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Monday, October 17, 2016

Charles Osborn, Father of Abolitionists

One of the most notable residents of Porter County, Indiana, is an individual that has essentially been lost to history. Though a memorial plaque was erected in the county nearly sixty years ago to commemorate his contribution to American society, this memorial was later removed due to vandalism and not replaced.

Charles Osborn was born August 21, 1775, in Chatham County, North Carolina, the son of David and Margaret (Stout) Osborn. Charles' grandfather, Matthew Osborn, had arrived in America from England. It has been speculated that Matthew, like many immigrants, sought religious freedom as his motivation to begin a new life in America.

Charles was raised in a Quaker (Religious Society of Friends) settlement in North Carolina. Religion in most Quaker communities was tightly interwoven with education, and the Quakers of Chatham County followed this convention. As Quaker John Greenleaf Whittier reflects in his poem Our State:
Nor heeds the skeptic's puny hands,
While near her school the church-spire stands;
Nor fears the blinded bigot's rule,
While near her church-spire stands the school.
Since common schools did not exist at the time of Charles' early life, most education in America was based on the subscription school model that was often tied closely to a particular religious faith. Consequently, in Chatham County's Quaker settlement, students were provided both religious training and a general education. Religious training focused on reading and interpretation of Scripture, as well as its practice in everyday life.

At the age of nineteen, Charles removed with his parents to Knox County, Tennessee, which at this time was considered rugged frontier. Little is known concerning the details of Charles' early life, including his life as a young man in Tennessee. However, it can be surmised that he became detached from his faith since he was disowned by his congregation, the Hickory Creek Monthly Meeting, because he was "led astray from that plainness and simplicity in manner and address" practiced by Quakers.

On January 11, 1798, at the age of twenty-three, Charles Osborn married Sarah Newman. Sarah had never been a member of the Society of Friends, which likely placed even greater distance between Charles and the Quakers in his Tennessee community. Soon after his marriage, however, Charles "repented his apostasy" and, accordingly, was readmitted in the Hickory Creek Monthly Meeting. Sarah later accepted the Quaker faith and was brought into church membership.

In 1811, Charles and Sarah and their children moved to Jefferson County, Tennessee, where it is believed that they had their church membership transferred to the Lost Creek Monthly Meeting.

Sarah died in Jefferson County on August 10, 1812, after having given birth to seven children.

Eight years after his marriage to Sarah, in 1806, Charles became a recorded (officially recognized) minister in the Society of Friends. It was at this point in his life, at the age of 31, that Charles' rise to prominence began.

Beginning in 1809 and through 1840, Charles spent a considerable amount of his time as a traveling minister. Several biographers suggest that Charles visited nearly every existing Quaker meeting - a meeting being somewhat equivalent to a physical church representing a geographic area - in Canada and the United States. Osborn also traveled to England and the Continent of Europe to visit numerous Quaker meetings there.

The loss of Sarah introduced a significant problem to a traveling Quaker minister with seven children. The active parenting problem was addressed when Charles married Hannah Swain on September 26, 1813. Hannah was the daughter of Elihu and Sarah (Mills) Swain, members of the Lost Creek Monthly Meeting in Jefferson County, Tennessee.

Charles continued his travels after his marriage to Hannah. Many of his travels encompassed extended stays throughout the southern United States where he was exposed on a daily basis to the elements and practice of human bondage. It should be noted that the Quakers were the first corporate body in both Britain and North America to condemn slavery as being religiously and ethically wrong, their anti-slavery sentiment being traced back to the 1600s. Hence, Osborn very likely had to reconcile what he witnessed in the South with his religion.

In the spring of 1816, Osborn had moved his family to Mount Pleasant in Jefferson County, Ohio. It was in Mount Pleasant that Osborn began the publication of a newspaper, The Philanthropist. The Philanthropist was the first newspaper in the United States to publicly advocate for the abolition of slavery. Editorials in the newspaper, penned by Osborn, emphatically called for the immediate end to slavery and columns were used to educate whites living in the North about the conditions and injustice of slavery taking place in the South. The newspaper also published columns concerning agriculture and mechanics, poetry, and proceedings of the national and Ohio legislatures.

