The Underground Railroad Passes Through Bedford County

The Underground Railroad was a name given to an informal system that helped enslaved persons escape from southern to northern states from the early 1800s until the passage of the Emancipation proclamation in 1863. Places where the fugitives or “passengers’ could find shelter and safety were called “stations” or “safe houses.” The person leading a group to freedom was a “conductor,” such as the well-known Harriett Tubman.

Residents in south-central Pennsylvania were in a difficult situation as a border state along the Mason-Dixon Line, with opinions divided as whether to support or oppose the system or slavery. Some did not wish to be considered abolitionists and approved of catching runaway slaves. Handbills alerting residents of escaped slaves were posted in post offices around town. A few were willing to capture the runaways and obtain the reward. As the fugitives followed the stars and mountains northward, slave-catchers lay in wait. Travel was dangerous for those hoping to reach a place of freedom to call home.

The Underground Railroad had two primary trails through Bedford County. One route from Maryland passed through Cumberland Valley and Centerville (Route 220) or along Route 326 to Bedford. Once around town, they traveled to Pleasantville, Fishertown or Osterburg to be led to a safe place. Many sympathetic Quakers in that area were known to have assisted in their flight to reach Johnstown and on north.

A lesser-known trail led from Maryland through Black Valley (Route 26) towards Everett, where travelers cross the Raystown branch of the Juniata River at Mt. Dallas and the Bedford & Chambersburg turnpike (now Route 30) on their way north. They continued up the Lower Snake Spring Road to a safe house at the farm of Asa Silver Stuckey and wife, Sarah Boyd Kinton. He was the son of Samuel Snider Stuckey and wife Ann Silver, receiving the farm through his father’s will, dated 1864.

This route would have taken the travelers through land of the Donald Dibert farm along the Lower Snake Spring Road, just one-half mile north of present Route 30, not far from the Stuckey farm. One wonders – did they follow the creek during the night or silently creep along the dirt road? Did barking farm dogs pose a danger? Were they in fear of being pursued by slave hunters?

After another half-mile walk, they reached a crossroad just after a bridge along the creek; now Detwiler Road. A short distance farther along this crossroad is the red brick farmhouse of Asa Stuckey, said to be a member of the Dunkards (Church of the Brethren). However, no written records regarding this connection have been found.

Just inside the front door of this home, now owned by Paul and Marion Showalter, is a staircase leading up to the second story. When a round knob on the staircase post is removed, the post has a quarter-sized hole opening down to the basement. What was its purpose – to warn fugitives perhaps hiding in the basement, or were they concealed in the large barn or other outbuildings? In Stuckey family ancestry writings, no records have been found telling of his farm as a station or his involvement in the Underground Railroad.

From the Stuckey farm, the trail followed the creek or lower road to the crest of the Snake Spring Mountain into Morrisons Cove. Here they could find several other safe houses near Potter Creek, Baker’s Summit or Woodbury. In Ben Van Horn’s book, “Bible, Axe and Plow,” he wrote of Colonel James Madera, manager of the Bloomfield Furnace (later the Benjamin Slick farm), and the Keagy homestead south of Woodbury (later the Paul Ritchey, Sr., farm) whose efforts helped runaway slaves reach the next station on Catfish Ridge south of Hollidaysburg.

It would be helpful to know if readers know of other safe houses or stations in Morrisons Cove that connected with others into Blair County. This is an important part of the history of the Cove that needs to be preserved.

Editor’s Note: This is the last installment from Doris Dibert on black families in the Cove. The Herald thanks Doris for sharing her research with all of us, and we will miss her writings.

If you or someone you know is interested in writing a weekly column for the Herald, please contact Editor Anna Baughman at (814) 793-2144 or email editor@mcheraldonline.com. Readers have shown special interest in Cove history, and the Herald would like to explore that if possible.

Please look at the ad for a new columnist on Page A-5 of this edition.