- Our Underground Railroad Heritage
- Our farm, now known as
Murphy Orchards, has been a producing fruit farm in continuous operation since the early 1800s. The land was cleared and settled by the McClew family, and our house and barn were built by Charles and Libby McClew around 1850. Our farm
is a living textbook of Niagara County, New York, history. Artifacts from pre-pottery Native American settlements, at least 2000 years old, have been found on the land. During the War of 1812, the farm was attacked by the British, who came down Eighteen-Mile Creek from Lake Ontario. During World War I, the kitchen of our home was the local induction center. In 1945, German Prisoners of War were brought to the farm to harvest crops.
Between 1850 and 1861, our farm was a safe haven for people who were escaping from slavery. Located about 20 miles from the Niagara River in Lewiston, it was either the last stop, or one of the last stops,
before fugitives crossed over the river and into the freedom of the boundaries of Canada. We are extremely proud of the heritage of this farm which is now our home, and hope that given the same circumstances and the same choices, we would have acted the same.
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- Niagara County's role in underground rail road activities
- Niagara County, New York, was extremely active in the organized effort to guide and help people escaping from slavery out of the United States and into the protective boundaries of Canada, especially during the period from 1850 to 1861. A day's drive through this area offers a unique opportunity to step back in time and gain an appreciation for the extent of the humanitarian effort which was made to give freedom to enslaved people, simply because those involved felt that it was morally right.
The "tracks" of the Underground
Railroad were the back roads, paths and trails that fugitives followed.
The "trains" were farm wagons, or canal barges and boats which were sometimes used to transport the fugitives to their next stop. "Stations" were the homes, churches, barns and other buildings where people escaping from slavery were hidden, fed, and guided onto their next stop. "Conductors" and "hosts" were the men and women who led people escaping from slavery along the paths of the Underground Railroad to freedom, or provided food, shelter, and sometimes transportation to the next "station."
Drive through Niagara
County, retrace the routes that people escaping from slavery traveled,
stop at sites that are open to the public, and try to imagine the Underground Railroad experience.
- MAP KEY:
- [1] Murphy Orchards:
- Charles and Libby McClew moved to this property which is now our home in 1850. They built the house in which we now live, as well as the barn which holds the entrance to a secret underground chamber which was used to hide people escaping from slavery on their way to freedom in Canada. This room, which was described in an article appearing in the October 1996 issue of Smithsonian Magazine as "a cultural archaeologist's mother lode", and as "amazing, untouched history," remains virtually unchanged since it was used as a "station" on the Underground Railroad. The floor of the room is littered with debris which may prove to be of significant historic importance. The entrance to the room can be viewed from within the barn.
Click here to view the
entrance to the secret room.
Click here for
information on Murphy Orchards' Underground Railroad Heritage Tours, or call (716) 778-7926.
- [2] Quaker Road, Barker:
- David Barker was a
founder of the Quaker community in Barker, New York, and is believed to
have been a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. The Quakers, as a
group, were very active supporters of the Underground Railroad network.
- [3] Hopkins Creek:
- Hopkins Creek
originates due north of Pekin and flows through the McClew farm,
emptying into Lake Ontario. This was the route used by fugitives
heading from site [1] to site [8].
- [4] Eighteen Mile Creek:
- After leaving the McClew farm, fugitives could follow along the banks of the Eighteen Mile Creek to reach the Erie Canal in Lockport. The McClews may have provided transportation for hidden fugitives in farm wagons while taking produce into Lockport.
- [5] 228 Market Street, Lockport (Present day home of Lockport Locks and Erie Canal Cruises):
- This building, which
is situated where excess canal water is discharged to form Eighteen
Mile Creek, was once a canning factory where farm wagons arrived
continually during the harvest season. Although this particular
building is not believed to have been used as a shelter, like many
canal-side "stations" of the Underground Railroad, this building
utilized canal water shunted through an underground water raceway
tunnel as its source of power, which could provide secret access from
the building to the canal. Many canal boat captains helped in
transporting fugitives towards Canada. Open to the public.
- [6] Lockport YWCA - 32 Cottage Street, Lockport:
- A tiny attic room in this building may have been used to hide fugitives. Open to the public.
- [7] Main and Locust Streets, Lockport
:
- This area, now given
over to modern structures, was the site where Lyman A. Spalding, a
"conductor" on the Underground Railroad, built his home as well as a
sizable stone hotel. Diagonally across Main street from Spalding's
hotel, the first Quaker meeting house in Lockport was built in 1833.
This whole area was a cauldron of anti-slavery activity.
- [8] Thomas Root Home, 3106 Upper Mountain Road, Pekin:
- People escaping from
slavery were hidden by the Root family and often transported to the
Canadian border in farm wagons carrying produce.
- [9] First Presbyterian Church, 505 Cayuga Street, Lewiston
- The church and burial site of Underground Railroad "conductor" Josiah Tryon.
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