Rush R. Sloane

Rush Richard Sloane was born in Sandusky in 1828, the son of John Sloane and Cynthia Strong Sloane. (Cynthia’s father Abner Strong was said to be a leader in the Underground Railroad in Ohio.) When he was only 16 years of age, Rush R. Sloane studied law under prominent Sandusky attorney F. D. Parish. Sloane practiced law until 1857. 

Below is a circular from 1853 which announces that Rush Sloane would practice law in Supreme, Federal, District, and Common Pleas Courts throughout Northern and Central Ohio. His list of references included Jay Cooke, as well as many leading men of Sandusky, Buffalo, and several other locations.

During the 1850’s Rush Sloane was a leading abolitionist in Ohio. In 1852, he defended seven men escaping slavery. The men were released, but one of the former slaveowners, Louis Weimer, sued Sloane in the U.S. District Court in Columbus. Sloane was fined $3000 ($104,000 in 2021 dollars) and court costs. In appreciation of his support, several African American residents of Sandusky presented Rush Sloane with a silver headed cane. 

This cane is on display at The Follett House Museum in Sandusky.

In 1856 he attended conventions held in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia that laid the foundation of the Republican Party. On June 2, 1900, he was invited to the 1900 Republican Convention on June 19, though by that time Sloane had become a member of the Democratic Party.

Rush Sloane served as city clerk of Sandusky from 1855 to 1857, and was elected Erie County Probate Judge in 1857. In the early 1860s, he briefly moved to Chicago to be a special agent of the Post Office Department. By 1867 he had become president of the Sandusky, Dayton and Cincinnati Railroad, successor to the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad. Because of several financial disputes, a challenge to his leadership of the railroad, and a charge of embezzlement from the company, Sloane fled to Europe for three years. By 1876, he had returned to Sandusky, and eventually cleared of the charges (although there may have been a paid settlement). 

After his return to Sandusky, Sloane ran for mayor of Sandusky on the Democratic ticket. He served as mayor of Sandusky in 1879 and 1880. He had the Sloane House hotel built in 1880, and later built the Sloane block (aka Sloane Annex) which housed several businesses. 

Rush Sloane died on December 21, 1908. He was survived by his third wife, the former Helen F. Hall, two sons, and two daughters. From 1899 until the time of his death, Rush Sloane served as president of the Firelands Historical Society.

There is a wealth of historical information about Rush R. Sloane at the Sandusky Library and the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. Charles E. Frohman, in his index to the Sandusky Register, features over 50 index cards with newspaper citations relating to Rush R. Sloane. A large portion of the biography of I.F. Mack, entitled Sandusky's Editor, by Charles E. Frohman, is devoted to Sloane. I.F. Mack was very vocal in his criticisms of Sloane, and as editor of the Sandusky Register he voiced his opinions often.

I.F. Mack (1837-1912)

Residents of Sandusky may have had mixed feelings about attorney, businessman, former Mayor, and abolitionist Rush R. Sloane, but there is no doubt that Rush Sloane was an important figure in the history of Sandusky.

Lyman Scott and the Underground Railroad

Lyman Scott was born on March 6, 1797 at Middlebury, Vermont. In the spring of 1818, at around 21 years old, Lyman packed all his worldly goods into a knapsack and traveled by foot to Ohio, finding work in a tannery business in Norwalk. A couple years after arriving in Ohio, he purchased farmland north of Milan. In 1824 Lyman Scott married Mary McKinney, and they had a large family of eight children.

For thirty years prior to 1860, Lyman Scott was an active agent of the Underground Railroad. At times he hid up to thirteen fugitives from slavery in his barn. Mr. Scott undertook this activity at his own expense, even though it was at times quite dangerous. In an article in the January, 1866 issue of the Firelands Pioneer, G.R. Walker wrote that Lyman Scott’s activities in the Underground Railroad were “acts of heroism and humanity which should live in history…” One particular incident was quite exciting. Mr. Scott was hiding eleven fugitives in the hay mow in his barn. Several men from the south were searching for runaway slaves. For more than two weeks, armed men looked in the windows of the house and around the property owned Mr. Scott. They came onto the property at all hours of the day and night. Mr. Scott had contracted with the captain of a vessel to take the fugitives across the lake to Canada. In the middle of the night, the fugitives walked through the woods from Scott’s farm to a boat waiting for them on the Huron River. The ship captain, unbeknownst to Mr. Scott, had arranged for the runaway slaves to be given over to the slave catchers once they got to Huron. Just as the vessel made its way down the river to Huron, a violent storm sprang up, and the captain was unable to keep his contract with the slave catchers. The boat was driven far out into the lake near the Canadian shore before the storm let up. Mr. Walker wrote that many other stirring incidents took place in the life of Lyman Scott. In 1874 Mr. Scott sold his farm, and moved to Norwalk, where he lived until his death on November 7, 1885.

