I.
Roots: Swiss Family Michael
II.
The Founding of Cooling
Springs Farm
III.
The Underground Railroad
Through Frederick County, Maryland
IV.
The Potomac-To-Doubs Route of the
Underground Railroad
V.
How the Michael Family Became
Underground Railroad Operators
VI.
Underground Railroad Station:
Cooling Springs and Its Spring House
VII.
Christmas, 1855: Freedom Seekers at Cooling Springs
VIII. Other Freedom Seekers Who Passed Through Cooling Springs and
Nearby
IX.
Michael Ownership of Cooling
Springs In Underground Railroad Times
X.
Legacy Established: Post-Civil
War Family Work In Racial Equality
XI.
Evolution of the Cooling
Springs Family, Homes and Farms
Click
here for an expanded version of the table of contents.
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I. |
ROOTS: SWISS FAMILY MICHAEL |
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Franz Ludwig Michel, Explorer of
the New World |
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The Founding of New Bern, North
Carolina |
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The Four Immigrant Brothers: First Generation in America |
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Indentured Servitude |
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Was the Michael Family at One
Time Jewish |
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II. |
THE FOUNDING OF COOLING SPRINGS
FARM |
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Andrew Michael and His Family
Arrive in Frederick |
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Andrew and Barbara Witness the
Birth of the Nation |
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Did Andrew Know the First
President of the Nation-to-Be |
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From Blacksmith to Land Holder |
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Andrew Michael II |
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III. |
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD THROUGH
FREDERICK COUNTY, MARYLAND |
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The National 280-Year Legacy |
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The Funnel |
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West Virginia Becomes a Union
State |
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Pro-Union, Anti-Slavery
Sympathies In Loudoun County, Virginia |
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Routes Crossing the Potomac River
from Virginia to Frederick County and Nearby |
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Routes From Doubs North to
Monrovia, New Market, Frederick and Hagerstown |
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Fifty-Eight Underground Railroad
Sites in Frederick County, Maryland |
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On to Pennsylvania |
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IV. |
THE POTOMAC-TO-DOUBS ROUTE OF THE
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD |
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Landmarks of the Potomac-to-Doubs
Route and Environs |
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The Importance of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad to the Underground Railroad |
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Underground Railroad Sites
Adjacent to the Potomac-to-Doubs Route |
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The Michael Family as Underground
Railroad Station Operators |
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Strong Underground Railroad
Sympathies Lie Alongside the Michael Farms |
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The Contiguous Chain of Michael
Farms of the Potomac-to-Doubs Route |
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Rev. Thomas Henry, Conductor on
the Potomac-to-Doubs Route |
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Other Conductors Around Cooling
Springs Farm |
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V. |
HOW THE MICHAEL FAMILY BECAME
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD OPERATORS |
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Political Backdrop of the Times |
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Frederick County As Mirror of the
National Struggle |
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Frederick County as Civil War
Nexus |
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Namesakes In the Line From Andrew
Michael I |
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The Sufferings of the Michael
Family and Cooling Springs From the Civil War |
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The Split in the Michael Family
Over Slavery |
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Official Records and Family
Accounts of Ezra Michael Freeing the Slaves of His Father |
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Quadruple Confirmation of the
Family Split Over Slavery and Freeing the Enslaved |
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The Will of Andrew Michael II
Confirms the Four Oral Traditions |
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The Influence of Margaret
Dudderar Michael |
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Ezra and Margaret Found an
Integrated Church Used in the Underground Railroad |
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Elected Officials In the Extended
Michael Family |
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Slavery Conspicuously Omitted in
the Samuel Michael Chronicle |
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Michaeltown |
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VI. |
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD STATION:
COOLING SPRINGS AND ITS SPRING HOUSE |
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The Setting |
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The Original Home During the Time
of the Underground Railroad |
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The Actual Station: The Spring
House |
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Physical Evidence of Spring House
Use As an Underground Railroad Station |
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VII. |
CHRISTMAS, 1855: FREEDOM SEEKERS
AT COOLING SPRINGS |
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Escape Through Cooling Springs |
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The Wanzer Party Detours Ten Miles
to Get to the Michael Farms |
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Did the Michaels Guide the
Wanzers and Grigbys to Safety in Pennsylvania |
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The Courage of Frank Wanzer Once
Again |
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Man of Two Countries |
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The Distinguished Descendants
of Frank Wanzer |
