Westfield Involvement

"In the dark hours of the night, ‘conductors‘ were guided by the far off glimmer of the north star, that headlight or the wonderful engine of the Underground Railroad.”

Westfield’s most colorful claim to historical uniqueness was its role in aiding escaped slaves on their way from the south to freedom in Canada. No new material has come to light, and this account is a compilation of existing sources.

The Underground Railroad had its beginning in Indiana as early as 1831. At its height three main routes traversed the state. In the west, slaves were smuggled from Evansville through Vincennes, Terre Haute, Bloomingdale, Darlington, Lafayette, and Rensselaer before joining the central route at South Bend. The eastern route, most prominent of the three, ran from Cincinnati through Richmond, Newport, Winchester, Portland, Fort Wayne and Auburn. The central route came through Louisville and Madison, via Salem and Columbus to Indianapolis and Westfield. This route then went to New London, Logansport, Plymouth, and South Bend. Levi Coffin, of Newport, (renamed to Fountain City, IN in 1878) was well known as the "President of the Underground Railroad. " It is reported that he personally sheltered in his home more than 2000 runaways. In his Reminiscences, Coffin states, “The roads were always in running order, the connections good, the conductors active and zealous, and there was no lack of passengers. Seldom a week passed without our having received passengers over this mysterious road. " Slaves were taken at night from hideout to hideout, being hauled over back roads in wagons, carriages or on horseback.

In Westfield the Quakers, who had left Virginia and the Carolinas to escape the slave economy, were naturally sympathetic to the endeavor. Later when the virulent rhetoric of the New England abolitionists began to be used locally, most Friends felt they could not cooperate with the national abolition movement. Those who felt otherwise formed the Anti-Slavery Friends meeting. Members of both groups assisted in the underground railroad and were later joined by Wesleyan Methodists who organized in 1844. Passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, permitting owners of escaped slaves to pursue their fleeing “chattels” and to commandeer local citizens to help them, made assistance to slaves both illegal and dangerous. The majority of people in other communities were opposed to the effort. Frederick Douglass who later gained fame as an orator was one of the refugees who came through Westfield, being housed at the home of Ephraim Stout, (Edit: There is no evidence Frederick Douglass escaped through Indiana, him being from Maryland - see separate entry about Frederick Douglass and Westfield) but when he was advertised to speak at Noblesville, several years later, was met by a mob who kept him from speaking. This example indicates why the activity of the underground railroad was without publicity and very much an undercover operation. There was little spoken or written about Westfield’s participation until nearly fifty years after the events.

Records do show that in Indiana the sympathy of a large majority of people was not with the operators of the underground railroad. Julia (Stout) Conklin, Westfield community leader and wife of druggist William H. Conklin, writing about this subject in her Young People’s History of Indiana of 1901 says, “It is certainly wrong to violate laws of the land." The danger to life and property of those who aided in escape of slaves was very great, both in the North and in the South. The law imposed both fine and imprisonment of the offender and sometimes exacted the payment of the full value of the slave they were assisting to freedom.

An opposing point of view is given by Wilbur Siebert in his book From Slavery to Freedom.

"In aiding fugitive slaves the abolitionist was making the most effective protest against the continuance of slavery; but he was also doing something more tangible; he was helping the oppressed, he was eluding the oppressor; and at the same time he was enjoying the most romantic and exciting amusement open to men of high standards. He was taking risks, defying the laws, and making himself liable to punishment, and yet could glow with the healthful pleasure of duty done.”

Many of those engaged in the work of the underground railroad were people of irreproachable moral and Christian character, and although they were acting in direct violation of the laws of the country, they were motivated by a sincere conviction that they were obeying God’s command, “to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. " They were convinced that they were performing a heaven-appointed duty and were recognizing a higher law than that made by man. They faced danger boldly, although at all times they exercised the greatest precaution, both for their own and for the sake of the fugitives. Sometimes surprising audacity was demonstrated.