Though the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center does not have any photographs of Lyman Scott, in our holdings are two pictures of the former Scott residence on Huron-Avery Road. To read more about Lyman Scott’s life, see G. R. Walker’s article about Mr. Scott on page 113 of the January, 1886 issue of the Firelands Pioneer. Several articles about the Underground Railroad of the Firelands is found in the July, 1888 issue.

A Portrait of Harriet Merry in the Follett House Museum

Have you ever been to the Follett House Museum and noticed this painting on a wall? Here is a little about the young woman in the portrait.

Miss Harriet Emily Merry was born on September 6, 1841 to Henry and Caroline (Sprague) Merry. Henry Merry was a master carpenter, who was active in the building and business interests of the city of Sandusky. It is believed that Caroline Sprague was the first white child to have been born in Florence Township. According to an article in volume 9 of the Firelands Pioneer, both Henry and Caroline Merry participated in the Underground Railroad, and their home at 330 East Adams Street was considered a “safe house.” 

Harriet Emily Merry married Alonzo William Nason in the Merry family residence in 1863. Mrs. Nason died on January 25, 1895. In 1965, William Lawrence Nason, Harriet’s grandson, donated the lovely oil painting of Harriet Merry Nason to the historical museum of the Sandusky Library. The painting now is on display at the Follett House Museum. To read more about the Merry home in Sandusky, read the book, At Home in Early Sandusky, by Helen Hansen.

Hector Jennings, a Man of Service

Hector Jennings was born in Elmira, New York, in 1804, and died in Sandusky, Ohio on January 27, 1900. He was married to Delina Cummings in 1825. The family settled in Sandusky about 1838.

The January 29, 1900 Sandusky Register stated, “His early steps in learning's paths were taken under the guidance of his mother, who at the same time instilled a profound love for God and fellow men which gave rise to qualities of uprightness and honesty in his character which he retained through life. They were also productive of a strong love of liberty, which made him ever the champion of the oppressed and down trodden. During the days before the war his home was very often the refuge of the fugitive bondsmen.”

Mr. Jennings was an ardent foe of slavery, and he was pleased that several of his sons enlisted for service for the Union during the Civil War. He tried to enter the conflict as well, but he was barred due to his advanced age.

Through military records accessible via Ancestry Library Edition, we learned that James Jennings was a Colonel in the 4th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. H. C. Jennings was a Corporal in the 65th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. William and Wesley B. Jennings both served in the 123rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry; William as a musician, and Wesley as a First Sergeant. The daughter of Hector Jennings, Mrs. Caroline Cady, was reported to have ministered to prisoners, and residents of the hospitals and the soldiers’ home.

Though many of his children moved away from this area, Hector Jennings, his wife Delina, son Wesley B. Jennings, and daughter Mrs. Caroline Cady are all interred in Block Two of Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.

The Stone House on East Perkins Avenue

The old stone house at 1338 East Perkins Avenue has a very rich and interesting history. An undated paper in the historical files at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center provides many details about this structure. In Sheila Gockstetter's paper, “The Stone House: Ever a Refuge,” the author explains that Aaron Whipple and his nephew Allen Remington designed and built this limestone home around the shell of a small log cabin that was near the site of the former settlement of African Americans known as Africa. For many months, the men dug out huge limestone blocks from the quarry in Perkins Township. They used buggies and sleds, drawn by horses to transport the stones to the intersection of what is now East Perkins Avenue and Remington Avenue, on a plot of land that was twelve acres. 

