GEORGE WEIR, JR.,¹The son of a minister of Buffalo’s Vine Street African Methodist Episcopal Church, George Werlr, Jr., was a minister and abolitionist in Buffalo. Arthur O. White, “The Black Movement against Jim Crow Education in Buffalo, New York, 1800-1900,” , 30:383 (Winter 1969). TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Buffalo, [N.Y.] 11 Dec[ember] 1854.

MR. EDITOR:—

A few mornings since, I was awakened at an early hour by an immense noise and confusion at my door. Being suddenly awakened, I sprang up, and ran down stairs to ascertain the cause of such strange excitement. When, to my surprise, I found—notwithstanding the “”—that a train of cars belonging to the Underground Railroad had just arrived, bringing passengers, six men and two women, all direct from “Old Kentuck."—Of course the doors of the depot were thrown open, and in they marched, rank and file, led by T. R., Esq[.]., one of the conductors on the road. After a few moment’s conversation, we conducted them to a public house kept by one of our people. When they had an opportunity of thoroughly warming and refreshing themselves—the inner as well as outer man—they were allowed to remain with us until one o’clock, when a sleigh was provided, and the eight happy souls, in charge of Phoenix Lansing,²Phoenix Lansing operated a barbershop on the corner of Michigan and Seneca streets in Buffalo in the 1850s. (Buffalo, 1858), 203. Esq[.] , one of our active and energetic townsmen, were driven to Black Rock, and in a few moment’s more were safely landed on the other side of Jordan—when one universal shout of joy ascended to Him who had been their guide and guardian from a land of slavery and despotism to a land of liberty and light. But the most singular circumstance in connection with this matter is, that just as they had landed on the Canada side, the cars on the Great Western Railroad³Canada’s Great Western Railway was originally incorporated in 1834 as the London and Gore Railroad Company. It changed its name to the Great Western Rail Road Company in 1845, and again in 1853, becoming the Great Western Railway. Funded by a combination of American, British, and Canadian investments, the Great Western opened its main line, which linked Niagara Falls to Windsor (opposite Detroit), a distance of over two hundred miles, in 1854. By 1882, when the Great Western merged with its chief rival, the Grand Trunk Railway, it operated over nine hundred miles of track stretching from New York, across southern Ontario, and into Michigan. Boston , 19 January 1854; James H. Marsh, ed., , 3 vols. (Edmonton, 1985), 2:772. arrived from the West, and to the surprise and astonishment of our friends, the first man that stepped from the cars, was a Kentuckian, the next door neighbor to the of three of our party. You may imagine the feelings of our friends at so strange and unexpected a meeting. “But,” says they to their neighbor, “We are all here.”

Yours, in hopes of another arrival,

GEORGE WEIR, JR.

PLSr: , 4 January 1855.