Fellow Henry Co., IA researchers, Below is an article from the Mt. Pleasant News, April 8, 1999, Lwelling House Reminder of Time Gone By, by Julie Pietz, Staff Writer. I was given permission to post it by Mt. Pleasant News editor Jim Hekel. Sometime in the next 18 months the News plans to publish a Hitorical Pictorial of Henry County, IA. I have a scanned 2 jpegs of the Lewelling House tour flier and will send it off list if you are interested. Here is the article: Mt. Pleasant News, Thur., April 8, 1999, p. 10 Lewelling House Reminder of Times Gone By By Julie Pietz Staff Writer SALEM -- One look down the trapdoor in the kitchen floor of the Lewelling house in Salem brings a stark realization of how desperate runaway slaves who stopped there must have been. The dark, dirtfilled crawlspace under the door is shallow, damp and close. Judy Feehan, Lewelling Quaker Shrine board member, said, "An Iowa Public Television crew wanted to go through the tunnel. They took one look and said, 'Never mind, we're not going."' Dark tunnels, like the one extending under the house to a basement fireplace, however unpleasant, were essential for hiding runaway slaves. "Slaves had to be out of sight," said Feehan. "They could not eat at the table or move to o~ parts Of the house. Slave catchers did not necessarily come to the door. Sometimes they simply sat outside and watched the house. Also, there was no such thing as a search warrant. Slave catchers would just break into your house." The Lewelling house was an active part of the anti-slavery movement and was once known as the main depot of the underground railroad. In 1959 five men who prized the home's rich history, Herman Elgar of Mt. Pleasant and John Moxley, Roy White, Elbert Brown and Howard Pittman, all of Salem, bought the place and decided to make it a museum telling the story of Salem. The kitchen, indeed, the whole house, is evidence of support the two-story stone historical dwelling has gotten from the Salem community and other interested persons. Furniture, quilts, clothing, books, photos and other donated items are in abundance. "Here is an old washer," said Feehan, picking up a.large pole with what looked like a large metal funnel on the end. This was the agitator. Women must have has arms this big around." Feehan moved to Salem about 25 years ago and has become active in giving tours of the house and maintaining it. Last year, the board added a furnace and air conditioning to the house. Current projects include restoring a little school room and creating a viewing area in the attic. According to Feehan, renovation work to the house has revealed some surprises. "Five years ago we discovered another hiding place," said Feehan. She said workers who jacked up a north room to replace the floor found a trap door. Feehan pointed out how the trap door is counterbalanced to prevent movement when one walks over it. "That's how clever they were," she said. The clever folks were the Henderson Lewelling family, Quakers who built the house in 1840 with stone quarried from a tract of land southwest of Salem near Little Cedar Creek. Lewelling was a man of vision not only for helping others but for business as well. A nurseryman, Lewelling was originally from North Carolina. The Lewelling family moved to Indiana before settling in Iowa. Lewelling and two brothers established a successful nursery business in Salem selling produce and trees. They used the basin left by quarrying the stone to water the fruit stock. A one-page ad in the Burlington newspaper at that time listed 150 varieties of fruit stock the Lewellings had available. Feehan showed one ad listing 45 apple varieties. "The produce business came in handy for hiding slaves," said Feehan. "When slaves were here and needed to be moved to the next stop on the underground railroad, Lewelling would load slaves on a wagon and pile produce on top of them to hide them and take them on to the next stop." "When the Lewellings lived in North Carolina," said Feehan, "they saw slavery and knew they were opposed to it. Some Quakers wanted to help the slaves and some wanted to obey the law." When persons helped the slaves, as the Lewellings did, they were breaking the Fugitive Slave Law, according to Feehan. The law said those who aided runaway slaves could lose their property and go to jail. Slaves would be returned to their owners even though they were north because in the eyes of the law, they were pieces of property. "It became hard 'to help," said Feehan. Feehan said although other community members in Salem, not just the Quakers, helped slaves, none were prosecuted. They did not go without trouble, however. "There was a man from Missouri," said Feehan, "who lost, I think, seven slaves. His name was Ruel Daggs, and he said whenever slaves enter Henry County they seem to drop off the face of the earth." The man, who lost many slaves in Salem, sued nineteen men from Salem for $10,000 for their part in helping his "chattels" escape to freedom. Lewelling went on to become famous for his horticulture. He and his brothers left for Oregon with 700 trees and shrubs by oxcart and eventually started the fruit industry in California. His cemetery memorial says "Father of the Great Pacific Fruit Industry." In 1967, cuttings from the original pear and apple trees from the Lewellings' Oregon trek were sent to Iowa. Helped by Bill Rider of the Riders Nurseries, Dr. Robert Poulter of Iowa Wesleyan College supervised a tree planting in the yard of Lewelling Quaker Shrine. Feehan said the board is interested in finding someone who knows about grafting trees so that cutings may be taken from those trees and planted. Sales of the book "Place of Peace-Memories of Salem Iowa" are helping finance much-needed repairs to the house. Currently, Salem residents are getting the Lewelling Quaker Shrine museum ready to open for the season. The house will be open for tours May 2. Each Sunday, tours will be available 1 to 4 p.m., or any other time by appointment. The board members are expecting some school tours in May. Feehan said some students have come from as far away as Japan to see the house. Feehan is calling for community members to take part in the annual cleaning to prepare the house. Without the community support it would be real difficult to stay open." she said