The underground railway was not a railroad under the ground, but a
system of helping the slaves get to Canada where their owners could not seize
them and return them.
The slaves were kept in ignorance in the South.
They were not told by their masters that there was free land and in some places
it was illegal to teach a negro to read or write. Some were mistreated by their
masters and some were sold and in this way, separated from their families. For
these reasons the slaves were dissatisfied.
Many people of the North
went to the South on purpose to tell the negroes of a way to get to Canada.
Others just told them as they were going through the South. They told them that
the moss always grew on the north side of the trees and also how to find the
north star. They told them to travel toward the north and also who and where
their first friend would be.
Many of the slaves traveled up the rivers,
so as to avoid leaving trails. Others were sent in boxes and trunks. Some
disguised themselves, by men dressing as women and women dressing as men. Still
others blacked their faces with burnt cork and rode on the same train as their
master without being recognized. These were the Mulattoes.
The
underground railway received its name from some people of Columbia.
Pennsylvania. The slaveholders could not figure out where the slaves were
disappearing to and they said that there must be an underground railway. The
people of the country then adopted the name.
In this system the stations
were the farmhouses, the conductor was the farmer, the engine was the horses,
and the wagon was the train.
Anyone caught helping the slaves to get to
Canada was fined five hundred dollars, and after 1850, they were fined one
thousand dollars plus six months in jail.
At the station, the passengers
were concealed in the cellar, attic, or a secret room in the daytime. Sometimes
they were hid in the hayloft or woodpile. In Galesburg, Illinois, they were hid
in the belfry of the church.
Most of these trains were run at night,
although in disguise they were run in the daytime also. In one instance, about
twenty-eight negroes were helped along by closed vehicles imitating a funeral
procession. Some were also hid in loads of hay and hauled along in that way.
When there was a gentle tap at the window or door, the conductor knew that
one of the slaves wanted to be hidden. The conductor did not know what night or
what hour of the night the negro would come.
A record has not been kept
of how many slaves La Salle County helped get to Canada, but the people did
their share. There were stations at Lowell, Troy Grove, Ottawa, Freedom and Fall
River. One man said that in forty years he had helped no less than one thousand
men, women, and children. Another said that in six weeks he hid thirty-one
slaves.
Because of the penalty, the conductors were very careful of who
knew that they were helping the slaves. They let the next helper know when a
slave was coming by queer messages in which no one knew what was meant.
At Homer (Troy Grove) the stations were located at the Hickok home on the
southeast corner of "Wild Bill" Park; the Green Mountain Tavern on the northeast
corner of the same Park, which was run by Hiram McLaughlin and the William Dewey
house, where Addie Gary lives, which is the oldest house now standing in Troy
Grove.
Some of the slaves were brought here from Lowell, crossing the
river at Utica or La Salle.
Most of the slaves that were helped by the
Quaker settlement at Lowell went through Ottawa, but those that came to Homer
came mostly from Mount Palatine, which is south of Peru. They crossed the river
lower down and sometimes stopped at a station on the La Salle to Princeton road,
then came to Troy Grove.
Before Gouldtown was laid out, slaves went to a
place near the old Panton Mill on Indian Creek, north of Wedron.
The men
who helped to run the underground railway were: Nahum Gould, William A. Hickok,
William and Ansell Dewey.
Later Gould laid out Gouldtown and continued
his operations with a station at his home.
Under the floors of the
Hickok house and the Green Mountain tavern shallow holes were dug. Here the
slaves were hidden.
One female slave stayed at the Hickok home for many
years. She went from there to Maiden where she was married and lived for years.
Some men offered large rewards for valuable slaves and their pursuers
sometimes enlivened the trips between stations by running fights.
William Hickok had a team of Kentucky horses. He had to drive at a dead run
sometimes to elude their pursuit. They often hid off the main road until their
pursuer had passed.
Extracted 08 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from Stories of Pioneer Days in La Salle County, Illinois, by Grammar Grade Pupils, published in 1932, page 75.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
 |
Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
