COLUMBUS, Ohio — Nestled on a residential street in downtown Columbus stands a house that once hid a secret.
Built in 1852, the Kelton House would become more than just a family estate – but also a symbol of hope and freedom. The homeowners, Fernando and Sophia Kelton, were passionate abolitionists and active in the Underground Railroad.
The sprawling network of secret routes, pathways and safehouses helped countless freedom seekers escape from the south during the 18th and 19th centuries.
“There were a lot of people that were working together to take these fugitives to freedom,” said Kathe Daniel, the Kelton House manager.
Slavery was illegal in Ohio before the Civil War, but it wasn’t a safe place for freedom seekers. The legislature passed a series of laws in 1850 called the Fugitive Slave Act. These allowed slave hunters to enter Ohio, seize freedom seekers and take them back to the south.
“Right on the other side of the Ohio River is Kentucky. Kentucky was in the south, and it was a slave state,” Daniel said. “So even if the slaves were here in Ohio, it was not safe.”
Despite the danger, many families in central Ohio, including the Kelton’s, opened their homes to freedom seekers. There is no record of how many people the Kelton family may have helped through the Underground Railroad, but there is documentation about two young sisters who arrived at the home in 1864 after escaping their slave owner in Virginia.
Martha Hartway, 10, and her sister Pearl escaped from a plantation in Virginia to Columbus. Sophia Kelton discovered the girls hiding outside of her home and took them in. Martha was very sick, so Sophia Kelton nursed her back to health.
“The Keltons were not about to send these little girls back into slavery,” Daniel said.
Pearl continued her journey north after a while. Martha stayed with the Keltons and became a member of the family. She grew up alongside their children and married the Kelton family butler, Thomas Lawrence. The couple lived on a piece of land owned by one of the Kelton daughters.
Fernando and Sophia Kelton have long since died, but their legacy lives on.
The Kelton House was saved from demolition in the late 1970’s by the Junior League of Columbus. It’s now a museum with an Underground Railroad training theater to teach school children about those who fought for racial freedom and equality in Columbus and central Ohio.