Daily life at and around Linchester Mill provided fertile yet dangerous ground for those seeking freedom. The mill, a general store, post office, and homes at this site brought whites and blacks, free and enslaved, into regular contact, and freedom and slavery existed side by side in stark contrast. Quakers and free blacks who lived near the mill secretly helped freedom seekers pass through the area, and the mill’s dam provided a spot to cross Hunting Creek. Underground Railroad agent Daniel Hubbard, a free black carpenter and millwright, lived nearby and probably worked at the mill. In order to reside together, Hubbard “hired” his enslaved wife and children from their master. Suspected of helping slaves escape on New Year’s Eve in 1857, Hubbard was forced to leave his family to avoid capture by an angry mob, and his fate remains unknown.