Page "Montrose, Pennsylvania" Paragraph 4

Arguably, the most mystified ( and thus contested ) aspect of the town ’ s history occurred during the height of America ’ s Civil War.

Several townsfolk and local historians claim that Montrose played a significant role in the Northern Trail of the Underground Railroad, housing several slave families in the area.

Folklore has it that many of these families remained in Montrose and across the county after the War.

These supposed connections opened a floodgate of local residents seeking historical landmark status for their homes in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, many of which were denied by the Pennsylvania Historical Commission due to lack of evidence that the events actually took place.

Several academic historians believe that, while the possibility of a family or two stopping in Montrose along the Northern Trail is certainly plausible, the number of increased African Americans during the time is most likely explained by the then-bourgeoning coal industry just south of the county that appealed to many immigrants and former slaves looking for work.

The Susquehanna County Historical Society and the Center for Anti-Slavery Studies ( housed in one of the suspected homes ) remains dedicated to identifying and analyzing primary documents of the time, but little legitimate data exists to satisfy the burdens of the Underground Railroad claims.