USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Chester > History of the Underground railroad in Chester and the neighboring counties of Pennsylvania > Part 3
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One amusing incident occurred at this house. A large number of fugitives came at one time, among whom was a mother with a young child. Their masters fol- lowing them quickly, all were disposed of except the infant, whose cries, it was feared, would lead to detec- tion. A stratagemi was resorted to that showed these anti-slavery people were quick-witted as well as philan- thropic. A young woman staying at the house went to bed, taking the baby with her. When the slaveholders came they were requested to be very careful in search- ing as there was a lady with a young infant in the house. When they came to the room in which this suppositi- tious recent arrival was, they opened the door a little, the action being accompanied with a "Sh!" and a finger uplifted in warning by their guide, while the " mother" pinched the baby and made it cry in order to convince the unwelcome visitors that they were not being de-
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ceived. These are a few among the scores of incidents that occurred in this family and among those that helped them in their work.
William Wright believed in political action against slavery and took considerable part therein. He was one of the founders of the Free-Soil or Liberty Party in Pennsylvania. For many years his name, with that of Samuel W. Mifflin, stood at the head of the Liberty Party electoral ticket. He attended Anti-Slavery and Liberty Party Meetings and Conventions whenever his business would permit, and was a delegate to many of these, notably to the convention that met in Pittsburg in 1844, and nominated Dr. F. J. Lemoyne for Gover- nor of Pennsylvania, and to that which met in Phila- delphia in June of 1856, and nominated John C. Fre- mont and William L. Dayton, for President and Vice President of the United States.
The long, well-spent life of William Wright closed on the 25th of Tenth month (October), 1865. He had the satisfaction of seeing the principles of liberty and justice for which he had labored triumph over Slavery and oppression. In his death he calmly resigned his spirit to the Maker whom he had so earnestly and meekly served.
"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace."
Joel Fisher, a Friend, living in York, was also active and prominent in the cause.
William C. Goodrich, a wealthy and very intelligent light mulatto was an active and valuable agent at that place. Whenever he received information that "baggage" was on the road which it was necessary to hurry through,
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he sent word to Columbia the day before it was ex- pected to arrive. Cato Jourdon, colored, who drove a team which hauled cars over the bridge, brought all " baggage " safely across, where the agents had another trusty colored man to receive it. The fugitives were then taken through Black's hotel yard to another por- tion of the town, and concealed over night ; when Wm. Wright, of that place, generally took them in charge and sent some to Daniel Gibbons, and some direct to Philadelphia, in the false end of a box car, owned by Stephen Smith and William Whipper, colored men and lumber merchants of Columbia. They got off at the head of the "plane," near Philadelphia, where an agent was in waiting to receive them.
After his removal to Lancaster Thaddeus Stevens gave money, and also assisted those who came to Colum- bia. Mrs. Smith, who kept house for him for more than twenty years, and nursed him at the close of his life, was one of the slaves he helped to freedom.
An old man named Wallace, living at York, was an ardent abolitionist and rendered efficient aid. Many threats were made to kill him, and his life was often in danger.
The agents at York had pass-words, which they used on occasions when required for the purpose for which they were intended. One was " William Penn." This name they frequently signed when addressing notes to each other.
William Yokum, constable at York, was favorable to fugitives, and instrumental on various occasions in securing their protection. He had the "pass-words," and made good use of them. When called upon by
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slave-catchers to hunt or arrest fugitives, and he could ascertain through the agents where they were, he led the hunters in a different direction, or managed to have the slaves removed before he reached the place.
Many and curious devices were resorted to by the active abolitionists to conccal fugitives, or to rescue them from the hands of their captors. When the slave catchers were taking John Jones, a " runaway slave," by the residence of Robert Barber, some one tripped the officer, and Jones darted into an open cellar-way under Barber's house, and out the back door and es- caped.
Thomas Bessiek, a colored man, who ran cars in Co- lumbia, was one of the boldest and most useful agents therc. On one occasion when the slave-hunters were in town, he took two fugitives they were in search of boldly to the station, purchased tickets, and put them in a passenger car while their pursuers were in a hotel close by.
