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This neighborhood
included the home of Edward “King” Bennett (born c.1805), an African American community leader
and a coordinator of Underground Railroad activity in the town. This location was nicknamed Judystown, for
Judy Richards, a community matriarch. Her daughter Mary Ann married Bennett, who built a successful chimney
sweeping business. Judystown was
Harrisburg’s first distinct African American community, and as such was
probably the first place in the town in which organized Underground Railroad
activity took place. It was the
spiritual center for Harrisburg’s African American population, housing the
Wesley Union A.M.E. church, on the southeast corner, from 1829 until it moved several blocks away in 1839
(see “Tanner’s Alley”). Bennett, found
in the 1850 census, was a church leader, listing his occupation in 1850 as
“preacher.” His neighbors in Judystown,
in 1850, included George Galbraith, an ordained minister in the A.M.E. church,
and David Stevens, a young preacher who would serve as a chaplain to African
American regiments during the Civil War. Bennett’s URR involvement has been cited by nineteenth century
historians William Henry Egle and George H. Morgan.
This
site is now occupied by the Mulberry Crossing Apartment Complex.
Tanner’s Alley,
Harrisburg
The
Tanner’s Alley site is the only place in Harrisburg recognized by the state
Historical and Museum Commission with an Underground Railroad historical
marker. Located in the notorious Eighth
Ward, a mixed-race, multicultural district located between the capitol building
and the railroad and canal, Tanner’s Alley was the center of the neighborhood
that included Short Street, Cranberry Street, Filbert Street, Angle Alley, and
South Street. So many African Americans
lived in this portion of the ward that the entire neighborhood, seen as a
distinct African American community, became known as Tanner’s Alley.
This
African American neighborhood began to develop in the late 1830’s, and in 1839
the Wesley Union congregation relocated to a lot at the corner of South Street
and Tanner’s Alley. From this point on,
the Tanner’s Alley community began to assume increasing importance in the
provision of aid for fugitive slaves. Another church, the Bethel A.M.E. Zion, began as a small congregation on
Short Street about 1858. They later
relocated to a lot on State Street, still within the Eighth Ward.
The
significance of Tanner’s Alley to the URR is well documented. In September 1849, a family of fugitives
was rescued from slave catchers who had brought them to Harrisburg, and the
fugitives were hidden in the homes of African Americans on Short Street. A neighborhood watch
was then set up on Short
Street to guard against raids by local authorities to recapture the fugitives. Joseph Bustill, a Philadelphia URR activist,
moved to this neighborhood and began operations in the spring of 1856. His correspondence during this period, with
William Still, chairman of the Vigilance Committee of the Pennsylvania
Anti-Slavery Society, has been preserved and documents his activity in
receiving and forwarding fugitives along the network.
Tanner’s
Alley, along with much of the rest of the Eighth Ward, was razed from 1912
through 1936 for the expansion of the Capital complex. Nothing remains of this neighborhood.
Residences of
William W. Rutherford and Rudolph Kelker
(9 and 11 S. Front Street, Harrisburg)
Dr.
William Wilson Rutherford, a member of the large and actively anti-slavery
Rutherfords of Paxtang, was a physician living and practicing in
Harrisburg. As president of the
Harrisburg Anti-Slavery Society, Rutherford had arranged for Frederick Douglass
and William Lloyd Garrison to visit Harrisburg in 1847. His home, at 11 S. Front Street in
Harrisburg, is generally accepted as an URR station. Located near the end of the Market Street bridge, Rutherford was
said to shelter fugitives, who crossed the river from Cumberland County either
at that point, or at the railroad bridge further south, in his home until they
could be sent out what is present day Derry Street to the farms owned by his
relatives in Swatara Township. Local
lore says that a tunnel ran from Rutherford’s home to the riverbank, providing
covert access to and from his home for fugitives. There is no evidence to support this claim.
