The Campbell House: A Station of Hope in Ironton’s Underground Railroad Network
Built in 1851, the Campbell House in Ironton, Ohio, served as a station on the Underground Railroad and home to abolitionists John and Elizabeth Campbell. Their work linked Ironton to a wider network of African American and white allies who helped freedom seekers escape slavery and move north through the Appalachian counties of southern Ohio.
The Campbells’ antislavery activism began in the 1830s, when John managed Mt. Vernon Furnace in Lawrence County. There, he and his cousin Hiram Campbell supported freedom seekers among the furnace’s Black workforce. In 1851, John and Elizabeth built a 22-room home in the newly founded town of Ironton. Their house became a hub of regional Underground Railroad activity.
The Campbells collaborated with African American conductors Gabe N. Johnson, his wife Retta Johnson, Madison Black, James Ditcher, and Dave Nichols Rawlings. They also worked with white abolitionists including Rev. Joseph Chester, Rev. Joseph Creighton, ironmaster John Peters, and their relatives Hiram and Sarah Campbell. This interracial and interfaith network stretched from the riverfront towns of Ironton, Burlington, and Proctorville to the rural African American settlements of Macedonia, Poke Patch, Red Hill, and Berlin Crossroad.
Gabe Johnson later described John Campbell as “one of the staunchest and most fearless of the Abolitionists,” and recalled that “nearly all of the horses and other conveyances used in carrying escaped slaves… were supplied by Mr. John Campbell.” Johnson noted that he and James Ditcher established “the first systematized road” through Ironton for escaping enslaved people.
Elizabeth Campbell also played a vital and often overlooked role. She helped provide food, shelter, and care to freedom seekers, especially women and children. Her contribution is documented in the oral history of Catherine Cummings, a longtime Ironton resident who was formerly enslaved. Cummings said, “There was always something [done] by John Campbell and Hiram (his cousin) and their wives for the slaves.” Cummings credited the Campbells with helping her siblings and in-laws escape slavery through the Ironton network.
In one dramatic account, Dave Rawlings described how Campbell helped his cousin, Sam Bartley, escape after being brutally beaten by his enslaver at Caroline Furnace in Kentucky. Campbell and fellow ironmaster John Peters arranged a raft crossing and sheltered Bartley after he reached the Ohio side.
Elizabeth Campbell, born in 1815 in Manchester, Ohio, studied at Rev. John Rankin’s academy in Ripley. She was raised in a Presbyterian antislavery tradition and continued that mission throughout her life. Married in 1837, she joined John Campbell in his Underground Railroad work while living at Mt. Vernon Furnace and later in Ironton. The Campbells were active members of the Ironton Presbyterian Church, where Rev. Joseph Chester preached a radical antislavery theology. In 1857, Chester helped lead the Scioto Presbytery in a formal denunciation of slavery, calling it “essentially at variance with the principles and spirit of the gospel of Christ.” Chester’s horse and resources were regularly loaned to conductors like Ditcher and Johnson.
Upon John Campbell’s death in 1891, a local newspaper wrote: “No fugitive ever came to this town searching for freedom, but Mr. Campbell took his hand, gave him money, and sent him on. His home was the asylum for the oppressed.” That home was also Elizabeth’s home. Her devotion and contribution to the cause of abolition, grounded in faith and justice, deserves equal recognition.
The Campbells’ efforts in Ironton were part of a broader abolition movement rooted in the region’s charcoal iron furnaces, churches, and free Black communities. The story of the Campbells and the Ironton network reveals the power of interracial cooperation and moral courage in the struggle against slavery.
Today, the Campbell House is listed on the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom, recognizing its place in the history of the Underground Railroad and honoring the enduring legacy of John and Elizabeth Campbell of Ironton, Ohio.
