“My paternal grandfather early espoused the unpopular causes of total abstinence and abolition of slavery. My grandmother was in complete sympathy with him, and they succeeded in bringing up their three sons and only daughter [two children died in infancy] to be, if possible more radical than themselves. There were a few others in their vicinity who sympathized with them, but the atmosphere was generally hostile to any direct interference with slavery.

“When my grandfather with his younger children came to the west, he immediately became a conductor on the Underground Railroad. All its active operations were carried on under cover of the night. From the time the slave left the Southern States until he trod the free soil of Canada, there were those who would hide him by day in some attic, cellar, barn or haystack, and then at night conduct him to the next friendly shelter.

“Sometimes it happened that men coming for the first time into his church, men who treated him respectfully everywhere else, would get up and walk heavily out in the midst of the prayer, because he was praying for the freedom of the slaves.

“There were not many nights in the year that his horses were not saddled for the benefit of the poor fugitive. He said he knew the risk, for the pursuer might not be far behind, but if he overtook him he would be welcome to the horse, saddle and bridle.

“On one occasion [in 1847] they had a poor fellow with a terrible cough secreted upstairs, a cough which came on at intervals and lasted, for several minutes. It was thought cruel to put him either in the barn or cellar. They earnestly hoped that neither master nor unsympathetic neighbor would call. But soon two men came, the slave's master and overseer, asking, ‘Had they seen such a looking nigger pass by?’ ‘No, they had not.’

“These men, hungry and tired, reckoned they were on the wrong road, but they asked if they could get something to eat. Certainly they could, and no time was lost in setting the table. The daughter, Matilda Jane, a girl of twelve, without direction went upstairs and began a most vigorous racket in the room adjoining the slave’s, and she commenced singing at the top of her voice. Her father asked, ‘What is the child doing?’

“Whereat one of the men remarked, ‘Let the child sing. I do love to hear little girls sing.’

“Then the broom and dustpan came tumbling down the stairs.

“The men finally left, and Matilda Jane said she had made all the noise she could, expecting every moment that the coughing would begin.

“He felt he was doing God’s work and that wisdom was given in every time of need. It might be added that his outspoken views led his proslavery acquaintances to injure his business interests, and the excuse was ‘his interference with other peopled business.’”