Hi Folks, The oldest record I have on my direct line is for a Reuben Corder who m. Matilda Shockey in Champaign County, OH in 1839. Matilda was the grandaughter of Isaac Shockey, son of Johhann and Barbara S. There were only two other Corder records in ChampCo. One was for a Martha Corder who m. David Willson there in 1824. In the 1850 census, Martha, wife of David Wilson, stated she came from PA. The only Corder listed in PA was in Antrim Township, Franklin County, PA. Antrim Twp. borders on Washington Twp. where Johann Shockey's land called Sarah's Delight was located. It has been fun running into my Shockey ancestors while looking for Reuben's parents. I got a bit lost in attempting to follow Jacob Shockey's line. I am not really sure who was in Franklin County, PA ca 1820. I am even more confused as to who might have been running Shockey's Station on the Underground Railroad. An article on it can be found below. My Shockey research and my research on Reuben and Matilda's descendants is almost complete. I will send it to you as soon as it is all completed. I want my own original records for Mason County, KY and I am looking for military records for Isaac to confirm his service during the RW. I did find him listed in a book on Franklin County, PA history. It was for a group of recruits from Franklin County, PA. NARA does not have anything on him. So now I will look for PA Militia records. I also want to find some deeds in Crawford County, AR. The following record was contributed by a member of Rootsweb's Franklin County, PA mailing list. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD . While tarrying at Rouzerville. let us direct your mind to the operations of the so-called Underground Railroad just before Civil War times. This was a period of suppressed excitement among the people living along the border, due to certain practices resulting from the passage of the famous Omnibus Bill . The Underground Railroad was the name given to the route which fugitive slaves took when fleeing from bondage. It was so called because the runaway slaves were hidden in cellars or in other secret places or possibly because the route of the road was out of sight. Along these routes they were assisted by well meaning persons known as abolitionists who were in sympathy with these wretched people in their efforts to obtain freedom. Houses along the routes came to be known as stations; those who directly assisted the escaping fugitives were known as conductors or captains and those who made contributions of money, clothing. etc., were stockholders in the enterprise. Pennsylvanians especially those of German and Swiss descent were naturally opposed to slavery because they were in the habit of doing their own work. . . FIRST STATION AT SHOCKEY'S Rouzerville figured largely at this time because it lay at the foot of South Mountain along the route of this exodus to the north. The first station north of Mason and Dixon Line was at SHOCKEY's near Rouzerville. The slaves then went by way of Quincy and stopped at the home ot the late Hiram B. WERTZ father of D. M. WERTZ. Hiram B. WERTZ undertook this work and became a captain when but a lad in his teens. He harbored the negroes in the cellar of his father's house and piloted many of them to the next station at Africa, now a colored settlement near Caledonia Furnace. It is significant that this furnace was owned by Thaddeus STEVENS, the great champion of the slaves, who directed in his will that his body be buried in a graveyard in which there was to be no discrimination on account of' color. This route, vague though it was, somehow or other became known to the slaves and there seemed to be a sort of grapevine telegraph in operation connecting the several stations so that the fleeing slaves were not without assistance as soon as they reached northern soil. They were usually concealed during the daytime in barns and cellars. When night came they were sent on their way to the next friendly stopping place. This was continued until' the slaves reached Canada. There they were in British Dominion, from which they could not be taken. . From: Historical papers, Franklin County and the Cumberland Valley, Pennsylvania Stoner, Jacob H., unknown: unknown, 1947, 550 pgs. Pgs. 56 & 57