Letter from Rev* J. S. T. Milligan, Esther, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania,

Transcription

1 LOGAN aounty Letter from Rev* J. S. T. Milligan, Esther, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Dear I^Ir* Sieberts December 5, ^^^^ I give a very imperfect autobiography of E^rself and some account ot Br* Sloane and others of the Underground Railroad clan* I was born in Ryegate, CaledoMa County,' Visrmont^ AUg* 25, 1826, the second son of Rev* James I^lligan, I)*D* Jfy brothers are R v* A. M* Milligan, D. I>., of Pittsburgh, deceased, and ReV* J. C. K. Milligan, B* D*, of New York City* Mrs* M* A* W* Sloane, wife of Prof* J* R* W* Sloane, B. D., was mif onlf sister*/ Prof* W* M* Sloane her only son* When I was 12 years old, m^ father removed to New Alexandria, Westmoreland County, Pa^», where I remained 10 years* A few fugitive slaves from VlrgiMa came tlirough that region on their way to the Gerrit Smith settlement in western New York* They always found refuge and help from my father, who was a co-worker in New England with Garrison, Phillipsjl, RQV* Samuel May, and other abolitionists* * My father removed to Randolph C:ounty, 111*, in 1847 and with Rev* William Sloane, father of Dr» J. R. W. Sloane and the Covenanter congregation under their ministry,.

2 kept a very larg depot wide open for slaves escaping from Missouri* Scores at a time came to Sparta,, m^- father's region, and were harbored by them and even with guns and clubs and stones defended, and finally escorted to Elktown, the region of Father Sloane, where they were sheltered and escorted largely by the youthful and brave J* R. W* Slaone and his comrades to some friends in the region of Nashville, 111*, and thence north over the regular trail,, which I am not able further to locate* But Nashville was about 70 miles from the Missouri borderf and about as far as the slave masters cared to follow. At Sparta and Coulters ville and Elktown there were almost constant supplies of fugitivesf and as constant an effort by armed, cursing bands of desperate men to secure the fugitivesj but while the pursuit was hot and the encounters desperate,, few Lslavesi were ever gotten from the aegis of the Hayes, Moores, Todds, McLurkens, Hoods, Sloanes and Mllligans of that region* J]*R*W* Sloane was born at Topsham, Vt*, within 12 miles of mj own birthplace* There we scarcely ever saw a Negro, but we heard the plea long and strong for his emancipation* Father Sloane moved from Ver5ion$_i jelaj3jj9r^^^ (Harrison County, where there was another larj e depot for fugitives and a wide open tract for their scape* S^ F* Johnston^ my father-in-law, and his eldest son Ramvish were always conductors on the line* McWelly, Paul and a host of Quakers and Covenanters kept open house after night for slaves

3 escaping from Virginia through Wheeling to the Quaker Settlement, then to Hopedale and the GX)venanters Thence surely and safely to Canada by way of the Western Reserve^ where they would remain in security* In 1849 my brother, now Br* J» C. K. Milligan of New York, and I went from our seminary in Cincinnati to Logan County, Ohio, to conduct a grammar school started by Rev* J* Be Johnston,!>»!>, in the neighborhood of Belle Center Ljust west of north center of Logan County J, at a place called Korthwood* The school developed into a college, under the title of Geneva Hall* J. R. W. Sloane, a graduate of Jefferson College and a teacher of some years experience in the South and in Richmond, Ohio, was elected president and moved to Northwood in 1851* The Johnstons from Harrison County,Ohio, also moved to Logan County, and the Trumbulls, John and James» my mother's brothers from Canada, moved in, and a grand arr y of young abolitionists coming to the college, including Br* H«H* George, B^* R* A* MoAyseall of Lawrence, Mass/, Br» J ffers of the Western Theological Seminary, at Allegheny, and other such men made the region noted tot antislavery and a rendezvous for fugitives* The region was settled by Covenanter and Seceders, and e'srerj house was a home for the wanderers* But there was a cave on a farm of a man by the name of Patterson that was considered absolutely safe and fairly comfortable for fugitives* In one instance thirteen T^0f( fugitives, after resting in the cave for some days, were taken by the students in two covered wagons to Sandusky,

4 some 90 miles, where I had gone to engage passage for them ^ *^ Bay City steamboat aoross the lake to LFort] iflaldenf where I saw them safely landed on free soil, to their unspeakable Joy* Indeed, I thought one old man would have died from the gladness of Ms heart tn being safe in freedom* I went from Belle Centre by rail and did not ^ go with the land escort, but from what they told ine of their experience it was often amusing and sometimes thrilling* They were ostensibly a hunting party of ten or twelve armed men, some of them of giant frame and all of them resolute and able jili^xf^ bodied* The two covered wagcnsiif a **sanctum sanctorum** into which no mortal was allowed to peep, but in regard to which there was many a conjecture and sometimes a declaration of outlawry* The word of command **stand back** was always respected by those who were unduly Intent upon seeing the thirteen deer brought from the woods of Logan and Hardin Counties/ and being taken to Sandusky* Fortunately there were no telegraphs or telephones to transmit messages to the bloodhounds in human shape, who made it their business to bay on the track of the panting fugitives* Bj forced marches by night and by day these were put abosa?d the steamboat, well fed by the captain's order, and safely landed on Canadian soil* * * * I was first settled as pastor in Southfield, Michigan, Xfi le miles from Betroit, in a good but retired community of people, mainly abolitionists, and had in B^ house or in my congregation always a supply of escaped slaves* They would come to Betroit from Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, some-

5 times singly, sometimes in groups of from two to ten into fehe keeping of the faithful, who either sent them to me or to Canada fro shelter and employment* They frequently returned to me from Canada when wages were low and workers superabundant* i^ave-hunters often came clear to Betroit in pursuit of valuable slaves* ^ J* Sella Martin, a slave from Alabama, was pursued to Chicago and then to Betroit and a reward of ul,000 offered for his capture* He was six weeks in my house, and was the Laaartest] man I have ever met* I put him through a theological course in that time* He afterward became a Tery eloquent B&ptist minister in Boston* I think he later became a j^/ pastor In Edinburgh, Scotland* He learned to tipple and finally i died, leaving his beautiful widow in want* His enslavement to appetite was worse and more ruinous than his "bondage to human masters* Yours truly,^ LRev*J J* S* T* Milligan*