Osborn, through his newspaper, vehemently protested against an idea that was gaining considerable traction at the time; namely, that the United States should proceed with a gradual end to slavery.

Publishing a newspaper that was outspoken with regard to the abolition of slavery was no trivial occupation. Supporters of slavery could often become quite violent against those individuals fervently supporting abolition. For instance, Elijah Parish Lovejoy, publisher of the anti-slavery newspaper Alton Observer at Alton, Madison County, Illinois, was mobbed on November 7, 1837, at Gilman & Godfrey's warehouse, where he had hidden his printing press.

When Lovejoy ventured out of the warehouse, he was murdered - struck by five shotgun slugs. The mob proceeded to remove Lovejoy's printing press from the warehouse and tossed it onto the riverbank, smashed it to pieces, and then threw the pieces into the Mississippi River. Lovejoy has been referred to as the first casualty of the Civil War and the first American martyr for freedom of the press.


View of Alton Cemetery in Alton, Madison County, Illinois, showing
the Elijah P. Lovejoy monument, the tallest man-made monument in Illinois.
Source: Alton Convention & Visitors Bureau.

As mentioned previously, Osborn called for an immediate end to slavery in the United States. Osborn was also adamantly opposed to the work of the American Colonization Society, which was founded the same year as his newspaper. The American Colonization Society (ACS) was established by another minister, Presbyterian Robert Finley of New Jersey, as a means to address the "problem" of free blacks. 

The ACS was composed of evangelicals and Quakers that supported abolition, but felt that former slaves and other free African Americans would fair a better life in Africa rather than the United States. Numerous slaveholders were also members of the ACS, and they were motivated to remove freed slaves from the United States as a means to avoid slave rebellions.

The ACS was very active. Beginning is 1821, free blacks in the United States were being removed eastward across the Atlantic to Liberia. The Liberian colony of freed American slaves continued to grow and in 1847 the legislature of Liberia declared the nation as an independent state.

Osborn's newspaper was very widely circulated in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Osborn purposely made his newspaper readily available in the southern portion of Ohio where there was a strong presence of supporters of slavery.

It is presumed that managing the newspaper became a burden given Osborn's active ministerial duties. In addition, the newspaper was not a financial success. Hence, Osborn sold his newspaper to Elisha Bates on October 8, 1818. The newspaper ceased publication in 1822. Later, in 1836, James G. Birney began the publication of a newspaper also titled The Philanthropist at Cincinnati, Ohio. Like Osborn and Bates, the focus of Birney's newspaper was on the abolition of slavery in the United States. Birney's newspaper ceased publication in October of 1843.

Osborn moved his family to Perry Township, Wayne County, Indiana, in early 1819, where they became members of the New Garden Monthly Meeting. It was here in 1825, as proprietor, that Osborn platted the Town of Economy. Additions to Economy were platted in 1829 and 1834 from land owned by Osborn.

Plat map of the Town of Economy, located in Perry Township,
Wayne County, Indiana, 1874. Property owned by Charles
Osborn's son John is shown southwest of the community
.
Source: D. J. Lake's Atlas of Wayne County, Indiana, 1874. [see p. 15]

Osborn moved his family in early 1827 to Clinton County, Ohio, where they were members of the Springfield Monthly Meeting. By 1828, Osborn's family had expanded to sixteen children, Hannah having given birth to nine of these children. As the children grew to adults, some moved to Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio; most, however, remained in Indiana.

In 1828, Osborn, his wife, and younger children moved again, locating in Warren County, Ohio, where they became members of the Miami Monthly Meeting. Osborn biographers have been unable to fully explain the motivations for these changes in residence, but some have speculated that this particular family move was intended to be temporary since Osborn moved his family back to their former home in Wayne County, Indiana, in late 1830.

