with her long ride, she knew no rest, but continued her journey on foot, walking thirty miles by evening, making in all seventy miles of travel in twenty- four hours. She lived for a considerable time in the family, and proved an excellent girl, but was at first extremely awkward in learning anything pertaining to housewifery. She was never better pleased than when permitted to work on the farm, and, as a harvest hand, was hard to excel, even by the stoutest men. Here she became acquainted with James Washington, another fugitive, and after a time the pair were married at the house of Dr. Fussell, by Friend's ceremony-a marriage
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certificate being provided for them, signed by the requisite number of witnesses. On the same evening another pair was also united in a similar manner, before the same witnesses. In these times, in the year 1838, aboltionists felt it needful to be extremely chary about trusting magistrates with secrets of this or any other character pertaining to fugitives, but these marriages were made strictly legal by providing a sufficient num- ber of trusted friends as witnesses. .
Earlier than this, another fugitive seems vividly to have impressed the boyish memory of Joshua L. Fus- sell. This was George Harris, who was remarkable for his extraordinary qualities of mind, and for his indom- itable perseverance in obtaining liberty. He was reared in Maryland or Virginia, and had been sold and taken to Georgia, near the boundary line with Florida. He was quite a young man, but must have been gifted with extraordinary geographical powers. Undeterred by the long distance to be traveled on foot, or the privations to be endured and risks incurred before he could reach " Mason and Dixon's line," he started on his journey, determined not only to attempt the undertaking, but to succeed in it. For his guides, he relied wholly upon the course of railroads running northward and upon his knowledge of the country, gained in his compulsory journey southward. It is probable that he then had escape in view, and that all his faculties were bent in one direction, for so accurate was his memory that he could enumerate in successive order every county through which he passed, as evinced by tracing his course upon the map of the country. The narrative of his journey abounded in incidents of peril, humor, and
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JOHN COX.
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even romance so interesting that the friends who listened to it intended to preserve it. This was, however, never done, and after leaving Dr. Fussell's, George Harris hired with Pusey Cland, near Marlborough Meeting House, and soon afterward died.
Among active abolitionists it too often happened that one story succeeded another with great rapidity, while the main thought centered upon the safety of the narra- tors. Daily life and its duties interfered to prevent a written record of these narratives, and it is now too late to restore them with any degree of vividness. Fre- quently the speed of transit did not admit of sufficient delay to listen to life histories; and sometimes there was little to tell except the unconscious heroism of escape from a system of barbarity, which lifted above the com- mon level of slavery natures which had been depraved by generations of ignorance, submission, and all the other vices inherent in the system to which they had been subjected.
JOHN AND HANNAH P. COX.
(John Cox, Born Third Mo. 12th, 1786, Died Second Mo. 22d, 1880. Hannah Pearce Cox, Born Eleventh Mo. 12th, 1797, Died Fourth Mo. 24th, 1876.)
Longwood, Chester county, being one of the first stations after leaving Wilmington, John and Hannah Cox, with their children, were frequently called upon, and generally in the night, to aid fugitives on their way to freedom. This aid was ever cheerfully, gladly given. They fed all, clothed those who needed clothing, and either conveyed or directed them to stations further northward. As it was unsafe to keep them so near the MK
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State line, no delay was risked in moving them north- ward beyond the precincts of danger.
The women and children who were brought to their place from Wilmington, were generally conveyed in a dearborn by a colored man named Jackson. If men were along, and the party small, they rode. If there were several, the men followed on foot. When arriving, Jackson gave three distinct raps upon the pale-fence. This awakened the family who responded: "Who's there?" "Friends," was the reply. Jackson then immediately turned his vehicle and left. The fugitives were admitted, a good supper given them, and a speedy conveyance furnished to other friends. Thus hundreds were aided, and instances of peril and anxiety were not rare. Many came directly from their owners in Dela- ware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. Few questions were asked beyond what were necessary to satisfy themselves that the parties were really fugitives from slavery.
A man and woman with their child, tired and hun- gry, called at their place one night. They had come from near Elkton, had ridden one of their master's horses as far as they dare, then traveled the rest of the way on foot. They were attired in some of " Massa's clo'es." The woman wore a pair of his fine boots. Their reason for leaving was a "fear of being sold to go South." They were fed, properly clothed, and as- sisted further on their journey.
It was a custom in the South to give slaves once a year a week of holiday in which to enjoy themselves without being required to work, and to visit relatives and friends on other plantations. Many of them were not
HANNAH COX.
