Fayette County & The Underground Railroad
By: Dr. Norma D. Thomas
Imagine, if you will, living life in your village, raising a family, interacting with friends and community members, celebrating cultural milestones like rites of passages, raising crops, tending to the animals, and making sure to thank your God every day for another day. And then the raiders come, take you away in chains and eventually you are looking at your land for the last time as you are loaded with hundreds of others on a ship that could hold as many as 700 men and women many who spoke languages different from you but all who were terrified of their future. Between 10-15% of those forcibly transported during what is described as the “Middle Passage” died before reaching their destination. Some died of disease; many took their own life.
You are one of the ones who made it, only to find yourself on the auction block like cattle, stripped naked and inspected by people who looked so different from the people in your village. Your life is now in the hands of someone who “owns” you-freedom becomes a distant memory but the longing for it never goes away. That owner determines the quality of your life going forward, how humanely you are treated, your ability to have an intact family or your children being sold for profit or because of punishment, never to be seen again.
A Fayette County resident who was born into slavery, was Mrs. Julia Montgomery who died on September 30, 1940, and was born April 10, 1834. She was believed to be the oldest person in Fayette County at the time of her death. She was born in Rockingham County, North Carolina, and worked in the tobacco and cotton fields and split shingles. She displayed her scars to her family, which she stated she received when tied to a post and whipped. Some of her descendants still live in Fayette County.
There were some enslaved people who decided to risk their lives and escape the plantations to northern states and into Canada. These escape routes were called the Underground Railroad and the individuals and groups who aided those trying to escape were called Conductors.
The first census of Fayette County in 1790 noted 13,425 persons of whom 282 were enslaved and 48 were noted as other free non-white persons. In the 1800 census out of 29,169, 323 were free persons of color while ninety-two were slaves, and in the 1810 census out of 24,714 persons, 590 were free persons of color and twenty-eight were enslaved.
Uniontown’s proximity to the Mason-Dixon line contributed to the substantial number of slaves being transported through the area. Over time, the anger of the area residents grew concerning slaves being roped together and transported over what is now Route 40.
Southwestern Pennsylvania was the location of several Underground Railroad sites. Uniontown was a key sanctuary on the Underground Railroad, known for its size and significant Black population, which made it a natural place of refuge for escaped slaves seeking freedom. Baker Alley is one of the more well-known sites and often referenced as Little Hayti (Haiti). There were several communities in the country known as Little Haiti (various spellings) in honor of the island where slaves were successful in gaining their freedom. The folklore is that slave catchers were afraid to venture into Baker Alley.
The alley was home to a house where freedom seekers were hidden under floorboards, shielded from slave catchers. Sometimes music was played to mask any noises that might give away the location of those escaping to freedom. There is a marker that was placed at the corner of Main Street and Baker Alley in Uniontown in connection with the annual Black Homecoming in Uniontown in 1996 which was also the bicentennial of Uniontown’s founding. There is also a stone marker in Baker Alley closer to the location of the house previously mentioned. Both markers read as follows:
Often it is thought that conductors on the Underground Railroad were all white. In Uniontown, many of the conductors were Black. Mr. Eli Curry is frequently mentioned. He is buried in Clearview Cemetery. Joseph Black is another conductor along with Howard Wallace, John and Joseph Jackson, Powhatan McClure, Jacob Miller, Thomas Walker, Joe Wares, Cato Webster, Joe Benson, and John Payne.
Howard Wallace published a document in 1900 describing his recollections of the Underground Railroad called Historical Sketch of the Underground Railroad. In it he states:
In the first place it was a mystery how they found their way North through the mountains, wilderness, and deep ravines, but many of them told me that the North Star was their guide. Some by another guide, the moss on the trees always growing on the North side of trees. They were trying to come North, hearing that the Northern states were free. They encountered great hardships—were weeks on their journey, were greatly fatigued, starved, and sustained bruised feet from walking. They would walk all night and hide under rocks and brambles during the day. It took great courage, and many times they were almost ready to give up and die.