On March 13, 1832, Osborn departed Economy, Indiana, for an extensive journey to England, Ireland, Scotland, and the Continent of Europe. His ship landed in Liverpool, England, on May 3, after three weeks travel across the Atlantic. He attended numerous Quaker meetings, including meetings in France, Germany, Holland, and Switzerland. On June 15, 1833, Osborn embarked for a return to the United States, reaching New York on July 31. He returned to Economy, Indiana, on September 3.

Manifest from the ship Hibernia, listing Charles Osborn as
disembarking at the Port of New York from Liverpool, England, on August 1, 1833.
Source: National Archives and Records Administration,
Microfilm Serial M237, Roll 020, Line 1, List Number 573.

Osborn's last extended ministerial journey began on October 28, 1839, with George Evans; their destination being the northeastern portion on the United States. Evans and Osborn first traveled north to Peru and LaPorte, Indiana, crossing into Michigan and stopping for a visit with some of Osborn's family at Young's Prairie in Cass County, Michigan.

After spending most of November 1839 in Michigan, Evans and Osborn proceeded to visit New York and Rhode Island, attending numerous meetings of the Society of Friends. Osborn notes in his diary that he discovered considerable disagreement among Quakers regarding slavery. This disagreement soon lead to the deepening of a schism within the Quaker faith of which Osborn would play a central role. Osborn returned home from this last extended trip on June 27, 1840.

Charles Osborn's direct involvement in the division between Quakers with regard to slavery can be traced to December 1814, when he organized the Tennessee Society for Promoting Manumission of Slaves. Similar societies existed as early as 1775 and were chiefly composed of Methodists, Presbyterians, and Quakers. Manumission represents the act of a slave owner freeing his or her slaves. The constitution of the Osborn's new society expressly stated that its mission was "to procure, for that oppressed part of the community that inestimable jewel, freedom." Each member of the organization was also required to post a placard in their home in the most conspicuous location bearing the statement:
Freedom is the natural right of all men; I therefore acknowledge myself a member of the Tennessee Society for promoting the manumission of slaves.
Within one year of its founding, Osborn's society had expanded to branches located in six counties of Tennessee. By the end of its second year of existence, twenty-two branches of the society had formed. While presiding over this organization, Osborn was the first to proclaim for "immediate and unconditional" emancipation of slaves in the United States, a concept referred to as immediatism. While other similar organizations had debated immediatism, Osborn was the first to make it a central element of an anti-slavery society's mission.

The American Colonization Society (ACS) formed two years after Osborn's Manumission Society. As previously mentioned, the ACS supported a form of emancipation that would send freed slaves back to Africa. Beginning in 1817, some manumission branches, particularly in North Carolina, were beginning to debate the adoption of the ACS's form of emancipation. On January 1, 1822, at a contentious meeting, the North Carolina Manumission Society splintered into two distinct factions - members that advocated for recolonization of freed slaves and members that held fast to immediate and unconditional emancipation of slaves, or immediatism.

Meanwhile, many Quakers in the northeastern United States had, for several decades, been accumulating wealth that was based largely on slave labor, most notably in the cotton and tobacco industries. This led to some Quakers being less enamored with the concept of manumission or the ACS's recolonization efforts. They felt that Quaker opposition via religious positioning was enough and that the Society of Friends should not be involved in the politics of slavery. Between 1838 and 1840, two additional factions of Quakers evolved. One group supported emancipation and the other tolerated the institution of human bondage. Those for abolishing slavery were referred to as Anti-Slavery Friends; Charles Osborn was a leading advocate among this group.

The Anti-Slavery Friends were accused by their fellow Quakers of using political means to end slavery, and Quakers generally avoided politics. The Anti-Slavery Friends responded that legislation was indeed their intent since failure to legislate an end to slavery would, in their opinion, inevitably lead to insurrection and war. They were correct.

