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Discover: The Underground Railroad's Legacy of Indiana
February 2007
"I prefer to be true to myself,
even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of
others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own
abhorrence".
Frederick Douglass
 The
Underground Railroad holds an esteem yet murky place
in Indiana’s history. A truly grassroots movement,
the Railroad - a network of paths, houses and people
that brought thousands of slaves to freedom before
and during the Civil War - has little documentation
for most of its history. Though Indiana was not a
slave-keeping state, most white Hoosiers during
middle of the 19th century were indifferent to
slavery, and both the slaves seeking freedom and the
people who aided them were frequently ostracized by
their fellow townspeople - so there was little
incentive for anyone to keep records or even a tally
of the slaves that came through.
Fortunately, however, Indiana has a few landmarks
by which current and future generations of Hoosiers
can learn about the legacy of the Underground
Railroad. Some are preserved for tours, while others
are simply sites that attest to the bravery of a
select few Indiana residents and the ex-slaves they
helped bring to freedom.
Levi Coffin House State Historic Site
113 U.S. 27 North, Fountain City
765-847-2432
 In
1826, Quakers Levi Coffin and his wife Charlotte
moved to Fountain City, a small town in eastern
Indiana, where Levi operated a general merchandise
store. For the next twenty years, the coffins were
an instrumental part of the Underground Railroad in
Indiana- and their home, built in 1839, still
attests to their success. It’s said that every slave
who reached the coffin house in Fountain City (then
called Newport) successfully reached freedom.
The Federal-style brick home still has much of
the original fireplaces and woodwork, as well as the
trap doors and secret passages that allowed the
Coffins to aid fugitive slaves for up to a few weeks
at a time. Coffin estimated that he and his wife
assisted approximately 100 slaves a year during
their time in Newport.
The Levi Coffin House is open from June 1 through
August 31, Tuesday through Saturday 1-4p.m.;
September 1 through October 31, Saturday 1-4p.m.
Closed holidays. Admission $2 for adults, $1 for
children 6-18, and children 5 and under are free.
Bethel American Methodist Episcopal Church
414 West Vermont St., Indianapolis
317-634-7002
The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME)
Church started in 1836 as a small congregation in a
log cabin belonging to Augustus Turner, a barber. In
1841, the group, known as “Indianapolis Station,”
built a small wooden building for services, which
also served to hide slaves on their long road to
freedom. Unfortunately, a fire burned the original
structure to the ground in 1862 - suspected to be
the work of pro-slavery activists. But the AME
Church rebuilt in 1867, and has stood in its current
location since. The church went on to host the first
Indianapolis chapter of the NAACP, and operated
schools for African Americans across Indianapolis.
The Bethel AME Church conducts services on
Sundays; the church office is open from 10 a.m. to
4:30 p.m., Monday though Friday.
Historic Eleutherian College
6927 W. State Road 250, Madison
812-273-9434
In 1847, Rev. Thomas Craven of Ohio moved to
Lancaster, a small town in southern Indiana,
dreaming of a school that would teach all students-
black, white, male, female- on a basis of equality
and freedom. His dream became real the following
year, when a small school began in a nearby meeting
house. By 1856, the college (the first in Indiana to
admit male and female students of all races) had
grown considerably, raising enough money to build a
large stone edifice overlooking Lancaster (with help
from local townspeople).
Many of the trustees of Eleutherian were active
participants in the Underground Railroad, helping
slaves who’d crossed the Ohio River to get to
Indianapolis. The building served as a grade school
from 1887 to 1937, and today is a National Historic
Landmark.
Open to visitors, Monday through Saturday, 10a.m.
to 4p.m. Closed on holidays. Call ahead for guided
tours.
Orland
Intersection of State Roads 120 and 327 in Steuben
County
 The
small town of Orland, founded by settlers from
Vermont, was a major stop on the Underground
Railroad in Indiana. Unlike many of the other
Hoosiers of the era, several citizens of Orland
refused to abide by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850,
which punished federal officials who failed to
arrest an alleged runaway slave. Russell Brown,
Captain Samuel Berry, Benjamin Waterhouse and others
openly aided slaves on their way to Michigan and
Canada, and they and others were arrested for their
“crimes” (though only Waterhouse and Berry were
convicted, and Berry spent an hour in jail).
Today, Captain Berry’s barn and the Ernsberger
House in Orland are both attributed to be landmarks
along one route of the Underground Railroad; though
they are not open for tours, their architecture and
history deserve consideration during a drive through
Steuben County, Indiana’s lake country.
Indiana has a number of historical markers
commemorating Indiana’s role in the Underground
Railroad; a list of them can be found at:
www.statelib.lib.in.us./www/inhb/ugrr/index.html. In
addition, the Southeast Indiana Trails to Freedom
Web site (www.in.gov/dnr/historic/southeastugrr) has
links and information on museums and sites related
to the Underground Railroad in the southeast part of
the state.
Reprinted with courtesy of F. C. Tucker Company,
Inc.
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