In this closer view, you can see details of how some of the stones were assembled to build the house

By 1863, Allen Remington had purchased the land and stone house from his uncle. He brought his bride, the former Quintrilla Hand, to live at the stone house with him. You can see the name A. Remington on this portion of a historic map of Section 2 of Perkins Township, dated about 1900.

Map courtesy Erie County Auditor’s Office

Allen Remington was known for the excellent cider that he pressed in an outbuilding located east of the main stone house. Farmers from all around Erie County brought him apples, and he made the apples into cider and vinegar. 

Allen and Quintrilla Remington had seven children. After Cora Belle Remington Anthony lost her husband, McDowell Anthony, at a young age, she moved back to the stone house as a widow with her two young children. Besides making cider at the stone house, Allen Remington had an interest in a line of fishing boats, along with Lorenzo Dow Anthony, Cora Belle’s father-in-law. It is believed that in the days of the Underground Railroad, Mr. Remington and Mr. Anthony harbored slaves in the fruit cellars of the stone house, and saw that they got transported to fishing boats headed to Canada in the darkness of the night. 

Allen Remington died in 1911. His son, named Allen Hand Remington, lived in the stone house with his wife and children after the death of his father. The younger Allen Remington passed away in 1944.

From the late 1940s through the late 1980s, the Stone House became a popular restaurant with several different proprietors, including Frank Mulheran, Gil Rossman and Bud Linton.  From 1977 through the 1980s, the Baxter family owned the Stone House. Since about 1990, the historic building at 1338 East Perkins Avenue has been commercial property, having been home to a variety of businesses. In the spring of 2017, a financial office, legal office and Piccolo’s Wine Cellar are all housed in the historic Stone House building.

The Liberty Party in Erie County

According to the Firelands Pioneer, attorney F.D. Parish was the unsuccessful candidate for the Liberty Party in the 1844 Election. He had hoped to be elected to the 28^th U.S. Congress. Hewson L. Peeke wrote in his book Standard History of Erie County, I (Lewis Pub. Co., 1916) that Parish helped to organize the Liberty Party in Erie County. This announcement appeared in the Sandusky Clarion on September 26, 1845. “Liberty men” were instructed to assemble at Berlin Center on October 10, 1845, for the purpose of renewing and increasing the efforts to redeem the country from “the disgrace of the system of American slavery, and to extend the blessings of liberty to all the people of the land.”

The names of the members of the Liberty Party in Erie County were listed in the May 28, 1849 issue of the Sandusky Clarion. They were:

M.  Farwell                 F.D. Parish

W.S. Mills                  G,.Osborne

Charles Cochrane       H. Curtis

L.S. Beecher               John Hughes

P.M. Ring                    H.J. Childs

F.T. Barney                  John Everitt

O. McKnight               Wm. Dildine

H.P. Radcliffe              G. Hughes

Wm.A. Bill                  Thomas Porter

S.E. Hitchcock             J. Neal

Wm. P. Chapman         J.B. Hughes

Wm. St. John               Samuel Hughes

Thos. Hughes              Thomas McFall

Edwin Forman             Jacob M. Colver

W.A. Simpson             S. DeWitt

John Wheeler              J.N. Davidson

C. Hadley                    John Irvine

S.M. Barber                Alexander Boyd

H. Johnson                  John Barr

A.H. Barber                Henry B. Green

Jas. D. Whitney          John Carson

Horatio Osborn           J.M. Goodman

D.C. Henderson          W.H. Clark

E.G. Ross                    John McEldowney

L.P. Clark                    H.H. Jennings

S. Ross                        W.C. Pettibone

Samuel Cochrane        Johan D. Whitney

J.H. Graham                P.B. Berry

E.P. Jones                    J.C. Mitchell

George Morris             G.W. Prichard

H.F. Merry                  Josiah Fowler

Several of the individuals whose names were listed as members of the Liberty Party in Erie County were also active participants in the Underground Railroad, the loosely knit network of people who assisted fugitive slaves to reach freedom in Canada

Thomas McGee Home

Thomas C. McGee was a pioneer resident of Erie County, Ohio. He was born in the state of New York in 1808, and he moved to Ohio with his family in 1818. About 1821 the McGee family settled in Sandusky, Ohio where Thomas was bound out to Cyrus W. Marsh, proprietor of the Steamboat Hotel. As a young man, Thomas C. McGee was a steward on the vessel William Penn. Later he was the ship master of the Louisa Judson, the Platina, and the Sandusky. For four years he was master of the U.S. Government supply ship the Watchful.  Below is a portion of an article he wrote for the Firelands Pioneer in 1888, in which he listed several vessels that entered the harbor of Sandusky in 1822.  (See the Firelands Pioneer of January, 1888, pages 76-77, to read the complete article.)

