c1860s antique HALSEY HULBURT UNDERGROUND RAILROAD ohio FAMILY CDV PHOTO ALBUM For Sale

c1860s antique HALSEY HULBURT UNDERGROUND RAILROAD ohio FAMILY CDV PHOTO ALBUM
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APPROX 78 PHOTOS. ALL PHOTOS SHOWN.

Biography of Halsey Hulburt

Halsey Hulburt (1806–1890) was an Ohio pioneer, farmer, civic leader, abolitionist, and documented participant in the Underground Railroad in Medina County, Ohio. Historical records identify him as one of the area's Underground Railroad conductors, and his surviving homestead was later placed on the National Register of Historic Places because of its association with Hulburt and the antislavery movement.

Hulburt was born in 1806 in Enfield, Connecticut, the son of Obadiah Hulbert and Rachel Burr. His parents died while he was young. He traveled west to Westfield Township, Medina County, Ohio, in 1830, where he spent the summer clearing land before returning to Connecticut. There he married Betsey Moses, daughter of Thomas and Abigail Brown Moses. In the spring of 1831, Halsey and Betsey moved permanently to Ohio and began their married life in a log cabin.

The couple became part of Medina County's early pioneer community and raised a family there. An 1881 county history names their children as Julia, William, Mary, Hiram, Obadiah, Rachael, another William, and Eleanor; several died young. Their daughter Mary Hulburt married Horace Matteson, while their surviving son William married Caroline Chambers. Those names are particularly significant because many of the same Hulburt, Matteson and Chambers family names appear handwritten beneath portraits in this album, providing strong internal evidence connecting the photographs with Halsey's extended family.

Hulburt became an early and outspoken opponent of slavery. Westfield Township history records that in 1840 Halsey Hulburt, William Hulburt and Dominie Williams cast three antislavery votes in the township election. Historical documentation associated with his homestead describes Halsey as someone who openly aligned himself with the cause of the oppressed.

His most dramatic documented Underground Railroad episode occurred in May 1852. A freedom-seeking family—a man, his wife and their three sons—was brought to Hulburt's home near Seville. They had spent only one night there when their enslavers arrived accompanied by a deputy United States marshal, the sheriff and a posse and surrounded the house.

While Halsey Hulburt kept the men occupied, his daughter Julia Hulburt led the family out through the cellar. She guided them across a cornfield and through woods to a swamp near Chippewa Lake, where they reached a small island and hid in a hunter's cabin until the immediate danger had passed. They were subsequently transported by boat and covered wagon toward Milan. From there, a sympathetic ship captain carried them down the Huron River, across Lake Erie and into Ontario, Canada—and freedom.

This episode is especially relevant to this album because Julia Hulburt is herself identified in the album, along with her father Halsey. Thus, the album appears to preserve portraits of members of the very family described in the historical Underground Railroad account.

The Hulburt home was not necessarily a continuously operating Underground Railroad station in the sense sometimes portrayed in popular history. The National Register documentation makes the more nuanced point that it was not a regular station receiving constant traffic, but records that Hulburt sheltered freedom seekers and cites several instances of Underground Railroad activity associated with him and his home. Historian Wilbur H. Siebert, who conducted extensive research into the Underground Railroad, also documented Hulburt's activities. Ohio History's surviving Siebert collection specifically contains a Halsey Hulbert obituary describing him as an abolitionist active in Medina County as a station agent.

Hulburt's interests extended beyond abolitionism. He served in township offices, became a director of the Ohio Farmers' Insurance Company in 1856, and remained in that position until 1866. Historical documentation also associates him with local literary and debating societies and support for education, including an annual scholarship connected with Oberlin College, an institution closely associated with the nineteenth-century antislavery movement.

His daughter Mary's recollections became an important source for preserving the family's history. They were eventually published by her daughter Mary Matteson Wilbur in the 1938 volume Memories of Mary Hulburt Matteson, with Lineages of Mary Hulburt and Horace Matteson. The work preserves memories of pioneer family life and identifies Halsey Hulburt as Mary's father and Betsey Moses as her mother.

Halsey Hulburt died in 1890, after spending approximately six decades in Medina County. His house remained in the Hulburt family for generations. The Halsey Hulburt Homestead was entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, preserving the physical location associated with his life and Underground Railroad activities.