Rudolph
Kelker, a successful hardware merchant, lived at 9 S. Front Street, next door
to Dr. Rutherford. A prominent
abolitionist, Kelker owned a barn at Barbara Street and River Alley, to which
he was rumored to send fugitives who arrived at his door. The corner of River and Barbara Streets was
also the location of a small African American neighborhood that included the
home of William M. and Mary Jones, two active conductors on the URR.
The
block that included 9 and 11 S. Front Street was torn down in 1945 to build the
present day Dauphin County Courthouse.
River and Barbara
Streets, Harrisburg
This location, where Rudolph Kelker sent fugitives, and near
the home of William and Mary Jones, URR conductors, still exists and a portion
of it may still consist of structures from the time period of the URR. The south side of the intersection is a
modern office building, but the north side has structures that appear to be
nineteenth century structures. Unfortunately, we don’t know the exact location of the URR sites,
although historian Howard Wert identifies the home of William Jones as “a frame
building” (wood), and no such structure still exists at this location. The older existing structures may or may not
be significant.
 Chester Family
Home and Restaurant, Harrisburg
George
and Marie Chester operated an oyster house and restaurant on the north side of
Market Street near Third. Now marked
with a state historical marker for the birthplace of Thomas Morris Chester, a
son of George and Marie, the site was a gathering place for anti-slavery and
abolitionist activists. Abolitionist
newspapers The North Star, The Liberator and others could be
found here. Only the obituary of David
Chester, son of George and Marie, notes Underground Railroad activity, although
it is a widely held belief that the Chester home and restaurant was a
station. After George Chester died in
1859, his wife Marie purchased a home at 69 Chestnut Street and moved the
restaurant there. It later relocated to
305 Chestnut Street. Neither of these
later locations have been associated with URR activity.
The
Market Street location is now the site of Whitaker Center.
Right:
Richard Caton Woodville's "Politics in an Oyster House" captures the atmosphere
and intimate setting--the booth curtains could be drawn for privacy--of this
type of establishment. The Chester family restaurant was an oyster house,
the interior of which probably saw many scenes such as the one illustrated by
Woodville. Politics and the issues of the day, particularly abolition, the
Fugitive Slave Act, recent incursions by slave catchers, and other items of
interest to its patrons, would have been passionately debated in its booths.
It is also possible that Underground Railroad activities were planned behind
drawn curtains.
William
Rutherford, Sr. Farm, Swatara Township
The Thomas Rutherford family owned about 400 acres of land
in present day Swatara Township and Paxtang Borough in 1755. The original family farm was divided between
two sons, William and Samuel, upon Thomas’ death in 1804. William’s portion was located where the
Lawnford Acres Development now stands. This original farm was one of the first URR stations operated by whites
in the area, and may have been operating as early as the first decade of the
1800’s. A barn, built by William
Rutherford in 1805, was standing until the late 1990’s, and was a documented
hiding place for fugitive slaves in the 1840’s. William Rutherford Sr. died in 1850.
Abner Rutherford
Farm, Swatara Township
Located
on the west side of present day Derry Street, in the vicinity of 61st
Street, Abner Rutherford’s farm was used as a secondary station, when the other
Rutherford farms were being watched by slave catchers. Abner, Samuel S. and William W. were all
sons of William Rutherford Sr.
Because
of the realignment of Derry Street and the construction of the Rutherford
Railroad Yards, no traces of Abner Rutherford’s farm exist today.
 William W. Rutherford sent fugitives from his Front Street
home to the farm of his brother Sam, in Paxtang. They may also have traveled further east on the turnpike (now
Derry Street) to one of the other Rutherford farms, mentioned above. Two structures from this farm are still
standing today. The mansion house,
built in 1858, is visible from Interstate 83 and is owned by the County of
Dauphin, which maintains it as a senior center. The springhouse is located on Paxtang Parkway, beneath the Interstate
83 overpass. While it is possible that
slaves were sheltered in the springhouse at one time, it is more certain that a
barn, which is no longer standing, was used instead. There are no stories or evidence that mention the use of the
mansion house as a shelter for freedom seekers. The barn that was used was torn down when the highway was
constructed in the 1960’s.
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