- Potpourri - Janesville Sesquicentennial
-
- [Photograph; caption reads: The Janesville Little Theatre
dramatized the alleged underground railroad operation at the
TALLMAN House.]
-
- Myth - TALLMAN House probably not part of underground
railroad.
- Not everything you hear about Janesville is true.
- As in the case with every community, local myths sometimes
gain more favor than facts.
- Richard P. HARTUNG, director of the Rock County Historical
Society, and assistant director
- Maurice MONTGOMERY, have heard their share of tall
tales, but, as historians, they're trained to deal in facts,
not fantasy.
- The most pervasive myth is that the TALLMAN House
was part of the underground railroad
- network designed to help escaped slaves.
- The myth apparently started with George Kemp TALLMAN,
grandson of William TALLMAN,
- the home's original owner and a civic leader in the mid-1850s.
George K. wrote about the home's alleged involvement in the underground
railroad in a 1926 history.
- The story gained more steam by constant retelling, publication
and republication. Even tour guides
- at the TALLMAN House once gave out the information.
- The underground railroad fable reached its pinnacle in the
1950s when the Janesville Little Theatre
- performed a tableau based on the purported operations of
the underground railroad at the TALLMAN House.
- But there seems to be plenty of information to discount the
idea, HARTUNG and
- MONTGOMERY said.
- First, there's evidence that George Kemp TALLMAN embellished
facts and misquoted his father's
- writings in an apparent attempt to make his grandfather even
more impressive than he was. Other information in the TALLMAN
recollections was incorrect, adding strength to the argument
that the TALLMAN descendant's underground railroad information
is inaccurate.
- As MONTGOMERY notes, and another story in this section
documents, TALLMAN's
- accomplishments were sufficient to stand on their own without
exaggeration or fabrication.
- Second, those who support the underground railroad theory,
point to the cellars and tunnels
- along the riverbank to support their claim.
- HARTUNG said, "in the 1920s it was fashionable
to say any cellar in an old ruin could only be
- explained as part of the underground railroad."
- Instead, HARTUNG argues, the cellars and tunnels in
the TALLMAN House were part of a
- brewery operation along the riverbank and some of them probably
led to the public sewer system.
- Other parts of the house reportedly used by escaped slaves,
seem ill-fitted for such a task when
- viewed closely.
- Third, there are numerous historical references to escaped
slaves moving freely in the area.
- Janesville residents not only tolerated blacks but worked
actively and openly in their behalf. This being the case, HARTUNG
and MONTGOMERY argue, there would have been no reason
for TALLMAN to operate a secret underground railroad where
escaped slaves flocked in the dark of night.
- Janesville was so much in support of the anti-slavery movement
that it gave supplies to a group
- fighting to free Kansas from slavery and the group itself
was organized by TALLMAN.
- When a prominent black visitor was made to sit at a separate
table at a local hotel's restaurant,
- the community met and chastised the hotel's owner with TALLMAN
the most outspoken critic.
- Furthermore, escaped slaves were welcome elsewhere in the
area - especially Chicago and
- Milwaukee where the underground railroad did exist. There
seemed little reason for fugitive blacks to end up in Janesville
anyway, MONTGOMERY said.
- In Janesville, HARTUNG and MONTGOMERY contend,
a fugitive slave would have no reason
- to sneak in the back door of the TALLMAN House or
any other home when he would have been welcome at the front.
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