it was asserted that the slave holders had employed Douglass, (not Fred,) to advocate in Congress a bill to abolish the North Star and make it a penal offence for the Ohio river to freeze over. I do not think Douglass ever introduced such a bill, but such a proposition was no more absurd than the indirect attempt to abolish Christianity, by enacting the Fugitive Slave Law.
The writer of these brief sketches of U. G. R. R. history kept a station and eating house at one of the crossings of the Catfaraugus river, in Cattaraugus Co., N.Y., though but few of his nearest neighbors knew until the rebellion ended, its usefulness. Being at the junction of six laterals with the main line running through Buffalo, I heard many thrilling accounts from escaping fugitives while they were in my charge, and experienced some exciting times when the slave hounds were almost within striking distance. I have given comparatively few of the many incidents which came under my observation, and these only in outline, yet as giving some conception of the workings of an institution importantly pertaining to a past epoch in our history, the character of which even now this generation can scarcely realize, I am persuaded that these chapters may have both value and interest, and they are therefore respectfully submitted in this form to the public. E. M. Pettit.
Fredonia, N. Y., May, 1879.
