...................Underground Railroad Routes.............................The question of race in Knox is perhaps slightly taboo. It’s really not as if Knox is either more or less racist than North Judson. I am not singling out Knox. It is simply that Knox is what I happen to write about. So I thought a little comic relief might relax the atmosphere of this topic a bit before we go into it any deeper.
A few years ago there was an absurd news story reported on television and in the newspapers that the Underground Railroad operated in Knox. Some silly Knox person started this story. Things got so far out of hand that local school kids came and viewed the remains of the Underground Railroad in downtown Knox. I assume their teacher debunked this story as soon as they got back to the classroom. It certainly is a false rewrite of history.
Under the sidewalk on Main Street, in front of O’s tavern, is a passage, pretty much an underground sidewalk. The owner of the building didn’t think that there was anything mysterious about it. Nor did anybody else with any sort of ability to think about it for a second. In the early part of the 20th century Knox downtown was a hustling, bustling place. The big retail stores on Main Street were valuable real estate. So valuable in fact that 2nd stories and basements were rented out to service and retail providers. It would not be a surprise to find a barber or a cobbler located down the stairs accessed on the sidewalk on Main Street. And that is exactly what the underground sidewalk in front of O’s tavern happens to be. These basement locations eventually lost their appeal and were mostly covered over. The last remaining basement stairwell and entry was filled in about 3 years ago when the old Main Street building above the basement was torn down.
Our local news outlets did their usual horrid job of uncritically reporting this silly story. The reporters knew quite well (I hope) that the story was complete crap. For reasons of their own, the traditional news outlets in Knox feel that they can only report what others say. They do not feel that it is their place to question or investigate. So they waited for some Ball State History Professor to say a dry "highly unlikely” a month later.
.....Main Street appx 1918 note "Underground Railroad".......
I think that there is psychological significance to this story. I think this story allowed Knox to try to unload a little bit of its uninterrupted racist past by saying, “We helped slaves escape the plantations. Aren’t we good people?” Insisting the school kids “buy into” this mythmaking kind of makes my point, I think. Well Knox had nothing to do with the Underground Railroad. Mostly black people and Quakers operated the Underground Railroad. There were neither blacks nor Quakers in Knox. The history of the Underground Railroad is well documented. I have read “The Negro in the History of Indiana” by John W Lyda and found no reference to Knox or Starke County as a refuge for blacks.
A few years ago there was an absurd news story reported on television and in the newspapers that the Underground Railroad operated in Knox. Some silly Knox person started this story. Things got so far out of hand that local school kids came and viewed the remains of the Underground Railroad in downtown Knox. I assume their teacher debunked this story as soon as they got back to the classroom. It certainly is a false rewrite of history.
Under the sidewalk on Main Street, in front of O’s tavern, is a passage, pretty much an underground sidewalk. The owner of the building didn’t think that there was anything mysterious about it. Nor did anybody else with any sort of ability to think about it for a second. In the early part of the 20th century Knox downtown was a hustling, bustling place. The big retail stores on Main Street were valuable real estate. So valuable in fact that 2nd stories and basements were rented out to service and retail providers. It would not be a surprise to find a barber or a cobbler located down the stairs accessed on the sidewalk on Main Street. And that is exactly what the underground sidewalk in front of O’s tavern happens to be. These basement locations eventually lost their appeal and were mostly covered over. The last remaining basement stairwell and entry was filled in about 3 years ago when the old Main Street building above the basement was torn down.
Our local news outlets did their usual horrid job of uncritically reporting this silly story. The reporters knew quite well (I hope) that the story was complete crap. For reasons of their own, the traditional news outlets in Knox feel that they can only report what others say. They do not feel that it is their place to question or investigate. So they waited for some Ball State History Professor to say a dry "highly unlikely” a month later.
.....Main Street appx 1918 note "Underground Railroad".......I think that there is psychological significance to this story. I think this story allowed Knox to try to unload a little bit of its uninterrupted racist past by saying, “We helped slaves escape the plantations. Aren’t we good people?” Insisting the school kids “buy into” this mythmaking kind of makes my point, I think. Well Knox had nothing to do with the Underground Railroad. Mostly black people and Quakers operated the Underground Railroad. There were neither blacks nor Quakers in Knox. The history of the Underground Railroad is well documented. I have read “The Negro in the History of Indiana” by John W Lyda and found no reference to Knox or Starke County as a refuge for blacks.
Note on the usage of the word Negro. The word is often considered offensive. I use it here to reference historic and scholarly documents and in order to capture the archaic flavor of life in Knox.
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