Daniel and Hannah Gibbons called the Bird-in-Hand area home, operating a sizable farm along what is today Beechdale Road. While the area today is dominated by an Amish farming population, in the 1800’s, in the run-up to the Civil War, the area was a Quaker enclave. Today, the Quaker Meeting House still stands, a surprisingly small stone structure which is easy to spot along Route 340 (the Old Philadelphia Pike.)
Daniel and Hannah Gibbons are famous for one reason. They were vehemently outspoken against the institution of slavery in the United States. Died-in-the-wool abolitionists, they helped an impressive number of freedom-seekers through the Underground Railroad, providing people with a place to sleep, new clothing, food, even new names and, essentially the 1800’s equivalent to fake IDs, to help them in their flight to freedom.
But this story isn’t about the Gibbons. Instead, I write about Oliver Gilbert. For many years, historians and local enthusiasts have debated just how many people the Gibbons aided. Was it a few hundred? A few thousand? The Lancaster Historical Society prefers to quote between 900 and 1,000. But truth be told, nobody really knows for sure.
Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. Before that, slavery was legal, and escaping it was not. Aiding those who were escaping was also illegal. We romanticize the Underground Railroad today, but the whole idea of it was completely illegal from top to bottom in its day.
Naturally, records were scant, and purposely not kept. Daniel and Hannah Gibbons were rumored to have a little black book of sorts in which they recorded those souls whom they aided in their flight, but according to legend the little black book was burned as a way to ensure slave-catchers who were descending upon their farm were not able to track their human quarry.
Thus, it was extremely exciting to me that the very local historians and genealogists who haggle over the history of the Underground Railroad locally were able to name, and trace, a man who absolutely did escape to freedom by way of Lancaster County, and specifically in doing so, visited the Gibbons farm.
His name was Oliver Gilbert. He was 16 years old when he spent one night at the Gibbons farm. The year was 1848. He had fled a plantation in Clarksville Maryland, where he had been enslaved. He had been told of Daniel and Hannah’s “safe-house” by none other than Thaddeus Stevens, the Lancaster-based attorney and congressman who was perhaps the most famous abolitionist in America at the time. Mr. Gilbert had visited Mr. Stevens’ home and law office to seek legal advice on ensuring his flight to freedom was successful.
When Gilbert walked down the lane to the farm, still one of the more impressive tree-lined lanes in Lancaster County today, he was carrying a note from Thaddeus Steves to present to Daniel and Hannah Gibbons, identifying himself as one who was in need of their specific help. They welcomed him, gave him new clothes as his attire was easily identifiable as “southern” and was a dead giveaway that he was a fugitive. They also served him dinner and ate with him, coaching him on assuming a new identity.
He had to wake early the next morning, as his pursuers were not far off his trail. Initially, he made his way to New York, where he first settled as a free man. He later moved to Massachusetts and lived his final years in Philadelphia. He married, had six children, and in his final years traveled the country giving lectures about his experiences. He died in 1912. His descendants have set up a website with information about his life, which can be read at ocgilbert.com.
— Clinton Martin