[89] Wilson, _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power_, Vol. II, p. 63; Alexander Black, _The Story of Ohio_, see account of the Underground Railroad.
[90] Letter of Col. D. W. H. Howard, Wauseon, O., Aug. 22, 1894.
[91] Conversation with Robert McCrory, Marysville, O., Sept. 30, 1898. Mr. McCrory was educated at Oberlin College, and has an excellent memory.
[92] Howe's _Historical Collections of Ohio_, Vol. I, p. 614.
[93] Letter from Job Mullin, dictated to his son-in-law, W. H. Newport, at Springboro, O., Sept. 9, 1895.
[94] Conversation with Mr. Eliakim H. Moore, Athens, O.
[95] Conversation with Joseph Skillgess, Urbana, O., Aug. 14, 1894.
[96] Letter of Wm. A. Johnston, Coshocton, O., Aug. 23, 1894.
[97] Letter of Hannah W. Blackburn, for her father, Mahlon Pickrell, Zanesfield, O., March 25, 1893.
[98] Letter of R. C. Corwin, Lebanon, O., Sept. 11, 1895.
[99] _The Firelands Pioneer_, July, 1888, p. 34.
[100] The _Firelands Pioneer_, July, 1888, p. 34 _et seq._
In North Carolina underground methods are known to have been employed by white persons of respectability as early as 1819. We are informed that "Vestal Coffin organized the Underground Railroad near the present Guilford College in 1819. Addison Coffin, his son, entered its service as a conductor in early youth and still survives in hale old age.... Vestal's cousin, Levi Coffin, became an anti-slavery apostle in early youth and continued unflinching to the end. His early years were spent in North Carolina, whence he helped many slaves to reach the West."[101] Levi Coffin removed to Indiana in 1826. Of his own and his cousin's activities in behalf of slaves while still a resident of North Carolina, Mr. Coffin writes: "Runaway slaves used frequently to conceal themselves in the woods and thickets of New Garden, waiting opportunities to make their escape to the North, and I generally learned their places of concealment and rendered them all the service in my power.... These outlying slaves knew where I lived, and, when reduced to extremity of want or danger, often came to my room, in the silence and darkness of the night, to obtain food or assistance. In my efforts to aid these fugitives I had a zealous coworker in my friend and cousin Vestal Coffin, who was then, and continued to the time of his death--a few years later--a staunch friend to the slave."[102] When Levi Coffin emigrated in 1826 to southeastern Indiana, he did not give up his active interest in the fleeing slave, and his house at Newport (now Fountain City) became a centre at which three distinct lines of Underground Road converged. It is probable, however, that wayfarers from bondage found aid from pioneer settlers in Indiana before Friend Coffin's arrival. John F. Williams, of Economy, Indiana, says that fugitives "commenced coming in 1820," and he denominated himself "an agent since 1820," although he "never kept a depot till 1852."[103] It is scarcely necessary to make a showing of testimony to prove that an expansion of routes like that taking place in Ohio and states farther east occurred also in Indiana.