Page 7, col. 2 & 3:

Route 29 is made up in part of the route of the most famous railroad in hustory, the Underground Railroad. This road led from the South to Westfield, and Westfield at that time was perhaps more widely known than any other town in Indiana, even including the capital. Westfield was a station, and the route then ran through the Tomlinson neighborhood, by Chester, on north, to Bakers Corner, to Boxley, then through Tipton county to New London, then on, by way of the North Star to Canada, and freedom. About 1856, this Underground Railroad was in full operation. The trains were smokeless and noiseless, but they ran day and especially at night. For Example, the Rhoads family, a colored family, whose son, John Rhoads, later was a character well known in the county and especially at Deming, came up from the South and located just southeast of Bakers Corner, near what was later the Jones Sawmill. The Southern planters located the colored family and came after them. The old man Rhoads' name was John, too, and his wife's name was Lou Ann. There were three girls, Jane Ann, Sallie Ann and Phoebe Ann. The slave driver located the house and he and his fellow slave hunters surrounded the house, but windows and doors in the old log house were barred. Lou Ann Rhoads was full of plans, and she used a straw tick, burning a little straw at a time, to keep the fugitive slave hunters from coming down the chimney. The old man Rhoads struck at one of the men who tried to get in the door, and the slave drive left some of his hair and blood on the door jam. The colored family kept the drivers at bay until morning, and then some of the Bakers and Hodsons and other neighbors heard the disturbance and rallied to save the negroes.

Then it was agreed to go to Noblesville and have a trial of the case. They put the negroes all in a covered wagon, and started to Noblesville. They got down to old Tile Factory Corner and then some of the white men who were interested in the freedom of the Negros said the negroes should be tried at Westfield, instead of Noblesville. The slave owners said, no, they should go to Noblesville and one of them said he would shoot anybody who tried to change the course of the caravan, for it was a caravan by by this time, for the community had been aroused. Daniel Jones, who lived at Westfield, had arrived, and he jumped up on the wagon, took the lines and said, Let him shoot! Asa Beals was also present and he was an orator of some force, and he continued a speech to the people as they journeyed on toward Westfield. Westfield was finally reached, and everybody including the "innocent" Jones and Beals, looked in the wagon for the colored family but they had "all leaked out." Mr. Moon, father of Anna Maria Beals, was one of the men who helped the negroes "leak" from the wagon:

Many other tragic incidents are told of he Underground Railroad days, but now they are merely laughable, showing kind f stuff of which the railroaders of that day were made and they give a distinct hale of honor to all who had a part in the organization, financing, building and management of the famous old Underground Railroad.