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COOLING SPRINGS FARM On the Underground Railroad Near Adamstown, Maryland |
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Learn more about the Underground Railroad . . . |
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Railroad Sites Link to the MapMuse map of over 300 Underground Railroad
sites across the United States and Canada |
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Cooling Springs Farm |
COOLING SPRINGS FARM
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Tours
Tours of Cooling
Springs Farm and its Underground Railroad safe-house are arranged by
appointment or through the organizations listed under the programs section of this website. To
arrange a tour directly, contact Cooling
Springs Farm. Driving Directions
If you are arriving by airplane or train, see directions
following the driving directions From Washington, DC, and East
Take Interstate 270 north to Frederick, then very briefly
onto Interstate 70 west, then US15 south. You will now be on US15 and US340
combined. Where they diverge, take US15 to your left. After about two miles,
turn left onto Mountville Road, then right on Ballenger Creek Pike to Cooling
Springs Farm at 2455 Ballenger Creek Pike. From Baltimore and East
Take Interstate 70 west to Frederick, then US15 south. You
will now be on US15 and US340 combined. Where they diverge, take US15 to your
left. After about two miles, turn left onto Mountville Road, then right on
Ballenger Creek Pike to Cooling Springs Farm at 2455 Ballenger Creek Pike. From Pennsylvania and North
Take US15 south through Frederick, Maryland. After passing
through Frederick, you will be on US15 and US340 combined. Where they
diverge, take US15 to your left. After about two miles, turn left onto
Mountville Road, then right on Ballenger Creek Pike to Cooling Springs Farm
at 2455 Ballenger Creek Pike. From Virginia and South
Find your way to US Route 15 north which lies to the west
of Interstate 95 and to the east of Interstate 81. Take US15 north across the
Potomac River. Immediately after crossing the river, turn right onto Maryland
Route 28, and then take an immediate left onto Ballenger Creek Pike to
Cooling Springs Farm at 2455 Ballenger Creek Pike. From West Virginia and West
Take US340 north across the Potomac River. Where US340
meets US15, follow the signs to US15 south which involves a U-turn at
Mount Zion Road. You are now going south of US340 and US15 combined. Where
they diverge, take US15 to your left. After about two miles, turn left onto
Mountville Road, then right on Ballenger Creek Pike to Cooling Springs Farm
at 2455 Ballenger Creek Pike. Or, take Interstate 70 from the west to US15
south at Frederick. At first, you will be on US15 and US340 combined. Where
they diverge, take US15 to your left. After about two miles, turn left onto
Mountville Road, then right on Ballenger Creek Pike to Cooling Springs Farm
at 2455 Ballenger Creek Pike. Arriving by Air
The easiest of the three major local airports for
travelers arriving by air is Thurgood Marshall International Airport (BWI) in
Baltimore. Other choices are National Airport (DCA) in Washington DC or
(better) Dulles International Airport (IAD) near Washington, DC. For driving
directions from Marshall Airport, see under Baltimore above. From Dulles
Airport, take Virginia Route 267 west to US15 north and follow the directions
above for ÒFrom Virginia and the South.Ó Dulles Airport is about 15 minutes
closer to Cooling Springs Farm but flights into Baltimore are usually less
expensive than to Dulles. Departures are also much easier at Marshall than
from Dulles. Arriving by Train
There is wek-day commuter train service several times
daily from Union Station in Washington, DC to Point of Rocks which is three
miles from Cooling Springs Farm. If you do not have transportation after
reaching Point of Rocks, you may call for a taxi at Bowie Transportation at
301.695.0333. |
COOLING SPRINGS FARM
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The History of Cooling Springs Farm and the
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COOLING SPRINGS FARM
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Photos of the Potomac-to-Doubs Route of the Underground Railroad, Cooling
Springs Farm and Nearby Underground Railroad Landmarks
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One stretch of the Potomac-to-Doubs Route of the
Underground Railroad running three miles from the Potomac River to Doubs,
Maryland. This photograph is of Thomas's Lane just north of the Potomac
River. This is what freedom seekers saw in their first few minutes in Union territory.
Thomas's Lane has existed since the early 1800s when the farm through which
it runs was purchased by the Thomas family, in-laws and neighbors of the
Michaels. |
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Further north on the Potomac-to-Doubs Underground
Railroad Route, here overlooking Cooling Springs Farm and the Michael
homestead in the background. The three–mile route of the
Potomac-to-Doubs Route of the Underground Railroad consists of a network of
old farm roads and lies intact in the same place as in Underground Railroad days.
