Stories

Ross Furnace was an Underground Railroad Site owned by Colonel  Mathoit. A former fugitive slave, along with his wife “Aunt Katie” worked for him, operating as Underground Railroad conductors without his knowledge. They revealed this to him when they took in John Parker and his wife Catherine (Carn). John Parker escaped to Morgantown to free Carn. On the way, he was chased by slave catchers, killing a blood hound.  Not long after this, a slave catcher grabbed his arm and cut off his hand. Carn’s uncle had a map of Johnstown which they followed to Ross furnace. After they were revealed to Colonel Mathoit their identity as runaway slaves, he allowed them to live there, employing them at Ross furnace. When the furnace shut down he moved to Blairsville with Aunt Katie and Carn (both Carn’s husband and John Parker had passed away). Auth Katie and Carn served as domestic’s in the household. 

George Atcheson was famous for teaching his sharp shooting men to shoot the conductor’s bloodhounds off the saddles of slave catchers as they were riding through in search of fugitive slaves in Indiana county. She also had a lot of information regarding the Blairsville Underground Railroad. 



Uncle Jim Taylor, 1799-1851 Indiana County Sheriff 
William Caldwell 1789-1856 Indiana County Commissioner and Treasurer

The slave-hunters came to Indiana but the fugitives had remained in Somerset for a week. Ex-sheriff Taylor overheard them talking. Three people escaped from Virginia and were pursued closely to Somerset County, where the slave-hunters  lost the trail.When he could get away without suspicion late at night, he went to home of Joseph R. Smith. In fact, the three fugitives had arrived the night before and were hiding in William Caldwell's woods, later the James Gompers farm. The next day conductor Charles Slaysman went "squirrel hunting" on Caldwell's Hill and escorted the fugitives to the Caldwell barn on the pike just east of Indiana, and covered them with hay in the foddering room. Later that night Mr. Caldwell came in from a business and gathering up some hay to feed his horse, discovered the body of a man! He thought the man was a drunk and "gave him a vigorous kick." It is no telling who was the most alarmed. The fugitives jumped up and ran out of the barn. But just at that moment, the next conductor gave the signal, a bird call, and they went on to the next stop. Another watchmen noted that 10 minutes later, the slave-hunters arrived at the barn. Caldwell pretended to help them look and denied any knowledge of the fugitives. He later said, "I kept them hunting as long as I could…"


Courtesy of the Blairsville Underground Railroad Museum.  More information can be found at the following:
 http://www.undergroundrailroadblairsvillepa.com/PDFs/UGRR_Conductors_and_Stories.pdf