Ohio Folklore

(Rebroadcast) Ripley, Terminus of the Underground Railroad

• Melissa Davies

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In honor of Black History month, come hear one of Ohio Folklore most downloaded episodes, Ripley, Terminus of the Underground Railroad.  


Most of us have heard tell of the Underground Railroad, the secretive movement that spirited enslaved peoples northward, toward freedom.  Yet few Ohioans know of the integral role of one tiny town on the bank of the Ohio River.


Meet Ripley, Ohio.  History has dubbed this quaint village a "terminus of the Underground Railroad."


Come hear intriguing stories of a secret society of abolitionists who aided those seeking freedom.  And most compelling of them all, hear the daring tales of one John Parker, a former slave who risked life, limb and his very freedom to rescue desperate souls waiting on Kentucky's banks.


To them, Ohio was a promised land...


If you enjoy this episode please rate, review and subscribe to Ohio Folklore on your chosen podcast platform.  You can also find Ohio Folklore at:


ohiofolklore.com

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And as always, keep wondering...

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Hello and welcome to Ohio folklore. I'm your host, Melissa Davies. I've got a special announcement before we begin today's rebroadcasted episode, I'm taking a temporary break from producing new content. While I'm pursuing a new creative outlet. There'll be a pause and new episodes. But I'm hoping you devoted Ohio folklore fans will ultimately appreciate my brief detour into the world of writing. I began writing a book which will chronicle legendary stories from one county in the northwest corner of the state. Set to publish next fall 2023 I'm diving deep into legendary lore that stems from Ohio zone, Wood County. For anyone who has inside knowledge on legendary stories that come from Wood County, I'd love to hear from you. Are you an alumni from BGSU, who recalls a haunting experience on campus? Did you once spot a transparent figure patrolling the grounds of Fort Max, with the musket slung over his shoulder? Have you caught a glimpse of the ghostly nuns known to linger inside Nazareth Hall and Grand Rapids. If you are someone you know has insight into folklore from Wood County, and would like to see your story featured in the book itself. Please reach out to me at Melissa at Ohio folklore.com. In the meantime, while my efforts are focused on writing the first draft, you'll see some of the most popular Ohio folklore episodes drop in your feed. This way, new listeners will have a chance to hear the most compelling stories I've stumbled across over the 50 episodes I've posted so far. You can think of it as a kind of greatest hits album. For those of you who've come to look forward to new episodes dropping, don't fear. I'm coming back to be sure. I don't know the exact timeline at the moment, but I'll be sure to keep you posted along the way. And so without further ado, let's get to today's rebroadcast. And in honor of Black History Month, we're taking another listen to the episode which has enlightened me the most. It's the story of Ripley terminus of the Underground Railroad, and one of its favorite sons, John Parker, this African American former slave turned entrepreneur, committed his life to freeing and extracting those yet ensnared in the bonds of slavery. We've come a long way from those days. And yet we have so far to go. His example is one worth following. Come here, this story Hello, and welcome to Ohio folklore. I'm your host, Melissa Davies. I'm so glad you could join me. Today story centers on one small river town that stands today as a living museum. Its unsung history creates fertile ground for legendary lore. Normally, stories this extraordinary or more fiction than fact. Not this time. Today's story is devoted to a very true history, and real characters that prove larger than life. Some lore needs no embellishment from supernatural claims. This part of our Ohio History reflects universal truths that resonate with the soul. I'm talking about Rick Lee, Ohio, a once terminus of the Underground Railroad. Ripley sits right on the Ohio River about 50 miles upstream from Cincinnati. Its small town status has remained throughout its existence. Its total population has never exceeded 2800 people. And today, about 1700 residents called Wrigley home. But don't let the size fool you. The Tales you're about to hear are reflected in the historical record. This little towns role and ushering people to freedom should make us all proud as a Highlands. Stories about the Underground Railroad are scattered throughout Ohio as history. As listeners, we connect with those who yearn for freedom. We're wrapped in the tension and the danger of capture. We're intrigued By the subterfuge and the glimmer of hope found in the northward journey. What I'm about to present to you carries all of these elements. But that's not all. Be sure to stay around for the second half of today's episode, you'll learn of a man, a former slave himself, whose courage and devotion to the cause of freedom goes beyond comprehension. I'm saving the best for last. Let's start our story by hearing from a local herself. Allow me to introduce you to Miss Betty Campbell. She serves as site manager for the Rankin house. This historic structure is one of many preserve sites that once serviced enslaved people on their journeys northward. John Rankin the original owner, was a white Presbyterian minister, who aided about 2000 enslaved people on their path to freedom. His house, which sits high on a bluff above the Ohio River, was used as the fortress, a place of refuge for those who dared to cross the wide expanse come. Let's hear what Betty has to teach us. Okay, I'm Betty Campbell, and I am the site manager for the Rankin house. Our local history group, Ripley heritage, manages Rankin house for the Ohio History Connection, the state's Historical Society. I've been involved with the rank and housing our local organization has since 1981. People still have that thirst to learn more about Ohio's role winning Underground Railroad, and we're happy to share that with all of our visitors. Right. It's something to be very proud of Barry. Do you have any memories of visitors that stand out? Well, we've had several interesting visitors and a couple of stick out in my mind quite well is that good. Many years ago, we had a reporter come to