Dr. Camillus Hall (1812–1896), physician and longtime Burlington postmaster, maintained his office in the Johnston House. Identified by participants as an active member of the village’s Underground Railroad network, Hall worked alongside Black and white residents who assisted freedom seekers arriving along the Ohio River.
The Johnston House and Post Office: Burlington, Ohio’s Network to Freedom
Freedom seekers crossing the Ohio River into Burlington, Ohio, entered a community where Black residents and white allies worked together to guide them toward safety. During the 1840s and 1850s, this small river village became an important entry point into a larger network that extended through the hills of Appalachian Ohio. At the center of that activity stood the Johnston House, built c.1820, which served as the village post office from 1840 to 1887 and was closely associated with Dr. Camillus Hall, the postmaster who participated in aiding freedom seekers.
A Building at the Center of Village Life
Originally constructed as a combined residence and commercial space, the Johnston House functioned as a general store, post office, and gathering place at the heart of Burlington. When Benjamin Johnston established the post office here in 1840, and Dr. Hall assumed the position of postmaster in 1844, the building became a central point of communication and exchange. While no single account identifies the Johnston House as a site of concealment, its importance lies in its association with those who organized and sustained Burlington’s Underground Railroad activity through the relationships and routines of everyday life.
Gabe Johnson and Burlington’s Underground Railroad Network
The existence and operation of this network are documented through the work of Wilbur H. Siebert and, critically, through the oral history of Gabe N. Johnson. Born enslaved in Virginia and emancipated as a child, Johnson settled in Burlington with other members of the Ward manumission in the late 1820s. In an 1894 interview, he described the network of residents who aided freedom seekers passing through the village. Johnson identified fellow Black resident Philip Lynch alongside white allies, including Dr. Camillus Hall, Rev. Gamaliel Beaman of the Burlington Presbyterian Church, and merchant Stephen Wilson. Recalling Dr. Hall’s role, Johnson emphasized that the postmaster was “strong into it,” providing aid and support to those seeking freedom. Others in the community, he noted, “would give us bread and keep the secret,” reflecting the broader base of quiet support that made the network possible.
Bird’s-eye view of Burlington, Ohio, in the 1870s. Located along the northern bank of the Ohio River, the village served as an entry point for freedom seekers crossing from Virginia (now West Virginia) and Kentucky. From here, established networks guided them inland through the communities of Appalachian Ohio.
Image Courtesy Don, Joyce, and Chris Saunders of Burlington, Ohio.
Burlington, Macedonia Hill, and the Geography of Freedom
Burlington’s role in this network was shaped by its geography and its early Black community. Located along the northern bank of the Ohio River, across from Virginia (now West Virginia), the village became a destination for emancipated families as well as freedom seekers crossing from slaveholding states. By the early nineteenth century, Black residents had established Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church on nearby Macedonia Hill, just two miles north of the village. As the oldest Black Baptist congregation in Ohio, Macedonia became a center of community life and a critical junction in the region’s Underground Railroad network, linking river crossings at Burlington to inland routes through the hills of Appalachian Ohio.
Johnston’s account highlights how freedom seekers arrived in Burlington and were then moved onward through this network. Many crossed the river near Guyandotte and followed the northern bank of the Ohio to the village. From there, conductors guided them away from the exposed river corridor into more secluded inland routes. These movements relied on established relationships, shared religious affiliations, and trusted community connections that extended beyond Burlington itself.
From Burlington to Poke Patch
Further insight into these inland routes comes from Johnson’s later correspondence with Prof. Siebert, in which he shared his notes from an interview with Eliza (Harris) Stewart of Poke Patch, a Black community in the furnace region of Lawrence and Gallia Counties. Stewart described how her husband, John J. Stewart, and her brother-in-law, Rev. William Stewart, regularly conducted freedom seekers from Burlington and Macedonia Hill to Poke Patch. She recalled that William Stewart “made himself useful in bringing a large number of Fugitives over the hills through the woods” to the settlement, where they were provided food, shelter, and guidance before continuing further north. Between the 1840s and 1860, Stewart estimated that her family and neighbors aided roughly two hundred freedom seekers traveling through this corridor, demonstrating both the scale and organization of the network.
Advertisement for Gabe N. Johnson’s barbershop, located near the riverfront in Ironton, Ohio. A formerly enslaved man and longtime resident of Burlington, Johnson documented Lawrence County’s Underground Railroad network through interviews and correspondence with Ohio State University Professor Wilbur H. Siebert.
Source: Ironton Register (6 March 1862).
Risk, Secrecy, and Community
The participation of individuals such as Stephen Wilson further illustrates how this work extended across the community. A merchant and public official, Wilson operated a store in Burlington and was identified by Johnson as one of his collaborators. Later recollections by Wilson’s son describe encounters with slave hunters who came to his father’s store, remembered as “large fierce looking men…armed to the teeth with pistols, knives &c., and [with] handcuffs tied to their saddles.” Such accounts offer a vivid glimpse into the dangers faced by both freedom seekers and those who assisted them, underscoring the risks involved and the need for discretion in a community where pro-slavery sentiment and the threat of capture remained ever-present.
A Network Shaped by Place
The Johnston House provides a tangible connection to these dramatic events and courageous individuals. As the location of the village post office under Dr. Camillus Hall, it stood at the center of a network built on interracial cooperation and shared principles. Black residents such as Gabe Johnson and Philip Lynch worked alongside white allies like Hall, Beaman, and Wilson, while communities like Macedonia Hill and Poke Patch extended that network into the interior.
The history of Burlington’s Underground Railroad network reveals how freedom seeking in Appalachian Ohio depended on both geography and community. River crossings, hillside settlements, and rural church networks all played essential roles in moving freedom seekers toward safety. Through their coordinated efforts, the people of Burlington helped transform the landscape of Appalachian Ohio into a pathway to freedom—one that began along the river and continued through the hills beyond.
This site is part of the Appalachian Freedom Heritage Tour, funded by an ARC POWER Grant and developed by the Lawrence Economic Development Corp.
