56 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



think I shal be there in about three weeks and you must not 

 fail of Righting to me for I have not recvd but three letters 

 since I left home and I think you have all forgot me or you 

 would right oftener. Right to me if you have herd anything 

 from my father since I cum away and furthermore let me 

 know if my wife is married or not & so I must conclud by 

 stiling myself your Brother &c 



A. Dillingham. 



Stories come to me of an "Underground Railroad" station 

 about four miles southeast of Equality in Gallatin county. 

 Upon a hilltop, stands a large two story frame house con- 

 spicuous for its many large windows. It is a plain rectangu- 

 lar block of a house, with a well pitched roof having a deck 

 something like twelve feet wide running the entire length. 

 Just under the edge of the deck there are windows corres- 

 ponding to the ventilators of a railway car. The gables 

 have large windows. The attic is said to have been reached 

 by a narrow stairway. Along each side of the attic hall 

 just under the sloping part of the roof there are bunks ar- 

 ranged, bunks just as the beds are situated in a Pullman 

 car. One man relates that apparatus resembling stocks 

 were seen in the rubbish of this attic. The story is that it 

 was built between 1838 and 1844 and was owned by Johnny 

 Crenshaw. Some metal ornaments on the house are said 

 to have come from England. Instead of this being an "un- 

 derground" station for escaping slaves, so the story goes, 

 this one was once used by a band operating as the automo- 

 bile thieves of today. A free negro or one escaping by flight, 

 if found by this gang, was overpowered and conveyed by 

 night under guard from farther north to this station. 

 Another night journey took him to and across the Ohio 

 river where his word was not accepted in court and where 

 undisputed possession was evidence of ownership. 



The price that negroes brought in those days was great 

 enough to justify the risk taken by the captors. Some who 

 have owned this house and lived in it tell this story as true. 

 Others who were children in that day and lived only a few 

 miles away claim no knowledge of such use of the property. 



