Historic Fort Steuben
March 3, 2009 at 1:39 am | Posted in History in the Ville, Places in the Ville | 2 CommentsTags: historic fort steuben, jefferson county, northwest territory, ohio, ohio river, ohio valley frontier days, old fort steuben, steubenville
Last week I wrote about the Underground Railroad exhibit at Historic Fort Steuben. This week I thought I would give more information about the actual fort.
In 1748, The King of England granted The Ohio Company 200,000 acres of land, and the exploration and survey of what is now Jefferson County began.
Surveyors were sent by the Continental Congress to map the Northwest Territory. The first state to be formed from the Northwest Territory was Ohio, the seventeenth state of the United States of America.
Ohio Historical Marker Photo by J L Marini
In 1786 the First American Regiment built Fort Steuben along the Ohio River to protect the surveyors from Native Americans.
Two hundred years later in 1986, the non-profit Old Fort Steuben Project, Inc. was formed to reconstruct the fort on its original site.
The daily life of the men are depicted in the blockhouses and include officer quarters, enlisted men quarters, quartermaster, artificers shops, the hospital and the commissary.
Fort Steuben Photo by J L Marini
Captain John Francis Hamtramck named Fort Steuben after Prussian Drillmaster Baron von Steuben and Steubenville, Ohio derives its names from the fort.
Fort Steuben offers historical and educational programs. It has a Museum Shop and an Herb Garden, planted and maintained by the Victorian Garden Club of Steubenville and Wintersville.
An outdoor concert series is held each summer at The Louis Berkman Amphitheater and is a great place to spend summer evenings listening to a variety of music.
Each June thousands of visitors from all over the U S attend the annual “Ohio Valley Frontier Days,” with reenactors, crafts, food, and music. For more information and a schedule of events contact Historic Fort Steuben, 120 S. Third Street, Steubenville, OH 43952, (740) 283-1787. Or visit their website at www.oldfortsteuben.com
Historic Fort Steuben Museum Shop and Exhibits Photo by J L Marini
The Ohio Valley and the Underground Railroad
February 26, 2009 at 2:05 am | Posted in Events in the Ville, History in the Ville | Leave a commentTags: ohio valley, steubenville, underground railroad
This weekend I visited Historic Fort Steuben in Steubenville, Ohio to see “The Underground Railroad: Journey to Freedom” exhibit on display throughout the month of February. The exhibit tells the story of Ohio’s integral part in ridding the nation from African-American slavery before the civil war.
Abolitionists who were Quakers, Presbyterians, Covenanters, Methodists, free blacks, and former slaves operated the railroad. It was an elaborate secret network, which stretched from the Deep South all the way to Canada.
photo in public domain
The Underground Railroad was not a real railroad but used railroad terms as metaphors. Agents helped slaves find the railroad, known as the Freedom or Gospel Train, bound for Canada or Heaven, The Promised Land. Financiers of the railroad were stockholders and guides served as conductors. Stations or depots were hiding places in secret rooms of homes or barns. Slaves were passengers or cargo, that traveled by night to avoid slave catchers. They used the big dipper as a map whose bowl, known as the drinkin’ gourd, pointed to the North Star.
Slaves in the South knew if they could get to Ohio, it meant freedom and hope of a better life. The Ohio River was The Mason-Dixon Line, the boundary between the Northern Free States and the Southern Slave States. The fugitives had to cross the Ohio River, the Jordan, to get to the abolitionists, a band of angels, waiting to help them to freedom. An estimated 40,000 slaves passed through Ohio on their way to Canada. Ohio had over 700 safe houses or stations and over 3,000 miles of trails or train routes, more than any state.
Although Ohio was a free state, federal law allowed the capture of escaped slaves in free territory. Anyone who hindered an arrest, harbored or concealed a fugitive slave paid a penalty of $500. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 raised the penalty to $1,000, imposed prison sentences, and required citizens to help federal marshals arrest fugitive slaves.
photo in public domain
Abolitionist Levi Coffin, who lived in Cincinnati, became know as the President of the Underground Railroad. He and his wife helped more than 3,000 slaves escape to freedom.
Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave and a renowned conductor on the railroad, returned to Maryland 19 times and rescued her 70-year-old parents, other family members, and around 300 slaves. She led many refugees to St. Catherine’s British Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada.
Known as the Moses of her people, Tubman had a $40,000 bounty on her head, the highest bounty for any worker in the Underground Railroad. Tubman, who was never captured, said, “On my Underground Railroad I never run my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”
Harriet Tubman photo in public domain
For more information on the Underground Railroad exhibit visit Fort Steuben, 120 S. Third St. Steubenville, Ohio 43952 or call 740-283-1787. Visit their website at www.oldfortsteuben.com
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