In the New Concord area, predominantly Scotch-Irish residents belonged mainly to Presbyterian, Reformed Presbyterian, Associate Presbyterian, and Associate Reformed Presbyterian churches, and the last three denominations were firmly anti-slavery. Opposing the Fugitive Slave Act of 1855 as immoral, they joined like-minded people in Putnam and Barnesville in helping fugitives escape north toward Roscoe. Norwich, Bloomfield, and New Concord together had six safehouses and fourteen conductors. A cabin built on this site by David Findley in 1809 became the home of Alexander Brown, a conductor, and escaping slaves such as Mary Adaline Lewis of Charlestown, Virginia, hid in a cave behind the lot. In the 1850s, Ichabod, Hannah, Levi, and Austin Grummond operated a safehouse in an 1828 brick hotel on the National Road built by Judge David Findley, while Isaac Grummond kept a safehouse in his cabinet shop to the east and Doctor John Hull published the abolitionist newspaper Clarion of Freedom to the west from 1846 to 1856. The Grummonds, though Presbyterian, disregarded their denomination’s equivocation on slavery and joined a circle of radical religious thinkers who judged the Fugitive Slave Law immoral, including Reformed Presbyterians Robert West Speer and William Speer, Associate Presbyterians Doctor John Hull, William and John Jamisom of Norwich, and Samuel Scott of Bloomfield, along with James Boyd and Mitchell Cunningham. Radical religious opposition to slavery also led many local men into Civil War service, chiefly in Sherman’s command. Seventy percent of Union Township’s male population served as soldiers, and they dominated companies in the 15th, 78th, and 97th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The 78th was organized by Muskingum College music teacher Horace Munson. Robert Burns Brown, son of Alexander Brown, received the Congressional Medal of Honor for actions at Missionary Ridge, Chattanooga, Tennessee; his Muskingum College classmate William Richey received the honor at Chickamauga; and George Loyd was likewise recognized for action at Vicksburg.