Fitzwater Station was a stop on the anti-

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...

. Located in Port Providence,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, United States, it is now a restaurant and bar. "The Fitz" overlooks the

Schuylkill Canal The Schuylkill Canal, or Schuylkill Navigation, was a system of interconnected canals and slack-water pools along the Schuylkill River in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, built as a commercial waterway in the early 19th-century. Chartered in 1815 ...

History

The owner and operator of Fitzwater Farm in Upper Providence Township during the mid-1800s, Abel Fitzwater was a descendant of Thomas Fitzwater, who emigrated from England in 1682, sailing aboard the Welcome with

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer, religious thinker, and influential Quakers, Quaker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania during the British colonization of the Americas, British colonial era. An advocate of democracy and religi ...

. Residing with his uncle from the time of his mother's death until 1825 when he (Abel Fitzwater) married Isabella Umstead, the younger Fitzwater subsequently purchased the tract of land that would later be known as "Fitzwater Farm." In 1839, Abel Fitzwater became a local hero when he rescued area residents during a major flood which devastated Lumberville (now Port Providence) in January of that year. After residents rebuilt their lives, their community thrived, largely due to the connection of key spots along the

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river in eastern Pennsylvania. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map(). accessed April 1, 2011. from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Pottsville ...

with the

, which facilitated regular transports of coal. The farm passed to Fitzwater's son, Joseph, shortly thereafter when Abel Fitzwater fell ill and died in 1840 due to the exposure he suffered during his frigid water rescues. The proprietor of a hardware store in Phoenixville and president of the Phoenix Bridge Co., Joseph Fitzwater also served on the board of directors of the National Bank of Phoenixville.

Involvement in the Underground Railroad

According to William Kostlevy, an archivist for the

Church of the Brethren The Church of the Brethren is an Anabaptist Christian denomination in the Schwarzenau Brethren tradition ( "Schwarzenau New Baptists") that was organized in 1708 by Alexander Mack in Schwarzenau, Germany during the Radical Pietist revival. ...

and director of Philadelphia's Brethren Historical Library and Archives, Abel Fitzwater and his wife, Isabel (Umstad) Fitzwater (1805-1879) were active members of the Church of the Brethren, which was known for its anti-slavery stance during the early to mid-1800s. Founders of that church's Green Tree congregation and active in the

Temperance Movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting Temperance (virtue), temperance or total abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and ...

, they volunteered the use of their farm to others who were helping men, women and children to escape slavery. Conveniently located near major transit hubs, including the Schuylkill Canal and Schuylkill River, the Fitzwater's farm soon became known as "Fitzwater Station," one of the spots along the Underground Railroad where the formerly enslaved could hide, rest and receive food until moving on to the next safe haven on their long journeys north.The Underground Railroad: What Was the Brethren Connection?
", in ''Living Parables: Church of the Brethren Annual Conference Journal'', July 7, 2018, p. 2. Elgin, Illinois: Church of the Brethren, retrieved online October 7, 2019.

Location

The Fitzwater Station is located at .

References

{{reflist

External links

Website of the Fitzwater Station
Underground Railroad locations