Four Underground Railroad sites to check out in Greater Columbus
Ohio — home to more than 3,000 miles of the Underground Railroad — was a prolific partner prior to and during the Civil War in guiding freedom seekers to Canada, where so many sought the promise of a future free from slavery.
There were numerous stops throughout central Ohio managed by white and Black “stationmasters” who risked severe fines and jail time by breaking the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 by offering their assistance to Blacks fleeing the South.
Origins:Descendants of Hope: The legacy of Ohio’s Underground Railroad
From Downtown Columbus to Dublin, from Westerville to Delaware County, their actions made a difference. Here are four of their stories.
The kindness of the Keltons
Martha Hartway’s story began in 1864.
That’s when the 10-year-old fled from the bonds of slavery in Virginia along with her 14-year-old sister, Pearl. The Keltons — Fernando Cortez Kelton, Sophia Stone Kelton and their children — a wealthy, well-liked Columbus family with anti-slavery leanings, gave the sisters shelter in the midst of the Civil War.
The Keltons operated a station along the Underground Railroad inside their Victorian-era home, first built in 1852, now known as the Kelton House Museum & Garden in Downtown’s Discovery District.
Martha Hartway was too sick to move further north along the Underground Railroad, so the Keltons took her in and raised her as their own.
“I think what people don’t know is that the story didn’t end in 1865,” said Sarah Richardt, executive director of the Kelton House Museum & Garden. “People put the story of Martha there during the Civil War, and when the war is over, slavery is over and the story ends.”
Richardt explained that Hartway lived with the family and met her future husband, Thomas Lawrence, in the Kelton House. They got married in 1873 in the front parlor room.
“It wasn’t just a moment in time,” Richardt said. “It went on for decades, and the families were close for decades. They named children after each other.”
Tours of the Kelton House at 586 E Town St. can be made Monday through Wednesday by appointment by visiting keltonhouse.com, or people can drop in Thursday through Sunday from noon-4 p.m to take a tour on the hour.
Dr. Pinney’s speaking tube
In the early 1820s, Dr. Eli Morrison Pinney lived on South Riverview Street along the Scioto River in Dublin. He served as a doctor for what was then a poor farming village north of Columbus.
But unbeknownst to his neighbors, Pinney also was an avid abolitionist who took in freedom seekers and hid them in a nearby barn on his property, according to Tom Holton, a volunteer with and former president of the Dublin Historical Society.
Holton explained that Pinney would communicate with those seeking refuge in the barn through a speaking tube, discovered by Dublin historian Emmett Karrer in the 1980s.
“It was called a speaking tube, but you would not have wanted to speak through it, in case someone was walking along the street,” Holton said. “Escapees may not have known the doctor was there, so they may have poked something through the tube — a long piece of grass, or blown through it.”
Pinney gave the freedom seekers food, shelter and medical attention during the day, and at night they would travel north along the Scioto River to the next stop, Holton said.
“The rivers were like the freeway for them,” he said. “The Olentangy and Scioto rivers were pathways to follow.”
More information about Pinney is available at dublinohiohistory.org. To request a walking tour of the city along the Scioto River that includes a stroll past his home, fill out a Dublin Historical Society Tour request form at bit.ly/3HheWTc.
The heart of the Hanby House
William Hanby came to Ohio after fleeing indentured servitude.
His mother was a widow, and as one of five children he was contracted to work with a harness-maker for his best chance to learn a trade and make a living. But his master was cruel and Hanby, a white man, escaped to Rushville, Ohio, in Fairfield County from western Pennsylvania.
It was in Rushville and later Circleville that he became involved in the Underground Railroad movement.
“He had a little more of a sense of what servitude was than most people who were dealing with the Underground Railroad because of his indentured [past],” said Beth Weinhardt, president of the Westerville Historical Society.
She said Hanby eventually moved to Westerville in 1853 with his wife, Ann, and their eight children. Their house, also a stop on the Underground Railroad, has been moved to the corner of College and Main streets. He co-founded Otterbein University and championed access to education for women and Black people.
“His conscience led him to be involved in this movement,” she added.
His son, Benjamin, helped his father hide freedom seekers in the elder Hanby’s harness shop in Westerville. It was Benjamin who penned the famous Civil War-era tune, “Darling Nelly Gray” — inspired by the tragic story of Joe Selby, an escapee who lost his love, a slave at an adjacent plantation, after she was “sold down river.”
Selby died in the Hanbys’ home in Rushville before he could reach Canada and purchase Gray’s freedom.
The Westerville Historical Society manages the Hanby House for the Ohio History Connection, which owns the property. Free tours can be scheduled by appointment by calling 614-891-6289 or emailing Weinhardt at [email protected].
One of America’s first free Black settlements
Abraham “Abram” Depp knew the costs of bondage firsthand.
Born as a slave on a tobacco plantation in Virginia, Depp made his way to Ohio after being freed. He then purchased nearly 400 acres of land in Delaware County, making it the first Black-owned farm in the county.
The Depp family turned the farm into a community and was dedicated in assisting freedom seekers, who hid in the limestone caves along the Scioto River adjacent to the property during the day.
At night, the Depps would ring a bell, the “all clear” signal for freedom seekers to leave the caves so the family could guide them north, said Michael Hamilton, a local historian.
In the 1920s, Depp’s daughter, Lucy, sold part of the land to her cousin Robert Goode, who founded the Lucy Depp Park, a 102-acre subdivision with 720 lots, next to Shawnee Hills, said Hamilton, who grew up in Lucy Depp Park and still lives in one of the original homes built in 1932.
The neighborhood offered Black people in central Ohio a community, and later, during the Jim Crow-era, a sanctuary from Columbus’ racist housing policies.
“Joe Lewis, the heavyweight boxer from the 1930s, was known to stay in Lucy Depp Park during the summers,” said Hamilton, explaining that the neighborhood gained notoriety as an African-American resort over the years.
To learn more about the Depp Settlement and Lucy Depp Park or schedule a visit, email [email protected] or visit lucydepppark.com.
Céilí Doyle is a Report for America corps member and covers rural issues in Ohio for The Dispatch. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation at https://bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.
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