The Ohio R. was a major gateway to freedom for enslaved Africans through the Underground Railroad, a clandestine network of people, places, routes, and modes of transportation used in their flight from bondage, with peak activity between 1830 and 1865. African American and white men and women called conductors helped escaping Africans cross to Ohio and continue north to Canada. Among them was Aunt Jenny, an African American woman who blew a horn at the “Point” as a signal to river boats and served as a conductor. Jane, described as of low stature, very fleshy, lame in one leg, and age 50, escaped in Aug. 1843 with seven of her children from the Harness Plantation on Bull Creek near Parkersburg; two were captured in Marietta and returned, but a reward of $450 did not bring back the others.