John Wesley AME Zion church, founded in the late 1840’s, through the oral history, notes its connection to Baker Alley through a tunnel that led from Route 40 into the church to the house on Baker Alley through which slaves escaped. The bell that was in the church’s bell tower was rung each time an enslaved person made it to Baker Alley. The tunnel has not been authenticated but the tunnel does exist. Although the current church was built in 1913, the original stone structure was built in 1857 and there was an even older building on the site when the church was organized. St. Paul AME Church, Uniontown also played a key role in the Underground Railroad. It is the oldest Black congregation in the Uniontown area. Many of the Black conductors on the Underground Railroad were members of either St. Paul AME Church or John Wesley AME Zion Church.
The history of these denominations originates with the abolitionist freedom history started by Richard Allen, who founded Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia that broke away from the segregation of the Methodist Church. It continued with the founding of AME/AME Zion churches in Brownsville and Uniontown in Fayette County which along with other church networks formed along the National Road, served to support not only the churches and their members but also aid freedom seekers coming to Southwestern Pennsylvania from Maryland and Virginia. They offered spiritual support and personal assistance such as meals, places to rest, and guidance to the next safe house.
In addition to routes through Brownsville and Uniontown, Turkey Nest was another location on the Western slope of Chestnut Ridge. Turkey Nest was noted as one of the last places in Pennsylvania where escaped slaves were captured and returned to captivity. Baxter's Ridge, located in Springhill Township, Fayette County, was a significant station on the Underground Railroad during the 19th century. Named after Henry Baxter, a former Virginia slave owner who freed his enslaved people upon moving to Pennsylvania, the station provided refuge for people escaping slavery. Mr. Baxter provided a home and land to his former slaves upon his death.
An enslaved person who made his way to freedom through Uniontown was Mr. Charles A. Garlick, originally known as Abel Bogguess was born in West Virginia on the plantation of Richard Bogguess. His mother, and five of his younger siblings escaped the plantation after the plantation owner died. Although his will dictated that enslaved people on the plantation be freed, the will was contested. Eventually they made their way to Uniontown but the mother and all the siblings except Charles returned to the plantation as members of the Bogguess family who found them, convinced them to return as the will would stand. Charles Garlick, who took the last name of a benefactor, eventually made his way to Canada. His sister and mother came back to Fayette County. His sister is buried in Clearview Cemetery. His mother, who lived to be over one hundred years old when he authored his book, lived with his sister in Smithfield, Pennsylvania and is possibly buried in Clearview Cemetery but is not listed.
As you can hear from this story, Fayette County had a significant connection to the Underground Railroad and for helping formerly enslaved people gain their freedom.
1790 Fayette County, Pa. Census-Head of Households with Free Persons of Color and Slaves. Transcribed by G.D. Dixon. https://pagenweb.org/~fayette/slave_records/1790fpoc.pdf
1800 Fayette County, Pa. Census –Head of Households with Free Persons of Color and Slaves. Transcribed by G.D. Dixon https://fayette.pagenweb.org/slave_records/1800fpoc.pdf
1810 Fayette County, Pa. Census –Head of Households with Free Persons of Color and Slaves. East End United Community Center. (no date). Celebrating the Black History Project. https://www.fayetteblackhistory.org/Retrieved December 1, 2025).
East End United Community Center. (no date). Celebrating the Black History Project. https://www.fayetteblackhistory.org/Retrieved December 1, 2025).
Garlick, C. (1902). Life including his escape and struggle for liberty of Charles A. Garlick. Born a slave in Old Virginia. Who secured his freedom by running away from his master’s farm in 1843. Library of Congress. https://archive.org/details/charlesagarlick.
Johnston, J.G. (August 4, 1920). History of Uniontown’s old colored people. Morning Herald, Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
No Author. (February 24, 2024). Rivers of Steel: The Underground Railroad in Southwestern Pennsylvania. https://riversofsteel.com/the-underground-railroad-in-southwestern-pennsylvania/. Retrieved November 15, 2025).
No Author. (October 1, 1940). 106-Year-old woman is dead. Morning Herald Standard.
Palmer, R. (no date). The Underground Railroad and Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Self-published.
Storey, W. (2001). Uniontown and Fayette County: Another look. Dunbar, Pa.: Stefano’s Printing. P. 109.
Thomas, N. (publication pending). The history of African Americans in Fayette County, Pennsylvania: The hidden story.
Wallace, H. (1990). Historical sketch of the Underground Railroad from Uniontown to Pittsburgh. Self-published. Donated to the Washington County Pennsylvania Library.
