In October 1835, forty civic leaders, opposed to abolitionist Samuel May, threatened him and threw stones and eggs at the building as he gave his lectures. They placed placards around town warning people not to attend. Nevertheless, he continued. An angry mob rushed him when he began to speak. Colonel Jonathan Miller, an abolitionist and Underground Railroad agent stood up in his defense. Miller, a veteran of the Greek wars, threatened the mob with bodily harm if they persisted. The mob knew that he meant it and backed off.¹¹

Alonzo Chamberlain was 17 years old.  He likely attended some of  Samuel May’s lectures in Montpelier, Vermont, 45 miles from his home in Glover. Apparently, he was very impressed by this experience.

The presidential election of 1840

In November, 1840, Alonzo Chamberlain was eligible to cast his first vote for a U. S. President. However, he was not happy with the choice.

At the December 1839 convention, William Henry Harrison became the Whig party’s nominee. He would face the Democrat incumbent President Martin Van Buren in the general election. The Whigs named former Virginia Senator John Tyler as their nominee for vice president to attract support in the South. Their strategy was to win the election by avoiding discussion of the most difficult national issue – slavery.

Harrison actively campaigned for the office by flaunting his success in an ancient Indian battle and his southern running mate. Their slogan was, “Tippecanoe and Tyler too.” Harrison defeated the Shawnee at Tippecanoe back in 1811. That was before Alonzo was even born.

The Democrats laughed at Harrison for being too old. They called the 67 year-old candidate “Granny,” hinting that he was getting senile. One Democrat newspaper mocked Harrison: “Give him a barrel of hard cider, and a pension of two thousand a year, and, our word for it, he will sit the remainder of his days in a log cabin.”¹

The 22-year-old Alonzo could see their point. Nevertheless, the Democrats were far worse. They were pro-slavery.

Alonzo was an idealist who “possessed the qualities which usually characterize New England people – energy, industry, prudence, integrity, and loyalty to the principles of right and justice.”²

He was an American abolitionist.

“In early life he was deeply impressed by the sufferings of the black race and characterized human slavery our great national curse…. Like Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison and others of their day he had the physical and moral courage to assert his convictions of the national curse, when to do so, even in the free north, was to subject one to the grossest insult, often to imperil his life.”²

Alonzo Chamberlain shared the goals of William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips, but he did not agree with their method. Garrison had established the American Anti-Slavery Society in the 1830’s. Garrison, Phillips and others took a radical approach.

They condemned the federal constitution for its compromises over slavery and refused to link abolition with political action. They advocated national disunion rather than continued association with the slave states.³

The Liberty Party believed the U. S. Constitution was an anti-slavery document.

In 1839, there was a split in the abolitionist movement which immediately caught the attention of Alonzo Chamberlain. A group of moderates formed the Liberty Party. It was the first antislavery party. They believed that the U. S. constitution was an anti-slavery document. Therefore, they were willing to work within electoral politics to try to influence people to support their goals.

On April 1, 1840, at a national convention in Albany, New York, the Liberty Party officially adopted its name and declared abolition of slavery to be the single plank in its platform. They confirmed the nominations of abolitionist  James  G. Birney, for President and Francis J. Lemoyne for Vice President.⁴

The Presidential Election of 1840

Over eighty percent of eligible voters cast their ballets for president in 1840. Harrison won in the December vote count 234 electoral votes to Van Buren’s 60. The Liberty Party’s Birney received 7069 popular votes nationally and 319 votes in Vermont. This included the one from Alonzo Chamberlain.

Eight Survivors of the “319”

In 1900, on the sixtieth anniversary, eight survivors of the Vermont Liberty Party voters were located:

“Of the ‘immortal 319’ who voted the Liberty Party presidential ticket in Vermont in 1840, eight have been found.”⁵

The list of eight known survivors included Alonzo Chamberlain of Spencer, Iowa.

“Mr Chamberlain voted in Glover, and some of the first colored people which his family ever saw were fugitive slaves brought to his home when he was an active conductor on the underground railroad”⁵

Glover’s Underground Railroad Station

Glover, Vermont was a station of the underground railroad. Alonzo Chamberlain was a “conductor” who’s home was used as a safe house for fugitive slaves. In 1840, Alonzo lived with his parents Spencer and Millie and four sisters. These were Jeanette 29, Amanda 27, Delana 24, and Melissa 15. The activities of their young son and brother must have made some interesting dinner conversations.

