Published January 31, 2025

Reconstructing One Man’s Road to Freedom

Descendants piece together memories and research to share the story of William Bush

By Joanna Hahn, central regional director and site manager at the Levi and Catharine Coffin State Historic Site

Many stories exist of how the townspeople of Fountain City supported the abolitionist movement, breaking Fugitive Slave Laws by using their homes and providing resources for freedom-seekers escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad.

These stories have become synonymous with the town itself, and while they overwhelmingly highlight Quaker people, they were not the only town residents who supported the Underground Railroad. The story of one resident, William Bush, has become just as well known in Fountain City as that of Levi and Catharine Coffin, who operated the “Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad.”

This is Bush’s story.

Eileen Baker Wall w Shoes at Coffin

Many details of Bush’s life are hard to determine, particularly before he reached Fountain City. However, what we do know has been pieced together with ongoing research of state records, newspaper articles and stories passed through Bush’s family down to Eileen Baker-Wall, Bush’s great-great-granddaughter and the keeper of the stories.

Bush was born in Person County, N.C., around the year 1805. Although he didn’t know the exact date or year of his birth, like many enslaved people of the time, Bush himself approximated his age based on a childhood memory of seeing soldiers during the War of 1812.

His mother was enslaved, and while there is no evidence of who his father was, descriptions claim Bush was fairly light skinned. Although there are no photographs of Bush, if this detail is true, it hints at the possibility that his enslaver was his father, which was not uncommon at the time.

Reportedly, Bush was close to the man who enslaved him. Early on, he required Bush to learn the trade of blacksmithing, a skillset which became his livelihood later in life. But after his original enslaver died, Bush became enslaved to his son. At the time, Bush was around 30 years old.

This transfer from father to son may explain how Bush was said to be enslaved in both North Carolina and Mississippi, as we do not know who either of his enslavers were or where they were located. However, by 1844, Bush had made his way to Tennessee where he made his first attempt to escape slavery — a harrowing story that’s detailed in an 1869 article from The Radical called “Reminiscences of the Underground Rail Road.”

Bush’s enslaver at the time, a plantation owner in Mississippi, allowed him to earn money by hiring out his services as a blacksmith, and that summer, Bush had been hired out to work in Memphis, Tenn., a major hub of trade and travel on the Mississippi River.

Seeing an opportunity to take advantage of Memphis’ thriving trade routes, Bush convinced John Bennett, a free Black man and boat steward, to hide Bush aboard a boat that would soon sail to Cincinnati, Ohio.

Using profits he had saved from blacksmithing, Bush paid Bennett $75 for his efforts, and they concocted a plan.

On July 10, Bush hid in a wooden crate and was taken to the wharf. All he had to do was keep quiet and stay still, and nobody would suspect there was a person inside.

Bennett had drilled a few small holes to allow some fresh air, but the hot summer sun quickly made conditions inside the crate unbearable. Finally, when the boat’s captain sat down on the crate, covering the air holes, Bush physically could not endure anymore, and he shouted, “Open this box!”

Shocked, the captain opened the crate, relieving Bush but ending his attempt to escape.

Bennett, who had fled the scene as soon as Bush was discovered, was eventually arrested and found guilty of harboring a fugitive, then sent to the state penitentiary to serve his prison sentence. Bush was arrested and taken to jail before returning to his enslaver’s plantation in Mississippi. What happened once Bush arrived there is unknown, but regardless, he remained focused on his pursuit for freedom.

By the following year, Bush made a second daring escape that nearly cost him his life. He recounted the captivating story multiple times, including for the book “History of Wayne County, From Its First Settlement to Present Day” published in 1872 and an 1898 article from the Richmond Item called “Strange But True: Secret History of a Fountain City Man.”

After fleeing the plantation, Bush was pursued by armed bounty hunters with dogs who chased him to a river. After jumping in, Bush clung to the bottom of the log while his pursuers shot into the water and, believing they had killed him, gave up.

Bush eventually made it back to Memphis where he connected with two Underground Railroad operators who agreed to help him get to Cincinnati, for a fee of $175. They pretended Bush was their body servant and purchased passage on a riverboat.

Once in Cincinnati, he was harbored by the Underground Railroad in central Ohio, where he stayed for a year before coming to Fountain City (then known as Newport) sometime in 1846.

Upon his arrival, family stories speculate that Bush adopted his surname as a new identity, in reference to his bushy hair.

By the time the 1850 Census was conducted, he had also married a woman named Charlotte and started a family. The couple had several children together. After Charlotte’s death, Bush married Mary Jones in 1866 and together they had six children.

From there, he became a landowner and businessman, establishing himself as the town blacksmith. He was also a farmer and owned two houses, both of which still stand today.

Though Indiana was a free state, at the time of his escape, Bush was considered a fugitive slave. Under Fugitive Slave Laws, a freedom-seeker could be caught and returned to slavery at any time. Bush likely feared recapture until the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865.

Unlike many freedom-seekers who chose to continue on to Canada where they could live free lives without the risk of being recaptured, Bush decided to stay in Newport for the rest of his life.

At the time, the town and its surrounding township were home to around 200 free Black people. Residents like Robert Burrell, the community’s barber, were able to establish homes and livelihoods for themselves, demonstrating to Bush and others the community welcomed freedom-seekers to stay.

Plus, with many active Underground Railroad living in town, Bush could live with the assurance that he and his family would be hastened further north should any bounty hunters come to town looking for him.

Regardless of the risk he took staying in Indiana, Bush risked even more by helping fellow freedom-seekers along the Underground Railroad. In one story, Bush even helped the townspeople stand up to Kentuckians who came threatening to burn Newport down.

Bush may have also been slightly more concealed to slave catchers by his appearance. While we do not have any images of him, Bush was described as having a relatively fair complexion and straight hair. He may have been able to pass as white to those who did not know him.

For a long time after Bush’s passing in 1892, his descendants were hesitant to reveal the details of his story outside of the family — especially during the years when segregation and other forms of discrimination loomed large for African Americans.

But as the Civil Rights movement grew, they decided to share how Bush escaped slavery and created a new life for himself. Ina Burden, Bush’s granddaughter and family historian, began the efforts to research, uncover new facts and confirm the family’s oral accounts to create a record of his life.

To this day, Baker-Wall carries on Burden’s work and continues to share Bush’s story as an active volunteer at the Levi and Catharine Coffin State Historic Site and at local public events in Wayne County. You can watch one of her presentations here. We are so grateful to all Bush’s descendants who have dedicated themselves to keeping his story alive.

In addition to his story, two important objects still remain from Bush’s life in Newport — a metal mortar and pestle he used to make herbal medicines for animals, and a pair of wooden shoes that, according to Burden, Bush wore while escaping from Memphis.

When you visit the Levi and Catharine Coffin State Historic Site, come see these unique objects and connect to the story of Bush’s remarkable life and quest for freedom.