In early September, the National Park Service (NPS) granted approval for two historic sites in Franklin County to be added to its Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program. This program provides the official designation of the federal government that a site, program or facility is authentic in its association with the history of the Underground Railroad.
The two Franklin County sites added to the Network to Freedom Program are the Mary Ritner/John Brown House and the Thaddeus Stevens Iron Furnace Complex at Caledonia State Park. John Brown stayed at Mary Ritner’s boarding house at 225 East King Street in Chambersburg between June and October 1859, as he prepared his unsuccessful raid on the Federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. The Thaddeus Stevens Iron Furnace at Caledonia was burned by Confederate troops helmed by General Jubal Early on June 26, 1863. The iron works purchased by Stevens in the 1830s, became the largest employer of African American workers during the period, as runaway slaves and free blacks in the area sought work and refuge there. An entrepreneur, educator, and politician, Stevens was one of the most outspoken abolitionists of his day.
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