When slave-hunters heard of slaves being on the York route they hastened to Columbia to intercept them. A party of seven were on the way from York station when their masters hearing of it, rode with all possible speed, arrived in Columbia in advance of them. Not expecting their chattels for a few hours they stepped into a hotel to " take a drink." The agents there heard of this and went to the Wrightsville end of the bridge just in time to meet the slaves as they were approaching it. They were quite happy and jocund, singing songs, and exultant in the thought that as soon as they crossed that bridge they would be free.
" Their footsteps moved to joyous measure ; Their hearts were tuned to notes of pleasure."
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The idea prevailed to a considerable extent among the slaves that when they crossed the Susquehanna they were on free ground, and were safe. But when told how near they were to where their masters were lying in wait for them they were struck with amazement and fear.
They soon, however, became wild with consternation, and began running like frightened sheep in every direc- tion. By skillful effort and the assurance of protection, the agents succeeded in gathering them together again, and they were conducted to a place of safety.
A base practice connected with the slave-hunting business was that of unprincipled men sending South the description of free colored persons, and having these descriptions printed in hand-hills, then capturing and carrying into slavery such as were thus described. This aroused the sympathies and fired the hearts of aboli- tionists to more determined efforts to protect the rights and liberties of the colored people.
Samuel Willis, of York, was also one of the active agents at that place.
SAMUEL W. MIFFLIN.
Samuel W. Mifflin, son of Jonathan and Susan Mifflin, of Columbia, Pa., was an abolitionist by birth and education. His mother's family never owned a slave, and his grandfather, John Mifflin, of Philadel- phia, was the first to respond to the demand of the Yearly Meeting that Friends should liberate their slaves. His mother was the sister of that early and earnest abolitionist, William Wright, of Columbia, an agent on the Underground Railroad from the days of its earliest travel. As far back in his boyhood as he
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can remember Samuel was accustomed to seeing fugi- tives passed along by different members of their family. When he saw the tall fugitive stride across the yard in women's habiliments that reached but to his knees he wondered that any one could think him disguised in such short garments. But when he saw him seated by the side of his aunt on the back seat of a dearborn, with all the appearance of a woman, it excited no sus- picion or remark other than that " Mrs. Wright was too much of a Quaker to mind riding alongside of a nigger."
On another occasion, when a boy, a fugitive was hid in a corn-field and fed day after day by a cousin who went out with his gun, and his game bag filled with pro- visions. The spot where he lay is now occupied by Supplee's machine shops on Fourth and Manor streets, Columbia.
In early life Samuel engaged in civil engineering, which required him to be from home the greater part of the time until after his father's death which occurred in 1840.
On one of his visits home, just before his father's last illness, he found the parlor occupied by thirteen fugi- tives. They comprised two families of men, women and children whom his elder brother found wandering in the neighborhood. The windows were closed to prevent discovery, and a lamp kept burning all day. They were thus guarded during two days and nights of stormy weather and high water in the Susquehanna which pre- vented their crossing the river. On the third night they were transferred to the care of Robert Loney who ferried them over to the Columbia shore.
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A woman with her daughter and grandson were sent there one time from York, and remained a night and a day until means were found to forward them to Phila- delphia. The claimant of this family was a woman from Baltimore who was then on a visit to Philadelphia, and while there boasted that her slaves would never run away from home. At that same moment this family of her slaves was safe in the Mifflins' house. They were sent over to Columbia, thence forwarded to Philadel- phia where members of the Vigilance Committee met them outside the city.
A party of five came one suinmer night, who, instead of stopping at Mifflin's, went directly to the bridge. Four of these were slaves until they should arrive at the age of 28. The other was a slave for life. He stood back while the others knocked at the toll-gate. Immediately the kidnappers rushed out and seized the four, but the fifth man jumped over the parapet and disappeared. The place from which he leaped was thirty feet high, but a lot of coal had been piled up there to within ten feet of the top, down which he rolled un- injured. Then climbing up at another point he reached the towing path of the canal bridge, and on that made his way to Columbia, where Stephen Smith took charge of him.
