The Underground Railroad
inspired immediate confidence. Said one who looked: "If that is not a
good man, there is no use in the Lord writing His signature on human
countenances." Even in early youth, honors which he never sought, were
pressed upon him, as he gave assurance of ability commensurate with his
worth. He was sent to the Legislature of Pennsylvania for five sessions,
where he became the personal friend of the Governor, Joseph Ritner, and
also of Thaddeus Stevens. At the request of the latter, he consented to
occupy the position of Secretary to the Board of Canal Commissioners,
and two years after, by the wishes of Mr. Ritner, took a seat in the
Canal Board, becoming a co-worker with Thaddeus Stevens. Here ripened a
friendship, which afterward became of national importance, for although
a nature so positive as that of Thaddeus Stevens could scarcely be said
to be under the influence of any other mind, still, if there were those
who exercised a moral sway, sustaining this courageous republican
leader, at a higher level than he might otherwise have attained, Elijah
F. Pennypacker was surely amongst them. Almost antipodal as they were in
certain respects, each recognized the genuine ring of the other, and
admired and respected that which was most true and noble. The purity,
simplicity and high-minded honor which distinguished the younger, had
its effect on the elder, even while he smiled at the inflexibility which
would not swerve one hair's breadth from the line of right. The story is
often told, how, when this young man's conscience stood bolt upright in
the way of what was deemed a desirable arrangement, Stevens one day
exclaimed: "It don't do, Pennypacker, to be so d----d honest."
Pennypacker stood his ground, and the life-long respect which Stevens
ever after awarded, proved that _he_ at least, thought it _did_ do.
When it became clear to his mind, that a great battle was to be fought
between Liberty and Slavery in America, Mr. Pennypacker felt it to be
his duty to turn aside from the sunny paths of political preferment,
into the shadows of obscure life, and ally himself with the
misrepresented, despised and outcast Abolitionists, ever after devoting
himself assiduously to the promotion of the cause of Freedom.
Notwithstanding his natural modesty, here as elsewhere, he took a
conspicuous position. At home, in the local Anti-slavery Society of his
neighborhood, he was for many years chosen president, as he was also of
the Chester county Anti-slavery Society, and of the Pennsylvania State
Anti-slavery Society.
Soon after his retirement from public life, he united himself with the
Society of Friends, but was much too radical to be an acceptable
addition. For a long time he was endured rather than endorsed, and it
was only when such anti-slavery feelings as he cherished became
generally diffused throughout the Society, that he found the unity he
desired and expected. Whatever may have been his trials here or
elsewhere, he found a rich reward for his faithfulness in the
intellectual and moral growth which he attained by association with the
most advanced minds of the time, and he has often been heard to say that
no part of his life has been more fully and generously compensated than
that devoted to the Anti-slavery cause.
His home, near Phoenixville, Chester county, Pa., was an important
station on the Underground Rail Road, the majority of fugitives
proceeding through the southern rural districts of Eastern Pennsylvania,
passing through his hands. At all times he was deeply interested in
their welfare, and in his hospitality towards them, had the entire
sympathy and co-operation of his family, they, like himself, being
earnest abolitionists, but his more important duty of influencing public
sentiment in favor of freedom, overshadowed his labors in this
department. In steadfastness and integrity he stood beside Findley
Coates and Thomas Whitson, a trio who will long be remembered in their
native State.
So long as Dr. B. Fussell resided in the northern section of Chester
county, he and Elijah F. Pennypacker, were companions in Anti-slavery
and other reform labors, as well as in business on the Underground Rail
Road. Differing widely in temperament and mental structure, these two
men were harmonious in spirit, and a close bond of sympathy and
affection existed between them. It was a mutual pleasure to work as
brothers, and afterward to rejoice together in labor accomplished. One
of the last visits which roused the flickering animation of the dying
physician, was from this friend of more vigorous years, and the voice
which gave fitting expression to the worth of the departed, at his
funeral, was that of Elijah F. Pennypacker.
Like that of the highest grade of men everywhere, his appreciation of
woman has ever been keen and true, and demanding the full rights of
humanity, he makes no distinction, either on account of sex or color. In
his own family, he has always encouraged the pursuit of any occupation
congenial to the person choosing it; whether or not, it were a departure
from the routine of custom, and in educational advantages he has ever
demanded the widest possible culture for all. Wherever known, he is
estimated as a pillar in the temperance cause. Gentle, modest, courteous
and benignant, he combines, in a remarkable degree, strength and
tenderness, courage and sympathy. At one time, holding at bay the powers
of evil and baffling the most determined opponents by his manly
adherence to right; at another he may be found yielding to impressions
bidding him to seek the source of some hidden private sorrow, and with
delicate touch, binding up a flowing wound, or offering himself as the
defender and protector of such as may need his brotherly care. Obedient
to these impressions, he rarely errs in his ministrations, and whether
his errand be to remonstrate with the evil doer, setting his sins
clearly and vividly before him, or to strengthen and encourage suffering
innocence, he is alike successful. Men, whom he has warned in reproof
when it cost the utmost bravery to do so, have become his confiding
friends, and have been known afterward to entrust him with heavy
pecuniary responsibilities, and to point him out to their children as an
example worthy of imitation. Those whose griefs he has frequently
softened, have laid upon his head a crown of blessing whiter than the
honors which come with his silver hairs, and all with whom he comes in
contact in business, in duty, or in social intercourse, acknowledge the
presence, the wide usefulness and influence of the upright man.