At the 1841 Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends, a movement began to push members to focus solely on religion and faith and discontinue politicizing and advocating for the end of slavery so as not to "retain place and influence with the rulers of the land." Many Indiana Quakers were opposed to such a position, and in October 1842 Osborn publicly explained at a state meeting of Quakers that he could no longer align himself with members of the faith that embraced the continuation of slavery by not taking positions against it.

Leadership in the Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends apparently viewed the abolitionists as a significant threat. In order to quash this group, the leadership issued the Epistle of Advice on October 3, 1842, which urged Friends to be:

...weighty and deliberate in making appointments to any of the important stations of committees in society, so that faithful and trusty Friends may be chosen: and we believe that those who have distinguished themselves by opposition or disregard to the advice and travail of the body, are manifestly unsuitable for important services to it.
The following day, October 4, Charles Osborn, Benjamin Stanton, Jacob Grave, and William Locke were formally disqualified from service and membership in the Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends and the Meetings for which the state group represented due to their strong positions against slavery. Osborn later wrote in his diary that he was completely unaware that he was about to be disqualified and disowned by the Society of Friends.

Osborn's fall was hard and unexpected, but it did not go unnoticed by his peers. Numerous Indiana Quakers supported Osborn's position. Furthermore, Osborn was quite well-respected among many Indiana Quakers for his work in building the Society of Friends in the state. Soon, several Indiana Monthly Meetings seceded from the Indiana Society of Friends and formed the Indiana Society of Anti-Slavery Friends, of which Osborn was a member and leader.

In 1847, William Lloyd Garrison claimed in a speech at Cleveland, Ohio, that:
Charles Osborn is the father of all of us abolitionists. 
Garrison's statement is particularly important in its recognition of Osborn as the father of American abolitionists. Garrison was also an abolitionist, journalist, editor, and social reformer; after the Civil War he would become a significant proponent for woman's suffrage. Garrison was also the co-founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which, like Osborn, advocated for immediate emancipation of slaves and rejected the concept of the colonization of Liberia with freed American slaves.

Garrison co-edited the Quaker newspaper Genius of Universal Emancipation with Benjamin Lundy in Baltimore, Maryland. Like Garrison, Lundy was another very well-known and nationally recognized abolitionist. Remarkably, it was Charles Osborn who had trained Lundy in the field of journalism and basic printing while Lundy was residing in Ohio and Osborn was publishing The Philanthropist at Mount Pleasant, Ohio.

Innumerable books concerning the history of slavery in the United States, as well as biographies of both Garrison and Lundy, cite them as the initial proponents immediatism - the immediate and unconditional emancipation of slaves in the United States. Garrison must have thought otherwise. Osborn's work as an abolitionist, however, is absent in most histories concerning the institution of slavery in the United States.

Some biographers of Charles Osborn have speculated that Osborn and his family may have been disowned by the Society of Friends due to their activities related to assisting runaway slaves making their way to Canada, and institution commonly known as the Underground Railroad. This contention is somewhat difficult to confirm with historical facts since the individuals associated with the Underground Railroad were extremely secretive. It is generally accepted that the home of Osborn's son, Josiah, on Young's Prairie in Cass County, Michigan, was indeed a "station" used to convey fugitives to Canada.

At the age of 66, Charles Osborn moved to Young's Prairie in Cass County, Michigan, where he likely resided with son Josiah. Here, he became a member of the Birch Lake Monthly Meeting, which disowned him in 1844 due to his anti-slavery sentiments.

Osborn then moved to an area known as Quakerdom in Jackson Township, Porter County, Indiana, in 1846; this would be his final residence. He lived with his wife and daughter near the western shore of Clear Lake (northwest quarter of northeast quarter of Section 25 in Township 36 North, Range 5 West) and established himself as a member of the Clear Lake Monthly Meeting of Anti-Slavery Friends in 1848.


