John W. Jones, Elmira's Conductor in the Underground Railroad

You've heard of Harriet Tubman, no doubt, the woman affectionately called "Moses" for her role in conducting hundreds of slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad? You might have even heard that New York State Senator William H. Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State, personally financed her missions, and provided her a house and property in his hometown of Auburn, NY. But I'll bet you have never heard of  a man equally as brave and efficient at vouchsafing hundreds of his fellow escaped slaves to freedom who lived in Elmira NY during the mid-nineteenth century and through the American Civil War. His name is John W. Jones, and his story is remarkable and inspiring. This is the first part of a series on John W. Jones and Elmira's junction on the Underground Railroad

John W. Jones was born into slavery on a plantation in Loudoun County Virginia on June 21, 1817. When he was 27 years old, he and two of his half-brothers along with several other slaves from nearby farms, escaped and made a month-long journey from Virginia through Pennsylvania's rugged mountain passes on foot until they reached Elmira. Finding assistance along the way by stops on the underground Railroad in Philadelphia,Williamsport, Alba, and South Creek, they covered 300 miles.

Once in Elmira in 1844, Jones proved industrious and found the favor of several prominent families who gave him work and a chance at education. Within three years of arriving, he served as sexton of the First Baptist Church, which rebuilt a year later a more spacious building. He kept this position until yet a larger church was built in 1890, the present structure which stands on the corner of Church Street and Main Street, when he finally retired to his farm property about a mile north of the church.

First Baptist Church

During his over 40 years as sexton, he lived in a yellow house next to First Baptist, in close proximity with the railroad and Erie Depot. From 1850 on until emancipation, it is believed that he arranged safe passage for at least 800 runaway slaves--men, women and children--on Elmira's northbound trains to Canada. The Williamsport and Elmira line, later called the Northern Central, ferried anywhere from 6-12 people at a time on the 4 AM "Freedom Baggage Car" to the New York Central in Canandaigua, and eventually all the way to Ontario. It is likely he housed these journeying stowaways in his home in between arrival and departure, and his wife Rachel almost certainly fed many mouths in these ten years.

Frederick Douglass

Elmira had many Abolitionist-minded citizens who offered aid, among them Jervis Langdon, famed father-in-law to Samuel Clemens (better known as Mark Twain). It is notable that Langdon housed and aided Frederick Douglass in his escape from Maryland in the Autumn of 1838 in his house in Millport, NY, a mere ten miles from Elmira.

Elmira College

Simeon Benjamin, founder of Elmira Female College, was another prominent financial contributor to the work.

Reverend Thomas K. Beecher, the pastor of the Independent Congregational Church that would come to be known as Park Church,  also contributed to the cause. He was brother to famous authoress Harriet Beecher Stowe and orator Henry Ward Beecher.

Beecher's Park Church was founded by a desire among its members to further the work of Abolition. The Christian revivals of the 1830s had sparked a religious sentiment into a flame of ardor through Central New York, called the "Burned-Over District", and many Elmirans had been caught up in the blaze of this revival, smoldering within them a desire for social change.

John Selover was an Elmira man with ties to Colonizationalist and Emancipationist Gerrit Smith, who aided John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry.

The Underground Railroad and Abolitionist history in Elmira is extensive, and ultimately leads to Emancipation and the Civil War. In the next part of the series on John W. Jones, we will look at his redemptive role in Elmira's infamous history during the period when Elmira housed a death camp for Confederates.

Letter from a local Civil War soldier

This is an exact transcript from a handwritten letter that my son and I transcribed from our local historical society. Misspellings and grammar remain true to the original text. I particularly enjoyed Charles Personius's telling of the events concerning Fredericksburg. The period voice of these boys has long enchanted me.