Pioneers in the movement were Asa Beals, Judah Roberts, Lewis Roberts, Simon Moon and sons William and Riley, Curtis Hiatt, Nathan Hiatt, Aaron and Elizabeth Lindley, Jonathan Hammer, Joel Denny, Dr. Jacob Pfaff, William Walgerman, William Frost, Border Jackson, Daniel Lighter, Henry Bray, Samuel Johns, Milton Stanley, Ephraim Stout, the White brothers - Mordicai, Lilburn and Micajah, Elijah Talbert, Peter Rich, Levi Pennington, Robert Tomlinson, David and Isaac Baldwin. Two of these men, Lewis and Judah Roberts, were born in Highland County, Ohio. As young men, they were employed to work for a cousin who lived at some point on the Ohio River. They became interested in the operations of the underground railroad in which their cousin was engaged. Coming to Westfield in 1834, they received some fugitives from their old neighborhood and this was perhaps the beginning of the movement in town.

It is said that one night two or three parties numbering twenty negroes arrived at the home of Judah Roberts near Westfield and all were fed, cared for and forwarded on.

It should be recorded that women were also active on the "railroad. " Although they did not personally conduct fugitives through forests and swamps, they opened the doors of their homes, provided food, spun and wove cloth for their clothing and nursed the sick back to health.

Often homes had false walls, cellars or attics which afforded hiding places.

The heaviest traffic on the railroad was in late summer and early fall when runaways could live on fruits and wild berries when necessary. Travel was mostly at night to avoid the slavehunters and those in the areas being traversed who were hostile to the venture.

Often families of slaves were transported together, being taken in large covered wagons drawn by horses. Sometimes these wagons had false bottoms or trapdoors which offered hiding places and quick escapes. Drivers could start out late at night and be well on their way by dawn. In the first years of operation, the routes could not go directly north as Tipton County was still undeveloped, and passage was to the Thorntown area. Later Daniel Haskett’s home in Tipton County became a destination midway between Westfield and New London. Little is known of the participation of local black residents in the activity as they were naturally suspected of aiding slaves but often they were involved and many major stations of the underground railroad had black residents or were near black settlements. Westfield did have black residents at an early date and it was not far south of the Roberts Settlement, where that colony of free blacks could be of assistance.

It seems remarkable how names of those actively engaged in the work, and the names and locations of anti-slavery strongholds became known in the South, both to slave owners and the slaves in the cotton fields. Westfield came to be regarded in a different light from the standpoint of the slave who would be helped to freedom and that of the slave-holder who regarded it as an abolition hotbed where he could receive no justice. It was said by slave-hunters that when a “n-----” got to Westfield, it wasn’t worthwhile to look for him.

Another story taking place about 1830 involved Lavica White who operated an inn. One night a fugitive slave woman was brought there for lodging and was put in an upstairs room. Soon after this was done, two strange men came and applied for lodging, which they received. It soon became apparent that they were slavehunters and were on the track of the woman upstairs, having traced her to Westfield. To leave her in the room would lead to almost certain discovery; but there was no way to get her out of the house except to pass through the room in which the men were sitting. Mrs. White was equal to the emergency. She dressed the Negro woman in her own clothes, with bonnet and veil, prepared herself for the street, and the two quietly left the house together without exciting the suspicion of the slavehunters. Mrs. White took the woman to the home of her son, Micajah White where Nathan Clark later lived, There she was kept until the danger was past.

---

Other version of this story mention two women came to town, early morning after their previous conductor had suggested they leave the horse drawn carriage they were being transported in, because they were being followed by slavehunters. He suggested they make their way through the fields and woods towards Westfield and find a Quaker to help them. Mrs. White dressed them up in her clothing, the bonnet custom to Quaker women in front of their face, long sleves and dresses and gloves and they both walked by the slavehunters while Mrs. White was serving them a late breakfast/early lunch. They were able to board the horse drawn carriage manned by M.C. / Micajah White, who had been summoned by a note by his mother earlier.