Who's Who in Pennsylvania's Underground Railroad

Documentation: Andrew J. Waychoff, Local History of Greene County and Southwestern Pennsylvania, 1975, p. 85.

"The younger Henry Taylor while hunting one morning on the ridge toward Pursley Creek was suddenly confronted by a haggard looking colored woman. He directed her to the home of John Adams on Hargus Creek. There was nearby in the woods a family of colored people in hiding. John Adams kept them about a week. John Remley of Rogersville placed baskets of food near some springs in the woods thinking that hunger would force them out and he could find and catch them. John Adams getting fearful, sent then to a family named Redmond above Holbrook. After about three days he sent them to Rev. Mr. William Leonard."  (Thanks to Jan Slater for this information.  See her letter for additional details.)

Editor's note:  "John Adams getting fearful, sent then to a family named Redmond above Holbrook."  This may refer to the Barnet Redman family, a large African American family enumerated in Franklin Township in 1850.  Holbrook is in Center Township, however.  It is possible the family moved, although by 1860 there were no Redmonds or Redmans in Center Township recorded in the census.

Documentation: Earle Robert Forrest, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania, 1926, p. 425.

Free African American who lived in Washington for "many long years before the Civil war."  Forrest says he was aiding fugitives to escape as early as 1828.  The 1860 census lists a Tower Adams, a 74-year-old gunsmith born in Maryland, living in the East Ward of Washington Borough with a large family; this is very possibly the same person.

Documentation: Peter A. Browne,  A Review of the Trial, Conviction, and Sentence, of George F. Alberti, for Kidnapping, 1851.

Infamous and feared slave catcher who, according to anti-slavery newspapers, frequently employed illegal tactics.  He was tried and convicted of kidnapping for his role in an 1847 incident in Chester County.  In 1851 a sympathizer published a scathing review of his trial, accusing the judge of bias.  Pennsylvania Governor Bigler pardoned Alberti in 1852.

Documentation: W.E.B. DuBois, John Brown, 2001 Modern Library Edition, p. 167, 200-201.

Born in West Fallowfield, Chester County, free-born African American Osborne Perry Anderson met John Brown in Chatham, Canada, where he worked as a printer for the Provincial Freeman, edited by another Pennsylvanian, Mary Ann Shadd.  Anderson agreed to participate in the raid on Harpers Ferry in October 1859.  He would be the only raider to survive.  He and fellow raider Albert Hazlett slipped out of Harpers Ferry amid the confusion and chaos and made their way back to Pennsylvania, where they separated.  Perry was hidden by Underground Railroad agents Henry Watson in Chambersburg, William Goodridge in York and William Still in Philadelphia.

Documentation: Lewis Cass Aldrich, History of Clearfield County, 1887.

Peter and Susanna Arnold provided some aid and assistance to fugitive slaves that passed by their farm.  Historian Aldrich notes that Brady Township was not otherwise very friendly toward fugitive slaves, many of whom passed through, probably coming from Grampion Hills in Penn Township.

Documentation: Henry W. Storey, History of Cambria County, 1907, p. 186-192; Lewis Cass Aldrich, History of Clearfield County, 1887.