Quaker Farmers on the Underground Railroad
Lancaster County, PA

Henry and Esther Bushong
Bart Township:

Above: Henry Bushong (1783-1870) and Esther (Valentine) Bushong (1799-1867). Image source: Rick Bushong, Bushong United

 The Farm on Google Street View:

Above: The Bushong farm on Google Maps Street View

 “I’m not afraid of thee, nor thy little gun.”
Quote: Farmer Henry Bushong, 1851
During the Christiana Resistance:

Above: The Bushong farm on a PASDA map (Statewide color 2017, arrow added)

 

Above: The Bushong Farm on the 1864 map of Eden Township (today’s Bart Township)

 Bart Quaker Meetinghouse:

Above: Jacob and Esther Bushong are buried at the Bart Friends Meetinghouse. located four miles from their farm. 401 Quaker Church Rd, Christiana, PA

 1. A gang accused Hamilton Moore of being a runaway slave, so he was taken to the home of Henry Bushong “who assisted him to a place of greater security.” The Bushong family was living in Adams County during this time, before moving to Lancaster County.
2. William Wallace, whose former slave name was “Snow”, lived in a tenant house with his family on this Bushong farm, and worked on the farm. In 1835 slave hunters seized the Wallace wife and child and jailed them in Lancaster. Sheriff Dave Miller helped them escape from the jail.
3. In 1832 a woman escaped the South with her child, and was taked to the Bushong farm. She had been whipped with a cat-o-nine tails for refusing to reveal the location of her other escaped child.
4. ca. 1832 Green Staunton and Moses Johnson escaped from Maryland. By 1837 Green Staunton was living in the Bushong tenant house. He was captured and jailed in Lancaster. Henry Bushong and other local abolitionists paid $675 dollars for his release. Johnson later continued on to Canada. The abolitionists secured Moses Johnson’s release for $400.
5. Samuel Bond led a group of 22 freedom seekers north to John Russell’s farm, Drumore Township, and from there they went to the Bushong farm.