For a time, Thomas C. McGee served as supervisor of roads in Sandusky. The house pictured above, at 536 East Washington, was home to McGee and his first wife, Rosamond, in the late 1840s and early 1850s. In 1853 Thomas moved to the country on Hayes Avenue. Eventually he moved back to the city of Sandusky, residing on Hancock Street. When Rosamond Ward McGee died in 1877, Thomas wrote a touching tribute to her, which was published in volume four of the Firelands Pioneer. After Rosamond’s death, Thomas married Ellen Ward, a cousin of his first wife. 

Rush R. Sloane wrote in the Firelands Pioneer of July, 1888 that McGee was among the “early and earnest” friends of the Underground Railroad of the Firelands. The name of Thomas C. McGee is listed on a marker at Shoreline Park in downtown Sandusky which honors those who assisted fugitive slaves make their way to freedom aboard Canada-bound vessels on Lake Erie.

Former Home of Rush R. Sloane

Now privately owned, the house at 403 East Adams Street once was home to former Sandusky Mayor and abolitionist Rush R. Sloane.

According to the book At Home in Early Sandusky,  by Helen Hansen, the house was built for Samuel W. Torrey about 1850. Rush Sloane purchased it about 1854, and made additions to it. When the Sloane family lived there, a fountain and statues decorated the lawn, and there was a terrace on the east side of the house. It is believed that this home was once a “safe house” on the Underground Railroad.  From 1923 until 1949, the Sandusky Business College operated at 403 West Adams Street.

For several years, this structure served as a nursing home. To read more about the home at 403 East Adams, see Article Number 14 in At Home in Early Sandusky.

Anti -Slavery Meeting at the Courthouse in Sandusky on March 6, 1844

On March 6, 1844, at 6:30 p.m., ladies and gentlemen of Sandusky were invited to an anti- slavery meeting to be held at the Erie County Courthouse, which at that time was located on the east side of Columbus Avenue, just west of what is now Adams Junior High School. The names of fifty seven individuals appeared in the Sandusky Clarion, below a statement that read:

“The undersigned unite in advising a call for an anti-slavery meeting, to be holden at such time and place as may be found most convenient and proper; and they invite all who are opposed to the American system of slavery, and are willing to lend their personal, moral, and religious influence for its suppression, to be present, and participate in the deliberations of the meeting. If deemed advisable, an anti-slavery society will be organized and other measures adopted, to promote the object in view.”

Hundreds of residents of Sandusky and Erie County held anti-slavery sentiment for several years, and many of them participated in the Underground Railroad. The fact that many of those who held anti-slavery views were well respected in the community helped to spread that sentiment to members of the general public. F.D. Parish was Sandusky’s second lawyer, and Moors Farwell was Sandusky’s first Mayor. H.F. Merry and Thomas Hogg were early members of the Board of Education for Sandusky City Schools. Many of the men whose names appeared on the list in the newspaper in 1844 were business men in Sandusky. W.T. and A.K. West were merchants who went on to build the West House hotel in Sandusky. Long before the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, Sanduskians of the mid 1800s were also committed to civil rights.

Addendum: Here is a wider view of the area around the courthouse, circa 1870.

The Public Life of Captain John Brown, by James Redpath

In 1928, Harry Dane,  chief clerk in the Erie County Probate Court, donated the book The Public Life of Captain John Brown to the Sandusky Library.

The preface states that the title was the 41st edition of James Redpath’s biography of John Brown. An association of African American residents in Sandusky was responsible for securing the reprinting of this edition, which was published locally by the Kinney Brothers in 1872. (John C. Kinney and Addison D. Kinney were also the publishers of the Sandusky Journal.) Profits from the sale of the book were to be devoted to the erection of a monument to John Brown, the radical abolitionist. Despite their efforts, the monument was never built.