A slave named Perry Wilkinson, a Baptist preacher, was brought by a guide from York to Samuel Mifflin's, arriving there and arousing the family about 10 o'clock at night. They went down stairs and prepared a bed for him. He would not accept anything to eat. After retiring again they heard him pacing the floor as long as they remained awake. He said in the morning he had not
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slept any on account of thinking of his wife and family, whom he had left behind. He had been the slave of Wilson Compton, of Anne Arundel county, Md., and had been hired out by his master for twenty years on a boat, which ran between his master's wharf and Balti- more. The master having recently died, and the widow being about to remove to Baltimore, she concluded she could do without Perry, and ordered the administra- tor of the estate to sell him. A friend of Perry's, who had a warm and pious regard for him, learning of this about a week before the sale was to take place, informed him of it, gave him five dollars, and advised him to escape. He went immediately to the boat, got on board of it for the last time, and as soon as he landed in Balti- more started on his journey north, travelling by night and hiding in the woods by day, until he reached York. Samuel Mifflin gave him into the care of Robert Loney.
During his residence at the old homestead from 1840 to 1846, Samuel Mifflin was active in the labor of assist- iug the liberty-seeking bondman on his way to freedont. In 1843 he married Elizabeth Brown Martin, daughter of W. A. Martin, and granddaughter of Thomas Brown, of Muncy, Pa., a member of the Society of Friends. His wife sympathized in his views and assisted him in his efforts for the freedom of the slaves. She was the mother of eight children, four of whom are living. She died in Columbia in 1858.
On leaving York county, Samuel resumed his profes- sion of civil engineer, and was successively employed in Maine, New York and Pennsylvania. In 1848 he located the Mountain Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad from Huntingdon to Galitzin. He returned to Columbia in 1857.
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It was during his residence in York county that he received a visit from the unfortunate Charles T. Torrey, on his way to Baltimore to rescue for a colored man, his wife, who was then held in slavery somewhere in Mary- land. After staying with Samuel all night he started in the morning full of enthusiasm and hope in the suc- cess of his enterprise, but he never returned. He was apprehended and imprisoned in Baltimore and died of consumption in prison.
In 1861, Samuel Mifflin married Hannah Wright, eldest daughter of William and Phebe Wierman Wright, of Adams county, reminiscences of whose Un- derground Railroad work have already been given. She was an abolitionist from childhood, through family in- struction and inherited principles. Her grandfather's uncle assisted in forming the " Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and Protecting the Rights of the Free People of Color," of which Ben- jamin Franklin was President. Her father's two uncles set all the slaves free who came into their possession by marriage, although they were not Friends.
Samuel W. Mifflin and his wife now reside at Louella, Delaware county, where they own a large flower and vegetable garden and hothouses.
DANIEL GIBBONS
CHAPTER III.
DANIEL AND HANNAH GIBBONS .- JAMES GIBBONS .- Incidents .- Daniel Gibbon's Method of Questioning Fugitives .- Other Incidents.
DANIEL GIBBONS. (Born 1775-Died 1853.)
The first station east of Columbia, and the most im- portant one in Lancaster county, was that of Daniel Gibbons. He was imbued from childhood with a repug- nance to human slavery, and a sympathy for the down- trodden of the colored race.
His father, James Gibbons, was an anti-slavery advo- cate, and took a deep interest in everything pertaining to human freedom and human welfare.
JAMES GIBBONS was born in "Chester county, Pro- vince of Pennsylvania," in 1734. Although a Friend, he was such an ardent advocate of human rights that he was very much inclined to take part in the Revo- lutionary war. He was offered the position of a cavalry officer, partly on account of his large stature and com- manding appearance, and partly on account of the great interest he took in the welfare of his country. He declined accepting the position, however, in deference to the earnest solicitation and prayers of his wife, who was devotedly attached to the "peace principles" of Friends.
He was married at Goshen meeting-house, Chester county, in 1756. There was a large gathering of Friends there, who came to bid farewell to the bride and groom, as they were going immediately after their marriage into the "far wilds" to settle. Some of the young women remarked that "not for the best man in the
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Province would they go into the wilderness to live." That "wilderness" was where the village of Bird-in- Hand is now situated, in Lancaster county, 39 miles west of Goshen meeting-house, and seven miles east of Lancaster city.
