Harriet Tubman was born nearby on Harrisville Road at the Anthony Thompson plantation around 1822, where Thompson enslaved her father, Ben Ross, and about 40 other people. Although her roots began near here, she moved to Bucktown during her early childhood and returned to the area as a teen. Here she experienced the bonds of family, faith, and community. Hired to the Stewart family, she began working with her father in these woods, cutting timber and floating it along Stewart’s Canal to Parson’s Creek and Madison. Her brothers worked here as well. Free black laborers also timbered and farmed this land, creating a blended community of enslaved and free black families. According to local tradition, this is where Harriet met her free husband, John Tubman. Following the Civil War, this African-American community established Malone’s Methodist Episcopal Church, named after Jeremiah Malone, who deeded the property in 1864 and formalized community and faith ties that had existed long before.