Underground Railroad

The underground railroad crossed the Mason Dixon line into Southampton Twp. near Town Creek then followed Black Valley until it crossed over the Bedford-Chambersburg Turnpike at Mt. Dallas. From there the runaways would hide out at the Stuckey Farm in the lower Snakes Spring Valley before continuing into Morrison's Cove. Once there, the Keagy family who would hide them until it was safe for them to venture northward.

Just off Route 326S beside of Town Creek you'll find 13 slave graves, slightly off to one side of the Iames family graveyard marked only with fieldstone. Here also lies, Richard Iames, one of the original thirteen settlers of Southampton Twp. who was buried there in Dec. 1758 (second oldest tombstone with a date in Bedford Co.)

According to David Bradley, who's novel "The Chaneysville Incident" says that when these 13 runaway slaves were discovered at the old mill by bounty hunters, they chose to take their own lives instead of being recaptured. They included Harriette Brewer and son, William and two girls, Cara and Mara. Lydia, Juda, and a baby that was born along the way, Jacob, Linda and her three sons, Daniel, Robert, and Francis and an old man, named Azacca. The last entry of C.K.'s journal was Dec. 23, 1859. The Iames family then buried the "freed" slaves in their own family graveyard, where you can see the stones today.