Harpers Ferry [illegible]
Dear Parents
I will write a few
lines to you to let you know that we are
all enjoying good health and I hope it
is the same with you. To day I was
quite disappointed for I thought that you dear
Father and Ella would certainly be here
to visit us but I am sadly disappointed
but we are often subject to disappointment
in this world but I still think they
will be here tomorrow or the first of next
week It cant be possible that you have
given up the visit entirely for I think
that you must want to see us bad enough
to take one days journey if it took a
week or two to come here it would be quite
different but it is only a little over one
days ride so don’t dispair and disappoint
your sons in the Army The Army has suffered
greatly at Fredricksburgh for our loss
there is estimated to be about 13500 wh
while the Rebel loss is far less for they
had a great advantage over our forces for
they were strongly fortified and our forces
had nothing to shelter themselves with

There is a report in circulation that
little Mc is to resume command of the grand
Army again but I think it is untrue
for I don’t think that he would be foolish
enough to accept the position again even if it
was offered to him for he has been greatly
and grossly abused when he was not to blame

Yesterd[ay] our company took
up the bridge across the shenandoah river
for fear that the Rebs might come in but
I apprehend no great danger from that
[illegible]
but it was Gen [illegible]’s order and all
sup orders must be obeyed that come from
superiors In handling a bridge there is a
great deal of order about it The company is
divided of into squad of son so many into each
squad some are lashers some chess men and
some balk carriers and siderail carriers and
boatmen and so on each has his own part of
the work to perform and does no other

The new suspension bridge across
the Shenandoah is nearly completed
I can not think of much more to write
about and probably have written as much
as you will care about reading so
I will bid you good night and
peaceful dreams no more at present this
from your son Charles W Personius

People of the Long House

New York State history would not be complete without discussing the five tribes of the Iroquois. In my particular area of New York, which is the Southern Tier—direct center along the PA border —lived the Seneca, Cayuga and Onondaga. Further east lays the land of the Oneida and the Mohawk. The Tuscarora joined the Iroquois League after 1580, when the original Haudenosaunee, or “people of the long house” joined forces and created their Great Council, bonding the people in peace and trade. Hiawatha and Deganawidah are credited for this vision of “Great Peace” between the tribes, calling for burial of their weapons beneath the Tree of Peace.

Artifact-collecting with friend and archeologist, Mary Gledhill, has unearthed some exciting finds. She has taught me how to spot a metadi, or grind stone, with its bowl-shaped indentation into the surface. Sometimes you can still see the score marks or striations where the rock was chipped and shaped. Also uncovered in our searches have been some nice little paint pots, where the colors are sometimes still visible in the stone. Mary’s personal collection boasts some beautiful fossils in addition to her metadis, paint pots, and clay pottery shards. A visit to SRAC, or Susquehanna River Archeological Center in Waverly, New York was one highlight of 2009 for me. The kids and I viewed rooms full of locally gathered points, axes, grind stones, pestles, clay pots, corn grinders, stone sinkers used to weigh down fishing nets, plus a visit from authentic Native American dancers. Native clothing, stone animal carvings, and non-New York arrowheads and points also can be viewed here.

Mary lives near the site of an ancient trading post, where the Chemung River meets the Susquehanna. She has shared with me her years of study, including native flora and fauna and what they meant to the indigenous people. The Iroquois lived on the land, hunting and gathering as well as farming. Deer, bear, elk (now unknown in these parts), rabbit, and beaver provided food and clothing. Fishing abounded among the abundant lakes, rivers and streams, and settlements of longhouses typically gathered beside these sources of water, transportation and food. Birch-bark canoes were a chief form of travel, and birch-bark containers gathered tree sap for syrup and tree gum to resin the canoes. The Iroquois held great reverence to the Great Spirit, and offered thanks to the animals used for food and clothing. At harvest time, the Great Spirit was thanked in much the same way we observe Thanksgiving. The Rabbit Dance is an example of the Iroquois tradition of reverencing nature.

Wampum—colorful beads made from shells—were woven into belts and hung on strings. These served many purposes: as currency, peace offerings, wedding gifts, and in ceremonies. Turtle shell rattles, skin drums, and corn husk dolls are among the crafts made by the Haudenosaunee. Tanned deer hides were sewn with sinew thread and bone needles into leggings and shirts by Iroquois women. Bone awls poked fine holes between pieces of birch bark and these pieces were then sewn together for the hull of their canoes. The women farmed crops such as squash, maize and beans, “the three sisters”. They utilized their cleared land in ingeniously conservative ways: The tall maize provided the bean stalk support, while the squash vines trailed over the ground between the climbing vines.

