to Samuel Willis'
corn-field, near York, and hid them under the shocks. The following
night Dr. Lewis piloted them to near his house, at Lewisburg, York
county, on the banks of the Conewago. Here they were concealed several
days, Dr. Lewis carrying provisions to them in his saddle-bags. When the
search for them had been given up in William Wright's neighborhood, he
went down to Lewisburg and in company with Dr. Lewis took the whole
sixteen across the Conewago, they fording the river and carrying the
fugitives across on their horses. It was a gloomy night in November.
Every few moments clouds floated across the moon, alternately lighting
up and shading the river, which, swelled by autumn rains, ran a flood.
William Wright and Dr. Lewis mounted men or women behind and took
children in their arms. When the last one got over, the doctor, who
professed to be an atheist, exclaimed, "Great God! is this a Christian
land, and are Christians thus forced to flee for their liberty?" William
Wright guided this party to his house that night and concealed them in a
neighboring forest until it was safe for them to proceed on their way to
Canada.

Just in the beginning of harvest of the year 1851, four men came off
from Washington county, Maryland. They were almost naked and seemed to
have come through great difficulties, their clothing being almost
entirely torn off. As soon as they came, William Wright went to the
store and got four pair of shoes. It was soon heard that their masters
and the officers had gone to Harrisburg to hunt them. Two of them,
Fenton and Tom, were concealed at William Wright's, and the other two,
Sam and one whose name has been forgotten, at Joel Wierman's. In a day
or two, as William Wright, a number of carpenters, and other workmen,
among whom were Fenton and Tom, were at work in the barn, a party of men
rode up and recognized the colored men as slaves of one of their number.
The colored men said they had left their coats at the house. William
Wright looked earnestly at them and told them to go to the house and get
their coats. They went off, and one of them was observed by one of the
family to take his coat hastily down from where it hung in one of the
outhouses, a few moments afterward. After conversing a few moments at
the barn, William Wright brought the slave-holders down to the house,
where he, his wife and daughters engaged them in a controversy on the
subject of slavery which lasted about an hour. One