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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 385
when coming to Sandusky in 1855, that he had conducted in all, over
one thousand fugitives from slavery to freedom, over eight hundred
of whom he brought after the act of 1850 had passed. All of these
did not come to Sandusky, for after the opening of the Cleveland, Cincinnati
Railroad he took many to Cleveland, but Sandusky was the
faA'orite and most important station. One general advantage it possessed
was its proximity to Canada and its sheltered position by reason
of the islands of Lake Erie, which rendered it possible and safe to make
the passage, in an emergency, in a small sail or even an open row-boat,
if that Avas all that could be obtained at the moment, both of which
means of transportation were often resorted to when it was known that
the slave catchers were on the ground Avatching for their prey, as Avas
frequently the case, and Avhen an attempt to take passage on any regular
boat would have been hazardous and unsafe. Sometimes the
fugitives would arrive in Sandusky in Avinter, and then they would
be taken across in sleighs to Point au Pelee. James Wright, who for
many years kept a livery stable in Sandusky, was always ready to hire
his teams, this affording assistance, though he was not an abolitionist,
as they then called them. He was an officer at the meeting in Sandusky
in 1845 heretofore described. Among the early and earnest
friends of the line were John Beatty, F. D. Parish (and Avhose house
was called the "depot"), Samuel Walker, R. J. Jennings, Clifton
Hadley, J. N. Davidson, Isaac Darling. Rev. John Thorpe was an
efficient conductor on the underground road and a willing assistant to
all passengers. And since 1848 John Irvine, Thomas Drake, William
II. Clark, Sr. and Jr., L. H. Lewis, Otis L. Peck, John G. Pool, S. E.
Hitchcock, Homer GoodAvin, Thomas C. McGee, George Barney, Herman
Ruess, C. C. Kecch, Samuel Irvine, 0. C. McLouth, J. M. Root and
II. C. Williams; others might be included, but these all gave money
and, the "Irvines" especially, their personal aid at all times to .effect
the escape of a slave. Richard Veecher, while a slave in Kentucky
earned enough money to purchase his wife and children and sent
them to some point in Ohio, where he, having run away shortly after,
joined them and brought them to Sandusky in 1848.
The line of road after leaving Sandusky, its great northern depot,
and passing south to Huron County, had two distinct lines; one extending
to Gallipolis, opposite the Virginia shore, and the other by Avay of
Xenia to Madison, Indiana, a town on the Ohio River opposite Kentucky.
These were the principal routes of the underground line until after the
completion of the Little Miami and Mad River and Lake Erie railroads,
by means of which, in the year 1850', a direct connection Avas made from
Cincinnati to Sandusky.
In the autumn of 1850 a party of three came by the underground to
Sandusky, the story of Avhose escape has brought tears to the eyes of
multitudes not only in this country but in Europe, yes, in every house
Avhere "Uncle Tom's Cabin" has been read and where the story of Eliza
Harris and her little boy crossing the Ohio River on the ice is knoAvn.
George Harris, her husband, escaped some time after his wife Eliza had
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