Ephriam Colborn studied law and was admitted to the bar; but he never practiced his profession since he was much more interested in writing. He was for a time owner and publisher of The Perry County Democrat, published in Somerset in the early 1850’s . Since Mr. Colborn came to disagreement with the Democratic principles sometime later, he left that party and joined the Republican party soon after it was organized in 1854. Subsequently, in 1861, he was appointed postmaster at New Lexington, and his wife was appointed his assistant.
It was during her term as assistant postmaster that Mrs. Colborn showed her bravery and presence of mind. Her husband had ridden out with several other men to discover the whereabouts of Morgan, the raider. Colborn and his men struck the Morgan trail and followed it up, unaware that they were soon to come upon the enemy. Before they could escape from the trap in which they found themselves, they were surrounded and ordered to halt. One of the men turned his horse and dashed through the woods ; but Colborn and the other man thought it better to stay and parley with the raiders. The two men were taken prisoner and compelled to ride some forty miles before they were finally set free. Then their horses were taken from them and they were obliged to make their way back to New Lexington as best they could.
Meantime, Mrs. Colborn was in charge of the post-office alone. When a detachment of Morgan’s raiders entered the village, she calmly collected all postage stamps and government papers into a little bundle and pinned them to her flannel petticoat. Then she stood ready to defy anyone who came intending to plunder a government post. She remained at the post-office day and night until her husband returned.
Later when peace was restored, Mrs. Colborn helped her husband in his efforts to write a history of Perry and Fairfield Counties. She not only helped to obtain data for this work but also copied the whole in long hand for publication. Considering that the combined histories ran to something over a thousand pages, this is in itself no mean task.
Mrs. Colborn reared a family of five daughters. She died in 1890.
Until only a year ago the home of CATHERINE COFFIN, wife of the famous Levi Coffin, was still standing, at Sixth and Elm Streets, Cincinnati. As in many other instances, records concerning Levi Coffin, “President” of the Underground Railway whereby negroes escaping from the south were dispatched on their way to free Canada, are voluminous, but references to his wife are very scanty.
It is stated definitely that she sympathized, heart and soul, in the cause to which he was devoting, very literally, his life. For Coffin was constantly in danger of physical violence from infuriated slavery sympathizers and also of the law as invoked by owners of the runaway slaves he assisted.