I have little doubt that Alonzo continued this activity throughout his life. Not only in Glover, but also when he moved to Shirland, Ill. As shown on the map, Glover, Vermont and Shirland in northern Illinois were both on major routes of the underground railroad.

The following quote in honor of Alonzo Chamberlain indicates his passion extended to the 1860s. “Like Abraham Lincoln, he thought and said this nation could not live part slave and part free”²

September 27, 1843 Alonzo married Betsy Norris Phillips. Less than a year earlier, his sister Jeanette married Betsy’s brother Samuel.

Alonzo and Betsy moved to a farm in West Glover where they could raise their family. It also would be a perfect location for his secret activities with the underground railroad. The surrounding forests completely secluded his home and farm buildings. Their farm house was one half mile away from the road between Glover and Parker Settlement. The road then went on to Barton.

Many fugitive slaves would come from southern states by sea to Boston. They would eventually move through Vermont. Montpelier was a central Junction that split into three routes. One of these routes went through Hardwick, Barton and Troy to the Canadian border.⁶  “On the other side of that geographical line, their chains fell off as by magic under English law.”⁷

The Chamberlain Story is first to report an underground railroad station between Hardwick and Barton. Alonzo Chamberlain and his safe house location in Glover were previously unknown. The town of Glover is not listed in 2014 edition of Abolition & the Underground Railroad in Vermont by Michelle Arnosky Sherburne. This discovery was made by my research associate, Lara Chamberlain, who found the article in The Vermont Watchman, dated May 30, 1900.

Alonzo’s Home in West Glover

Alonzo Chamberlain lived in West Glover from the time he was married in 1843 to 1855. A family document written about Spencer Chamberlain gives us the location of Alonzo’s home. It says that after Spencer’s wife died in 1849: “He then sold his farm and went to live with his son Alonzo on what is now (1927) called the Milton Lyman Farm.”⁸

The Milton Lyman home and farm where Alonzo lived is still there today! It is now (2017) the Gary and Gail Lyman farm. I talked to Gail Lyman on the phone to tell her the surprising history of her home. She was very kind to talk to me about their home and farm and to help me learn more about it.

With the Lyman’s permission, I invited Joan Alexander, secretary of the Glover Historical Society to take some photos of the home and farm for my family blog, The Chamberlain Story. I am very grateful to Gary and Gail Lyman and Joan Alexander for their help and for allowing our family to learn more about this important part of our history.

Joan’s pictures will be used to present a photo tour of today’s Lyman Farm at the end of this chapter.

Working on the Underground Railroad

Alonzo Chamberlain’s activities were extremely secret. Consequently, there were no written records. That would be too dangerous. He only had to know who he could trust to deliver to his home, and where  to deliver the precious lives into another’s trusted hands.

He did not know the runaways before they showed up at his home. Nor, did he know what became of them after he passed them off at the next location.

He received no compensation or recognition of any kind. Indeed, publicity was the last thing he wanted. His only reward was to know that he had helped a fellow being one step along the road from bondage to freedom.

The Reverend Joshua Young Underground Railroad agent in Burlington wrote in a letter in 1893 of his own activity:

“The Underground Railroad was… simply the aiding and passing on from one well known and trusty agent to another, of the fugitives on their way to Canada, and the methods of keeps and concealment employed to secure their safety were as various as the instances of rescue. The chief was to devise ways and means of helping the fugitive in avoiding the central and more public places on his route to freedom… which was often done in the early hours of the morning while it was yet dark and in very strange and unsuspecting methods of conveyance.”⁷

In the northern states it was illegal to help or aid a fugitive slave. They were considered to be the property of the southern slave owner. Alonzo would be subject to severe fines or jail if he was caught. And, of course, the fate of the captured fugitive would be much worse.

