Historical image of Red Oak Presbyterian Church (c.1910). Founded in 1798 in the Appalachian foothills of southern Ohio, the congregation erected its present stone church in 1815. Red Oak became a center of antislavery advocacy and Underground Railroad activity in Brown County. Image courtesy of the Ohio History Connection.
Red Oak Presbyterian Church and Cemetery
The Red Oak Presbyterian Church and Cemetery in Brown County, Ohio, hold a prominent place in the history of the Underground Railroad and the abolitionist movement in the United States. Founded in 1798 by antislavery settlers from the southern states, Red Oak quickly established itself as an inland center of Presbyterian abolitionism in the Appalachian foothills of southern Ohio. Among the founders were members of the Campbell, Dunlap, Salisbury, Shepherd, and Kinkead families, who would be remembered as “immediate abolitionists – unmitigated, pure, zealous and efficient. They were ever ready to give food, shelter, and aid to fugitive slaves…. They were all Presbyterians and nearly all emigrants from slave States.”
Another southern immigrant, the Rev. James Gilliland (1769-1845), would migrate to the area in 1805. He initially served both the Red Oak and neighboring Straight Creek congregations. In 1806, at the home of Samuel Salisbury, the two churches united and Gilliland was officially installed as the minister of the Red Oak congregation.
Rev. James Gilliland and the Roots of Appalachian Abolitionism
Today, Red Oak Presbyterian Church and Cemetery remain active, with descendants of the original abolitionist families still counted among its members. Many of the conductors who sustained this network, including members of the Gilliland and Hopkins families, are buried in the adjacent cemetery. Image courtesy: Andrew Feight, Ph.D. for the Appalachian Freedom Heritage Tourism Initiative, Shawnee State University Center for Public History.
A native of North Carolina, James Gilliland’s journey to Red Oak was shaped by a deep opposition to slavery that developed while he was a student at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. In 1796, soon after his ordination at Bradaway (now Belton) Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, members of his congregation accused him of “preaching against the government” for his antislavery sermons. Church authorities urged him to avoid public discussion of slavery, but Gilliland refused to soften his message. Frustrated by proslavery resistance, he migrated north in 1805 with relatives and fellow congregants, settling in the free soil of southern Ohio, where he found like-minded Presbyterians.
Gilliland spent nearly forty years preaching against slavery and shaping a congregation committed to immediate abolition. His sermons framed slavery not merely as a political issue but as a profound moral crisis within American Christianity. “We implore you, brethren, to recognize that we are still part of a guilty nation whose hands are defiled with the blood of Africa,” wrote Gilliland.
Presbyterian Reform and Antislavery Organizing
Portrait of Rev. James Gilliland (1769–1845). A North Carolina native educated at Dickinson College, Gilliland brought an antislavery faith to Red Oak Presbyterian Church in 1805. As a minister, he and his congregation sheltered and guided freedom seekers, making Red Oak a key Underground Railroad junction in southern Ohio. Image courtesy of the Ohio History Connection, Wilbur H. Siebert Collection, MSS 116 AV; Box 78, Folder 2.
Gilliland’s influence extended beyond Red Oak through his work within the Chillicothe Presbytery, where he joined other abolitionist ministers in arguing that slaveholding was incompatible with Christian faith. In 1830 he authored a powerful pastoral letter calling on churches to exclude slaveholders from communion, insisting that the moral integrity of the church depended upon confronting slavery directly. When John and Jean Rankin and family moved to Ripley, Ohio, in 1822, and went on to establish one of the most active stations on the Underground Railroad, the Rankins joined an already active network of conductors and safe houses in Brown and Adams Counties. Rankin found in James Gilliland a true brother in the cause of immediate abolition at a time when many Presbyterians favored gradualism or avoided the issue altogether.
In 1833, at the founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society, Gilliland was elected one of its Vice Presidents. Two years later, in 1835, members of the Red Oak congregation helped found the Red Oak and Ripley Antislavery Society, translating their religious convictions into organized activism. Through these efforts, Red Oak became not only a place of worship but a center of abolitionist leadership in the region, with its members providing aid and shelter to freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad.
A Junction on the Underground Railroad
By the 1820s, Red Oak had emerged as one of the first organized inland junctions north of Ripley on the Underground Railroad. From here, routes divided to provide multiple pathways to freedom.
The “North Star Line” continued northward through Russellville and Sardinia toward the Gist Settlement, a community of formerly enslaved Black Americans in northern Brown County. This route offered deeper refuge within free territory, where sympathetic communities extended further support.