1850 Federal Census enumeration of Jackson Township,
Porter County, Indiana, showing the family of Charles Osborn.

History is hazy as to the motivation of Osborn's move away from his family in Michigan to locate in Porter County. There are clear reasons to explain most of Osborn's prior moves, but his move to Porter County is an enigma. Some historians have postulated that Osborn moved to Jackson Township to become an "agent" and establish an Underground Railroad station at his home along Clear Lake. However, the Small family, pioneers and Quakers of Clinton Township in LaPorte County, south of Westville, were related to Osborns.

Like the Osborns, the Small family had migrated from North Carolina northward and eventually settled in Wayne County, Indiana. John and Mary (Lenington) Small continued northward to settle in LaPorte County, Indiana. John's sister, Rachel Small, married a Jonathon Osborn. Hence, Charles Osborn may have had cousins living in the region when he moved to Porter County.

Note that were other Underground Railroad agents secretly operating in Porter County; these included Norman B. Tanner in Liberty Township, Benjamin G. Crisman in Portage Township,and Alanson Green and Henry Hageman in Westchester Township. 

The Quaker family of Richard Williams was also very likely known to Charles Osborn. In 1813, Richard Williams and his family moved to Wayne County, Indiana, the same county Osborn moved to in 1819. Richard's father, William Williams was a prominent Quaker minister in Wayne County.

In 1836, Richard moved his family to Michigan, but then moved to Porter County the following year (1837) to take up residence in Jackson Township. Richard Williams passed away in Porter County on July 7, 1849, and his wife, Rachel (Mills) Williams, likely a cousin of Hannah (Swain) Osborn, died December 31, 1849. Husband and wife are interred in Quakerdom Cemetery in Jackson Township. William's property was located south of the cemetery across present day U.S. Route 6.

About four years after moving to Porter County, on December 29, 1850, Charles passed away and was interred in Quakerdom Cemetery. Unfortunately, Osborn did not live to witness the unconditional emancipation of slaves in the United States or the reunification of the two opposing Quaker factions. As one biographer has written: "he died ... distressed by the prevailing dissensions among Friends and by the recently enacted Fugitive Slave Law." The Fugitive Slave Law was enacted three months prior to Charles' death.

View of Quakerdom Cemetery from U.S. Route 6 located
in Jackson Township, Porter County, Indiana.
Source: Google Maps, October 2013

Upon her husband's death, Hannah (Swain) Osborn moved away to reside with her daughter, Sarah S. (Osborn) Bonine. Hannah passed away at the age of 88 on February 12, 1878, in Cass County, Michigan, and was interred there at Prairie Grove Cemetery.

1876 Plat Map of Jackson Township, Porter County, Indiana, showing
the Quakerdom Cemetery, immediately west of School District No. 1. 
The remains of Charles Osborn were laid in Quakerdom Cemetery to rest in 1850.
Source: A. G. Hardesty's 1876 Illustrated Atlas of Porter County, Indiana.

Levi Coffin, a Quaker, leader of the Underground Railroad network, and intimate friend of Charles Osborn wrote the following in his biography:
We had no new doctrine to preach; we advocated immediate and unconditional emancipation as we had done all our lives. This we understood to be the doctrine and testimony of the Society of Friends for generations past.... Charles Osborn, that faithful servant of the Lord, who preached no new doctrine, had experienced no change, but followed the same course and advocated the same Anti-Slavery doctrine that he had for forty years.
In March 1852, the Society of Anti-Slavery Friends adopted a memorial that read, in part, that "in endeavoring to lay the foundation principle of the societies, he, at an early age (1814) advocated and maintained the only true and Christian ground -- immediate and unconditional emancipation." Two years later, Osborn's diary was published. The diary contains a wealth of information regarding Osborn's travels to various Meetings and the positions that were taken with regard to slavery and other issues important to the Society of Friends. Unfortunately, very little information concerning Osborn's personal life can be gleaned from his diary.

Title page from Charles Osborn's diary, published posthumously in 1854.

