Cass County and the Underground Railroad

Long before the Civil War, Cass County was one of the most important Underground Railroad havens in the Midwest. It started around 1829. Quaker families from Ohio and Indiana settled here, opposed to slavery on religious principle. They came alongside free Black pioneers, especially in Calvin, Penn, and Porter townships. Together they built a network that sheltered and moved freedom seekers. Most of these people were escaping slavery in Kentucky and coming up north. By the time of the Civil War, an estimated 1,500 had passed through. Many continued to Canada. Others stayed to farm. Calvin Township grew into a prosperous free Black farming community — a remarkable thing in that era.

The county’s most famous moment came in 1847. Tipped off by a spy, thirteen Kentucky slaveholders rode north. They seized nine African Americans from local Quaker farms. Word spread fast. A crowd of Black and white residents gathered at a mill in Vandalia to block the kidnappers. By some accounts there were more than 300 of them. Rather than let the captives be hauled south, the community insisted the matter go before a judge. The freedom seekers were allowed to testify, and they won. The “Kentucky Raid” became national news. It helped harden the divisions of the era. A few years later came the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Michigan answered with its own Personal Liberty Act.

That history is still very much alive around Vandalia. The Underground Railroad Society of Cass County has restored the Bonine House and Carriage House. That was the home of two of the era’s stationmasters. The Society also maintains the nearby Bogue House. It runs a self-guided driving tour of some twenty Underground Railroad sites. A state historical marker in Vandalia tells the story. The sites are part of the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom.

Underground Railroad Society of Cass County · urscc.org · the restored Bonine House is at 18970 M-60, Vandalia (tours seasonal, roughly June through September)