About the year 1789, when a sitting magistrate in Wilmington, Delaware, a colored man was brought before him by a party of kidnappers. They attempted as usual, to carry their case through by bluster. But he told them peremptorily that "if they did not behave themselves he would commit them." He then set the man at liberty. He died in 1810.
Daniel Gibbous was a man of large firmness, inde- pendence of mind, clearness of perception, discreet philanthrophy, conscientious, affectionate in his family, and a devout member of the Society of Friends, in which he was an elder for twenty-five years prior to his death. His wife, Hannah, was eminently endowed with fine intellectual capabilities, quick perception, excellent judginent, affectionate and amiable in disposition, fond of home and its endearments, and hence an earnest sympathizer with the poor slaves, whose homes and home-loves were so often severed by their being sold as cattle in the mart. She was also a sincere Christian and a consistent member of the Society of Friends, in which she, like her husband, was an elder during the last twenty-five years of her life. Thus were they adapted by nature to fulfill the life-mission in which Providence had called them to labor conjointly.
" Oh happy they! the happiest of their kind Whom gentle stars unite, and in one fate Their hearts, their fortunes and their beings blend."
Her goodness of heart and self-sacrificing spirit were
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pre-eminently manifested on one occasion when a fugi- tive, weary, sick and dirty called at their house. She administered to his wants, and in a few days there de- veloped upon the surface of his body the unmistakable appearance of that loathsome disease small-pox. For six weeks, until he was restored, she attended to him faithfully herself, deeming it expedient that none other should have access to him. He remained with them afterwards eighteen months.
Daniel Gibbons was engaged in assisting fugitives from the time he arrived at manhood's estate until his death in 1853-a period of fifty-six years. He did not keep a record of the number he passed until 1824. But prior to that time it was supposed to have been over 200, and up to the time of his death he had aided about 1000. So wise and cautious was he in his management that out of the whole number that he succored, but one or two were taken from his house.
In the very early days, about 1818 or 1820, a col- ored man named Abraham Boston came to his place and remained. He was a very excellent man, and Daniel grew to love him as he would a brother. The kidnappers came one day and carried him off. Daniel, at great risk, went in search of him to Baltimore, Md., but for some reason could never get him back. This was the only person for whom he ever went to Mary- land. He had a desease in his feet and legs, and could not, therefore, engage personally in going with, or after, colored people. But his wisdom and shrewdness were ever competent to devise plans which others with better power of locomotion could execute.
When a tap was heard on the window at night, all
HANNAH W. GIBBONS.
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the family knew what it meant. The fugitives were taken to the barn ; and in the morning were brought to the house separately, and each one was asked his name, age, the name of his master, what name he proposed to take, as Daniel gave them all new names, and from what part of the country he came. These questions with the answers to each were recorded in a book which gradu- ally swelled to quite a large volume. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law he burned it.
When a company of colored people came to his house he asked what their situation was and whether they ex- pected their masters soon. If not, they would get work in the neighborhood for awhile. If the masters were expected in a very short time, making it necessary for them to hasten on, they were made safe in the fields or the barn, or, if it was autumn, in the corn-shocks for a few hours, and then taken to the turnpike road that leads to Reading, and hurried on to the next station, which was the house of a Friend named Jackson who lived on the confines of what was then known as " The Forest," in Robinson township, Berks county. This was prior to 1827. After that he sent many to Thomas Bonsall, Lindley Coates and others.
He was very skillful in detecting the artifices of decoys or pretended runaways whom the kidnappers at times sent to his house, although he was occasionally puzzled if they came, or pretended to come, from parts in the South unknown to him. Yet every device of theirs to gain information relative to the management of the " road," or to impose upon him, was as readily foiled by his cunning as the stroke of the novice is parried by the experienced swordsman. c*
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A man eame to his place at one time for the ostensi- ble purpose of buying a horse. Daniel observed elosely every look, motion, and the intonation of his voiee, and suspected that his design was to look after slaves. He had one of them working for him whom the stranger happened to see. When he left, Daniel had the slave removed to a place of safety. Next day, a constable eame from Lancaster to arrest himn ; but, like Paddy's flea, " he wasn't there."
