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 Underground Railroad

 â€‹Just off of Route 326S along Town Creek, you will find 13 slave graves, slightly off to one side of the Iames family graveyard and marked only with fieldstone.  Here also lies Richard Iames, one of the original thirteen settlers of Southampton Township who was buried there in December, 1758.  This is the second oldest tombstone with a date in Bedford County. 

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According to David Bradley's novel, "The Chanesyville Incident", when these 13 runaway slaves were discovered at the old mill by bounty hunters, they chose to take their own lives instead of being recaptured.  The Iames family then buried the "freed" slaves in their own family graveyard, where you can see the stones today. 

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We have been unsuccessful getting an historical marker.

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