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The Living Legacy of the Wanzers,
Grigbys and Michaels |
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VIII. |
OTHER FREEDOM SEEKERS WHO PASSED
THROUGH COOLING SPRINGS AND NEARBY |
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James Curry Passes Through the
Michael Farms |
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John Jones |
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A Party of 39 Freedom Seekers From
Loudoun County, Virginia |
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The Parents of Charles E. Misner |
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The Family of Mark Lewis |
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Joseph Blanhum |
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John Thompson |
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Charles Bentley |
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Captured Runaways Along the
Potomac River and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal |
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IX. |
MICHAEL OWNERSHIP OF COOLING
SPRINGS IN UNDERGROUND RAILROAD TIMES |
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Genealogical Chart |
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Michael Family Ownership of
Cooling Springs During Underground Railroad Times |
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Andrew Michael II Inherits Cooling
Springs and Passes It On to His Son Ezra |
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Ezra Owns Cooling Springs Farm
During Its Use In the Underground Railroad |
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Chronology of the Underground
Railroad, Abolition and Michael Involvement |
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X. |
LEGACY ESTABLISHED: POST-CIVIL WAR
FAMILY WORK IN RACIAL EQUALITY |
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150 Years of Michael Family
Employment of All Races |
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The Michael Family and Racial
Equality In the 20th Century |
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The 1940s- A Michael Takes One
More Slave to Freedom |
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The 1950s- Integration of the United
States Air Force |
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The 1960s- Integration of the
Methodist Church |
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The 1970s and 1980s- Integration
of the Michael Family |
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The 1990s- The Founding of Common
Ground |
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An American Legacy: The Ninth
Generation of Michaels and Beyond |
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XI. |
EVOLUTION OF THE COOLING SPRINGS
FAMILY, HOMES AND FARMS |
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The Family |
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The Homes |
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The Farms |
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A Note on the Doubs Methodist
Church and Family Clergymen |
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Legacy at Work: Cooling Springs
Farm for the Public Benefit in the 21st Century |
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Bibliography |
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Index |
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End Notes |
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The
Underground Railroad was a 280-year American phenomenon which served as the
boldest and most active foil to slavery. Because the Underground Railroad was clandestine, its
safe-house operators and conductors — black and white alike — who
ushered people to freedom had to keep their roles hidden. If caught rendering aid to freedom
seekers, they could be and were arrested, convicted of interfering with
supposed property rights, and sentenced. All who rendered aid risked all they had to do so, and
some lost all they had for doing so.
Because those who rendered aid could still be prosecuted long after
the Civil War and the Underground Railroad ended, most took their noble
secrets to the grave. One
who did not was Marion Michael, great-grandfather of the author, who could
not be prosecuted because he was a minor when he rendered aid. Marion Michael told of the work of
his parents and siblings on the Underground Railroad, and his descendants
keep this family history quite alive today. An American Family of the
Underground Railroad is told by the
descendant of the actual safe-house operators who owns the very farm where
his ancestors sheltered freedom seekers. Cooling Springs Farm might be the sole remaining Underground
Railroad safe-house in the nation still owned by the same family that used it
in Underground Railroad times. An
American Family of the Underground Railroad provides to general reader and scholar alike a wealth of detail about
more than fifty Underground Railroad sites in a single county with a map of
the sites, and identifies several safe-house operators and a key Underground
Railroad conductor there. With a bibliography of nearly 150 sources, this
book is one of the most thoroughly documented works on any single Underground
Railroad safe-house. An
American Family of the Underground Railroad helps reawaken the nation to its defining heritage of the Underground
Railroad. |
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With a
bibliography of nearly 150 sources, this book is one of the most thoroughly
documented works on any single Underground Railroad safe-house. An
American Family of the Underground Railroad provides a bibliography of 145 sources used in researching the
Underground Railroad and the involvement in it of Cooling Springs Farm, the
Underground Railroad safe-house which is the subject of the book. These sources range from the 1702
letters of an ancestor of the author who was one of the first Europeans to
explore western Maryland, to a 1786 letter of George Washington, to the
landmark Uncle Toms Cabin of Harriet
Beecher Stowe to contemporary academic research. An American Family of the Underground Railroad is annotated with over 200 end notes and over 1,000 index notations, and provides the casual reader and the Underground Railroad researcher alike a close idea of how one particular Underground Railroad route and its safe-houses were researched, and also conveys a general approach to researching the Underground Railroad. |
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The illustration on the cover of An American Family of
the Underground Railroad is a painting
commissioned by Allen U. Nelson,
the great-great-grandson of Underground Railroad freedom seeker Frank
Wanzer portrayed driving the wagon in the painting. The painting which Mr.
