CONNEAUT, Ohio -- Hiram Lake, born in 1811, was one of the first members of the South Ridge Anti-Slavery Society. He built his house in 1832 to hide slaves. It had a trap door that led to a secret cellar under the kitchen at the rear of the house. His home became a stop on the Underground Railroad. In the 1800s, it was a one-story dwelling with a barn and carriage house in the back.

The Underground Railroad was a network of homes, taverns or barns with hiding places, secret tunnels, concealed rooms with conductors leading runaways to the next safe haven along the secret route that allowed many slaves to travel to the north and Canada.

As early as 1813, escaped slaves were guided through the Western Reserve and Ashtabula County and it reached its greatest level of activity in the 1840s.

The Ashtabula Arts Center will have the Western Reserve Greenway Underground Railroad History Sign Project on display through Feb. 28.

Source: Ashtabula Arts Center