the site, it was her first time coming to Ripley, Ohio, and to the Rankin house, and she was in newspaper, journalist. And when she got on site, and stood out by the Rankin house, which overlooks the village of Ripley, Ohio, the Ohio River in the Kentucky Hill, she just burst into tears. It was a pilgrimage of sorts for her and she became very emotional, and was so overcome with just the spirit of the place. And so many people tell me that they feel a spirit of the place for the role that the Rankin's had in the Underground Railroad and helping other people achieve freedom. And so that that was very moving for me, as well. Another incident, several years ago, the University of Cincinnati had some foreign students who were spending one or two semesters at the University of Cincinnati, and these were older students, and they were from African countries. And so I'm giving this is in the offseason, I'm giving the tour and everything's going well. And then we get to our question and answer session. And one of the women said, We're just so amazed at how freely you can speak about this issue. And that had never occurred to me, living in southern Ohio that what I take for granted, my ability to speak freely and tell the truth about the Underground Railroad was something that other people in the world cannot take for granted. And that was very special and really hit home for me. I'm sure it makes you realize the freedoms that we enjoy that many do not. Yes, it's not just the history story. It's a story that is as relevant today. As it was 175 years ago. I couldn't agree with you more. So I'm sure a lot of my listeners have never been to Ripley. And I was wondering if you might offer a description of what it's like to be there, what it looks like, what it sounds like, even how it feels Ripley is my hometown, and Ripley is a small community now of about 1800 people, and it sits right on the Ohio River will about an hour's drive from Cincinnati, and Ripley was founded in 1812 by Colonel James Pogue, who was a revolutionary war veteran, and he bought a lot of his ideals, when he came to Ripley, was that he had just fought for For freedom, and for supposedly American freedom, and he couldn't turn around and not be supportive of having every person become free. So he really set the groundwork for what was to come. And that was other early settlers who were also Revolutionary War veterans, some who had inherited slaves, and then came to the Ohio Country and freed their slaves, and then worked as Underground Railroad conductors. Today in Ripley, we have a charming 55 acre Historic District in downtown Ripley, part of it is along the Ohio River, and quite a few preserved homes that have many have been restored. And some were homes of some of these other early Underground Railroad conductors, and many of them have plaques and signage on their private homes telling us the stories of the Underground Railroad in Ripley, Ohio. But of course, our most two famous conductors are Reverend John Rankin, this white Presbyterian ministers who came directly in 1822. And then John Parker, a freed slave, who was a foundry man by trade, who came here in the early 1850s. And both worked as conductors. And the reason they're so well remembered as the because both of them left a written record of their deeds. Reverend Rankin, wrote his autobiography as an older man, so we have a lot of accurate information about what he did in Ripley, as an underground railroad conductor. John Parker was interviewed by a newspaper reporter in his later years. And so that reporter turned that into what was called John Parker's autobiography, and he also shared stories of helping fugitives escaped through this river town of Ripley, Ohio. Reverend John Rankin in his autobiography, he wrote that over a period of about 40 years of living on on his hillside farm, that he and his family hated roughly 2000 fugitive slaves passing through Ripley, and as Reverend Rankin wrote, I never lost the passenger, meaning Fuji does in the care of the rank and family were never caught by their owners, or by bounty hunters and taken back into slavery in Reverend Rankin was very proud of that. That is quite an accomplishment. As I understood there were a number of patrols in the area and folks trying to capture fugitive slaves to bring them back. Yes, not everyone in Ripley was sympathetic to what the Ripley Underground Railroad conductors were doing there, there was a group of men who felt that slavery was perfectly fine. And some of them worked as patrol or they physically patrolled the Ohio river shore around Ripley, looking for fugitive slaves trying to escape and if they could capture them, and take them back to their owners, or to the authorities, and there was reward money for them. I see for the fact that Reverend Rankin was able to shepherd these folks effectively. That was no small feat. No, it was not. It was not in Reverend Rankin and his wife, Jean, have a large family, they had 13 children, and nine of them were sons. And it was the nine sons as they became teenagers that were doing the physical work of moving fugitive slaves from the Ripley locations north to the next station, and then other conductors would take over and move on with the war miles, and then someone else will take over. And then eventually, for most fugitives, the goal was to try to reach Canada get to another country where the laws of the United States don't apply. So that was a goal. For most. These were dangerous times. Yeah, very revolutionary, very social justice minded. Yes. Is one of the common visuals I think people have is the story about a lantern and a window or a candle in the window being a sign. Is that one of the misconceptions? Well, no, that is actually true that Rankin and his sons do right In, in different papers, that they would keep a light of some sort, burning in one of their front windows overlooking the river. And that was used as a guide or a beacon to fugitives escaping out of Kentucky. They were told if you make it to the river around Ripley, in your escape, look for a house on the hill and widen the window. So the Rankin family did do. That is an actual fact. Oh, okay. And I seen some drone footage of the house. And it does look like it's truly sitting singularly on top of the hill, above the river. Yes, Rankin house sits alone on a crest of a hill. And you really can see a light in the window from across the river in. In Kentucky, I've been with enough. TV crews when when they were