William Dickey is an ancestor of mine who was involved in Ohio's underground railroad movement to help slaves in their desire for freedom. Ohio was crucial to the Underground Railroad saga. It has been estimated that 40,000 runaway slaves escaped to Canadian freedom through Ohio. A secret and successful network of over 700 safehouses and “depots” waited for those fugitives fortunate enough to make it to—and across—the Ohio River. Although a “free state,” a designation indicating only that its residents could not own slaves, Ohio was a distinctly dangerous host to the escapees. Bounty hunters crisscrossed the state. Pro-slavery factions existed in many villages and cities. The Ohio Black Laws rewarded those who turned in or reported runaways. Lake Erie was a formidable obstacle to attaining Canadian freedom. Vigilante groups scoured the state, targeting all African-Americans. Law officers were aggressive, particularly following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. To truly gain their freedom, African Americans had to leave the United States. As a result, some Underground Railroad stops existed throughout Ohio and other free states and provided runaway slaves with safe places to hide on their way to Canada. Although slavery was illegal in Ohio, some people still opposed the ending of slavery. These people feared that former slaves would move to the state, take jobs away from the white population, and demand equal rights with whites. Many of these people vehemently opposed the Underground Railroad. Some people attacked conductors. Other people tried to return runaway slaves to their owners in hopes of collecting rewards. Several prominent abolitionists were from Ohio and they played a vital role in the Underground Railroad. Ohio was a hotbed of activity in the 1830s and 40s. In Ripley, Presbyterian minister John Rankin served as a conductor and opened his home to African Americans seeking freedom. His home stood on a three hundred-foot high hill that overlooked the Ohio River. Ripley, Ohio was one of the first stops north through Ohio. This was one of the places where slaves began to move north toward Bloomingburg, where William Dickey was pastor. his photograph shows the "Freedom Stairway," the one hundred steps leading from the Ohio River to the John Rankin House in Ripley, a station on the Underground Railroad. John Rankin (1793-1886) was a Presbyterian minister and educator who devoted much of his life to the antislavery movement. The house has several secret rooms in which slaves were hidden. A light was placed in the window of the house to indicate that it was safe for slaves to approach. Rankin provided the runaways with shelter and kept them hidden until it was safe to travel further north. John Parker, Rankin's neighbor, brought hundreds of runaway slaves across the Ohio River in a boat. These men and many other Presbyterian ministers such as David Nelson, James and William Dickey, and Samuel Carothers risked their lives to assist African Americans in their flight to freedom. Source: ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Underground_Railroad Once they arrived in Ohio, some runaway slaves who decided to remain in the state. They usually settled in neighborhoods with other African Americans. Many runaway slaves continued on to Canada. Many towns and cities served as way stations to help slaves move on toward freedom in Canada. A Historian Wilbur Siebert believes approximately three thousand miles of Underground Railroad trails existed in Ohio. One of those trails ran through Fayette County through the town of Bloomingburg. William Dickey was a friend of the John Rankin listed above and was ardent abolitionist Presbyterian Minister. Dickey is also my 4th great-grandfather. William Dickey (1774-1857) Mary Dickey (1810-1871) daughter of William, married John Wilson John D. Wilson (1835-1898) son of Mary, married Sarah Forry Walter S. Wilson (1864-1944) son of John D. Wilson, married Ann Abbott Emma Marie Wilson (1887-1918) son of Walter, married George Russell Ruth Russell (1916-2006) daughter of Emma Marie, married Eugene Holisinger Wavalene Holsinger (b. 1936) daughter of Ruth, married Gayrald Adams Ed Adams (me -- b. 1960) son Wavalene The Reverend William Dickey, presided over the Bloomingburg Ohio church, devoted his life to the anti-slavery cause and was deeply involved abolitionist activity. By the mid-1800s, his work, as well as the fact that Bloomingburg had become home to a vibrant African American community, led to the town becoming the area center for the Underground Railroad, which helped transport hundreds of fugitive slaves to freedom in the north. The Rev. William Dickey was the son of Robert and Margaret (Hillhouse) Dickey, of York County, S. C. He was born, December 6, 1774. His parents moved to Kentucky, where he grew to manhood. He obtained an education at Nashville, Tenn., and, on October 5, 1802, was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of Transylvania. He was soon after ordained and labored fourteen years with the churches of Salem and Bethany, in Kentucky. Upon the division of that presbytery in 1811 he fell under the jurisdiction of the Presbytery of Muhlenburg until he moved to Washington, Lafayette County, Ohio (within the bounds of the Presbytery of Chillicothe) in 1817. The Washington congregation divided into two parts that year, with the northern part retaining the name Washington and the southern part being called Bloomingburgh. Mr. Dickey settled in Bloomingburg where he labored in the ministry exactly forty years. He organized the church there, November 22, 1817, and preached his last sermon to it November 23, 1857. Before moving to Ohio, and for some time after, he performed missionary work. The Bloomingburg Presbyterian Church was the center of both anti-slavery and Underground Railroad activity in the village of Bloomingburg, Fayette County, Ohio. The physical structure served as a meeting place of stalwart abolitionists, while the congregation of worshipers included a number of Underground Railroad operatives, several of whom were prominent in the church’s leadership. This included the church’s pastor, Rev. William Dickey, and church trustees and elders William Ustick, James Stewart, and Dr. Gillespie. The Presbytery Almanac of 1864 recorded the following about William Dickey: Mr. Dickey, in common with all our early ministers, performed much missionary labor. He often spoke of those labors with great interest, and would remark, "People do not weep under preaching now as they did then." Mr. Dickey had a very happy faculty of introducing the subject of religion in conversation, and especially of interesting children by his pleasant and familiar presentations of truth. There are those who trace their religious impressions to something which Mr. Dickey said to them when they were in childhood, as he met them in the street or in the house. Mr. Dickey was a faithful co-worker with his fellow presbyters James N. Dickey, Samuel Crothers, and others, in the arduous and trying labors of the early anti-slavery movement; and when the church shall have .been delivered from the last vestige of the curse of slavery; and when this stain shall have been removed from the banner of our country, these men will deserve to be held up in grateful remembrance as having borne "the heat and burden of the day." Source: The Presbyterian historical almanac and annual Remembrancer of the church, Joseph M. Wilson, editor, 1864
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Russell FamilyAuthor: Ed Adams Archives
August 2014
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