Slaves flee to safety in the north.
Harriet Tubman (far left) standing with a group of slaves whose escape she assisted.
Livingston House.
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Reynoldsburg was a key spot on the Underground Railroad because of its location and the number of abolitionists here. Slaves, traveling north from the Ohio River, were sent from Columbus along East Friend Street (East Main Street) to Reynoldsburg.
The David Graham House, 1312 Epworth Avenue, still standing after 150 years, was a major Underground station. There was also a cave off Main Street near Waggoner Road, a room under the Old Primitive Baptist Church on South Jackson Avenue, and the Alexander W. Livingston seed farm, among others, that provided hiding during the day and transportation at night for escaped slaves.
Livingston’s employee, Benjamin Patterson, was one of the slave haulers. He drove Livingston’s long wagon, "The Ark," which had seats along the sides, and transported fugitives to the next station, at Granville, Utica or Mt. Vernon, on the way to Lake Erie and Canada.
-Research by Cornelia Parkinson.
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