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382 HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
and was leaving the place when he was suddenly set upon by these men,
knocked doAvn and bound hand and foot. He soon recovered from the
effects of the blow he had received, and began to cry out and kicked and
struggled so effectually that he freed himself from the cords and'made
his escape. Returning to Mr. Walker's house he drew the money that
was due him and started at once for.Canada, satisfied with his experience
that night and not being Avilling to again subject himself to the risk of
recapture. Mrs. John Hull of Perkins and Mrs. William II. DeWitt of
Sandusky both remembered this occurrence perfectly, and it was Avell
known in Sandusky at the time. In 1842 a brave Avoman named Armstrong,
with her husband and one child, escaped from a plantation in
Kentucky, some ten miles back from the Ohio River. After quite a delay
they reached Sandusky by .the underground, and soon were safe in
Canada. Two years later this woman determined to rescue her children,
seA'en of which she had left on the Kentucky plantation from which she
had escaped. Dressed as a man, she, after some delays, reached her old
plantation and hid at night near to a spring she knew her children visited
early every morning. She was not disappointed, and next morning her
eldest daughter came to the spring; she made herself known, and it
was arranged that the succeeding night at bed-time they should all meet
at the spring and make their start for freedom. Five of the seven
started with her (the other two the master had so located in or near his
own room for that night that they could not start), but the mother dare
not wait—she had five more of her dear ones and they started.
They walked rapidly all night and by early morning light crossed the
Ohio near Ripley, and going 'from station to station on the underground-,
at length reached Sandusky, and after a short delay were safely
forwarded and soon joined the husband and father and child which first
had been carried off, in Maiden. It has been stated on good authority
that this Mrs. Armstrong made another trip and returned in safety,
bringing her other two children. At all times the assistance given the
fugitives was done secretly, and especially at Sandusky, for knowing this
to be the terminus of one of the routes of the underground road, the
slave-catchers made frequent visits to the place and kept a sharp watch
for runaways. The laws of the country were framed to assist in a recovery
of the fugitive by his master, and once discovered, it was an easy
matter for him to legally obtain possession of his property. Hence
secrecy Avas indispensable to secure the safe passage of the fugitive from
bondage into freedom. That slaves were brought through Sandusky
prior to 1837 is certainly true; yet the instances were so infrequent a'nd
the circumstances so little noticed at the time that it is difficult to gain
much information as to the names of the fugitives and the incidents of
the escape.
June 23, 1835, great excitement was created in Sandusky by the
attempt of one S. G. Wilson, a traveling agent for the Liberator, published
at Boston and edited by William Lloyd Garrison, to lecture on
slavery at the Methodist Church. He had obtained the consent of John
Beatty, Esq.; a prominent Methodist abolitionist, and then the mayor