James Redpath was born in Scotland. After coming to America as a young man, he became an author, editor, and social reformer. He ran the Boston Lyceum Bureau which was an agency that booked popular lecturers, such as Mark Twain and Susan B. Anthony. Redpath became a friend of John Brown, and shared his abolitionist sentiments. During the Civil War, James Redpath traveled throughout the Southern states interviewing slaves. He published the book The Roving Editor in 1859, based on his travels. He grew to despise slavery as a result of his experiences in the South.

No documents have survived which would have provided us with the names of the Sandusky residents who were responsible for the 1872 reprinting of The Public Life of Captain John Brown. By doing an advanced search in Ancestry Library Edition, over 100 names of African American residents are listed in Sandusky,  residing primarily in Wards 2, 3, and 4 of the city. Many Erie County residents throughout the years were active in antislavery activities, including helping fugitive slaves make their way to freedom in Canada via the Underground Railroad. A sculpture honoring Sandusky’s efforts in the Underground Railroad was dedicated in November, 2007.

Homer Goodwin, Attorney and Conductor on the Underground Railroad

In 1896, Homer Goodwin was the oldest practicing attorney of the Erie County Bar. He was born on October 15, 1819 in Burton, Ohio in Geauga County, the son of Doctor Erastus Goodwin. Before entering the practice of law, Homer Goodwin was a teacher in the public schools of Sandusky, and was an 1844 graduate of the Western Reserve College. He married Marietta Cowles on October 3, 1849, in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

Rush Sloane wrote in the July 1888 issue of the Firelands Pioneer that Homer Goodwin was a conductor on the Underground Railroad in Sandusky. He was among a group of individuals who gave money and personal aid to help fugitive slaves escape to freedom. A brochure which gives details about the Underground Railroad in Sandusky, available from the Lake Erie Shores & Islands Visitors Center, lists the former home of Homer Goodwin, at 327 Hancock Street, as a “safe house” for those individuals seeking freedom via the Underground Railway.

On July 6, 1896, Homer Goodwin died suddenly at his home on Columbus Avenue in Sandusky. A physician was called to his assistance, but nothing could be done, and he died at 6:15 a.m. The funeral for Home Goodwin was held at his residence on July 8, 1896. Burial was in Oakland Cemetery. Mr. Goodwin was survived by his brother Lewis H. Goodwin, a judge of Erie County Probate Court; a sister, Mrs. Ross of Wabash, Indiana, and a daughter, Mrs. Denver J. Mackey.

The Follett House Museum owns a suit that once belonged to Homer Goodwin.

Joseph M. Root, Anti-Slavery Activist

Joseph M. Root was born in Cayuga County, New York in 1807, and moved to Ohio in 1829. Mr. Root was Sandusky’s Mayor in 1832 and 1833. In 1837 he was the prosecuting attorney of Huron County. Mr. Root was Representative to Congress from Ohio in the 29th, 30th, and 31st U.S. Congresses, and also served as a member of the Ohio State Senate for several terms.

In 1835, Joseph M. Root and Mary S. Buckingham were married in Norwalk, Ohio. They had five daughters. By 1850, the Root family was living in Sandusky, Ohio. Rush Sloane, in an address to the Firelands Historical Society, named J. M. Root among the “early and earnest friends” on the Underground Railroad in the Firelands. In 1848, Joseph M. Root had introduced a resolution to Congress which recommended that New Mexico and California have Territorial governments, but slavery was to be excluded in those new territories.

It has long been believed that the Root home at 231 East Adams Street was a “safe house” during the Underground Railroad. The Root home is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Mrs. Mary S. Root died in 1876, and Joseph M. Root died in 1879. Both are buried in Oakland Cemetery with several of their daughters. Martha and Sarah Root were in the first graduating class of Sandusky High School. According to the 1914 Fram, Elizabeth B. Root taught in Chicago for forty years, and was considered to be the “Mother of Illinois’ first Teacher’s Pension Law.” You can read a biography and memoir of Joseph M. Root in the 1882 Firelands Pioneer, located in the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library. Book Three of Just Like Old Times, by Henry R. Timman also contains an excellent article about J. M. Root.

