Visiting The Forgotten Underground Railroad Stops of Felicity, Ohio-Sleeping at a Funeral Home

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[00:00:10]This evening I find myself 4 hours from home in quaint Felicity, Ohio. Of course I can't stay at a normal place for the weekend. I am sleeping [music] at a old funeral home. The Broadwell Funeral Home right here was a working funeral home for around 60 years. That's a lot of emotion and energy trapped in these walls. Is it a good idea? Probably not, but here I am. I came with a group of friends I have been traveling with for about 8 years. This video isn't about the funeral home though.

[00:00:41]That will most likely go on my other channel for people that like to be scared.

[00:00:47]This video is about something entirely different. Before this place became known as Felicity, it was called Fee's Town, named after founder William Fee, who laid out the village in the early 1800s. The Fees became known as settlers, merchants, and respected townspeople. But behind that public image, some members of the family were deeply involved in the Underground Railroad. Only a few miles south flowed the Ohio River, the dividing line between slavery in Kentucky and freedom in Ohio. Across that water, enslaved men, women, and children risked everything trying to escape north. When it was safe to come across the river, people would light lanterns on the Ohio side. Some crossed hidden in wagons.

[00:01:34]Some slipped through the woods at night.

[00:01:36]Others floated silently across the river in tiny boats praying they would not be seen. And waiting on the Ohio side were people willing to help them.

[00:01:46]Because even though it's now commonplace to act like all white people in the past are the same, this is certainly not fact. Historical records in Clermont County sources identify members of the Fee family as active abolitionists and Underground Railroad conductors operating between Moscow, Felicity, Bethel, and Inland Ohio routes. Their homes became part of a hidden chain that moved freedom seekers farther north. One of the best known members of the family was Oliver Perry Spencer Fee, usually called O.P.S. Fee, the son of Felicity founder William Fee. By day, O.P.S.

[00:02:26]operated a dry goods and grocery store on Main Street in Felicity. Publicly, he appeared to be a respected businessman and community leader. He served in town government, held school board positions, was active in the Freemasons.

[00:02:41]But behind that public life, local history remembers him very differently.

[00:02:47]Some later called him the high priest of Felicity's anti-slavery network. Stories passed down through Clermont County say O.P.S. would sometimes pretend to sympathize with slavery and praise slaveholders openly so slave catchers would trust him.

[00:03:05]Once they did, he reportedly sent them searching in the wrong direction while escaped slaves were hidden, fed, clothed, and quietly moved north toward Benjamin Rice's Underground Railroad station in Bethel, Ohio.

[00:03:20]Imagine how dangerous that was in southern Ohio during those years. Slave catchers crossed over from Kentucky constantly. Helping fugitives could lead to arrest, violence, financial [music] ruin, or worse. Every knock at the door after dark could mean trouble. Tomorrow I'm going to visit some locations tied to this family and village. This will be an interesting, one-of-a-kind video you won't see anywhere else.

[00:03:51]In 1847, the slavery issue inside the local Methodist Church became so intense that around 40 members walked away rather than remain in a denomination they believed was compromising with slavery. Those members formed the Felicity Wesleyan Church, an openly anti-slavery congregation that quickly became tied to Underground Railroad activity throughout the region.

[00:04:16]>> I wonder what that I can't read what that says right there, the writing. Or [laughter] Or is that just black?

[00:04:21]I think it's just black.

[00:04:26]>> That split took courage. Southern Ohio sat dangerously close to slave territory, and openly opposing slavery could make a person a target overnight.

[00:04:37]The Wesleyan Church became filled with abolitionists and Underground Railroad conductors. Historical records connect members like Dr. Matthew Gibson, Nelson Gibson, Joseph Parrish, and Reverend Silas Chase to anti-slavery work and Underground Railroad activity between Felicity and Bethel.

[00:04:56]The church itself became a symbol of resistance. It once had a towering bell tower that local accounts say could be heard across the countryside and toward the Ohio River Valley. Slave supporters in the region reportedly mocked Felicity by calling it the hell hole of abolition because of how openly anti-slavery the village had become.

[00:05:23]>> Just keep going on and on.

[00:05:53]>> That one, okay.

[00:05:56]Yeah, pretty.

[00:06:19]Are these still in use?

[00:06:20]>> No, I don't think so.

[00:06:22]They're I think they're apartments.

[00:06:42]>> This building right here was Oliver Perry's storefront. I didn't realize they were right next to each other.