In some areas there were slave patrols, police organizations affiliated with state militias. Their sole purpose was to travel the roads searching for runaway slaves. Also, bounty hunters would travel into northern Vermont if they had a lead and the compensation worth while.⁹

An experience in Vermont on the Underground Railroad

There were no records kept, so actual experiences on the Underground Railroad are hard to find. This experience of conductor Stephen Carver Boardman was recorded by his son Charles who was 13 years-old at the time in 1854. They lived in Norwich, VT, an important station on the underground railroad.

At three o’clock in the morning, a man, wife and a four-year-old child arrived at the Stephen Boardman home. A well-known abolitionist brought them and gave warning: A slave-catcher with bloodhounds was in pursuit.

They gave the family food and other necessities, and then rushed them into a cornfield to a hidden cellar. Old shoes wet with camphor were given them to wear so they would leave no scent upon the ground along their way.

At eleven am, the United States Marshal, slave-catcher, and several deputies, with two bloodhounds, arrived and demanded to search the premises. Mr. Boardman questioned their right to search without a warrant. A heated discussion between the slave-catcher and the father turned into a display of Bowie knives and revolvers. Fearing bloodshed, the marshal tried in vain to persuade the father to yield. Finally, they departed until a search warrant could be procured.

At sundown, the son following his normal routine, opened a gate so that the cows could find their way to the barn to be milked. He then left them and went to the hiding place in the cornfield. The fugitives had been in the cellar all day. Charles led them through the woods for a mile and a half to another road. There they waited for his father who drove up in his wagon at about 9 pm. He carried them twenty-five miles, and put them aboard a morning freight train. They were now in the charge of a conductor who had provided this same service many times before.¹⁰ Their next stop was Montpelier, and perhaps onto Alonzo’s safe house in Glover? In any case they were soon safe in Canada.⁹

Alonzo’s hiding place?

It is obvious that an active conductor of the Underground Railroad had to be prepared for any situation that may come up. In communication with Gail Lyman and Joan Alexander, I tried to figure the most likely place Alonzo Chamberlain might hide fugitives when necessary. I was quite intrigued with this description of a possible hiding place at Alonzo’s home in West Glover.

There is a trap door that opens up from the front porch that leads to the cellar. A set of stairs goes to the space beneath the porch and there use to be a door between the room under the porch and the cellar, but it has been boarded up. The space under the stairs is just an empty space with an opening that led to the cellar. The opening has been boarded up on the cellar side.¹¹

The front porch is on the far end of the house near the old barns. (See photos at the end of this post)

Politics of Slavery 1841-1844

At his inauguration on March 4, 1841, President William Henry Harrison gave the longest inaugural speech in American history. It lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes. The weather was cold and damp and he came down with a cold that night.

One month later, President Harrison died of pneumonia. It was the shortest term for any U. S. president. John Tyler was the first vice president to assume the presidency. The Tyler administration became more aligned with the southern Democrats on many issues including slavery.

In the General Election of 1844, President John Tyler pursued annexation of Texas as a slave state.  He hoped to undermine the unity of the Whig and Democratic parties in an attempt to stay in the White House.¹²

The Whig Party, however, chose Henry Clay as their nominee. He adopted an anti Texas annexation platform. This alienated many voters in the South and West who supported annexation. Some Whigs in northern swing states shifted support to the anti-slavery Liberty Party.¹²

Democrat Party nominee James K. Polk united the anti-slavery Northern expansionists, who demanded Oregon as free-soil, with pro-slavery Southern expansionists, who insisted on acquiring Texas as a slave state.¹²

In 1844, Liberty Party nominee James Birney received 2% of the popular vote. His 15,800 votes in New York may have thrown victory from Clay to Polk who won New York by only 5,100 votes. If Clay had won New York, he would have had the majority of electoral votes and won the general election.

Chamberlain family life in Glover, Vermont 1841-1853

November 23, 1842 Jeanette Chamberlain married Samuel Phillips. They had four boys, Spencer Chamberlain Phillips b. 26 Sept 1843; Alonzo Chamberlain Phillips b. 19 Sept 1845; Franklin S. Phillips b. 18 Dec 1847; and Harry P. Phillips b. 3 July 1851. The baby, Harry Phillips, died three weeks later 23 July 1851.

September 27, 1843 Alonzo Chamberlain married Betsy Norris Phillips. They had two children, Amanda Chamberlain b. 21 Jan 1846 and John Chamberlain b. 5 July 1849.

