Mifflin House

Mifflin House. Underground Railroad to Civil War. Directly in front of you stands Hybla, which Jonathan and Susanna Mifflin, a Quaker couple, built about 1800. Mifflin, a Revolutionary War captain (afterward a colonel), and his wife hid freedom seekers on their estate and helped them escape across the river into Lancaster County, often in conjunction with free black boatman Robert Loney. Once across, Susanna Mifflin's brother William Wright, a leading abolitionist in the river region, welcomed them and ensured their safe passage to other conductors farther east. Their secret activities were part of an informal network that came to be called the Underground Railroad. Samuel W. Mifflin inherited Hybla in 1840 on his father's death. He and his wife Elizabeth continued their Underground Railroad operations until moving away in 1846, as Samuel constructed bridges for the emerging railroad industry., By the time of the Civil War, Jacob Huber and his family lived in Hybla. During the Gettysburg Campaign, Confederate soldiers marched to Wrightsville to seize the bridge to cross into Lancaster County and march to Harrisburg. Pennsylvania state militia and other Union troops, augmented by 53 free black men from the river region, resisted the Confederate advance for a short time before withdrawing across the nearby covered bridge to Columbia. Confederate artillery fired multiple explosive shells at the Union lines from the yard of Hybla during the engagement on June 28, 1863., "I would jump into the river rather than return to bondage." , "Ensor Sam" Berry, Baltimore Co., Maryland, slave who passed through Wrightsville, (captions) , Samuel Wright Mifflin (1805-1885), portrait by James R. Lambdin Courtesy Mifflin descendant Duncan Ely, Hybla, late 19th century - Courtesy York County History Center