Payne’s Corner Store and Post Office, located in the village of Porter in Gallia County, Ohio, served in the mid-nineteenth century as a key station in a network of abolitionists who aided freedom seekers moving north from the Ohio River. In the fall of 1845, that network was set into motion when two enslaved brothers from Greenup County, Kentucky—Pleasant and Dave—arrived here after a desperate journey through the wooded hills of southern Ohio.
Escape and Journey through Southern Ohio
Their escape began after their mother overheard plans to sell them “down the river,” a fate that meant permanent separation and harsher conditions in the Deep South. Ebenezer Warner, who later published an account of their escape in the Athens Messenger and Herald in January 1897, recorded that “she loved her boys and was content to have them with her in bondage; but to have them sold and sent ‘down the river’ was what the mother’s heart could not endure.”
The brothers crossed the Ohio River under cover of darkness in a stolen skiff, landing somewhere between Portsmouth and Franklin Furnace in Scioto County. They intended to reach Chillicothe, where they had heard assistance might be found within the city’s Black community. Instead, traveling only at night and hiding by day, they became disoriented in what Warner described as a “high, rolling country, deeply wooded” landscape.
After nearly a week of wandering and subsisting on “green corn and potatoes… roasted in the woods,” Pleasant and Dave approached the outskirts of Gallipolis. There, in the early morning hours, they encountered a white resident who immediately recognized their situation. Warning that Gallipolis was “the most dangerous place for your safety you could have found,” he quietly provided food and directed them north to Porter, instructing them to seek out George Payne at the village store and post office, adding, “Now away with you before people get on the streets, and don’t forget the name —George Payne.”
Advertisement for the Porter Cash Store, placed by George J. Payne in the Gallipolis Journal (1852). His store and post office also served as an Underground Railroad station. Source: Shawnee State University Center for Public History.
Payne’s Corner and the Porter Network to Freedom
When the brothers arrived at Payne’s Corner, George Payne was away in Cincinnati. Harriet (Blakeley) Payne answered their knock. Warner noted that they were the first freedom seekers to arrive without a white escort, yet Harriet “took in the situation at once,” hiding them in the garret in a space previously used for concealment. She quickly sent word to John D. Porter, one of the most active conductors in the region. Porter entered the store under the pretense of business, arranged their departure, and later removed them by a back way, transporting them overnight some thirty miles across Gallia, Meigs, Vinton, and Athens County.
From there, the journey continued through additional hands. John M. Warner—brother of the author—and Nelson Lucky guided the men onward to Athens and then to Amesville, where they were delivered to Rev. Luke DeWitt. Along the way, in Athens, they also received aid from Eliphaz Perkins, remembered as the first treasurer of Ohio University.
Warner’s narrative is further supported by the research of Wilbur H. Siebert, one of the earliest historians of the Underground Railroad. Writing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Siebert collected letters and interviews from former conductors and their families across Ohio. His correspondence with Dr. N.B. Sisson and others confirms that Porter was a major station in a well-organized regional network. Sisson described at least thirteen “station-masters, concealers, and carriers” within a few miles of Payne’s Corner and emphasized the leadership of Dr. Julius A. Bingham and George Payne, who together “aided hundreds, perhaps thousands, to liberty.”
That network also depended on family ties. Harriet Payne was the sister of Lucevia (Blakeley) Sisson, linking two key Underground Railroad households. The collaboration between the Paynes, the Sissons, Bingham, Porter, and others formed an interracial network that, according to Sisson, moved approximately 200 freedom seekers each year through Porter between 1840 and 1861. Their work required secrecy, coordination, and trust.
Dr. Julius Bingham played a crucial role in protecting Pleasant and Dave’s escape. After George Payne returned home, he discovered that he had unknowingly traveled on a steamboat with the brothers’ enslaver, who had been searching for them across southern Ohio. The Paynes and Bingham devised a plan. Bingham summoned the enslaver to Porter and, after drawing out his story, convinced him that the men had already passed through in the hands of Underground Railroad agents and were likely already in Canada. The deception ended the pursuit and protected the network from exposure.
Ebenezer Warner’s account of the escape of Pleasant and Dave was originally published as “A Reminiscence of the Underground Railway” in the Athens Messenger and Herald in 1897. Source: Shawnee State University Center for Public History.
Coded Postcards and Confirmation of Freedom
The story concludes with an account that illustrates how the Porter network tracked the progress of those it aided. As Ebenezer Warner explained, freedom seekers passing through Payne’s Corner were given a coded postcard, pre-addressed to “Gustavus Smith, Porter, Gallia County, Ohio, U.S.,” a pseudonym used by Postmaster George Payne. They were instructed to mail the card upon reaching safety. Two or three weeks later, word arrived at the Porter post office confirming Pleasant and Dave’s safe arrival in Canada.
Their escape marked the completion of a journey made possible by the coordinated efforts of George and Harriet Payne, the Sisson family, Dr. Julius Bingham, John D. Porter, and others who risked aiding freedom seekers passing through Porter. Their actions, taken together, reveal how this local network operated in practice. They provided those in flight with shelter, guidance, and protection. And, at the center of that story remain Pleasant and Dave, whose determination to escape enslavement set this chain of events in motion.
The history of Payne’s Corner reflects broader patterns of freedom seeking shaped by the geography of the Appalachian region. Rural communities like Porter, which had been settled by interrelated abolitionist families, served as critical waypoints, linking crossings along the Ohio River to inland routes forged by the familial and religious connections of those aiding freedom seekers. Within this landscape, networks of trust and cooperation made journeys like that of Pleasant and Dave possible, carrying them toward freedom through Appalachian Ohio.
This site is part of the Appalachian Freedom Heritage Tour, funded by an ARC POWER Grant and developed by the Lawrence Economic Development Corp.