Women enjoyed a position of power among the council. Although the members of the Great Council were warrior men, it was the older women of the tribes who appointed them and removed them from their positions.

In the Revolutionary War, Continental Army General Sullivan staged his campaign against the Iroquois in a bloody annihilation. Sullivan made encampments in Elmira, along the northeast bank of the Chemung River. Further to the east, in Lowman, NY, a federal park memorializes the slaughter at Newtown Battlefield. The park stands on a deceptively peaceful bluff overlooking the beautiful blue-green hills framing Chemung Valley. Living history events take place at Sullivan’s Monument annually.

The Chemung Canal

Elmira, New York has a history in transportation innovations. Before the age of rail, canals delivered goods cheaper than overland travel. The success of the Erie Canal, completed in 1825, spawned a series of lateral canals to connect other communities to its trade. The Chemung Canal was one of the first proposed for State Legislature funding in that same year. Approval was not granted until 1829, and the first shovels were dug on its construction in 1830 by thirteen Revolutionary War veterans. Completed in 1833, The Chemung Canal was open for business. It linked Elmira to the Erie through Seneca Lake via Watkins Glen in a notoriously slow and consistently problematic history which lasted through the Civil War into the late 1870's.

Th system of locks were built of wood, which bowed and rotted. Silt continued to push in on its four-foot-deep bottom, requiring expensive maintenance. And yet, the lucrative trade in lumber, Pennsylvania coal and other regional products generated enough business to make Elmira an up-and-coming town by the time of the Civil War. The Erie Railroad had come to Elmira in 1849, linking the township with New York City and points east, and then by 1854, north to Rochester. By the Civil War, rail had placed its iron foot on the area in a dominant stance, and the age of the canal had well begun to decline.

The route took canal boats, pulled by mule teams, along a 42' wide path from the Chemung River through Elmira, Horseheads, Millport, Havana and finally Watkins Glen. The Horseheads toll station stood where the fire station is today, just past Hanover Square. To this day, traces of the old canal can be seen along Route 14 toward Watkins Glen, near Catherine Creek.

1872 marked the year that a portion of the canal was refilled in downtown Elmira, but parts remained active through October 1878. In Elmira, little remains of the canal's history except for the trust company by the same name. What killed the canal also took the life of the Chemung Canal's first toll taker, Thomas Maxwell. In 1864, Maxwell was struck down by a locomotive in Elmira.

for further reading, see:
http://chemungcanal.netfirms.com/History.htm
http://www.eriecanal.org/
http://wnyrails.org/railroads/erie/erie_home.htm

A New Direction

I have been trying to decide which direction to take my blog--it's been a bit rambly so far. I have decided to focus on true historic events, people, places, and times, and try to connect them to my locale of the Elmira/Corning/Ithaca/Binghamton, New York area.

For starters, a quick review of Elmira's history. Elmira is the county seat of Chemung County, and was officially recognized a city in 1865. It first became settled prior to the American Revolution, and hosted historic camp sights of General Sullivan in his campaign against the American Indians allied with the British. The Iroquois people, more specifically the Seneca, once called this valley home.

During the Civil War, Elmira hosted one of three recruitment rendezvous in New York state, since two major railways ran through it. It was considered a transprtation hub, and it facilitated the trasport of trained soldiers to the southern front. Three barracks made up the training grounds, the third which became the infamous death camp of the north, "Helmira". The Elmira prison camp housed Confederate POW's from July 1864 through the end of the war.

Many notable historic figures hailed from Elmira, including Jervis Langdon, an abolitionist and reputed patron of the underground railroad, also known as being Mark Twain's father-in-law. John W. Jones resided in Elmira. An escaped slave, he became a conductor on teh underground Railroad to rival Harriett Tubman's involvement, leading over 200 slaves to freedom. Mark Twain himself called Elmira home fro short stretches of time at Quarry Farm on historic East Hill. He penned the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in an octogon-shaped pavilion at the farm. Thomas K. Beecher, a relative of Harriett Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher, a remarkable minister and humanitarian in his own right, took up residence in Elmira. Each of these noted citizens will be featured in articles and interviews with local historians to come.