doing their piece for Black History Month, and there came remain would be across the river in Kentucky, and their producer and I would be in the ranking house with a lamp or a candle. And by cell phone, we would communicate, I want you to raise it a little bit higher, move it to the left and move it to the right. And I've seen, you know the end result in you know, at night when it's dark. There are no other lights around the rank and how can you truly can see light in the window across the river in the Kentucky? Oh, wow. Do you think if he purposely built the house with that sort of intention at that location, he needed a larger location because of his ever growing family was ending up with so to children's. Among the reasons he chose that location was to have this vantage point where he also wanted to see what was going on down in the town of Ripley and add on the river and all the Kentucky shoreline as well as people seeing them. So yes, he certainly chose that with this business in mind. Right, I could see where it would offer a vantage point for slaves on the Kentucky side of the river to see his house. But also he would be able to see maybe if there were patrol people moving about, you know, that sort of thing he would be able to he had a good view of the town. Exactly. Yes, he did. Okay. I did want to mention that both the ranking house and the Parker house are open to the public and both sides have national historic landmark designation, and that's the highest designation our federal government can give to a historic side. That means the people who lived there and or the events that took place has significance throughout the United States. So in Ripley, we're quite proud that we have in our small town, two national historic landmarks and those devoted to the Underground Railroad. Yeah, what an absolute treasure. It's hard to overstate the jewel we have in Ripley, a town that stands testament to Ohio's role in promoting freedom to those daring enough to seek it. The true value in this history in particular, is our great fortune and having a written record. As Betty mentioned, the stories I'm about to share with you come from validated accounts of the people themselves. So often, most stories about the Underground Railroad are left to hearsay tales that have been passed down orally from one generation to the next. Most people who were directly involved in these efforts purposely avoided documenting them for obvious reasons. That's why we're usually left with just the oral tellings of what happened. What we have here today, however, is the rare opportunity to know the incredible life story of one man, a conductor and extractor on the Underground Railroad. I'm devoting the rest of today's episode to this man whose life's adventures are nearly beyond belief. When I stumbled across this during autobiography, I was stunned that I had never before heard of him. He was not native to Ohio, but as among its most revered adopted sons. He overcame incredible odds to finally settle in the Free State, after liberating himself from the claws of bondage for most enslaved people seeking freedom. Finally, crossing the Ohio River was an important milestone, but it was not the final one. To ensure liberty, the enslaved had to keep moving north into Canada. After passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. This was the only way to ensure freedom from their owners. One Mr. John Parker would not continue northward. After suffering nearly fatal setbacks in his journey to freedom, he would choose to stay in the country that bore him, the country that enslaved him, the country that forsake his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He chose to stay against his own interests and those of his family. He would lead a life of outsized proportion, he would rise from his station as an enslaved child, to a successful business owner, employer and patent holder. Yet most dear to his heart were the unending pursuits he made to aid those who came behind him countless times he would risk his own life and freedom, in an effort to free others. Come hear the story of the life and times of John Parker. The following accounts of John Parker's personal life experiences are derived from his autobiography, entitled his promised land. That's what he came to call Ohio. This treasure of a story offers an intimate glimpse into how one African American man not only managed to free himself from the shackles of slavery, he then took on the institution itself and freed hundreds more. After the close of the Civil War, Parker was interviewed many times by a local newspaper reporter, who transcribed Parker's words by handwriting them. However, on the manuscripts completion in the 1880s, racist attitudes, which prevailed among publishers at large, prevented the manuscript from going to print. The handwritten account would eventually be shelved and the Duke University archive, John Parker was not well known. And the legibility of the transcript left it gathering dust. Until its final publication in 1996. We owe Stuart Seely Sprague, a professor of African American Studies at Morehead State University and Kentucky. For his painstaking work in reading, editing, and assembling the autobiography into what it is today. You can easily find it wherever you buy books. What a gift that Parker's incredible story did not die with him. By all means you should read the book. But for our purposes, let me tell you some of its main passages. To start off, I'd like you to think about your own childhood to the time when you were eight years old. For most of us that would have been around third grade. Can you picture yourself back down? Do you remember finding wiggly teeth and your attempts to extract them? The excitement of hiding them under your pillow at night? Do you remember growing out of your shoes every few months? Do you remember the thrill of a birthday party and the first day of school. John Parker was once eight years old. He had been born into slavery in 1827 in Norfolk, Virginia. But it was at this tender age that he was forcibly removed from his mother. His father was believed to have been his master. The same master had made the business decision to sell him down south as it was called. There, it was presumed that he would work day after day in the fields sentence to a life of hard labor. Parker was chained to an old man and was forced to walk from Norfolk to Richmond, a distance of nearly 100 miles. He recalled the old man's kindness as he