The Underground Railroad in Sandusky

On Sunday, November 11, 2007, the “Path to Freedom” sculpture created by Susan Schultz was dedicated at Facer Park in Sandusky. The “Path to Freedom” features a life-sized representation of an African American man, his wife and child. Eight hundred feet of chain was used in the creation of the sculpture. Support for the project came from the Rotary Club, Lange Trust, and other community organizations. Ms. Schultz will speak about the sculpture in a presentation at the Sandusky Library on Saturday, February 21, at 2PM.
The November 12, 2007 Sandusky Register reported on the sculpture’s dedication. John Bacon quoted Frederick Douglass during the ceremony: “This contest has now ended. My chains are broken, and the victory brings me unspeakable joy.”

Sandusky residents played an integral role in aiding fleeing slaves reach freedom in Canada. Hewson Peeke in his 1916 History of Erie County wrote that the first runaway slave to reach Sandusky was in 1820. Captain Shepherd, with the help of an African American hostler known as “John,” took the fugitive across Lake Erie to Malden in his small sailboat.
Rush R. Sloane wrote in “The Underground Railroad of the Firelands,” from the July 1888 Firelands Pioneer, that before the year 1837 “the fugitives who escaped through Sandusky were conducted and aided almost wholly by black men.” Sloane lists the names of several Sandusky men involved in this endeavor: John Jackson, Grant Ritchie, Isaac Brown, John Hampton, William Wilson, Thomas Butler, Samuel Carr, George Robertson , Samuel Floyd, John and Alfred Winfield, John R. Loot (sometimes spelled Lott), Robert Holmes, Bazel Brown, Andy Robinson, Peter Anderson, Black Jack, William Butler, John Hamilton, Andrew Hamilton and Benjamin Johnson. Sandusky’s Second Baptist Church was an active station on the Underground Railroad. Fugitive slaves were fed and housed at the church while waiting for their passage to Canada. Rev. Thomas Holland Boston, former pastor of the St. Stephen A.M.E. Church in Sandusky also aided many fleeing slaves, including Joe Daniel who hid at the home of Rev. Boston before he finally made his way to Canada safely. George J. Reynolds was a local carriage maker who was known to be a conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Key officials, businessmen, and lawyers in Sandusky and Erie County enabled the work of the Underground Railway. Judge Jabez Wright and his son Winthrop hid fugitives in their cellar. United States Congressman Joseph M. Root was a radical abolitionist. Sandusky lawyers Rush Sloane and F. D. Parish both faced prosecution for their aid to runaway slaves. Sloane was forced to pay $6000 in damages and costs under the Fugitive Slave Law, while F. D. Parish was fined $1250 by the Circuit Court of the U.S. in 1849 after he sheltered two slaves from Kentucky.

Mr. Sloane wrote that among the “early and earnest friends of the line” were: John Beatty, F. D. Parish, Samuel Walker, R. J. Jennings, Clifton Hadley, J. N. Davidson, Isaac Darling and John Thorpe. Since 1848 the following men also assisted in the work of the Underground Railroad: John Irvine, Thomas Drake, William H. Clark, Sr., William H. Clark, Jr., L.H. Lewis, Otis L. Peck, John G. Pool, S. E. Hitchcock, Homer Goodwin, Thomas C. McGee, George Barney, Herman Ruess, C. C. Keech, Samuel Irvine, O. C. McLouth, J. M. Root, and H. C. Williams. Of course, countless other men and women, from both Huron and Erie Counties, also assisted fleeing slaves reach safety. Farmers would often provide shelter in their barns, while their wives would provide food and clothing.

You can obtain a free brochure about the Underground Railroad in Erie County at the Lake Erie Shores & Islands Welcome Center at 4424 Milan Road. Another excellent resource located at the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library is William Steuk’s The Underground Railroad in Sandusky, Ohio.

The Reverend Thomas Holland Boston

Thomas Holland Boston was born to free black parents in Maryland in 1809. He moved to Sandusky in 1839, with his new bride Amelia Butler Boston. At first the couple lived with Amelia’s brothers William and Thomas Butler in Perkins Township. Rev. Boston was ordained by the Wesleyan Methodist Convocation at Troy, Ohio in 1843.

