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| Starr Clark's tin shop (right) on Main Street in Mexico, New York. Starr Clark housed fugitives in this from the mid-1830s to the Civil War. James Chandler, who owned the brick bank next door, was also an abolitionist. Photo by Judith Wellman, Sept. 1998. |
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Possible tunnel entrance, Starr Clark tin shop. Starr Clark's
granddaughter, Cora Plumley Denton, believed that a tunnel ran from the basement of the tin shop to the house next door. The arrangement of rocks in the east wall of the tin shop basement suggests a possible filled-in tunnel. Photo by Judith Wellman, Sept. 1998. |
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How do we know that Starr and Harriet Clark were involved with the underground railroad? 1. A letter from "C" in Mexico, dated December
5, 1837, described a fugitive named George who went into the
tavern opposite C's house. The only abolitionists in Mexcio who
lived opposite a tavern were Starr and Harriet Clark. As "C"
noted, `I was looking out at my front door, and saw a colored
man go to the tavern opposite. Sme one asked if that was not
one of our people. Friend of Man, February 28, 1838 2. At the Oswego County Anti-Slavery Society meeting on June 21, 1838, Starr Clark (along with Joseph M. Barrows and Orson Ames) was appointed to be part of a vigilance committee for the Town of Mexico, to help fugitives from slavery. Friend of Man, July 4, 1838 Starr Clark and his family were at the focal point of much abolitionist activity in Mexico, New York, from the beginning of anti-slavery work in 1835. Starr Clark organized meetings, signed petitions, worked actively for Whig abolitionist activity (and against the organization of a separate abolitionist political party), and with his wife Harriet Loomis Clark operated a station on the underground railroad. Starr Clark was born in Lee, Massachusetts, in 1793. Harriet Loomis Clark came from Stonington, Connecticut. In 1816, they traveled from Connecticut to Utica, Nw York in an oxcart. In 1832, the Clarks moved to Mexico, where Starr Clark soon set himself up as a stove dealer and tin manufacturer [in the village]. He opened a store and shop on Main Street and built a home just east of it. On April 26, 1833, Harriet and Starr Clark joined the new Mexicoville Presbyterian Church. Beginning in the fall of 1835, Starr Clark took an extraordinarily active part in anti-slavery activities in Mexico and throughout Oswego County. He signed anti-slavery petitions, including the very first one sent from Oswego County in September 1835. From 1838 to 1840, he worked hard to keep Mexico abolitionists allied with the Whig Party, creating a split with abolitionists in other parts of Oswego County. In 1840, he also worked to release James W. Seward, an African American who lived near Fulton, New York, and who had been enslaved in Louisiana. In 1838, Starr Clark volunteered to be part of the Vigilance Committee for the Town of Mexico (along with Joseph M. Barrows and Orson Ames), designed to help fugitives to reach Canada. Anecdotes about his underground railroad activity range from an encounter in 1838 with a self-emancipated slave named George to his participation in the Jerry Rescue in 1851. In the 1840s, Clark was dismissed from the Presbyterian Church because he advocated ideas of Christian Union, i.e. he believed that all Christians should join together in one church, living the ideals of the early Christians. He proceeded to join the Methodists, who apparently did not find his views so controversial. By 1855, Clark had established himself as a man of moderate means, with a frame house worth $2300 and a tin business worth $900. He died in 1866 and was remembered as "an active and influential citizen." Sources:
Clark |