by Jack Buescher

Although there is a local legend in Glendale that the institution of slavery was fought by many who volunteered as “conductors” on the Underground Railroad there is little hard evidence to identify the families involved.

To say that smuggling runaway slaves was a secret and unlawful effort is an understatement. These crusaders against the tyranny of slavery risked everything to follow their beliefs. If caught, tried and convicted, any person found guilty of transporting runaway slaves could loose their property and be jailed for substantial periods. On one side it was a moral issue and on the other side it was a legal and property rights issue. It is no wonder that even after the Emancipation Proclamation, the shadowy liberators did not step forth to identify themselves and their heroic deeds. Thus, except for one documented case, we have no concrete information on the local Underground Railroad efforts.

The one local case that we are sure about is that of the Rev. John Van Zandt (1791-1847), who at that time lived in a small brick house on a hill known as Mt. Pierpont , overlooking the Miami-Erie Canal and the Millcreek Valley at the southeast end of what was to become Glendale . This house became known as the “Eliza House.”

For years this home was pointed out as one of the most active “stations” on the underground railroad, and for his zeal in protecting and transporting slaves, Mr. Van Zandt was fined and imprisoned, his farm sold, and he was reduced to poverty.

One of the many stories about this abolitionist, who sincerely believed that slavery was wrong, took place on April 23, 1842. Mr. Van Zandt and a group of eight runaway slaves he was transporting were caught by two men from Sharonville seeking rewards for the return of fugitive slaves. One slave escaped but the others were apprehended and returned to their owners in Kentucky . Van Zandt was arrested, tried and convicted in a legal battle that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court under the provisions of the Fugitive Slave law of 1793. He was imprisoned, and fined $1200, four hundred of which was the reward for his capture. Salmon P. Chase, who later became a U.S. Supreme Court justice, defended Mr. Van Zandt. Van Zandt had to sell his lands to pay his fines and legal bills and he died impoverished after serving time for his actions.

This was the legal case of the day, vividly reported in the local press. It is believed that Harriet Beecher Stowe, living in Cincinnati at the time, used this event as a background for her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, an anti-slavery novel that sold hundreds of thousands of copies. It exposed the horrors of slavery and it was one of the major publications to possibly hasten the start of the Civil War.

One of the characters in her book was John Von Tromp modeled after the real John Van Zandt. In the novel, Van Tromp offered refuge to Eliza and her child in his house. And so the Van Zandt house was associated with the novel and became known, locally, as the Eliza House.

There are many stories about Glendale ’s involvement with the Underground Railroad and many of the families in the village were known to have been ardent abolitionists but the only tangible evidence may be the rumored tunnels and forgotten underground rooms and cells that may have been resting places for those oppressed, black fugitives striving for freedom in Canada.