From 1873 to 1876, Rev. Thomas Holland Boston was the minister of the St. Stephen A.M.E. Church in Sandusky. Rush Sloane wrote in the July 1888 Firelands Pioneer that “Mr. Boston has always been a devoted friend of the slave and his kindly services were always at their disposal. His house was constantly open to them and when he had no more room he was certain to find for them a friend in need where they could be taken care of. Ever since his first coming to Ohio he has been known as a reliable friend of the fugitive and a history of his many undertakings in their behalf would prove most entertaining were the facts at hand.”

Following his first wife’s death in 1865, Rev. Boston married Susan Bobo. They had three children, two who survived to adulthood, Georgiana and Sarah. Rev. Boston’s salary as a pastor was very low, so he also worked in various jobs in the area. He was said to have been very industrious in his labor. Rev. Boston officiated at marriages and funerals, and often ministered to the sick. When the congregation could not afford to pay him, he preached without pay.

Rev. Thomas Holland Boston died in 1892. He is buried at Oakland Cemetery in block 13, with both his first and second wives and two of his daughters. Mr. Sloane concludes his article in the Firelands Pioneer with the statement that Rev. Boston was a kind-hearted man who had the respect of the entire community. Sloane continues “For him I have ever had a high regard, and with him had an acquaintance and friendship for many years.

To learn more about the history St. Stephen A.M.E. church, as well as several other area churches, consult the Church Collection of the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library. A Finding Aid will indicate specific items regarding each church in the collection.

George J. Reynolds, Carriage Maker and Underground Railroad Conductor

Though there is not much personal information known about George J. Reynolds, his name has long been connected with the activities of the Underground Railroad in Sandusky, Ohio. He was an active conductor on the Underground Railroad, making the vital connections between the individuals seeking freedom and the persons in Sandusky who helped them achieve that goal. He showed an incredible amount of courage and determination for the cause of freedom.

No known images of George J. Reynolds, his home, or his business, exist in the Sandusky Library's collections. Here is an 1851 newspaper ad from the Sandusky Daily Commercial Register for Reynolds’ carriage shop:

A brochure from the Erie County Visitors Bureau cites the business of George J. Reynolds, located at the northeast corner of Jackson and Madison Streets, in their listing of safe houses and businesses associated with the Underground Railroad in Sandusky. Professor Wilbur Siebert described Reynolds as "a man of mixed Negro and Indian blood" and a skilled blacksmith. Professor Siebert gathered and published information about Ohio’s participation in the Underground Railroad for over fifty years. His collections are held by the Ohio Historical Society.

Hill Peeble Wilson, author of John Brown: Soldier of Fortune, places G. J. Reynolds at John Brown’s Chatham Convention. John Brown and several of his supporters met at Chatham, Ontario, Canada in May 1858 to make plans on how to create a plan of action to help put a stop to slavery. While G. J. Reynolds attended the Chatham Convention, there is no evidence suggesting his participating at the Harper’s Ferry Raid.

Rush Sloane’s address on the “Underground Railroad in the Firelands” is found in the July 1888 issue of the “Firelands Pioneer.”
Sloane gives an account of the anti-slavery operations of several Erie and Huron County residents, including G. J. Reynolds. Leading officials of Sandusky, lawyers, ship captains, business owners, ministers, and many unnamed individuals all played a part in the clandestine activities necessary to aiding the fugitives make their way safely to Canada.

For more information about the Underground Railroad in Sandusky, see William Steuk’s The Underground Railroad in Sandusky, available in the Genealogy/Local History Department of the Sandusky Library, and the brochure The River to Lake Freedom Trail available online.

The Underground Railroad in Ohio -- Another Perspective

I should have mentioned this sooner (I was reminded about it in a message I received yesterday). . . .

The Ottawa Citizen newspaper in Canada sent a reporter to travel through Ohio this summer, following a route through cities and towns believed to have been part of the Underground Railroad. The reporter, Chris Lackner (along with photographer Malcolm Taylor), began his journey in northern Kentucky in June, and arrived in Sandusky on August 21. You can read more about this reporter's journey here; he also wrote a daily blog on the trip, which is here.