It was his prime object to carry on every thing quietly, though expeditiously ; and very few narrow escapes are to be recorded. Slave-hunters eame one day after a slave who happened at the time to be in the house. While he detained them by talking and asking ques- tions, his wife hastily slipped the fugitive out the baek door and under an inverted rain hogshead. He then politely aecompanied them through the house, and gave them free access to every apartment. They left satisfied that Daniel was not harboring their slave.
Dr. Joseph Gibbons assisted his father, doing most of the active work himself, owing to his father's physical infirmity, and then succeeded him-making three gener- ations of earnest, zealous and successful Underground Railroad managers in one family.
A friend, describing the funeral of Daniel Gibbons, wrote as follows: "We turned and mingled our voices with the voices of the earth and air, and bade him ' Hail!' and ' Farewell!' Farewell, kind and brave old man ; the voices of those whom thou hast redeemed welcome thee to the Eternal City."
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DR. JOSEPH GIBBONS.
CHAPTER IV.
DR. JOSEPH GIBBONS .- Early Education .- Studies Medicine .- His Wife PHEBE EARLE GIBBONS, a Contributor to Literature .- Dr. Gibbons Establishes The Journal .- DR. J. K. ESHLEMAN .- Incidents.
DR. JOSEPH GIBBONS. (Born 1818.)
Joseph Gibbons, son of Daniel and Hannah Wier- man Gibbons, was born at the family homestead, near the village of Bird-in-Hand, Laneaster county, Penn- sylvania, Eighth month 14th, 1818. He is the only one of three children, all sons, that survived infaney. The place where he was born is part of a traet of one thous- and aeres of land "and allowances " partly acquired by purchase and partly deeded to his great-grandfather, for whom he was named, by John and Riehard Penn, in the year 1715.
In his youth he was sent to boarding school for a time, to Joshua Hoopes, in West Chester, and also to the late Jonathan Gause, in West Bradford, Chester county. At this time, too, Underground Railroad work was carried on with great activity in Lancaster and Chester counties, and Joseph Gibbons was his father's faithful assistant, taking the active part that Daniel Gibbons' ill health prevented his taking. To an exeiting midnight "run" with a party of fugitives, made when he was about sixteen years old, the subject of this sketch attributes a tenderness in the feet and difficulty in walk- ing that have troubled him ever since.
At the age of twenty-one Joseph Gibbons joined a
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temperance society, and from that time down to the present he has been an earnest and active worker in the temperance cause in his native county and State. He was also one of the most steadfast advocates of the com- mon school system in Pennsylvania. The system of having county superintendents was at first very un- popular in Lancaster county. Joseph Gibbons went around in his carriage with the first county superinten- dent, giving him his countenance and support. One of the first teachers' institutes in the county was held at his house.
Joseph Gibbons early became a member of the Free Soil or Liberty Party, voting for its presidential candi- dates from 1844 down to the time when it was merged into the Republican Party. He attended the conven- tion held in Pittsburg in 1844 that nominated Dr. F. J. Lemoyne, as Liberty Party candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania. He was one of the founders of the Repub- lican Party in Pennsylvania. In 1856, when Jolin C. Fremont and William L. Dayton were nominated at Phil- adelphia by that Party as its candidates for President and Vice President of the United States, Joseph Gib- bons was not yet thirty-eight years of age. In the prime of a vigorous manhood, he threw himself into that " campaign," with all the ardor of a temperament naturally sanguine and enthusiastic and a soul inspired by love of freedom and "heart-hatred" of every form of oppression. He distributed thousands of pamphlets and documents, aud rode night and day attending meetings.
Although victory did not crown these efforts, they were of the greatest benefit in arousing the people to re-
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sist the encroachments of the slave power and preparing the way for the triumph that came four years later.
Going back a few years it is to be noted that Joseph Gibbons, after studying his profession in the office of the distinguished physician, Dr. Francis S. Burrowes, of Lancaster, took a long course at Jefferson Medical Col- lege, Philadelphia, and graduated there in 1845. In the autumn of 1845 he married Phebe, eldest daughter of Thomas and Mary Earle, of Philadelphia. Thomas Earle was a distinguished anti-slavery lawyer, candidate for vice-president on the Liberty Party ticket with James G. Birney, in 1840. Of the five children of Josephi and Phebe E. Gibbons, four survive.
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