Research Library

John C. Elliott, “The Fugitive Case”

Elliott's published account, first appearing in the Hamilton Telegraph and reprinted by the Hamilton Intelligencer, describes “Mr. Carpenter, the person to whom the negro was hired,” and separately mentions a nephew of the enslaver. Elliott also defended Officer Bruen against the enticement allegation.

“More About the Fugitive Slave Case”

A separate August 3 follow-up preserves claimant-side testimony concerning the escape and the Kentucky-to-Ohio movement. The project keeps this article separate from Elliott's statement because the accounts contain distinct details that should not be silently merged.

John M. & Martha Jane Cochran to B. B. Rusk

An 1847 Hamilton County deed conveys approximately 130 acres in Section 19, Township 3 of the Miami Purchase to B. B. Rusk for consideration appearing as $1,950. The legal description gives the project a specific antebellum property to map and compare with Siebert's later description of Rev. Rusk's property.

Thomas E. Thomas Letters

Correspondence associated with Rev. Thomas E. Thomas, including material relevant to Presbyterian antislavery organizing, the 1844 Hamilton convention, and the broader church network.

United Presbyterian Church, 1816-1962

Detailed congregational chronology with McDill, Davidson, the January 27, 1853 trustee transaction involving John Woods, later building history, and antislavery institutional memory.

Marjorie Graeff, History of the Presbyterian Church of Hamilton

Preserves the congregation's later historical narrative, including the 1834-1835 period in which the church is described as passing strong resolutions against slavery.

Presbyterian Church Historical Manuscript

Handwritten local history preserving early building, Wallace, Monfort, settlement, and nineteenth-century church chronology.

Life of the Rev. David McDill, D.D.

Edited by Rev. Marion Morrison. A major source for McDill's Hamilton ministry, antislavery theology, denominational activity, editorial work, and reproduced selections from McDill's own writings.

Thomas E. Thomas, Review of Dr. Junkin's Defence of American Slavery

A direct Hamilton-connected antislavery publication by Rev. Thomas E. Thomas. The project treats this as an important primary printed source for the theology and arguments circulating in Hamilton's Presbyterian network.

James H. Rodabaugh, “Miami University, Calvinism, and the Anti-Slavery Movement”

A major secondary study of Miami University's Presbyterian identity and its role in the antislavery movement. Rodabaugh documents Robert Hamilton Bishop's reform background, the formation of the Miami University Anti-Slavery Society on June 12, 1834, student antislavery speaking and publication activity, and the later work of Miami graduates Thomas E. Thomas and Joseph Glass Monfort within the southern Ohio Presbyterian antislavery movement.

Use as institutional and intellectual-network evidence, not as proof that Miami University itself operated as an Underground Railroad station.

Christian Intelligencer

The Hamilton periodical edited in the Associate Reformed milieu carried sustained antislavery theological material beginning with its first year of publication. Individual issues and articles are being added as direct scans are verified.

A History and Biographical Cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio

A major nineteenth-century reference for Hamilton institutions, churches, civic figures, the hydraulic system, early settlement, and Butler County communities. It is valuable for corroborating local relationships and geography.

The Centennial Anniversary of the City of Hamilton, Ohio

A nineteenth-century Hamilton publication useful for civic history, institutional chronology, local biographies, and checking later traditions against a source produced close to the Underground Railroad era.

Stephen D. Cone, Biographical and Historical Sketches

Cone's large Hamilton history is a key near-contemporary reference for residents, institutions, churches, civic offices, businesses, transportation, and later recollections of antebellum events.

Official Butler County Courthouse History

Butler County Probate Court's history of the public-square courthouses, including the 1810 structure, the 1817 courthouse remodeled in 1837, and the present courthouse completed in 1889.

County Buildings, Butler County, Hamilton

A nineteenth-century engraving shown by the Butler County Fair history project appears to depict the earlier courthouse with its portico and clock tower. Original publication provenance is still being traced.

Alfred J. Anderson Was the Voting Barber

Brad Spurlock's detailed profile of Anderson brings together his abolitionism, voting-rights case, civic activity, Black convention leadership, and the 1857 African Methodist church confrontation.

Ohio Memory: Hamilton Intelligencer Collection

Browse digitized issues of Hamilton's nineteenth-century newspaper yourself. This is one of the most important places to continue digging beyond the articles already cited on this website.

Internet Archive

Many nineteenth-century Hamilton, Butler County, Presbyterian, and denominational books are available in full text here. The library links directly to specific volumes when we have verified them.

Keep Digging

Names and spellings vary across nineteenth-century records. Try alternate forms such as McDill/MacDill, Monfort/Montfort, Rigden/Rigdon, and McKeen/McKean when following a lead into an archive.

Butler County Jail, Hamilton

Historic photograph of the jail associated with the 1854 freedom seeker case. Photograph by George Cummings. Shared for the project with assistance from Brad Spurlock, Smith Library of Regional History and Cummins Local History Room, Lane Libraries.