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A Pennsylvania law of 1780 had provided for
the natural dying out of slavery in the state by declaring free
at age twenty-one all children born to slaves there.
The natural outcome of this policy was that by 1803 when Beaver
County was formed there were only four slaves in the county. This
number grew to eight by 1810 and then down to five in 1820. By
1830 there were none. They all either died or gained their freedom.
James Nicholson, a farmer residing in Big Beaver Township, owned
three slaves: Pompey Frazer, Tamar Frazer and Betty Mathers. By
a deed dated May 6, 1819, Nicholson and his wife conveyed to the
three the farm on which they resided, but not before the death
of Nicholson and his wife. Many years later on the death of the
Nicholsons, only Pompey and Betty were still alive. Pompey died
without heirs, and Betty married a man named Henry Jordan in 1840
with whom she had several sons and daughters.
The land owned by Betty Mathers was sold and the majority of New
Galilee was built upon the property. Betty died in 1872.
In 1772, Levi Dungan who lived at the head of King's Creek near
the present site of Frankfort Springs, brought two slaves from
Philadelphia called Fortune and Lunn. They served Dungan until
their death. Lunn was buried under a favorite apple tree which
was known as Lunn's Tree for many years.
John Roberts of Hanover Township brought two slaves into the county
about 1820. Their names were Henry and Henley Webster. They lived
in the Hookstown area.
The antislavery movement with its accompanying
underground railroad was very active in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.
The 1830s saw the beginnings of the antislavery movement in the
county. It grew in intensity throughout the 1840s and 1850s. The
most active centers for this movement were New Brighton, with
its strongly antislavery Quakers and the Darlington area with
its noted abolitionist leader, Arthur Bullus Bradford.
Bausman in his History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania quotes extensively
from an address on the movement delivered by the Rev. Paul Weyand
of Pittsburgh.
According to Weyand four things of interest to a student of the
underground railroad in Beaver County were:
1. The county's geographical position with a natural underground
railroad provided by the Ohio River.
2. The active antislavery Quakers of New Brighton.
3. The Free Presbyterian Church movement, which originated here.
4. The work of Arthur Bullus Bradford.
Weyand also outlined major routes used by escaped
slaves.
One of these followed the west side of the Ohio River to the Beaver
River and thence to Canada via Lake Erie or Niagara Falls.
Another led from Washington County to Beaver County and along
Raccoon Creek and thence through Black Hawk to Achor in Columbiana
County, Ohio, or to Cannelton and on north.
But the route of most importance to this study is that from Wellsville,
Ohio, and Wellsburg, Virginia, to the New Brighton Quakers. Here
the fugitives were then taken to Buttonwood , the home of Arthur
Bullus Bradford between Enon and Darlington, Pennsylvania. From
Buttonwood Bradford's son and a hired man transported them to
Salem, Ohio, usually making the trip by night. From Salem they
were sent by stages to Canada. The slaves knew that they had only
to get to New Brighton to find help.
Weyand extolled the Quakers of New Brighton for their honesty,
sobriety, and God-fearing legacy to the town.
Despite the enthusiasm and labor of the few to end slavery and
to aid runaways, the abolitionist movement grew slowly in the
county.