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Name:
Underground Railroad (Dauphin County)
Region:
Hershey/Gettysburg/Dutch Country Region
County:
Dauphin
Marker Location:
Walnut St. near 4th St., Harrisburg
Dedication Date:
April 29, 2000
Behind the Marker
By 1850, Harrisburg's free black population had grown close to 900 people, about 12 percent of the town's population. A large portion of this community lived in a neighborhood known as Tanner's Alley or Tanner's Lane. A vibrant section of the city, Tanner's Alley contained local churches, including the Wesley Union AME Zion Church, the black Masonic Hall, businesses, restaurants, and dance halls.
Born into a prominent black Philadelphia family, Joseph Bustill (1822-1895) came to working in Harrisburg during the 1850s as a schoolteacher. There, he and William "Pap" Jones, a prominent African-American doctor and merchant, were active in the Underground Railroad, hiding escaped slaves in this homes. Jones also transported fugitive slaves in a large covered wagon.
In the 1850s, Bustill wrote several letters to
William Still of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee informing him of various operations and describing the formation of what he called Harrisburg's Fugitive Slave Society. Bustill did not use railroad metaphors to discuss the fugitives his group was sending to Philadelphia. Instead he referred in one case to "five large and three small packages," and in another case to "four large and 
two small hams" that were due to arrive on the real Reading and Pennsylvania Railroad.
Wesley Union AME Zion Church, corner of Tanner's Alley and South Street,...
Born into a prominent black Philadelphia family, Joseph Bustill (1822-1895) came to working in Harrisburg during the 1850s as a schoolteacher. There, he and William "Pap" Jones, a prominent African-American doctor and merchant, were active in the Underground Railroad, hiding escaped slaves in this homes. Jones also transported fugitive slaves in a large covered wagon.
In the 1850s, Bustill wrote several letters to
William Still of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee informing him of various operations and describing the formation of what he called Harrisburg's Fugitive Slave Society. Bustill did not use railroad metaphors to discuss the fugitives his group was sending to Philadelphia. Instead he referred in one case to "five large and three small packages," and in another case to "four large and
two small hams" that were due to arrive on the real Reading and Pennsylvania Railroad. 