Given various items published in the local newspaper, it is believed that Charles Osborn's tombstone was removed from the Quakerdom Cemetery the 1950s, likely at some time in 1958. At a December 7, 1958, meeting of the Porter County Historical Society, Arthur A. Finney presented a short report about the grave marker. He stated that it was housed at the museum and would soon be mounted on a wooden support.

Osborn's tombstone is still in the possession of the Porter County Museum, now mounted on a concrete pad. Though worn due to age (presumably 165+ years), its simple inscription can still be read.


Tombstone that marked the burial location of Charles Osborn
at Quakerdom Cemetery in Jackson Township, Porter County, Indiana.
The tombstone was removed in the 1950s due to its deteriorating condition.
Source: Porter County Museum in Valparaiso, Indiana.

At 2:30 pm on Sunday, September 28, 1958, the William Henry Harrison Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Porter County Historical Society, Duneland Historical Society, and LaPorte County Historical Society held a joint dedication service at Quakerdom Cemetery where a monument was erected in the memory of Charles Osborn. On Wednesday, September 24, 1958, a few days prior to the dedication service, members of the Jackson Township Parent Teacher Association (PTA) erected a large sign at the cemetery inscribed with "Quakerdom Cemetery" to properly identify the graveyard.

Delta A. Hickman, of the Wilders Friends Church located in LaPorte County, led the opening prayer at the ceremony. Reverend Carl R. Hatfield delivered the dedicatory tribute to Osborn's memory, while Lucy E. (Doty) Putnam presented a talk on "Our Challenges." Music was provided by the "Half Notes" from the Campbell Friendship House located in Gary, Lake County, Indiana.  

Participants at the dedication of a memorial plaque in honor of
Charles Osborn at Quakerdom Cemetery in Jackson Township,
Porter County, Indiana, on Sunday, September 28, 1958.
Source: The Vidette-Messenger, September 29, 1958.

A bronze plaque was mounted to a large boulder at the Quakerdom Cemetery commemorating the life work of Charles Osborn against the institution of slavery. The inscription on the plaque reads:
CHARLES OSBORN
----------
1775     1850
FIRST PIONEER OF AMERICAN ABOLITION
EMINENT QUAKER MINISTER
ORGANIZER, JOURNALIST, AND PUBLISHER
----------
"THE FULL ENJOYMENT OF LIBERTY IS THE RIGHT OF ALL
WITHOUT ANY CONDITIONS." - THE PHILANTHROPIST
----------
DEDICATORS
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON CHAPTER, N.S.D.A.R.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PORTER COUNTY, INC.
LA PORTE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
DUNELAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Memorial plaque mounted to boulder in honor of Charles Osborn
at Quakerdom Cemetery in Jackson Township, Porter County, Indiana.
Source: Porter County Museum in Valparaiso, Indiana.

Charles Osborn memorial plaque now preserved at
the Porter County Museum. The plaque had been
removed by vandals, likely for its scrap metal value.
Source: Porter County Museum in Valparaiso, Indiana.

If one were to visit the Quakerdom Cemetery today, they would find no Osborn tombstone. They would find no memorial plaque commemorating Charles Osborn's life work. They would not even find a sign denoting the burial grounds as Quakerdom Cemetery. In fact, they might drive right past the cemetery along U.S. Route 6 without taking any notice of it.

Harold G. Barnard (left) and unidentified individual observing
Charles Osborn memorial plaque at Quakerdom Cemetery, 1965.
Source: Collection of Michael Fleming.

Like Osborn's tombstone, the bronze plaque is now residing in the collection of the Porter County Museum. The bronze plaque had been forcibly removed by vandals from its mount on the boulder and tossed across the cemetery. The late Al Loomis retrieved the plaque and took it to the museum for safe keeping. Thus, nothing marks the burial location of one of the most notable proponents for the immediate and unconditional emancipation of slaves in the United States, Charles Osborn.

I extend my appreciation to Kevin Pazour, Executive Director of the Porter County Museum, and Rachel Hulslander, the Museum's Collections Manager, for generously providing me images of the Charles Osborn tombstone and memorial plaque. Thank you!