tried to carry the weight of the chain as much as he could. Parker was overwrought with grief over the loss of his mother, and wept along the way. The old man was the only one to show him kindness during this leg of the journey. When they finally reached Richmond, Parker would soon be sold to one family, and the old man would be sold to another. Yet for some reason Parker never understood. He watched as a drunken slave trader beat the old man to death before the sale was complete. from Richmond Parker would then begin the marched Alabama. This time, he was chained to a convoy that included men, women and children. He remembers walking through wooded areas on the journey and feeling jealous of the wildlife around him. The critters who had freedom to come and go as they pleased. Once when they were forced to four to stream, the lead member felt deep into a hole and one by one, those behind him were drugged under the surface of the water. Parker could do nothing thing as the force of the chain yanked him down under the surface with the rest of them. He would regain consciousness later, after the slave traders had managed to pull the group out with the aid of their horses pulling on the chain. And the march continued. unreachably mobo, Parker would have the great fortune of being purchased by kindly Dr. Parker would later recall much appreciation for this man whose sons he would come to know on an intimate basis. It was these boys, young white men of privilege that would take it upon themselves to teach Parker to read and write. Without their father's knowledge, they provided him books which Parker read with a voracious appetite. It was illegal to teach a slave to read and write. These books open Parker's mind to the wider world, enlightening him to what existed beyond his life as a black child in slave territory. When it came time for the doctor sons to head to Yale to further their educations, Parker was granted the privilege of traveling with them as their personal servant. Yet On arriving in Philadelphia, Parker and the boys encountered abolitionists bent on freeing him. They even attempted abducting him on more than one occasion. And with that, Parker was sent back to Alabama, and the doctor. He would be forced into a life of labor, which did not suit his growing mind and intellect. What follows here is a very detailed harrowing story of Parker's eventual efforts to fleet in New Orleans, and then up the Mississippi River by stowing away and cargo ships headed north. His encounters along the way can stand as stories within themselves. Parker would eventually be apprehended and brought back to New Orleans, and left in a jail until the doctor could come retrieve him. For a time after that, he would serve as an apprentice in an iron foundry, where he would develop expert skills and the trade. The Kindly doctor would allow him to keep what income he generated there. And for the first time, Parker began purchasing his own clothes, taking pride in the fruits of his own labor. And in yet another act of ingenuity and resolve, Parker would secure an agreement with a wealthy widow by the name of Mrs. Ryder. She'd been a patient of the doctor and seemed to harbor his sympathetic views on slavery. Parker asked that she purchased him, the cost of which was $1,800 and in due time, he would pay her back to win his own freedom. It took some convincing that she eventually agreed. Parker signed a contract pledging to pay the full cost plus interest at the rate of $10 per week. He made double payments when he could, and delighted at the notion of his own freedom. Exactly 18 months later, Parker had earned it. He took no time and heading north with his documents of freedom sewn into this fast. He headed first to Jeffersonville, Indiana, where jobs and iron foundries were plentiful. But his stay there was shortened when he learned at the growing abolitionists town called Ripley on the Ohio River. Kentucky had become known as a border land, where those enslaved peoples desperate on their sojourn to freedom required assistance on crossing the river and moving onward. They face patrols of man searching for them, eager for a bounty on returning them to their masters. Parker would find his life's purpose and aiding those seeking the freedom he himself held so precious. You would move to Ripley, and join the fight. For 20 years from 1845 to 1865, Parker would not only aid fugitives and their escapes, at great personal risk, he would venture into the slave state of Kentucky and extract people. Humans owned his property and bring them forward toward freedom. Not everyone in Ripley was on board with the abolitionist movement. Parker walked the streets armed down the center of the streets. Walking along sidewalks made it too easy to be ambushed by those who might pop out of alleys and buildings. Many homes within Ripley were secretively friendly to the abolitionist movement. The most prominent was that of Reverend John Rankin, who we learned about earlier, Parker spoke of the Reverend as a quote man of deeds as well as words. Rankin's house, high on the hill above the river, stood as a fortress against all comers. Those who were sheltered within its walls enjoyed uncommon refuge. Parker's own house and iron foundry were No less remarkable a structure for this tiny town. unsettling and Ripley, this former slave turned entrepreneur, built an iron foundry, which grew to employ 25 people, both white and black. Parker would live under his own roof, his wife and six children with him. He would run a successful business and secure three patents for his inventions of farm implements. These devices would help relieve the need for human labor in the fields, and thus relieved countless slaves from back breaking work. And as remarkable as this all sounds, these were not his greatest accomplishments. Parker would later proclaim that the Underground Railroad had its origin in Ripley. In fact, he referred to the town as the terminus of the Underground Railroad. at an earlier time, during the era of the Revolutionary War, this area in and around Ripley had been the only place where slave owners from Virginia could free their slaves and face no liability. It was known as the Virginia Military District of Ohio. From then on seeds of the abolitionist movement were planted. By the time Parker moved to town, the movement was in full bloom. From this point forward, I could regale you with many heroic tales of Parker's extraction of enslaved people from Kentucky's