2-1-17 retired marian university american history professor says octagon house was not part of underground railroad

A retired american history professor at Marian University says contrary to popular belief, the historic Octagon house in Fond du Lac was not part of the underground railroad to free runaway slaves.  Retired professor Richard Whaley says Fond du Lac wasn’t even close to the routes used by abolitionists to help slaves escape to Canada.   “The runaway slaves would not come through Fond du Lac.  There would be no reason for them to come here,”    Whaley told WFDL news.   “Their destination, for the most part, would have been Canada and in order to do that one would have to escape via first contacting a safe house.”    Whaley says the Milton House in Milton, Wisconsin  was a famous safe house for runaway slaves.  From there Whaley says slaves would travel to either Racine, Kenosha or Milwaukee to escape by boat on Lake Michigan.  Whaley says escape by boat was easier than trying to cross the border by land.    “Abolitionists who wanted to help the runaway slaves would find a sympathetic captain who would take the runaway on board.”   Whaley says it was a relatively small number of people.   “At minimum 100, more than that, not many I don’t think.”    ” You have all of that going on and incredibly good communication among the slave population.  Its likely they’re going to go to the places that would be most likely to help either hide them in the United States or to get them to Canada,  and Fond du Lac, Wisconsin would not have been a way station on that stop.”   And what about those mysterious underground tunnels and false doors at the Octagon House and other properties in downtown Fond du Lac?    “I do know in talking to people, probably could have been used for transporting illegal liquor around.  On the other hand it could also have been used just to move deliveries around too,”  Whaley said.    Whaley says while there was a group of abolitionists in Fond du lac, the city was split between those who were sympathetic to the slaves and those who were not.  “Fond du Lac was divided on that issue between Republicans who tended toward the abolitionist way of thinking and Democrats who tended not to take such a liberal or very kind attitude toward the slaves.”