New Philadelphia and the Underground Railroad

New Philadelphia and the Underground Railroad. . , Frank McWorter and his family worked all of their lives to gain freedom and abolish slavery. McWorter purchased freedom for his wife in 1817 and himself in 1819. He traded his saltpeter operation in 1829 so that son Young Frank could return a freed man from Canada, where he sought refuge in 1826. Lot sales in New Philadelphia helped fund freedom for at least ten additional family members, but required return trips to Kentucky and the risk of capture by slave catchers, who were notorious for returning free people to bondage., Simeon Clark came to New Philadelphia with his family in the early 1840s. Eventually he left New Philadelphia to live in Quincy, where he associated with well-known abolitionists before the Civil War. He later declared that for 25 years, he had, "time and again, assisted his flying brothers from the pursuit of the negro-hunter and his bloodhounds.", Despite its proximity to the slave states of Missouri and Kentucky, New Philadelphia became a place of refuge and source of assistance for freedom seekers. Family oral tradition recalls that McWorter family members not only aided freedom seekers, but sometimes accompanied them to Canada., [Photograph of] Simeon Clark, Local resident, Clarissa Shipman, wrote in a letter that neighbors captured and were paid $1200 for the return of four freedom seekers who may have been en route to New Philadelphia: "There seems reason to believe that the fugitives are enticed to flee here. They came as far as Barry, as though they were among friends. There they were set upon and returned. I think we have fallen on evil times."