banks. Please read the book for yourself to get a full understanding of the impact of his actions. But for brevity sake, I'll present you with just a couple of the most compelling stories. Word had made it to Ripley that a party of fugitives were nearing the Ohio River after a very long and arduous trek. By the time Parker had heard tell of it. They were only about 20 miles away from the river when their leader had been captured, leaving them helpless and alone in the wilderness. John Parker volunteered to rescue them. He placed a pair of pistols in his pockets and a knife in his belt. With the help of a local slave, he would discover the group of 10 Standing helpless in the deep woods off the Kentucky bank of the Ohio River. Some of the group had become so traumatized that they were ready to give up, others still managed to have the courage to go on. After some convincing, Parker announced it was time for the group to follow him. It was then that one of the men started wailing in fear of what was to come. Without hesitation, Parker raised a pistol to the man's head, and advised that he keep quiet and follow his lead, or he'd have to ensure his silence by killing him. After that show of force the entire group fell in and obeyed has every command traipsing through the underbrush was intensive work. But it was the only way to avoid detection from patrols that surveilled trails and roads, it was the only way forward, they had to go as quietly as possible to avoid detection. At one point, another of the man had complained of thirst and announced he was going off to look for fresh water. Parker begged him not to leave the group but the man managed to slip away. There was nothing more the group could do but keep moving. Only Moments later, the man came rushing back toward them, pursued by two white patrol officers, Parker ordered the entire group to lie down in the underbrush. They waited as the man ran on by them, followed by the sound of a shot echoing off the trees. Parker whispered to the group to remain hidden, or he'd shoot the first person that sprang up and revealed their hiding place. After what felt like hours, the group would spot demand, his wrist tied behind his back, being led by a rope attached to his captors. Luckily, he hadn't disclosed the location of the rest of them. Parker knew that time was of the essence, the group pushed on with new vigor, and they made it to the river one day ahead of schedule. Consequently, the boat which was supposed to greet them, arranged by fellow abolitionist named Tom Collins, was not there. It was then that a patrol officer spotted the group standing along the bank, but he took off because of the sheer size of the group. All knew that he would soon return with the unit of patrol officers in tow. Parker ordered the group to drop all their bundles and possessions and run along the bank in hopes of encountering a moored boat that they might take across. One woman fell and exhaustion during the rush. Parker told her to keep up if she could, but the group could not wait for her. As luck would have it, they found a boat boat with no oars in sight. During the frenzied search for them, hound dogs started banging in the distance In the patrol was closing in on them. The group piled into the boat as Parker tore up his seat to use as a paddle. In the process, he came upon the oars there within the hall. The boat was not large enough for all of them. All but two men had made it inside. They remain standing on the bank, watching as they shoved off into the river. One woman started wailing, begging that her husband be allowed to join them. It was done, that one single man, wordlessly stepped out of the boat. In an act of tremendous self sacrifice, the woman's husband ran into the water and leaped up into the boat, now seated where the young man had just been, as they made their way out into the center of the river. The group watched as the two they left behind, were apprehended. Those two unfortunate souls had been captured inside of the Ohio bank, the land that Parker would later call his promised land. The group would arrive at the opposite bank and safety and Parker would usher them to the home of James Gilliland. Five miles out of town. From then on, he never heard what more came of the lot of them. This was only one of many extractions that John Parker performed in his career as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Another story stems from an encounter Parker had with one of his white employees at his iron foundry. The employee lived across the river in Kentucky with his father, a slave owner. The employee had chided Parker about the rumors going around that he had been abducting slaves and bringing them across the river. Parker denied the claim to his employees face. However, something shifted when the employee finally challenged Parker, stating that if he were so brave, why didn't he go and steal some of his father's own slaves. It was then that Parker secretly vowed to do just that. That's it same night, Parker took a skiff across the river to the employee's father's farm. His aim was to make contact with slaves there and offer assistance in their escape. After some hairy encounters with skittish and uncertain candidates, one enslaved man agreed to go if only his wife and baby could come with him. A scheme was made for just how the deed would be done, and Parker plan to return the next week to carry it out. When the appointed night arrived, something had gone wrong. The little family was not at the designated location, and the agreed upon time. at great risk, Parker sneaked into the slave cabins and found the couple so frightened they could barely speak. Their owners had caught suspicion that something was up and had taken their baby to sleep with them in their own house. It was an insurance policy to keep the couple from any thoughts of running off. The owner had promised to shoot any person who entered their bedroom, and an attempt to take the little one. After some discussion, Parker agreed to rescue the baby from the owners clutches. He was determined not to return home empty handed. Parker took off the shoes in order to creep in silence, and instructed the husband to destroy them if he didn't make it back to destroy the evidence. If they heard shooting, they would remain in their cabin and claim ignorance of the whole affair. And with that, Parker headed for the house. His dread and his fear grew with every step. When he first arrived, he crouched on the