 

July 5, 1849 John Harry Chamberlain was born. (He was listed as John in the 1850 census, but was known as Harry Chamberlain throughout his life)

September 21, 1849 Millie French Chamberlain died, she was the wife of Spencer Chamberlain.

October 10, 1850 Delana F. Chamberlain, Alonzo’s sister, died at age 34 years, two months.

1850 U. S. Census showed a Lucy Chamberlain, age 3, living with Samuel and Jeanette Chamberlain Phillips. The identity of Lucy is a mystery. She could be a daughter of one of Spencer’s nearby relatives or perhaps a child of Jeanette’s unmarried sister Delana who died that year. Spencer Chamberlain was living with his son in Alonzo’s home during the census.

April 25, 1852 Alonzo Chamberlain’s wife and mother of his two children, Betsy Norris Phillips Chamberlain died.

December 21, 1853 Spencer Chamberlain died at age 67. He was buried at Westlook Cemetary. Remarks: “67 yrs. ‘Runner for Run Away Pond’ Son of John E. & Winona (War of 1812 f/h)”.¹⁴

The Fugitive Slave Act, September 18, 1850

The Fugitive Slave Act was part of the “Compromise of 1850.” Antislavery advocates gained the admission of California as a free state, and the prohibition of slave-trading in Washington DC. The slavery advocates received concessions with regard to slave holding in Texas and the passage of this law. It required that all escaped slaves, upon capture to be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate in this law. This law was hated by abolitionists. They called it the bloodhound law. In turn, they increased their activity in operation of the Underground Railroad.^12,13

The beginning of the Republican Party, March 20. 1854

A meeting was held in Ripon, Wisconsin on March 20, 1854. It was obvious that slavery as a single issue was not a winning strategy. Therefore, abolitionists began to develop an anti-slavery party with broad based appeal. This meeting was the beginning of the Republican Party.¹⁵

On May 30, 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act.  This allowed settlers “popular sovereignty” the right to decide if their state would be slave of free.

Alonzo and his family left Glover, Vermont on May 1, 1855. They took a stagecoach to Montpelier then caught a train to Beloit, Wisconsin. He and his family settled in Shirland, Illinois, only 134 miles south of where the new anti-slavery party was born one year earlier. It has long been known in family history that Alonzo Chamberlain was a staunch Republican. He never missed voting in a presidential election nor failed to vote for a Republican presidential candidate.

Grandpa’s old photo album

I guess I have always had an interest in family history. I remember one day, sometime in the 1950’s, my Grandma Annie Chamberlain talking with my mother. She told her about Grandpa’s (Harry Ellis Chamberlain’s) family photos and how valuable they were. They were so valuable in fact, that no could look at them. They were just too valuable!

I was twelve or thirteen at the time and had never seen a picture that was too valuable to look at, and remember looking around the house wondering were they might be. I really wanted to see those forbidden pictures! But alas, they could not be found.

It was more than thirty years later before I ever laid eyes on Grandpa’s pictures. Grandpa and Grandma had passed away and my father now had them in his possession.

In the 1980’s, I remember seeing the old, red velvet photo album. Its front cover displayed an intricate copper engraving. The picture was of a man riding though the woods on a horse. It seemed a rather strange picture for a family album but, I thought little about it.

Now (2017), I went to that album to get a scan of my great-great grandfather Alonzo for my blog. The old pages had slots that fit certain sized photographs. There were pictures of Alonzo’s second wife Lydia Blanchard Chamberlain and his two young children. These pictures were taken by a photographer in Beloit, Wisconsin.

Suddenly, I realized that this album was from the 1860’s and the original owner was Alonzo himself! The strange copper engraving now caught my full attention. Finally, I understood its significance. The rider on the horse appeared to be a fugitive slave!

A photographic tour of the Lyman farm, (Alonzo’s Farm in 1840s)

These photos were taken by Joan Alexander, Secretary of the Glover Historical Society on May 14, 2017. It was the first dry sunny day they had, had for a while. Joan commented “I was struck with the beauty of the farm…it is so secluded and private…there certainly were a lot of bordering woods.”¹¹

Her photos will take you on a tour of the farm today (2017) where Alonzo Chamberlain and his family lived from about 1843 to 1855.

