Blairsville in Indiana County, Pennsylvania — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)
The Blairsville PRR Depot
The Blairsville Area Underground Railroad
Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, September 15, 2022
1. The Blairsville PRR Depot Marker
On April 1, 1858, Blairsville's former physician Dr. Robert M. S. Jackson and his travelling companion Mr. Peter Lesley encountered a mob of Blairsville citizens attacking two slave catchers and a deputy US Marshal. The men had come to Blairsville in search of Richard Newman, a runaway slave from Virginia. Jackson and Lesley, good Christian men and ardent Abolitionists, interceded on behalf of the slave catchers whom they feared would be killed. Although beaten and pelted with rocks and sticks, the three men were saved by the combined efforts of Jackson, Leslie, Blairsville's Mayor C.C. Davis, and Constable Wilkinson.
After the slave catchers were driven out of town, Dr. Jackson and Mr. Lesley continued to the Blairsville PRR Depot. Inside, the men encountered Blairsville's Vigilance Committee. Lesley wrote to Theodore Parker of the event: "In the Depot were concealed thirty and in the barn fifty armed men, and the woods were full. Three thousand good and true men could be concentrated in thirty-six hours at any point in Indiana County."
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Abolition & Underground RR • African Americans • Railroads & Streetcars. A significant historical date for this entry is April 1, 1858.
Location. 40° 25.871′ N, 79° 15.649′ W. Marker
this page online
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Dr. Edward Emerson & Dred Scott (approx. 0.2 miles away); Site of Former Associate Reformed and United Presbyterian Churches (approx. 0.2 miles away); George Wilkinson and the Kidnapping of 1858 (approx. 0.2 miles away); Blairsville Veterans Memorial (approx. ¼ mile away); Blairsville Armory (approx. ¼ mile away); Chester C. Davis and the Kidnapping of 1858 (approx. ¼ mile away); St. Peter's Episcopal Church and Rectory (approx. ¼ mile away); Samuel McCune Safehouse (approx. ¼ mile away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Blairsville.
Related markers. Click here for a list of markers that are related to this marker. Passport to Freedom: The Blairsville Area Underground Railroad
Also see . . .
1. The 1858 Kidnapping of Richard Newman.
On April 1, 1858, Mr. Stump, an enslaver of Hampshire County, VA, bounty hunter Peter Heck, a tailor, of Uniontown, PA, and Frost, the Deputy Marshal for the Western District of PA(Submitted on November 28, 2022, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)entered Blairsville in search of Richard Newman, former slave. Mr. Newman had been living openly in Blairsville for nearly 6 years. As the men walked East on Market St., Stump spotted Newman in the doorway of Mullholland's dry-goods store… Quickly, a crowd of angry residents surrounded the kidnappers. They succeeded in freeing Newman. As the mob's calls for hanging the men grew, a nervous Stump fired his pistol into the crowd…
2. Marker detail: Blairsville PRR Depot Postcard
2. Biographical Memoir of Peter Lesley.
He became assistant on the first Geological Survey of the State in 1839 and drew the geological map that was published in the Final Report of that Survey twenty years later; he was extensively consulted as expert in various geological problems, but particularly in connection with coal, iron and oil; he was director of the Second Geological Survey of the State and closely superintended all of its work.(Submitted on November 28, 2022, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)He was an outspoken advocate of the abolition of slavery even during the critical years just before the War of the Rebellion, when the avowal of such principles in Philadelphia placed a man close to ostracism by the orthodox.
3. Dr. RMS Jackson.
Was a physician born in Alexandria,(Submitted on November 28, 2022, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)Pennsylvania on April 20, 1815. A graduate of Jefferson Medical College in 1838, he opened a practice in Blairsville, PA in 1842. After 10 years in Blairsville moved his practice to Cresson, Pennsylvania, where he operated medicine for several years in his Allegheny Mountain Health Institute. Jackson was known for his scientific attainments, especially as a botanist and geologist. On April 20, 1861, Jackson was commissioned as a medical surgeon with the 3rd Pennsylvania Infantry.
3. Marker detail: Peter Lesley
Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, September 15, 2022
4. The Blairsville PRR Depot Marker
Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, September 15, 2022
5. Blairsville Pennsylvania Railroad Depot building
Credits. This page was last revised on November 28, 2022. It was originally submitted on November 28, 2022, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This page has been viewed 143 times since then and 19 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. submitted on November 28, 2022, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