Nelson commissioned is patterned after an engraving appearing in The
Underground Railroad, the 1872 landmark
history by William Still. This
image is perhaps the most often-seen Underground Railroad illustration
remaining from the nineteenth century. This illustration depicts the successful defense of Frank
Wanzer and the other freedom seekers against an assault by slave catchers on
Christmas Day, 1855, at Hoods Mill, Maryland. Earlier that morning, the six freedom seekers departed
Cooling Springs Farm, the Underground Railroad safe-house which is the
subject of An American Family of the Underground Railroad, and the previous day, Christmas Eve, had escaped
enslavement from Oak Hill Plantation in Virginia, a few miles south of
Cooling Springs Farm. The full
story of this escape, the shelter provided by the family of the author, the
successful journey of the Wanzer party to freedom in Canada, and the
reconnection of the two families after 150 years is told in the book. Mr. Nelson has kindly permitted his painting to be used on
the cover of An American Family of the Underground Railroad. Nice
24-by-32 posters of this painting may be ordered for $20 from Mr. Nelson by
writing to him at 1464 Belmont Street, Washington, DC, 20009. |
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The author thanks the following
historians and others who very kindly provided a wealth of well-researched
information and plenty of encouragement during the writing of An American Family
of the Underground Railroad.
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Peter
H. Michael is the owner of Cooling Springs Farm, one of the few
still-existing Underground Railroad safe-houses, and is the seventh
consecutive generation of his family there. The Michael family founded Cooling Springs Farm in
1768. The
great-great-grandparents of Mr. Michael and their children used the farm and
its spring house as a haven for Underground Railroad freedom seekers through
the end of the Civil War. Mr.
Michael and his family have opened Cooling Springs Farm as a historic site to
the public and to a number of national and local Underground Railroad and
historical organizations for tours and study. He is a co-founder and officer of Friends of the
Underground Railroad, an international organization which promotes the memory
of the Underground Railroad and the preservation of remaining Underground
Railroad safe-houses and routes. Peter
Michael is the founder and president of Michael Strategic Analysis, an
award-winning firm practicing strategic planning, market analysis, and
economic damages expert witness testimony. He is a graduate of the University
of Maryland which he attended on academic scholarship, took his MBA at the
Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley where his
thesis was published as the cover story of a magazine of national
circulation, and completed a post-graduate program in demography at Princeton
University which he attended on a Population Council fellowship. Before founding Michael Strategic
Analysis, Peter Michael served as an advisor to the government of Korea for
The Population Council, and later as a United Nations officer directing an
eight-nation project with ministries of health. Peter Michael is the author of Out of This World, an expose of United Nations failure to adequately assist
poor nations in lowering their population growth rates. He is
married to Vicki Michael, a painter and civic leader. The couple resides at Cooling Springs
Farm near Adamstown, Maryland. |
Click below to e-mail to
Write to
Cooling Springs Farm
2455 Ballenger Creek Pike
Adamstown, Maryland, 21710
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The Cooling Springs Farm web
site provides information on the history, public programs, tours and contact
information of Cooling Springs Farm, and a guide for researching the Underground
Railroad. Click here to go to the Cooling Springs
Farm web site. |
Click here to arrange a tour of the Cooling
Springs Farm Underground Railroad site.