porch, and then slipped through the kitchen door. He left it wide open to make for an easy escape. He allowed his eyes to adjust to the darkness before taking his next steps on floorboards that creeped and popped. The owners bedroom door had a large crack along the bottom, and light from a candle was streaming through it. He hesitated at the door before opening the latch. He waited until he could hear the slow rhythmic breathing of the owner and his wife sleeping soundly. Then, holding his breath, he pushed the door opened as it squeaked on its hinges. Remarkably, the couple remained heavily asleep. The man slept in a wooden chair. Next to him, were two pistols. It was then that the man adjusted himself in his sleep, and turned away from Parker. He took this as a fortunate sign, and stooped down to begin crawling toward the other side of the bed, where the infant was kept. Only as he was working toward this end, the door swung itself shut and latched loudly. Peering around the corner, Parker spotted the bundled up, baby and pulled it toward him. A Creek in the bed springs rang out as the candle extinguished, plunging the room of darkness. With no more need for creeping, Parker leaped to his feet with the baby in his arms and headed in the direction of the door. The sound of the pistols crashing on the floor, echoed on the walls of the small room. He managed to open the door with a jerk and bold it across the kitchen and out into the yard. As Parker barreled toward the river, where he was to meet with the husband and wife, bullets whizzed by his head. The three of them soon reached the riverbank where the skiff was there waiting for them. He instructed the husband to lie down in the hall, so only two adults were visible from the shore. When they made it only about a third of the way across the river, Parker could hear the voice of his employee shouting the names of the enslaved husband and wife, threatening their lives if they didn't return immediately. His threats only furthered Parker's resolve to get them to safety and onward toward freedom. When they finally reached the Ohio side, the couple realized they'd forgotten Parker shoes in the frenzy. After dropping the three of them off at a safe house, Parker's fears grew that the shoes would serve as evidence that he had been the guilty party to aid them in their escape. And sure enough, he soon heard voices outside his own home. One of them the wide employee and a band of others demanded they search his home for the fugitives. Normally, Parker refused patrols from searching his premises, but he took pleasure in allowing this group. It must have been quite a sight for him to watch as they grew frustrated in their search. The employees father soon arrived pistol in hand. After an exhaustive search of Parker's property was completed, the young employee turned to Parker saying, I believe you are over the river just the same and know where my people are. The employees suspicions were only furthered when Parker's distinctive shoes were discovered near the slave cabins. The employee came and shoved them in Parker space and declared that he would soon prove him the guilty party. He went so far as to travel from store to store looking for a merchant who would acknowledge having sold them to Parker, none would give Parker up. The employee would never return to work at the foundry. In the end, Parker would claim it's a real sense of satisfaction and having achieved what this white man his employee no less never thought possible. As I mentioned, these are only two of many harrowing conquests achieved by this remarkable man. John Parker would live on to see the fall of the Confederacy reconstruction and the rise of the Jim Crow era. He would die on February 2 1900. There in his adopted town of Ripley. his obituary reads as follows John P. Parker died at his home on West Front Street very suddenly, Tuesday morning. He had been on the street Sunday and at his place of business Monday, at five o'clock Tuesday morning, he woke his family with the complaint of feeling ill and a physician was hastily summoned. Before his arrival, Mr. Parker had passed away. A complication of diseases running back over several years had been tending to the sudden ending, and that it did not come sooner was due to the indomitable will and energy of the man who held on to life with the same tenacity with which he gripped every enterprise and success along the years that brought him up the ranks of Ripley's useful, prosperous and honored businessmen. Mr. Parker was probably the foremost colored man and our community, a man of deep thought, learning and attainments, who labored incessantly along his chosen lines of mechanical work, until he built up a name for himself with his patent tobacco screws and other devices and afforded employment for his fellow men. To the people of his own race. He was indeed a friend, and in the darker days of slavery was a strong right arm too many of them of his relations to his own family. It needed only to be said that his sons were all occupying honorable positions today in the world. They as well as his daughters, all received collegiate education's. Their prosperity is the best tribute that can be offered to the Father. Mr. Parker was not a member of any church. He believed in the supremacy and wonderful love of the Heavenly Father. And he lived out the precepts of caring for his brother and giving secret arms to the needy. Of a truth. He was a great hearted, generous man. He had been sole proprietor of the Phoenix foundry for many years. A wife survives him, also three sons and three daughters, a son and daughter in Chicago, a son and daughter in St. Louis, a son in Memphis and a daughter at home. All of the children will be here today. It was Mr. Parker's desire that his body be cremated. Whether or not this will be done will be decided later, a son is buried in Maplewood. 