Athens/Albany held key stations in Underground Railroad

By Christina Xenos
THE POST

Meg Toomey, co-business owner of White's Mill, did not know the history that walked in the shadows of her and her husband's garden store more than a century ago.

This was until she learned that what is now White's Mill, 2 White's Mill Road, used to be Joseph Harrold's flour mill, a "station" on the Underground Railroad.

In the mid to late 1800s, "Athens and Albany played a major part in transporting slaves to their freedom in the North on the Underground Railroad," said Henry Burke, a researcher of the Underground Railroad in Southeast Ohio.

These areas were crucial because of their proximity to the Ohio River. At that time, before there were dams in the Ohio River, it had many "shallows," which allowed the slaves to easily cross, Burke said.

Toomey saw this piece of history hanging before her at the Columbus State House when she was on a field trip with her fourth-grade Chauncey elementary class.

"We saw a quilt in the State House that showed all the stops in Ohio on the Underground Railroad. Then I saw that near Athens it said 'Jos. Harold's mill' (misspelled on the quilt)...Which was the previous owner," she said. "I was surprised at what a neat connection it was."

Albany's Corner Stone, 5264 W. Clinton St., has displayed this quilt throughout February to educate others about Albany's and other Ohio stations in the Underground Railroad.

Ten members of the Columbus Metropolitan Quilter's Guild spent 10 months sewing together Ohio's historical past in a 76" x 86" quilt. They made the quilt to preserve the roles that the Ohioans played in the Underground Railroad movement.

The quilt only travels four months out of the year and spends the remainder at its home in the State House, co-owner of the Corner Stone, Pam Jeffers said.

"It's amazing that the whole system worked so well," she said.

The quilt shows eight routes going into Albany from the Ohio River. It was modeled after a map that historian Wilbur Siebert made.

"The whole time there were stations operating in Albany, not a single slave was caught here," Jeffers said.

Slaves who escaped faced the danger of being caught by bounty hunters. Owners wanted their slaves back because slaves were worth as much as a new mid-sized car is today, about $15,000, Burke said.

Even the antique structure of the Corner Stone that held the quilt and other memorabilia of the Underground Railroad has a historical past.

John Brown once owned the Corner Store and was a leading abolitionist of Albany. Though the front of the Corner Stone is renovated, the back is part of the original structure of one of Brown's store buildings.

"The more we hear about it (the Underground Railroad), the more we want to know," co-business owner of the Corner Stone, Robert Jeffers said.

After the slaves left Albany, the trail ran into Harrold's mill where Joseph Harrold hid the slaves in his attic. From the mill the trail ran north to Adam's Station (Chester Hill, Morgan County) or east to the Milliron Caves near Amesville, then northeast to Chester Hill, Burke said.

Burke also has found many other Athens county abolitionists who were "conductors" on the Underground Railroad.

But not all Athens county residents supported abolition. The proposal of slavery was only defeated by one vote because of the efforts of Judge Ephriam Cutler.

"Cutler was a delegate from Washington County, where he was also a conductor on the Underground Railroad, to the Ohio Statehood Convention in 1802," Burke said. "He was very ill on the day they were supposed to vote on the proposal of slavery in Ohio. Cutler had his fellow delegates carry him to the meeting so he could vote against slavery."