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required to return or to give an account of themselves during that time. As this week was their own, and some of them liked to earn a little spending money, they remained and worked; the masters paying them for the labor. But many felt that as one week of lib- erty in a year was a glorious respite from the long weeks of unrequited tasks, a lifetime of such liberty would be better, and they took advantage of that time to leave for the North. So, after the holidays, a greater number of fugitives were passed along. In after years the slaveholders discontinued this custom.
It was after one of these seasons that two fine looking colored men and a woman came from Maryland and were passed to other stations. Several years after, one of the men met Hannah Cox at an anti-slavery meet- ing, and reminded her of the time she " helped him to freedom."
One.woman came there from Wilmington, who was the slave of a Presbyterian minister. She had been kindly treated, but heard a whisper in the family that she was to be sold next day. She was very nervous through fear that her " kind massa" would be after her. While she was secreted in the garret, a carriage drove by which they knew was from Wilmington.
As soon as it was dark she was taken to another station and rapidly sent on to Canada. Next day they heard that some persons were in Kennett Square hunt- ing a fugitive slave, but could not find her.
Eight men came at one time, just after the passage of the " Fugitive Slave Law." They were in haste to reach Philadelphia to meet another party. There being no railroad in the lower part of the county then, J. William
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Cox, who was but a lad, took them to West Chester in the night, in time to take the first train in the morning. As the horses were busy he took but one, which he rode; the men followed. Before reaching West Chester he halted and gave them directions to walk by twos at some distance apart, so as not to excite suspicion along the streets and when he arrived opposite the depot he would raise his hat ; the first two were then to cross the street and enter the door, the others were to follow. On reaching the place he gave the signal and rode on to Simon Barnard's to ask if he would go to the depot and see that the men were started rightly. He met Simon at the gate, and while talking he was astonished to see six of the men coming up behind him. They had not observed the first two enter the depot, and had followed him. He gave them at once into Simon's charge and left.
In the summer of 1843, eight men came in the night. It was hay-harvest, and John Cox was needing help. He kept them in the barn to assist. As soon as one cart was loaded it was driven in, and the man returned with the empty one to the field-John and the boy re- maining in the barn. The men wondered how they unloaded so quickly. But they were men not to be trusted with the secret, and it was carefully kept from them.
. One midnight, in 1857, they were startled by the sig- nal that " Conductor Jackson's" train was at Longwood, with a party that needed immediate assistance. They comprised eighteen in all, seven men, the rest women and children. They had been attacked near Centre- ville, Del., by a party of Irishmen, whom they took to
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be kidnappers. They fought desperately ; one of the negroes showed a knife with which he had stabbed an Irishman. The whole party were intensely excited and the family very much alarmed, not knowing but that the pursuers were close upon them. A hot supper was at once prepared for them, and as quickly as possible they were taken further North. They had not been gone more than fifteen minutes, when loud talking was heard from two carriages coming from toward Wil- mington, and one person was heard saying, "We'll overtake them yet." The anxious family awaited trem- blingly the return of those who took the slaves, know- ing well the consequences should they be overtaken and captured.
They learned afterwards that the persons who drove by were returning from a party ; and that the Irish- men were not kidnappers, but lived in the neighbor- hood, and had gone out to have a little sport on Hallow Eve. The unfortunate one who received the injury, died shortly after in Centreville.
A slave and a free colored man in their employ were foddering the stock one morning at daybreak, when two men in a carriage stopped near the fodder-stock. One exclaimed, "that is he." At this moment one of the men ran to the stack and caught the negro who was de- scending the ladder, but who happened to be the free man. A sharp fight ensued, in which the white man received some severe injuries. The colored man de- clared in emphatic language, not wholly in conformity with one of the Commandments, that he would shoot him. The one in the carriage called out "That is not Sam." Sam knew his master's voice and hid. The free
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man ran to the house, got the gun, and started in hot pursuit of the men; but they drove so fast as to keep beyond the reach of his ammunition. That night the slave left for a safer home farther North.
John and Hannah Cox were members of the Society of Friends, and were endued with a great love of justice and right, and a desire to fulfill in their lives the Divine law. It was this inherent principle in the days of slavery that made abolitionists of men and women who " considered those in chains as bound with them."
They became interested in anti-slavery meetings, and from reading the Liberator and hearing Charles C. Burleigh in one of his lectures repeat Whittier's poem, " Our Fellow Countrymen in Chains," they advocated immediate emancipation. They thought with William Lloyd Garrison that while the slave was made to work under the lash, that while a husband was sold by a Virginia gentleman to be taken to Louisiana, children sold to slave-traders to go under different masters, and the wife and mother kept at home to pine in a hovel made desolate, to talk of the gradual extermination of these evils was as unwise in principle as " to tell a man to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher, or tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire." The burning of Pennsylvania Hall, in Philadelphia, on May 17th, 1838, and what they saw and heard there, aroused them to increased interest and activity in the cause. It was there they became personally acquainted with Garrison and the warm friendship whichi began then continued during life. He was a frequent visitor at their place, especially
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during the meetings of Progressive Friends at Long- wood, as were also Isaac T. Hopper, John G. Whittier, Lucretia Mott, Sarah Pugh, Abby Kelley, Lucy Stone, Mary Grew, James Russell Lowell, Samuel J. May, Theodore Parker, Robert Collyer, James Freeman Clarke, and a host of others who were interested in the progress and elevation of the human family.
