Miami Friends and Slavery
Many Friends moved to the "free state" of Ohio to escape the scourge of slavery. Anti-slavery sentiment was becoming widespread in the Northern states. Friends in both Hicksite and Orthodox branches found ways to carry out their testimony against slavery and provided for the needs of freed slaves and their descendants. Friend Elizabeth Harvey opened a school for African-American children in Harveysburg in 1831. It is maintained today as a private museum. Hicksite Business Meeting minutes from the 1830s tell of short term Friends schools for "people of color" at Xenia, Springfield, and in Highland County.
Some Friends struggled over the deceit and secrecy involved in the Underground Railroad, in keeping with their testimony of truth, but many Quaker families were active in assisting runaway slaves on their way to freedom. Many Quaker Underground Railroad sites were located in Waynesville, Springboro, and Harveysburg. Butterworth Farm, which is on the Little Miami River near Mainville, was a resting place for escaped slaves, and it is memorialized today as a prominent Underground Railroad site. Direct descendants of the original Quaker family to settle Butterworth Farm (around 1810), the Stone-Neumann family, still resides on the property and are active members of Miami Monthly Meeting.
In 2015, an Ohio Historical Marker was placed on the Little Miami Scenic Train at Butterworth Farm to commemorate Butterworth Station, Warren County's southernmost station on the Underground Railroad.