Beacon Apr 2024

Page 4A THE BEACON April 2024
Under Ground Railroad Accounts by Relatives Neighbors
Continued from page 1A
period, at the end of which he
was to become free.
Children under fifteen years
of age were required to serve
their former owner until the
age of thirty-five years; if females,
until the age of thirtytwo
years.
In Indiana slaves before the
expiration of their term of servitude
were termed under the
law “indentured servants.”
This form of servitude was
done away with in Indiana by
judicial decisions. The people
brought to and held as slaves
in Dearborn County were no
doubt held under this provision
of the Territorial Legislation.
If after this act became
inoperative by the decisions
of the courts or after the
territory became a state any
slaves that were brought here
by their owners were immediately
entitled to their liberty.
Indiana might have become a
slave state had it not been for
the firmness of Congress in
resisting what seemed to be a
popular demand.
The people of the state
today do not know and for
that reason can not appreciate
the great services of Governor
Jennings. He lived in a
critical period of our state’s
history and led the opposition
of the party that favored and
insisted upon the bringing of
African slavery into Indiana.
It was in a larger measure the
vigor and earnestness of the
fight as led by Governor Jennings
that saved the state from
slavery.”
Jonathan Jennings was the
Governor of Indiana from
November 7, 1816, until September
12, 1822. He was the
state’s first Governor and he
was born in New Jersey, the
son of a minister.
He was also a lawyer. Indiana
was granted statehood in
December of 1816.
Leading up to Indiana’s
statehood slavery was a top
issue. The constitution did not
permit involuntary servitude
unless in the case of crime,
but still, the 1820 census
reported that there were one
hundred and ninety people
living as slaves in the state.
In early 1838 the fires of the
abolition movement were fueled
in Dearborn County.
The Tanners Creek area
seemed to be the abolition
movement’s epicenter. Reverend
John Clark who was
the minister of the Methodist
Protestant circuit in the Lawrenceburg
area was a staunch
abolitionist along with many
congregation members. Stirring
speeches and meetings
took place during this time
period. Words translated
into actions and many of the
landowners in Tanners Creek
and surrounding areas took
on pivotal roles in the Underground
Railroad in the area.
Mr. Collier’s memoirs
continue. “They were helped
by their
friends
across the
Ohio River
and were
conducted
to the
houses of
prominent
men in
Dearborn
County.
Thomas
Smith,
John
Hansell,
and John
Collier
are among
those who
harbored
the
escaped
slaves.
There was
no special
system
or organization
The Spine of
the ledger.
here many times they were
harbored from home to home.
Many were transported in
covered wagons of some sort.
They were or many of them
were taken from here through
the town of Brookville in
Franklin County to Union
County where they were left
with a Quaker family by the
name of Maxwell who lived a
few miles from Richmond.
All the connection I had
with the cause was to conduct
those who came to the house
of my father, John Collier, to
the house of a friend about a
mile away.
My younger brother John,
who at the time was about
eighteen years of age at one
time took a load of enslaved
people from here to the house
of Mr. Maxwell. He was accompanied
by John Hansell
under whose auspices the trip
was made.
I was born in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania on October 7,
1819, and while yet an infant
came to Tanner’s Creek,
Helping families make
informed financial decisions,
so they can live longer, happier,
and more fulfilling lives.
One of the many artifacts in Mr. Ewbank’s collection of
articles written during the Civil War.
Dearborn County where I
have lived throughout my
boyhood and I have lived all
my life within a mile of my
boyhood home.
My father was an ardent
Abolitionist and I became
zealous in the cause in 1838
when I was nineteen years of
age.”
Mr. Ewbank also shared
with me memoirs of a mister
R.C. Hansell. Mr. Hansell and
Mr. Collier were gathering
their recollections for a W. H.
Siebert of Cambridge, Massachusetts
who was researching
the Under Ground Rail Road
operations in the Guilford
area. This information was
gathered in December of
1895.
Mr. Hansell’s recollection
account is as follows, “The
enslaved people were stowed
away under hay or covered
with blankets but frequently
they were sheltered only by
the wagon cover and the darkness,
for these “runs” were
usually made in the night.
Any attempt to induce enslaved
people to run away was
condemned, as making the lot
of those who were left more
intolerable and delaying their
final hope for emancipation.
But, when they were making
an effort to escape, it was held
to be a moral and religious
duty to render any assistance
that was possible. My father
was a station master and the
secretary of the Dearborn
County Anti-Slavery Society.
My father, John Hansell, was
Continued on page 5A
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