Source Material

Books
Chesterton Retail Merchants' Association. 1948. The Chesterton Retail Merchants' Directory. Chesterton, Indiana: The Chesterton Tribune. 112 p. [see p. 35]

Coffin, Levi. 1876. Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, the Reputed President of the Underground Railroad. Cincinnati, Ohio: Western Tract Society. 712 p. [see pp. 265-267]

Cremin, Lawrence A. 1980. American Education: The National Experience, 1783-1876. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 607 p.

Dillon, Merton L. 1961. Elijah P. Lovejoy, Abolitionist Editor. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. 190 p.

Drake, Thomas E. 1950. Quakers and Slavery in America. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. 245 p.

Dye, Charity. 1917. Some Torch Bearers in Indiana. Indianapolis, Indiana: The Hollenbeck Press. 327 p. [see pp. 65-70]

Hardesty, A. G. 1876. Illustrated Atlas of Porter County, Indiana. Valparaiso, Indiana. A. G. Hardesty. 90 p. [see p. 77]

Inter-State Publishing Company. 1884. History of Wayne County, Indiana, Together with Sketches of its Cities, Villages and Towns, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military and Political History, Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. Volume II. Chicago, Illinois: Inter-State Publishing Company. 822 p. [see pp. 703-709]

Julian, George W. 1891. The Rank of Charles Osborn as an Anti-Slavery Pioneer. Indianapolis, Indiana: Bowen-Merrill Company. 37 p. [Indiana Historical Society Publications Volume II, Number 6]

Ketring, Ruth Anna. 1937. Charles Osborn in the Anti-Slavery Movement. Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. 95 p.

Lake, D. J. 1874. Atlas of Wayne County, Indiana. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Griffing, Stevenson & Gould. 77 p. [see p. 15]

Mathews, Alfred. 1882. History of Cass County, Michigan: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Chicago, Illinois: Waterman, Watkins and Company. 432 p.

Nelson, Jacquelyn S. 1991. Indiana Quakers Confront the Civil War. Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana Historical Society. 324 p

Osborn, Charles. 1854. Journal of that Faithful Servant of Christ, Charles Osborn. Cincinnati, Ohio: Achilles Pugh. 472 p. [see pp. 261-262]

Siebert, Wilbur H. 1898. The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom. New York, New York: The MacMillan Company. 478 p.

Teague, Bobbie T. 1995. Cane Creek: Mother of Meetings. Greensboro, North Carolina: North Carolina Yearly Meeting of Friends. 160 p.

Young, Andrew W. 1872. History of Wayne County, Indiana: From Its First Settlement to the Present Time, With Numerous Biographical and Family Sketches. Cincinnati, Ohio: R. Clarke & Company. 459 p. [see pp. 312-313]

Periodicals
Alexander, Samuel. 1907. Personal Recollections and Reminiscences of Some of the American Friends Who Travelled in These Countries on Religious Service from 1828 to 1852. The Journal of the Friends' Historical Society 4(3):87-98.

Blount-Adams, Diane. 1998. Northwest Indiana Hero....... Osborn of Clear Lake. Shadbonna: An Historical Journal of Northwest of Indiana 1(2):1, 5, and 7.

Boyd, William M. 1947. Charles Osborn: Pioneer American Abolitionist. Phylon 8(2):133-137.

Julian, George W. 1891. The Rank of Charles Osborn as an Anti-Slavery Pioneer. Indiana Historical Society Publications 2(6):1-37.

Martin, Asa Earl. 1916. Anti-Slavery Press. The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 2(4):509-528.

Osborn, Isaiah. 1908. Old Indianapolis Letter. Indiana Magazine of History 4(1):28-29.

Seigel, Peggy Brase. 1992. Moral Champions and Public Pathfinders: Antebellum Quaker Women in Eastcentral Indiana. Quaker History 81(2):87-106.

Small, James L. 1934. Up From Dixie. Indiana Magazine of History 30(3):259-262.

