George Gammon (1803? – 1904) and his wife, Sarah Bradley (1808- 1902), built this house around 1850 on land purchased from her parents. The Gammon and Bradley families were among the many free black Springfield citizens who actively operated the Underground Railroad in Clark County. Among their seven children, five daughters and two sons, was the eldest, Charles, who enlisted in the famous 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment and was killed in action leading up the 54th assault on Fort Wagner, outside Charleston, South Carolina. The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad, but a loosely connected system of safe havens where people escaping the brutal conditions of slavery were sheltered, fed, clothed, nursed, concealed, disguised, and instructed during their journey to freedom. Because participants faced retribution from civil law and slave-catchers, many details were kept secret. Ohio's history was permanently shaped by the thousands of runaway slaves who passed through or found permanent residence in the state.