It is a rarity today that this length of an old Underground Railroad route
remains whole and undisturbed by development, |
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What freedom seekers saw: the Spring House, hidden beyond
the bridge past the creeks of Cooling Springs Farm. Frank and Emily Wanzer,
Barnaby and Mary Elizabeth Grigsby, and two unknown others are thought to
have passed through Cooling Springs Farm on Christmas Eve, 1855, and might
have been sheltered in the Spring House after the six had escaped that
morning from Aldie, Virginia, 30 miles south of Cooling Springs where they
had been enslaved. The next day, Christmas, while the party of six was
traveling north from Cooling Springs to Pennsylvania, one of the unknown
freedom seekers was shot and killed by slave catchers, the other captured and
re-enslaved. The Wanzers and Grigsbys escaped at gunpoint, went on north, and
lived the rest of their lives in Canada. Cooling Springs Farm has located the
descendants of Frank Wanzer and they and the Michael family have shared their
common history. |
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On the left is Allen Nelson, great-great-grandson of
freedom seeker Frank Wanzer who is thought to have passed through Cooling
Springs Farm in 1855, and on the right, Peter Michael, great-great-grandson
of Ezra and Margaret Michael who operated Cooling Springs Farm as an
Underground Railroad safe-house at the time. Between them is Januwa Moja,
wife of Mr. Nelson, and behind the three is the Spring House where Frank
Wanzer and his five fellow freedom seekers were possibly sheltered. The
spring house is shown here before restoration. |
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The first public tour of Cooling Springs Farm and
spring house conducted in August, 2002. Shown here are several members of the
Michael family and of the Ambush and Harris families, long-time neighbors of
the old African-American village of Pleasant View adjoining the Michael
farms. The three families have known each other for at least six generations.
The spring house is shown in the background before restoration. |
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Rhonda and Sparky Rucker, left above, lead celebrants
in Underground Railroad songs at the rededication of Cooling Springs Farm on
July 2, 2003. The Ruckers are the national leaders in rediscovering and
keeping the songs of the Underground Railroad before the audiences of today.
On the right is Walt Michael, artistic director of Common Ground |
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On the right in this circa 1900 photograph is the home
of Ezra and Margaret Michael which existed in Underground Railroad times.
This original Cooling Springs home, begun in 1768 by the first generation of
the family, lasted until about the 1920s. The "new" Cooling Springs
home, still so called, built by Ezra and Margaret in 1879, is in the top
center of the photograph, and is the farm residence today. |
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The present Cooling Springs home built by Ezra and
Margaret Michael in 1879. This home is typical of the local vernacular
farmhouse architecture of the mid- to late nineteenth century, and retains
its original layout, floors, walls, ceilings, three chimneys, stone masonry
and most fixtures. Cooling Springs Farm is a Frederick County Landmark, is
listed by the Maryland Historical Trust in the Maryland Inventory of Historic
Properties, and has been featured on the Historic Home Tour of Frederick
County. |
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St. Paul's Episcopal Church near Cooling Springs Farm.
The church was supported in its founding as an integrated parish by Ezra and
Margaret Michael, their Thomas and Virts in-laws, and others in 1842, the
year after Margaret and Ezra were married. The church and its graveyard were
integrated from the beginning and still are. St. Paul's was active in the
abolitionist movement and possibly in the Underground Railroad, and was used
as a hospital by the Union Army during the Civil War. |
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Ezra (1813-1886) and Margaret (1823-1897) Michael. She was
born on his tenth birthday. |
COOLING SPRINGS FARM
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Peter Michael Available to Speak on the Underground Railroad
Cooling Springs owner Peter H. Michael is available to conventions, meetings and civic groups, and to television and radio to speak on the Underground Railroad. He has given many interviews and presentations in each of these media. There is no charge. Mr. Michael is the author of An American Family of the Underground Railroad on Michael family Underground Railroad involvement, and Guide to Freedom: Rediscovering the Underground Railroad In One United States County. You may visit the first book's web site or order the book here and the second book's web site or order it here. Guide to Freedom: Rediscovering the Underground Railroad In One United States County reveals the Underground Railroad in Frederick County, Maryland, where he lives, and nearby. The book is available at Amazon and may be ordered wherever books are sold. Peter Michael is also the author of Palace of Yawns, an exposŽ of the failure of the United Nations to adequately assist poor countries in lowering their birth rates. To purchase the book, click here. Peter Michael is the founder and publisher of Underground Railroad Free Press, North AmericaÕs leading Underground Railroad news publication and the international central registry of Underground Railroad organizations and events. Underground Railroad Free Press awards the annual Free Press Prizes in contemporary Underground Railroad leadership, preservation and advancement of knowledge, the international Underground Railroad community's top honors. To subscribe to this free publication, order back issues, or submit articles, letters or advertising, visit the Underground Railroad Free Press web site here. In his professional life, Peter Michael is founder and