70 years was the span of Mr. Parker's life. I'd like to end today's episode with the words and insights of another local one, Mr. Dewey Scott. He is the docent of the Parker house, which stands today on the bank of the Ohio River. It's open to the public, we can tour the very home where Parker lived, and the foundry he built and managed. Mr. Scott has worked at this historic site for nearly 11 years. In that time, he's accumulated a wealth of knowledge, and has agreed to pass it along to us today. Come hear his story. So I was so intrigued when I came across John Parker's autobiography, and thought it's really deserved. For my listeners to hear such a compelling story. And wanted to start out by just asking what your role is, with the Parker house itself. Okay, there's Ellison. I'm the only employee, we are a nonprofit organization. I am the only paid employee, everyone else is a volunteer Parker house, and I am the docent and have been so for 10 Complete years, I'm working on my level. What are some of the typical reactions that you see that visitors have when they come? Visitors are mostly intrigued by the story of John Parker, they had no idea of the expanse of his talents, and his determination, people are just mesmerized by his all in his determination in what he did, and how he did it. And why back in that time period, which were desperate times, needs, time grew on me quite a bit different than what we're experiencing now. But nonetheless, it was desperate times back then. It's hard to even kind of wrap your brain around the tenacity that he had to face those odds and to know he was risking conscious life and limb that that he could have been re enslaved, especially for his trip back the process. Knowing that because he hated it so much to raise that three enslavement, when, in his early years, it was a driving force to be on and not via slaving longer. And to risk it back again. It's such a selfless act, and his commitment to freedom, not just for himself, but for others. It's just amazing. And so unique. I mean, of course, you know, we've heard, or at least I should say, I've heard stories of the Underground Railroad, that so many of them, they seem focused on white folks in their role. And I think, unfortunately, a lot of times, African Americans and their own stories can get pushed to the side. Which is one of the reasons why I'm so drawn to, to John Parker. There were a lot of African Americans that were in the endeavor of helping their own become free. Course. Now, the documentation is not there simply because for the most part they couldn't read or write. So therefore, you know, you can document this for posterity. So therefore, doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, just because it's not document. And we come up, we come across instance, quite a few times that we never moved before. We're always learning stuff. I like covering the same. Sure. Oh, wow. That's all on one basis. Yeah, that we, we we find a segment of something. And once it's tied together to another segment, and it becomes crystal clear. So it's like an unfolding story. Right. The John Parker foundation and took on new members with new endeavors. And a stronger effort was made. They didn't keep fighting for it. And therefore they started work on it in 97, completed New Year 2003. And they did some renovation of the structure itself, right? Oh, yeah. Okay. I'm so glad is it's preserved now so that folks can actually see it and experience it. Emergent. Yeah. Are there any misconceptions that people have ideas that are false about what it is or who John Parker was? Or things that you have to kind of educate people? About? Well, probably most of the falsehoods revolve around the the hiding the hiding of the slaves, especially in our area. The hiding of the slaves is a part that people seem to gravitate towards, when you mentioned the Underground Railroad. They want to know what rooms that you hide them in and where the tunnels and or what items are, you know, free, show me that, that the hidden displays, a lot of that didn't go on not as much as we were leads led to believe. For it didn't make sense. Being close to the river close to slave territory as we are, it didn't make sense to hide displays, for that allowed to pursuers. Mm hmm. So more of the effort was in helping them along, move them as quickly as you possibly could to the next lesson. You've had them, float them if they needed it, heal their wounds, heal their sicknesses, that all that was present, and you move them as quickly as you possibly can. The main thing is that you did feed them simply because more often than not, they were extremely hungry. For if you can imagine out there in the woods for days, with no force, he didn't he didn't have a gun, you could not there was no fishing pole. Nor did you have the time to cook a meal, you couldn't build a fire on the day or at night, because he would be detected once the fire is made. Didn't have, as I said, done or anything. So therefore, you had no way of getting input. That's a real risk of starvation. Oh, yeah. Right. So starvation wanted that then takes over. And that becomes your primary. A fun food. And, of course, if they were exposed in any way, you know, they couldn't certainly seek out beg for food or something like that, because it risks themselves out. Right? Right. Okay. Right. And even if you, let's say Solon ham out of Smokehouse or chicken out of a ruse, then once you detect it, then they would alert the county sheriff that you're in the area, and he's to bring out the dogs and once the dogs came out, you still have a 60% chance of being caught. Very difficult to lose adults. So I think for the first time, right? So someone that decided that they were going to try to escape to their freedom, faced incredible odds, starvation and danger around every corner. And then if they were caught, and were sent back to their slave owners, God only knows what the way they were. When they came back lease the lease you were in for the sound beating. Other than that, if you had received to be a threat to run again, then the wisest thing for that owner to do is to sell you down south. And you did not want to be sold down south, where therefore you're going to end up on a cotton farm. And a cotton plantation is not where you want it to be. That's where they work into death. And your chance of escaping that would have been even even very, very difficult. Not only is a distance come into play that you've got to travel towards your freedom, but the they were well guarded they were well. Those plantations were well. First personnel will keep the safe and running was high. Really makes you think about the mental anguish that enslaved folks had to go through to make that decision whether they were going to try right away The scary situation then. And then the top of all if you Let's go back to those days, there's no television. There's no radio, there's no, they couldn't read. So they weren't familiar with the newspapers. They did not know what was out there. He was going into the blind, right, like literally heading