Welcome to the last frontier of American history. And it's right here in some of our own backyards.

Because of the secrecy surrounding the URR, little is known about it. My inquiry begins in Huntertown, Indiana—home to a remarkable band of early pioneer settlers who established a politically progressive Universalist congregation and encouraged its women to pursue higher education. Not your average bunch of 19th-century farmers. And yet they fit the profile of the sort who would have been involved.

This site is a work in progress, as new discoveries are coming to light all the time. I'm putting out there what I know. Here's hoping you'll contact me with anything you know.

At right are several structures with ties to the Underground Railroad— some confirmed, some presumed. One day soon you'll be able to click on the images for bios of the original inhabitants, as well as supporting evidence of their URR involvement.

I've Been Workin' on the Railroad: Tracking Down Huntertown's Abolitionist Past. Northwest News, Huntertown, IN, August 20, 2003. Courtesy of the Huntertown Historical Society.

MORE TO COME—KEEP CHECKING BACK

John Hogue/Cornelia Pray Homestead, Butler Township, DeKalb County, Indiana. 1830s farmhouae. Strong oral tradtion in the family of descendant Eloise Hogue Knott and in the LaOtto Wesleyan Church.

Stutley Whitford & Rebecca Hatch (later Chauncey Waterhouse) Home—Landmarked URR site, Noble County, Indiana.

The Holbrook School, Butler Township, DeKalb County. Original meeting place of the LaOtto Wesleyan congregation, circa 1850. Today it's a residence.

Fisher Curtis West/Olympia Wheeler Homestead, Perry Townshp, Allen County, Indiana. Strong oral tradition in the Hatch family as told by Mrs. Alfred Bornkamp. Note the "pie cooler" atop (inset)—a feature on several local reputed houses.

William V. Cornell House, CR 68, Butler Township, DeKalb County, Indiana. Landmarked URR station. Also with "pie cooler."

Elisha Hansen/Deborah Pray House, CR 11A south of Auburn. Oral tradition in the Hogue family supports this house. Quite a pie cooler on that one too. The current owners, alas, have a black jockey statue in the yard.
Huntertown Universalist Church, Perry Township, Allen County, Indiana. Today it's an apartment house.

William Todd Hunter House, Perry Township, Allen County, Indiana. Huntertown's namesake, this Englishman arrived in Indiana by way of abolitionist hotbed Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the mid-1830s.

Hopewell Methodist Church, Lagro Township, Wabash County, Indiana. Built in 1870—too late to have served in the Underground Railroad movement. Nonetheless, it's adjacent to the site of the long-ago burned home of abolitionist Mark Stratton, father of noted Hoosier author and naturalist Geneva Stratton, better known as Gene Stratton Porter.