[00:06:51]This building is the Longworth Manor.

[00:06:54]A 1967 advertisement in the Cincinnati Enquirer described [music] it as a small nursing home offering hotel-style living for women who could still get around on their own with private bedrooms, lounges, dining rooms, and meals included. Later, ads seeking nurses suggested operated as a nursing home for years. Today, it appears the building may mainly serve as low-income boarding rooms.

[00:07:20]Attached to Longworth Manor is what used to be a lodge building for the local Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a once-popular fraternal lodge in Ohio. It is said to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad, sometimes for just a few hours.

[00:07:43]>> 1857 They're still standing.

[00:07:52]Time changes things, don't it?

[00:07:54]>> It does.

[00:07:56]>> I'm sure back in the day this was like dirt road, carriages.

[00:08:01]>> Absolutely.

[00:08:09]All right, well.

[00:08:10]>> The route itself is historically documented. One member of the family, Robert E. Fee, became so involved in aiding fugitives that Kentucky authorities reportedly indicted him for slave stealing. Ohio refused to extradite him back across the river.

[00:08:27]That alone shows how serious these operations had become. And there were tragedies tied to this hidden network, too.

[00:08:34]One story connected to the broader Fee abolitionist circle tells of Juliet Miles, a formerly enslaved woman who escaped to Ohio. After reaching freedom, she later returned south trying to rescue family members still trapped in slavery. She was captured, jailed, and died in prison. Stories like hers remind people the Underground Railroad was not just hidden rooms and lanterns. It was fear, sacrifice, heartbreak, and constant danger. Now, the people who carried those secrets lie quietly beneath the grass here in Felicity Cemetery. The wagons are gone. The lanterns burned out generations ago. The old fruit cellars stand empty. But the ground still remembers the years when frightened people moved through these hills searching for freedom. And somewhere beneath the silence of this cemetery are the people who helped guide them north. And maybe that's one of the saddest parts of stories like this. Over time, these people fade into the ground beneath forgotten cemeteries while the real risks they took get lost. Helping escaped slaves could cost people their businesses, their freedom, their safety, and possibly their lives. Yet, they helped anyway. People like OPS Fee, Arthur Fee, the members of the Wesleyan Church, and the conductors scattered through these hills chose to stand against slavery when it was dangerous to do so. They hid families in cellars, fed runaways, gave them clothing, and moved them north through the darkness toward freedom.

[00:10:10]These stories matter because history is rarely as simple as people try to make it today. Too often today, we're fed the idea that everyone living back then thought the same way, acted the same way, or supported the same causes. But, standing here in Felicity Cemetery proves that simply wasn't true. There were people who risked everything to fight slavery long before the Civil War ever ended it. And if not for them, it would have ended much different. And many of them never became famous. Most died quietly, their names slowly forgotten. But, the people they helped never forgot what those risks meant. And maybe that's why places like Felicity still matter. Because beneath these old stones are people who helped light the path north for strangers they may never have seen again. E. Fee, 1798 1880.

[00:11:10]Now, I don't know where Arthur would be offhand, but at least we got one of them.

[00:11:18]It's weird to think these people are actually like right here, you know?

[00:11:20]>> Mhm. Yeah, I know.

[00:11:22]>> And then And then Priscilla Fee, 1823 1886.

[00:11:28]And they were Masons, so of course we got the Mason symbol.

[00:11:31]>> don't know.

[00:11:50]Brittany, can you get a picture of it?

[00:11:55]>> Yeah, I will.

[00:11:55]>> I didn't bring my camera.

[00:12:04]Well, I guess we got what we came to get.

[00:12:08]I think I would have passed this though because I thought it was not that close to the curb.

[00:12:12]>> I didn't even look at it for that reason.

[00:12:15]We thought it was smaller and that it was pointed.

[00:12:22]>> On a side note, this beautiful stone caught my attention. Sadly, when I looked it up, I learned Matilda Hoffman Day took her own life.

[00:12:32]So, this cemetery is very big.

[00:12:37]It's like finding a fee in a haystack.

[00:12:41]Right?

[00:12:42]A fee in a haystack, get it?

[00:12:44]>> haystack.

[00:12:51]>> All right, well, thank you guys for joining us today on our trip through the underground railroad a little bit.

[00:12:59]And uh thank you Brittany for coming with me.

[00:13:03]She was a big help. And we will see you next time on the Hillbilly Files.

[00:13:10]Out of Felicity, Ohio.