ive slave was rescued by a former slave who lived in Mount Pleasant, and another incident in which a fugitive slave who had been settled in Mount Pleasant for three years was apprehended by his former master but managed to escape and was forwarded to a place of safety in northern Ohio.
Adding circumstantial evidence to the claims of Underground Railroad activity was the substantial number of free blacks in the area. In close proximity were at least two black settlements, one of about 40 families, who mainly comprised the slaves of Virginian Thomas Beaufort, who were manumitted in 1825 and provided with a 200 acre tract near Smithfield, which was known as the McIntyre settlement. Another small settlement called New Trenton was located just south about a mile west of the Short Creek. Black settlements are known to have been magnets for fugitive slaves.
Local legend testifies to the participation of a number of residents in the Underground Railroad. Since it was bypassed by the National Road, the canals, and finally the railroads that developed during the 1850s and after, which stunted its growth, much of its pre-Civil War architecture has been preserved. A total of 44 structures are listed in the National Historic Register with the Benjamin Lundy House and Free Labor Store, a National Historic Landmark.
Most of these homes in the village’s Historic District are of Federal and Italianate style architecture, and a number of them belonged to those who were said to have participated in the Underground Railroad.
Entering the village from the southeast side of the county is the Jonathan Binns house at 20 Union Street, an Italianate and Greek Revival structure built in 1856 and located at the highest spot in the county. It is said that it had a trap door leading to a hiding place for fugitive slaves in the roof of the kitchen. According to legend a lantern was placed at night there in its captains’ walk that sent a beacon that could be seen as far as the Ohio River.
To the north of Union Street, up Quaker Hill, is the home of George Jenkins, who was president of the village’s Free Labor Store in 1848 and who purchased slaves in order to emancipate them. Back to Union Street and heading west at 287 Union Street was the John Hogg mansion, a large opulent structure built in 1813 that had a passage from a well that led to vats for tanning hides where fugitive slaves were hidden.
A couple blocks farther on Union is the David Updegraff house at 388 Union Street, which also had a captain’s walk that was used as a lookout place for fugitive slaves. A little farther at 437 Union is the home of the aforementioned Benjamin Stanton. Farther west is the Lundy house and the Harris-Bone log cabin, built in 1806 and the village’s oldest remaining structure though not identified as part of the Underground Railroad. And heading west about a mile outside the village is the William Robinson house, which had a tunnel leading from its basement that is believed to have been used to hide fugitive slaves.
For those looking for a unique getaway rich in history, you might consider Mount Pleasant.
“We’re a step back in time,” Sawchuck said. “Many of our homes predate 1860, and we’re also on a scenic byway.”
For more information about Mount Pleasant, Ohio, call Sherry Sawchuck at 800-752-2631 or 740-769-2893.
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