John Cox was President of the Kennett Anti-slavery Society, and both he and his wife were frequently sent as delegates to Anti-slavery State and National Conven- tions.
On the eleventh of Ninth mo. (September), 1873, the fiftieth anniversary of their wedding was celebrated at their home at Longwood, and eighty-two guests signed the certificate. Many of them were old anti-slavery friends and co-laborers in the various reforms in which hus- band and wife were so warmly interested.
Their friend and neighbor, Chandler Darlington, in recounting the works of. their life in a poem prepared for the occasion, said :
We saw you early on the watch-tower stand. When Slavery's curse polluted all the land :
You've lived to see that blighting curse removed,
And Freedom triumph in the land you loved : For Woman's right to equal be with Man
You've borne the taunt and labored in the van :
Nor were you circumscribed to those alone ; The Temperanee cause you fully made your own. In works of Charity, at open door
Your liberal hands have freely served the poor :
Where'er was sorrow, suffering or despair. Your kindly sympathy was ever there.
Bayard Taylor, whose boyhood's home was near them, sent a greeting from Germany, where he was then resid- ing, in which he said:
-- --
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There, as a boy, my heart and mind Oft fed on gentler manna, For Jolin was ever firm and kind, And motherly was Hannah; And when with hopes of higher law The air of home grew warmer, How many a preacher there I saw ! How many a famed reformer ! *
. .
Nor these alone, though all the land Gives praise where it upbraided ; There was a sad and silent band Your Christian courage aided : They came in fear, and straightway found Food, rest, emancipation : THEIR "Cox's House " was underground- A blessed railway station !
Their poet friend, John G. Whittier, who was unable to be present, sent them a congratulation, in which, re- ferring to the happy visits he had made to their home, and to the congenial spirits with whom he had there met and conversed, he said :
How gladly would I tread again the old remembered places, Sit down beside your hearth once more, and look in the dear old faces ; And thank you for the lessons your fifty years are teaching, For honest lives that louder speak than half our noisy preaching ; For works of love and duty that knew no selfish ends, For hearts and doors set open for the bondman and his friends; For your steady faith and courage in that dark and evil time When the Golden Rule was treason, and to feed the hungry, crime ; For the poor slave's house of refuge when the hounds were on his track,
And saint and sinner, church and state, joined hands to send him back.
Blessings upon you! What you did for each sad suffering one, So homeless and faint and naked, unto our Lord was done !
Since then John and Hannah Cox have ceased their labors upon earth. The fruits of their good works re- main behind them ; the record of their earnest, faithful lives preceded them into eternity. . After a long life
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of rare goodness and usefulness, we can but feel assured that the Master's call was theirs, "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," and that a blissful im- mortality is now their glorious reward.
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CHAPTER XVII.
SIMON BARNARD .- Differences at Kennett Square .- Incidents .- Arrest of Charles C. Burleigh .- EUSEBIUS BARNARD .- Incidents .- Euse- bius R. Barnard's tedious journey .- Eusebius Barnard's Ministry. -William Barnard with Eusebius and Others Assists in Founding Society of Progressive Friends .- Kidnapping at house of Zebulon Thomas.
SIMON BARNARD. (Born Eighth Mo. (August) 7th, 1802.)
Simon Barnard, of Newlin, was one of the ablest advocates of the anti-slavery cause within that southern section of Chester county. Possessing more than ordin- ary mental ability, sound in logic, clear and convincing in speech, and undaunted in purpose, he was looked up to as the leader and pillar of the anti-slavery movement in that vicinity.
The opponents of anti-slavery there had well-grounded reasons, as they thought, for adhering to the claims of slavery. The Constitution of the United States guaran- teed it ; it was an institution of the South, and we had no right to meddle with it; slavery was not so bad as it was represented to be; slaves did not want to be free, except a few who were made dissatisfied by abolition preaching and disturbances ; if they were set free they would all come North ; they were property by inherit- ance, and belonged to their masters as much as our land belonged to us, and the doctrine of States Rights had been so well digested and proclaimed in the South, and disseminated in the North, that the majority of the people felt themselves absolved from all responsibility
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