north. And that was right. You had no idea what what was that? Because you had never ventured. And there was no way of knowing what was out there, though that has made the trip before or escaped before, did not come back. As a rule, only unless you're caught, you know, then you had some kind of idea of what you're going to see out there, by listening to them tell their stories of what they experienced while they were free. But for the most part, those who made a successful escape, did not come back to tell the story to those who are still unplanned days. In the slaves to understand freedom, or to have that concept in their mind. They want them to believe that they're that the world as it exists is their world that they're in really denying their humanity kind of seeing them as just labor, producing labor and nothing more. Right. Right, the John Parker knew difference. And I mean, that he grabbed the concept of freedom early on, and as a young as a young man, within need to say, partly due to the the ability to read, and to understand the world do both city read, he was an avid reader, he read everything you use hands on. Part of what I found myself wondering about as I was reading a story was what kind of life he might have led, had he not been born alive. You know, he has the skills and the intelligence and the ingenuity and was free of having to deal with the burden. And, you know, it's hard to know. I guess what other life you would have had. But, you know, thank goodness that he took the role that he did, and that he offered the assistance to others at his own cost. Just was, there's no telling what limits he could have achieved. Not only not being a slave, but not only not being black, we're here to fight that as well, even that's no longer a slave, you still it's still the black man. And he has faced that world. Right now. If I understood right, though, he employed white men. And his foundry. Yes, he did. His largest Foundry was the Phoenix foundry. And they, He and Mr. Hood, who was a Saudi, excuse me, was a white belt. And so they employ 25 people, both black and white. And oddly enough, on the records that we've seen, pretty much split evenly. That's so hard to imagine in that day and age, and he must have had such a personality to lead a group as a black man in that day, you know, employing white man, the banks of the day, instead of the credit checks and so forth. The electronic credit, credit checks that we have to go through today, the credit checks out that day of yesteryear was the word of your neighbor. In other words, they would ask your neighbor what they thought, what what you thought of John Parker, and your credit would rely on what they thought about you. And if you've got raving reviews from your neighbor, like well, he's a great guy, he's always forth with a great big handshake and a How'd he do, and he's just a nice fella, you might get your loan. But if your neighbors did not say, encouraging things about you, then you're not going to get your loan. That's the credit check of the day. The bank's records. John Parker is having good credit and easy to loan to and on any in business endeavor that he should want to pursue. Yeah, quite a few don'ts. So by all accounts, he was a stand up guy. Right. And really intelligent and inventive or he had invented Was it some farm implements? Three in flat three. inventors are free patents. He was one of us six blacks to have a patent In the 1800s, it was very, very rare for blacks to have a bat. But he was one of six blacks to have one. And he had three all together, such a overachiever. And there's so many ways that he kind of busted through the norms. You know what was supposed to happen in those days, a man of his color and stature. It's really, really something to aspire to, in some ways. Not only was John Parker, a conductor on the Underground Railroad, he was an extractor. And there are very, very few extractors in our history, especially black ones. The most famous extractor is Harriet Tubman. He would go into Virginia and she would bring slaves from Virginia. She made 17 trips into Virginia, John Parker did much the same, he would go into Kentucky, which he called the Borderlands, and he would bring slaves from Kentucky, to Ohio, which he called Thomas lamb. This was very dangerous for had John been caught any given night fooling around over get that he, in this endeavor, one question would have been asking only one question. And that's who's got a rope? Yeah, I remember reading the story where there was a reward on its head. Right? Yeah. So you had people looking out for him. So not only did he have to do that incredibly hard task of freeing and attracting people, but he had to keep an eye out. For those that were looking for him. Right. The larger than life story of John P. Parker serves testament to what one man can achieve in the midst of oppressive forces beyond his control. By all accounts, and with the odds stacked against him, he should have lived in misery and died is just one more slave among hundreds of 1000s. And yet, he sees what was available to him. He created a path forward and would not give into despair. Both fortune and tenacity created in him the will to do what so many had never dared. And we are all the better for it. No one knows what this remarkable man could have done. Were he not burdened with the yoke of slavery? Had our forefathers not endeavored down this wicked path. Had we outlawed slavery from the start. There's no telling what Parker or countless other African Americans might have enjoyed, achieved, and contributed to society. And therein lies our greatest loss, and labeling one group of people as subhuman, in reducing their personhood to the sum of the labor they could produce. We lost out on the brilliance, the creativity, and the true potential of what we can become as a people. For all of slavery's horrors and evil, for all the excruciating pain and misery, it caused one group of people, it's marks remain. It's a legacy we're still coming to terms with. We have a long way to go. It's the hope of reaching that promised land that propels us all forward. May we learn the lessons of those who've gone before us? This concludes today's episode on the village of Ripley terminus of the Underground Railroad. I hope you've enjoyed it. If so, please consider writing a review on Apple podcasts. It helps people find the show. You can also find Ohio folklore on Ohio folklore.com And on Facebook. And as always, keep wondering