For this album, the historical connection is unusually strong. It contains multiple portraits handwritten as Halsey Hulburt, a portrait identified as Betsey Moses Hulburt, and identified photographs of Julia Hulburt and numerous members of the Hulburt, Matteson and Chambers families. Several of those relationships correspond with independently documented family relationships. Rather than being simply a Victorian album containing an abolitionist's photograph, it appears to be a Hulburt family photograph archive preserving images of Halsey Hulburt and members of the family directly associated with his documented Underground Railroad history.

DESCRIPTION:

Exceptional and historically significant 19th-century Hulburt family photograph album associated with Halsey Hulburt (1806–1890), the Medina County, Ohio abolitionist documented for assisting freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad. This is a substantial family archive containing numerous period portraits identified in handwriting, including multiple portraits labeled Halsey Hulburt, his wife Betsey Moses Hulburt, and numerous members of the extended Hulburt, Mattison/Matteson, Chambers and related families.

The album itself is an impressive Victorian photograph album with heavily embossed brown covers, ornate scroll decoration, four raised white bosses/studs, two brass clasps, gilt/gauffered page edges, and gilt “Photographs” on the spine. The printed title page identifies the publisher as William W. Harding, 326 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. A penciled presentation inscription at the front appears to read “William Hulburt Presented by his Mother.”

HALSEY HULBURT & THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Halsey Hulburt was born January 27, 1806, in Enfield, Connecticut, the son of Obadiah Hulbert and Rachel Burr. He married Betsey Moses in Norfolk, Connecticut, in 1831 and settled in Medina County, Ohio, where he became an outspoken abolitionist. His family homestead was near Seville in Westfield Township.

Hulburt's association with the Underground Railroad is documented in historical sources, including material connected with historian Wilbur H. Siebert's research into Ohio's Underground Railroad.

One of the most remarkable episodes associated with Hulburt occurred in May 1852, when an escaped family consisting of a man, woman and their three sons was being sheltered at his home. A party that included their enslavers and law-enforcement officers surrounded the property.

According to the historical account, Halsey delayed the men while his daughter Julia helped the family escape from the house through the cellar. They crossed fields and woods and reached hiding near Chippewa Lake. The family was subsequently moved onward toward Lake Erie and ultimately Canada.

This album therefore has a direct family association with a man whose participation in the antislavery movement and assistance to freedom seekers has been preserved in Ohio historical records.

IDENTIFIED PEOPLE

Among the handwritten identifications visible throughout the album are:

• Halsey Hulburt – represented by multiple portraits at different apparent ages
• Betsey Moses Hulburt
• Julia Hulburt
• William / Wm. Hulburt
• Sarah Hulburt
• Daniel Hulburt
• Theodore Hulburt – son of Daniel
• Caroline C. Hulburt
• Mary Mattison / Mary J. Mattison
• Horace Mattison
• Ida Mattison Lauer
• Charley Mattison
• Clifford Mattison
• Dick Mattison
• Burt Mattison
• Theron Crissey
• Mrs. Theron Crissey
• Caroline Chambers
• Hester Chambers
• William Chambers
• William S. Chambers
• Mary Chambers
• Charlotte Chambers Baker
• David Baker
• Clara Lawrence
• Lucy Lawrence
• Hannah Miller
• Addison Slemmons
• John Slemmons
• Mary Buchanan
• Clara Buchanan
• William Ellenberger
• Harriet Noyes
• Ebon Burr
• Elizabeth Moses – Hoosick Falls, NY
• LeRoy Owens & wife
• D. W. Wilson – Hartford
• Owen
• and additional identified, partially identified and unidentified individuals.

Several family members appear more than once, giving the album the character of a genuine multigenerational family archive rather than an assembled collection of unrelated photographs.

Of particular importance are the multiple portraits inscribed Halsey Hulburt and the portrait identified as Betsey Moses Hulburt. Their presence together provides compelling internal family provenance for the album's Hulburt association.

Also included is a period album image depicting Abraham Lincoln and his family, annotated in the album “Abe Lincoln.” This is presented as a period reproduction/album image and is not represented as an original photographic sitting of Lincoln.

The photographs include numerous 19th-century mounted portraits housed in the album's oval and arched openings, along with later Victorian family photographs. Some openings are vacant, and several photographer mounts/cards are also present.

Authentic period piece related to family, historyor local heritage - well-suited for historical collections, genealogical /genealogy research, or museum acquisition.Vintage or Antique.



CONDITION: Repair spine and hinges. Separating pages. Some photos missing as shown. See listing description and photos.




















































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