In the meantime the sheriff and two of his
deputies come up. The sheriff said he had to hold them for the
authorities of the county. They were taken by the sheriff from the three
men, carried about 15 miles further in Pennsylvania and then were told
to go to Chester where they would be safe.
"Mr. Davis came to Chester with Mr. Tuttle to claim the escaping slaves.
They were badly beaten, Mr. Tuttle receiving a fractured skull. There
were several white men in Chester who were very much interested in
colored people, they gave us money to go to Philadelphia. After arriving
in Philadelphia, we went to Allen's mission, a colored church that
helped escaping slaves. I stayed in Philadelphia until I was about 19
years old, then all the colored people were free. I returned to Talbot,
there remained until 1904, came to Baltimore where I secured a job with
James Hitchens, a colored man, who had six furniture vans drawn by two
horses each and sometimes by three and four horses. Mr. Hitchens' office
and warehouse were on North Street near Pleasant. I stayed there with
Mr. Hitchens until he sold his business to Mr. O. Farror after he had
taken sick.
"In March I will be 90 years old. I have been sick three times in my
life. I am, and have been a member of North Street Baptist Church for
thirty-three years. I am the father of nine children, have been married
twice and a grandfather of twenty-three granddaughters and grandsons and
forty-five great grand-children.
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