president of Michael Strategic Analysis, an award-winning firm located in
Adamstown, Maryland, practicing strategic planning, market analysis and
expert witness economic damages testimony. Visit the MSA web site here. Mr. Michael took his undergraduate
degree at the University of Maryland, holds an MBA in international business
from the University of California at Berkeley where his master's thesis
became the cover story of a national magazine, and completed a post-graduate
fellowship in demography at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of
Public and International Affairs. He has taught management or demography at
the graduate level at universities in Thailand, Japan, Costa Rica and the
United States. To schedule Mr. Michael for a
presentation, click here. |
COOLING SPRINGS FARM
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Contact
Cooling Springs Farm 301 | 874 | 0235 E-mail Cooling
Springs Farm here. |
COOLING SPRINGS FARM
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Research on the Underground Railroad and Cooling Springs Farm
The Underground Railroad is an especially difficult
topic to research since it was an illegal and clandestine operation for all
of its 280-year existence. After the Civil War, some freedom seekers and a
very few Underground Railroad conductors and safe-house operators wrote down
their stories, but the vast majority did not. Even after the Civil War and
the enactment of the 13th, 14th ans 15th Amendments,
conductors and safe-house operators were persecuted for having aided freedom
seekers, and therefore many of those who provided aid took their Underground
Railroad involvement as secrets to the grave. In other cases, families were split over the issue of
slavery, and sibling did not dare tell sibling of involvement in the
Underground Railroad. This is true of the Michael family: Daniel and Samuel
Michael, two pro-slavery brothers, very likely did not know of the roles of
their brothers Ezra and Henry Michael in sheltering freedom seekers,
especially after Daniel and Samuel were removed from the will of their father
for their pro-slavery stance. Only about three percent of claimed Underground Railroad
sites in the United States have documentary evidence of involvement with the
other 97 percent known from oral tradition and occasional corroboration. The
most likely source of information on the dwindling number of known Underground
Railroad safe-houses and routes today is more than ever the oral traditions
passed down in the families of freedom seekers, conductors and safe-house
operators, and from property owner to property owner. For example, the chance
intersection of the present-day oral traditions of two families is how the
Michael family, descendants of safe-house operators, became aware of the
Wanzer family, descendants of freedom seekers who were likely sheltered at
Cooling Springs in 1855. However, very few of these oral traditions have been
published, and fewer still will show up in internet or bibliographic
searches. For the researcher interested in particular Underground Railroad
sites or areas, the best approach, though it is time consuming, is to start
asking the old families in the geographic area of interest, particularly
African-American families. Researching the Underground Railroad For internet and bibliographic resources on the
Underground Railroad in general, please
click on this link. Researching the Underground Railroad in Frederick
County, Maryland For internet, bibliographic and oral tradition resources
on the Underground Railroad in Frederick County, Maryland, please click on this link. Researching Cooling Springs Farm and the Michael family For resources on the involvement of Cooling Springs Farm
and the Michael family in the Underground Railroad, please
click on this link, or contact us. |
COOLING SPRINGS FARM
Sources on the Underground Railroad in General, the Underground Railroad
in
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COOLING SPRINGS FARM |
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An American Family
of the Underground Railroad, by Peter Michael
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Now rare nearly 150 years after the end of the uplifting
national phenomenon known as the Underground Railroad are the very few intact
family accounts of Underground Railroad safe-house operators. This book tells
the story of the extensively documented experiences of the family of author
Peter Michael in sheltering Underground Railroad freedom seekers, and the
reconnection after 150 years with the descendants of a freedom seeker who
likely passed through the Underground Railroad safe-house at the author's
Cooling Springs Farm, now an Underground Railroad historic site open to the
public. |
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To read more about An American Family of the Underground
Railroad and/or to purchase the book, go to its web site here. |
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Guide to Freedom: Rediscovering the
Underground Railroad In One United States County,
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Only in the last few years have places around the nation
begun to research and catalogue their Underground Railroad sites to
rediscover what the Underground Railroad looked like geographically. While
upstate New York, eastern Kansas and the Philadelphia area have made good
strides in this important rediscovery, very little has been done in border or
southern states where research is much more difficult. Peter Michael's Guide to Freedom identifies 61
safe-houses and routes in Maryland's
Frederick County with its key routes linking Virginia and
Pennsylvania. Breaking more new ground, Guide
to Freedom is believed to be the first Underground Railroad book to rate
sites according to their likelihood of authenticity. |
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To read more about Guide to Freedom and/or to purchase
the book, go to its web site here. |
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