The memories of the choice spirits he used to meet in the Anti-slavery
gatherings; their mutual and kindly greetings; the holy resolves which
animated them and made the time hours of exaltation, now serve to
brighten the pathway of his declining years, and to throw a halo around
the restfulness of his home, as in peace of mind he looks abroad over
his beloved country, to see millions of enfranchised men beginning to
avail themselves of its pecuniary, educational and political advantages,
and beholds them starting on a career of material and spiritual
prosperity, with a rapidity commensurate with the expansive force of the
repressed energies of a race.
STATION MASTERS ON THE ROAD.
WILLIAM WRIGHT.
MEMORIAL.
William Wright, a distinguished abolitionist of Adams county,
Pennsylvania, was born on the 21st of December, 1788. Various
circumstances conspired to make this unassuming Quaker an earnest
Abolitionist and champion of the oppressed in every land and of every
nationality and color. His uncle, Benjamin Wright, and cousin, Samuel B.
Wright, were active members of the old Pennsylvania Abolition Society,
and at the time of the emancipation of the slaves in this state were
often engaged in lawsuits with slave-holders to compel them to release
their bondmen, according to the requirements of the law. William Wright
grew up under the influence of the teachings of these relatives. Joined
to this, his location caused him to take an extraordinary interest in
Underground Rail Road affairs. He lived near the foot of the southern
slope of the South Mountain, a spur of the Alleghenies which extends,
under various names, to Chattanooga, Tennessee. This mountain was
followed in its course by hundreds of fugitives until they got into
Pennsylvania, and were directed to William Wright's house.
In November, 1817, William Wright married Phebe Wierman, (born on the
8th of February, 1790,) daughter of a neighboring farmer, and sister of
Hannah W. Gibbons, wife of Daniel Gibbons, a notice of whom appears
elsewhere in this work. Phebe Wright was the assistant of her husband in
every good work, and their married life of forty-eight years was a long
period of united and efficient labor in the cause of humanity. She still
(1871) survives him. William and Phebe Wright began their Underground
Rail Road labors about the year 1819. Hamilton Moore, who ran away from
Baltimore county, Maryland, was the first slave aided by them. His
master came for him, but William Wright and Joel Wierman, Phebe Wright's
brother, who lived in the neighborhood, rescued him and sent him to
Canada.
In the autumn of 1828, as Phebe Wright, surrounded by her little
children, came out upon her back porch in the performance of some
household duty, she saw standing before her in the shade of the early
November morning, a colored man without hat, shoes, or coat. He asked if
Mr. Wright lived there, and upon receiving an affirmative reply, said
that he wanted work. The good woman, comprehending the situation at a
glance, told him to come into the house, get warm, and wait till her
husband came home. He was shivering with cold and fright. When William
Wright came home the fugitive told his story. He came from Hagerstown,
Maryland, having been taught the blacksmith's trade there. In this
business it was his duty to keep an account of all the work done by him,
which record he showed to his master at the end of the week. Knowing no
written character but the figure 5 he kept this account by means of a
curious system of hieroglyphics in which straight marks meant horse
shoes put on, circles, cart-wheels fixed, etc. One day in happening to
see his master's book he noticed that wherever five and one were added
the figure 6 was used. Having practiced this till he could make it he
ever after used it in his accounts. As his master was looking over these
one day, he noticed the new figure and compelled the slave to tell how
he had learned it. He flew into a rage, and said, "I'll teach you how to
be learning new figures," and picking up a horse-shoe threw it at him,
but fortunately for the audacious chattel, missed his aim.
Notwithstanding his ardent desire for liberty, the slave considered it
his duty to remain in bondage until he was twenty-one years old in order
to repay by his labor the trouble and expense which his master had had
in rearing him. On the evening of his twenty-first anniversary he turned
his face toward the North star, and started for a land of freedom.
Arriving at Reisterstown, a village on the Westminster turnpike about
twenty-five miles from Baltimore and thirty-five miles from Mr. Wright's
house, he was arrested and placed in the bar-room of the country tavern
in care of the landlady to wait until his captors, having finished some
work in which they were engaged, could take him back to his master. The
landlady, being engaged in getting supper, set him to watch the cakes
that were baking. As she was passing back and forth he ostentatiously
removed his hat, coat, and shoes, and placed them in the bar-room.