Links of The Chamberlain Story related to Glover, Vermont

Chapter E3 Alonzo Chamberlain’s UGRR Media Coverage 
Media coverage on Alonzo Chamberlain and the Underground Railroad finds new information about “fugitive slave” on cover of Chamberlain photo album. Read the article from the “Caledonian Record.”

Chapter 15- The Unusual Household of Increase Chamberlain, Jr. 
In October 2014, I received an email from Joan Alexander, Secretary of the Glover Historical Society.  It was the first big clue to what my grandfather, Harry Chamberlain, was looking for 80 years before- a major break in finding Spencer Chamberlain and his parents in Westmoreland.

Chapter 16- Spencer Chamberlain and the Runaway Pond 
The story of the day the pond ran away through Glover, Vermont, June 6, 1810.

Also, see my book, Run Chamberlain, Run – Solving the 200-Year-Old Mystery of Runaway Pond and photos from the 2010 bicentennial celebration. Author Dennis D. Chamberlain answers many questions about Spencer Chamberlain’s heroic run including the path that he ran from the pond to the mill.

Chapter 17- Spencer Chamberlain in the Battle of Plattsburgh The Chamberlain family in Vermont during and after the War of 1812. Spencer Chamberlain enlisted in the Vermont 31st Infantry. Following the 31st gives us a good idea of what Spencer experienced before and during one of the most decisive battles of the war.

Chapter 19- Spencer Chamberlain’s Family Jeanette Chamberlain Phillips and her family defends Spencer Chamberlain as hero of Runaway Pond. Spencer’s family and photos in Glover, Vermont and beyond.

Chapter 20- Alonzo Chamberlain Moves to Winnebago County, Illinois.  Alonzo Chamberlain moves to Shirland, Winnebago County, Illinois. Underground Railroad in Northern Illinois. Public hanging of Alfred Countryman. Lincoln and Douglas debate popular sovereignty and the spreading of slavery. Battle of Antietam opens way for Emancipation Proclamation. William Warren in Civil War. He married Amanda Chamberlain.

For more Chamberlain history stories see “Table of Contents”, or before you leave, please click “Good Bye!”

Read The Chamberlain Story from the beginning, an unbroken chain of generations beginning in 1621. Chapter 1- Francis Chamberlain Arrives in the New World.  Or, chose any single chapter from the Table of Contents 

© Copyright Dennis D. Chamberlain, The Chamberlain Story, 2017. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the written content of this site without express and written permission from the author and owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that credit is given to Dennis D. Chamberlain and direction to  www.thechamberlainstory.com.

References:

1- America’s Story from America’s Library, http://www.americaslibrary.gov
2- Obit- Alonzo Chamberlain, Orleans County Monitor, November 3, 1902.
3- Wendell Phillips, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wendell-Phillips
4- Liberty Party, http://www.course-notes.org/us_history/political_parties/liberty_party
5- The Vermont Watchman. (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, May 30, 1900, p.4, Image 4. http://choniclingamerica.loc.gov

6-Michelle Arnosky Sherburne, Abolition & the Underground Railroad in Vermont, History Press, Charleston, SC 29403. pp.58-63
7- Abid., p.59
8- Alonzo Chamberlain Phillips, Spencer Chamberlain’s Ancestors, Unpublished document held by Chamberlain family.
9- Michelle Arnosky Sherburne, Abolition & the Underground Railroad in Vermont, History Press, Charleston, SC 29403. pp.35-36
10- Stephen Carver Boardman, http://www.genealogy.com/

11- Joan Alexander, emails May 4 and May 15, 2017.
12- The United States Presidential Election, 1844, https://en.wikipedia.org
13- The Fugative Slave Act 1850, http://www.nationalcenter.org/FugitiveSlaveAct.html
14- Glover, Vermont Westlook Cemetery, Gravestone Inscriptions & Other Genealogical Data, Glover Historical Society, Glover, VT 05839, 2nd Edition, 2002, p46. Remarks from Phillips family records, compiled by Dick Brown, based on information from various family members, Phillips family Bibles, and vital records, etc., unpubished. p.240
15- http://www.ushistory.org/gop/origins.htm