Newspapers (listed by date of publication)
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; December 14, 1916; Volume 33, Number 39, Page 6, Columns 3-5. Column titled "An Account of the Quaker Settlement," by H. H. Williams.

The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana; September 22, 1958; Volume 32, Number 66, Page 5, Columns 3-4. Column titled "DAR Holds Constitution Observance."

The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana; September 23, 1958; Volume 32, Number 67, Page 1, Columns 5-6. Column titled "Jackson Group Will Erect Quakerdom Cemetery Sign."

The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana; September 24, 1958; Volume 32, Number 68, Page 1, Column 6 and Page 6, Column 2. Column titled "Plan Special Rites At Quakerdom Cemetery," by Rollie Bernhart.

The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana; September 25, 1958; Volume 32, Number 69, Page 1, Columns 1-2. Column titled "Identify Quakerdom Cemetery."

The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana; September 29, 1958; Volume 32, Number 72, Page 1, Columns 1-4. Column titled "Dedicate Plaque to Memory of Charles Osborn."

The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana; December 10, 1958; Volume 32, Number 133, Page 2, Column 4. Column titled "Historical Society Tells Reasons For Liking This County."

The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana; September 13, 1966; Volume 40, Number 60, Page 2, Columns 3-6. Column titled "Will Place Permanent Marker" by Hortense Myers.

Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; April 12, 2011. Column titled "'Father of All Us Abolitionists' Lies in Neglected Grave in Jackson Township" by David Canright.

© 2016 Steven R. Shook. All Rights Reserved.

7 comments:

  1. Thank You Steven Shook for this tribute to Charles Osborn my XXXX GreatGrandfather. I am a direct maternal descendent of Hannah Swain by way of her daughter Sarah Osborn Bonine. I have been trying to put together the threads of their story and am actually glad I had already found many of these primary sources before finding your post. You did excellent research and added some very interesting twists to the end of the story. One of the things I couldn't figure out is why Charles returned to Indiana at the end of his life and if Hannah was with him. His motivation for being always on the move has always been a mystery to me. There are few if any still in the world with a passion and interest in Charles and his legacy, I for one want to keep it alive for our family. If there is a chance you could share any of the photos and articles especially about his tomb stone and memorial I would very much appreciate it. Thank You so Much for this. Hope you are well in these unusual times.
    Brigid Mulloy brigid.mulloy@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brigid,
      You should be able to click on the images above to enlarge them and then right-click and save them to your computer. Unfortunately, I do not have any additional images of the gravestone and memorial other than what appears in this blog post.

      Delete
  2. This is really cool I found this. I’m a direct descendant of Charles and Hannah Swain, my 4th great-grandparents

    ReplyDelete
  3. I, too, am a XXXX Great Grandchild of Charles Osborn. The progression of ancestors is Osborn, Crandall, Lake, Sigerfoos, Blyly, Atkins, and Ronnebaum. I live in Cass County, Michigan and have visited Prairie Grove Cemetery where numerous of my ancestors are buried. When I visit the cemetery again I will look for Hannah's grave. Brigid Mulloy commented above that Sarah Osborn married into the Bonine family. Bonine is a well known name here in Cass County and The Bonine House (a "station" in the Underground Railroad and located 8 miles to the north) has been beautifully restored by the Underground Railroad Society of Cass County. As both families were abolitionists, they were good friends. Thank you for your extensive research, Stephen. Karen Ronnebaum religiouseducationolol@gmail.com

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  4. For anybody researching Charles Osborn's history - the Indiana State Library has recently published their collection of The Philanthropist at the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/isl-ind-osborn-phlntnrpst/ (I just had to ask nicely. :-D) --JDO (4th great grandson)

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  5. Thank you for this history! I'm grateful to know that a such an important abolitionist is associated with Porter County!

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  6. Fascinating information about this important abolitionist. I love history and enjoy doing genealogy so this article is very interesting. Thank you for your great research!

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