In 2005 the Oldham County History Center launched its Underground Railroad Program beginning with archaeology research at the Bibb Escapes/Gatewood Plantation near Bedford in Trimble County. Since that time the history center has expanded its educational programs and continued to grow and become the leading museum in Kentucky on Underground Railroad research, education and activities about this important period of American history. The following summarizes the history center’s activities to date.
The J.C. Barnett Library & Archives received this special designation because of the rare slave court records and the Mount Family Papers that detail slavery actions through the Oldham County Courts, LaGrange City records, census and family records, and the Waters Collection.
The J.C. Barnett Library and Archives was once the home of James and Amanda Railey Mount who built and lived in the home from 1840 to 1888. James Mount was the local jailor for Oldham County and Amanda Mount’s great aunt, Jane Randolph Jefferson, was Thomas Jefferson’s mother. The Mounts were slave holders and their artifacts included slave ownership papers, bounty hunter documents and printed ads for slave escapes.
In Spring 2021, the Oldham County History Center designated a room in the J. Chilton Barnett Library & Archives as the Mount Parlor to educate visitors about the activities of the Mount family and enslaved people that lived in the household. Local interior designer Breck Morgan has carefully selected period furniture and artifacts from the museum collection, that help interpret the culture of families that lived in Oldham County during the Antebellum era. As visitors enter the parlor they will experience a day in the life of the Mount family with children’s toys on the floor, knitting and sewing items on the couch and slave papers, including bounty hunter documents and runaway advertisements for slave captures at Jame’s Mounts secretary desk. Lithographs, oil paintings and a rare funeral “hair” wreath adorn the walls.
In 2022 the Oldham County History Center was gifted the oil portrait of Kentucky Statesman, Henry Clay by well-known Antebellum portrait artist, Joseph Bush. The painting was donated by Eleanor Bingham Miller. Henry Clay, known as Kentucky’s Statesman” was actively involved in the politics of slavery in Kentucky and nationwide. Clay was a good friend of James and Amanda Mount and visited their home several times.
From 2005-2023 the Oldham County History Center held ongoing field schools and public archaeology investigations that focus on this site where enslaved Henry Bibb (1814-1854) resided with his wife and daughter. His final escape from this site in Kentucky led him to a difficult and life threatening journey which he completed as a free man, raising money to establish a refugee colony for slaves in Canada. He helped to organize many abolition conferences and wrote his own slave narrative: The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave.
In 2009 The Oldham County History Center received a support grant from the Kentucky Arts Council to produce Voice of the Fugitive at Actors Theatre in Louisville. Playwright Carridder M. Jones wrote the script for the Oldham County History Center. Laura Early directed the production to sell-out crowds throughout the weekend. The play premiered at the Victor Jory Theatre of Actors Theatre on May 29, 30 & 31, 2009.
Between 2014 -2018 the Oldham County History Center renovated the campus, Peyton Samuel Head Museum and J.C. Barnett Library and Archives. Exhibits on Henry Bibb, the Taylor families, Richard James Oglesby and the Waters Collection (Hermitage Farm) were installed to emphasize how slavery operated in Oldham County during the Antebellum years.
In honor of the International Underground Railroad Month in September, the Oldham County History Center launched the Thirty Days of Stories on the Underground Railroad in Kentucky. In September 2020, the Oldham County History Center directed “30 Days of Stories on the Underground Railroad in Ky” produced by the Oldham Podcast Network. Thirty readers were selected from across the United States and Canada. Authors, researchers, museum directors, students, politicians, teachers, parents and history lovers participated in the production. Many of the stories were expanded from “A Tour on the Underground Railroad along the Ohio River” (2020) by Oldham County History Center director, Dr. Nancy Theiss. Other stories come from the published works of Dr. Afua Cooper, Carolyn Smardz Frost, Robert Bell and Caroline Miller.
Delia Webster was a conductor for the Underground Railroad (UGR) and risked her life many times as she persisted in assisting enslaved people in Kentucky to their freedom. A native of Vergennes, Vermont, Webster was a teacher, and had attended Oberlin College in Ohio (a well-known center of abolitionist and underground railroad activity). From Oberlin Webster procured a teaching job at the Lexington Female Academy in Lexington, Ky. In her first venture with another conductor, Calvin Fairbank, they rescued Lewis Hayden and his family from Lexington, taking them to Maysville under disguise. On their return, both Webster and Fairbank were arrested and thrown in prison. Webster entered the Kentucky State Penitentiary on Frankfort on Jan. 10, 1845 and received a pardon on Feb. 25, 1845. As the first white woman jailed in the state prison, she had received an outpouring of public sympathy for her dismissal. Her partner, Calvin Fairbank, ended up serving “four years, ten months and twenty-four days” before receiving his pardon on August 23, 1849. (Fairbank, p. 57) In 1845 Webster purchased a six-hundred-acre farm with some other partners, in Trimble County, almost directly across from Madison, Indiana which was a prominent route for the UGRR. In 1854 she was arrested by the Trimble County Sheriff and spent some miserable weeks during a very cold snap in the primitive jailhouse during late Winter/early Spring. A few months later she was to be indicted again but she escaped across the river to Madison. From her escape to Madison, Newton Craig, Webster’s jailor of the Kentucky penitentiary, sought her out for prosecution. Sheriff Rea in Madison captured Delia and put her in the Madison Jail upon which a hearing was set to determine whether it was legal for Webster to be sent back to Kentucky. It was determined that Webster not be returned to Kentucky which was met with cheers and support from local citizens who had attended the trial. Delia continued to operate her farm in Trimble County until 1868 when it sold. She eventually moved to Iowa and died at the home of her niece in 1904.
The Oldham County History Center sponsors the Delia Webster Interpretive Program which presents the life of Underground Railroad Conductor Delia Webster as portrayed by re-enactor Terry Chambers. The presentation is available to schools, clubs and community organizations. To find-out more about this outreach presentation call the Oldham County History Center at 502.222.0826.
The Oldham County History Center has helped with several archaeology projects that surrounding the county’s participation in the Underground Railroad. These projects have led to two locations being added to the National Park’s Designation as the Underground Railroad Network.
This pre-Civil War cemetery spans burials over 200 years through 1998. A tour of this burial site is a lesson on the birth of the Civil Rights movement as visitors learn about local African Americans who made a difference locally and globally. Tours must be scheduled ahead by contacting the Oldham County History Center
The Oldham County History Center provides several options for learning more about the Underground Railroad and how it operated during one of the most exciting periods of American history. School visits can select various options for hands-on learning including a walking tour of the historic African American Cemetery, two blocks from the Oldham County History Center. Check our event calendar on this website or give us a call for more information and scheduling.
