1800's Abolitionism in Northern New York- Tom Calarco
Tunnels, tunnels and more tunnels. I keep finding out
about more
of them. When I discussed my Underground Railroad
research last
October at he Chronicle Book Fair, I even learned that a
tunnel
exists across the street from the Chronicle's Ridge
Street office,
off the basement of the Scoville Jewelry building. Did
any of the
tunnels actually serve the Underground Railroad that
helped slaves
escape to Canada a century and a half ago? At this point
there is
nothing we can confirm, and we've naturally got to be
wary of assumptions.
But still the possibilities are intriguing.
The most substantial
legend may be of the tunnel said to have connected the
homes of
abolitionists in Union Village (now Greenwich). Long-time
village
historian Helen Hoag recalls the story from her
childhood. An 1853 map of the village
placed the homes of five of its leading abolitionists in
close proximity
along Church Street and continuing across its
intersection with
Main Street.
In Argyle, another abolitionist stronghold, there is
legend of a tunnel leading from the house along Route 40
of Ransom
Stiles, a known abolitionist. Mary MacDougall MacMorris
in her 1964
book, Argyle , Then, Now and Forever, wrote that the
tunnel was
revealed when several chambers in the house were
unsealed. She said
it led some 500 feet and was seen by many residents
before it was
filled in.
In Warrensburg, historian Mabel Tucker said that a tunnel
was discovered in recent years leading from the house at
130 Main
to the Senior Center. Checking the history of the house,
we find
that its first resident was a doctor and Quaker named
Hiram McNutt.
Dr. McNutt also had a house in Glens Falls that still
stands on Bacon Street. Sue
Atkinson, a former owner of the house, says legend pegs
it an Underground
Railroad station, and a hidden room in the attic is
suggestive of
this.
Other possible tunnels used locally for the Underground
Railroad
include one in Kingsbury that connected the Doubleday
house, the
site of the Guideboard sign, with other homes on Vaughn
road, a
tunnel in Cambridge leading from one house to another on
East Main
Street, a tunnel
leading from a house in Cleverdale, a tunnel in
Greenfield, Saratoga County, leading from the Wayside Inn
across
Locust Grove to the house opposite it, and a tunnel from
a Second
Street house in Troy all the way to the Hudson River.
Farther north,
we find two richly romantic legends concerning tunnels.
The one
with greater substance is in Malone, Franklin County,
less than
10 miles from the Canadian border. Malone's
involvement in the Underground Railroad received a
detailed account
in Frederick Seaver's Historical Sketches of Franklin
County in
1918. The likely center of Underground Railroad
operations there
was the Congregational Church, whose own records testify
to its
participation. I myself have seen the remnants of the
tunnel that
allegedly ran two blocks behind buildings along Main
Street. To the east of Malone,
even closer to the Canadian border, is a home that owner
Les Mathews
claims had a tunnel that led across the Canadian border,
about a
mile away. According to Mathews, recent renovation of the
house
revealed remnants of the tunnel.
Intriguingly, rouses Point native
Debbie Fitts remembers that at one time there were
sections dug
out in the fields behind the house. The house was built
by Esra
Thurber, the richest man in the county, who was prominent
enough
to entertain President Monroe there in 187. Thurber died
in 1842.
At least two sources documented by historian Wilber
Siebert mention
Rouses Point as a station. As no other sites have
surfaced in local
lore, perhaps Mathews's story merits attention. To
contact Tom Calarco
by email write4u@Capital.net