The Haydens – Lewis, Harriet, and her son Joseph – escaped through Red Oak in 1844. They ultimately settled in Boston, where their home became an important stop on the Underground Railroad. From left: Lewis Hayden, in about 1860, and Harriet Bell Hayden, in 1864–1865. Image courtesy: from left, Ohio History Connection and National Museum of American History.
The “Eastern Route” ran eastward into Adams County, passing through Decatur, Cherry Fork (North Liberty), Mt. Leigh, and Tranquility. Each of these communities contributed safe houses and trusted allies, making Red Oak a crucial waypoint linking the Ohio River crossings to the Appalachian interior.
From the 1820s forward, Underground Railroad operators at Red Oak worked closely with the Rankin family and with Black abolitionist John P. Parker in Ripley, as well as other Black residents of Africa Hill, on the outskirts of Ripley. As later recalled in Parker’s autobiography, “The Reverend James Gilliland and his congregation [at Red Oak] formed the core of the largest concentration of Underground Railroad conductors in Ohio.” Together, free Black residents and white abolitionist allies created an interracial network that transformed Brown and Adams counties into one of the most active corridors of escape in the nation.
The Hopkins Family and the Work of the Congregation
In addition to the Gilliland family, Archibald Hopkins and his relatives played central roles in sustaining Red Oak’s Underground Railroad operations. Hopkins and his wife Margaret Shanklin joined the congregation soon after arriving in 1805. Archibald served as a ruling elder and trustee, while multiple members of the extended Hopkins family held leadership roles within the church.
Family ties strengthened the abolitionist network. Two of Hopkins’s children married into the Gilliland family, including his daughter Sarah, who wed Rev. Adam B. Gilliland. Like their parents, they embraced immediate abolition and participated in aiding freedom seekers moving through the region. These kinship connections reinforced what historians have identified as a tightly coordinated corridor of Presbyterian abolitionists stretching across southern Ohio.
U.S. Postal Service stamp honoring Lewis Hayden (2024). The stamp commemorates Lewis Hayden (1811–1889), who escaped from slavery in Kentucky with his wife Harriet and her son Joseph. Assisted by the Hopkins family at Red Oak Presbyterian Church in Ohio, the Haydens continued to freedom. Hayden later became a leading Black abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor in Boston. Image courtesy: United States Postal Service.
The Hayden Family and Red Oak’s Wider Impact
One of the best-documented freedom seeker journeys connected to Red Oak occurred in September 1844, when abolitionists Calvin Fairbank and Delia Webster of Kentucky assisted Lewis Hayden, his wife Harriet, and their young son in escaping from Kentucky. Fairbank recorded that he entrusted the Hayden family to the Hopkins household at Red Oak.
The Haydens’ journey did not end there. After traveling along the Underground Railroad to Canada, they later settled in Boston, where Lewis Hayden became a prominent abolitionist leader and member of the Boston Vigilance Committee. Their home became a well-known refuge for freedom seekers, including William and Ellen Craft, Shadrach Minkins, and Anthony Burns. The Hopkins family’s role in aiding the Haydens illustrates how the work of Red Oak’s congregation extended far beyond Ohio, shaping antislavery activism across the nation.
Stone wall, Red Oak Presbyterian Church Cemetery. This historic cemetery wall borders the burial ground of Rev. James Gilliland and members of a congregation active in antislavery advocacy and the Underground Railroad in Brown County, Ohio. Image courtesy of Sueanne Cmehil-Warn via Find A Grave (2021).
Red Oak’s Legacy in the Appalachian Foothills
Headstone of Rev. James Gilliland (1769–1845), Red Oak Presbyterian Church Cemetery. His marker records that he served as “Pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Red Oak for 36 years.” Gilliland preached an antislavery gospel and, with members of his congregation, aided freedom seekers moving through Brown County along the Underground Railroad. Image courtesy: Andrew Feight, Ph.D. for the Appalachian Freedom Heritage Tourism Initiative, Shawnee State University Center for Public History.
Today, Red Oak Presbyterian Church remains active, with descendants of the original abolitionist families still counted among its members. Many of the conductors who sustained this network, including members of the Gilliland and Hopkins families, are buried in the adjacent cemetery, linking the landscape of memory to the routes of freedom that once passed through this Appalachian community.
The legacy of Rev. James Gilliland and the Red Oak congregation endure as a testament to the courage and conviction of Presbyterians who helped transform the foothills of southern Ohio into a vital corridor of resistance against slavery.
This site is part of the Appalachian Freedom Heritage Tour, funded by an ARC POWER Grant and developed by the Lawrence Economic Development Corp. and the Center for Public History at Shawnee State University.
