The Vermont Watchman

Alonzo Chamberlain is probably more famous today than he was during his lifetime. His activity in the Underground Railroad was once a carefully guarded secret. A newspaper revealed his secret when Alonzo was 82-years-old. Lara Chamberlain found the article on the Library of Congress website. It appeared in the Vermont Watchman on May 30, 1900. Possibly, it was the only news published about Alonzo during his life time.

There was one paragraph from this news clipping that caused the sensation today (2017):

“Mr Chamberlain voted at Glover and some of the first colored people which his family ever saw were fugitive slaves brought to his home while he was an active conductor on the ‘underground railroad’.”

It is interesting that this paragraph was merely a side note to the big news, which was that they had located eight men that were a part of the “immortal 319”. This referred to the 319 who had voted the Liberty Party ticket in Vermont in 1840.

In 1900, the news about the underground railroad may have appeared to be quite common place. At that time Alonzo was living with his son and grandchildren. (My grandfather, Harry Ellis Chamberlain, was 10 years old at the time.) Nevertheless, this information about Alonzo was never passed on to the later generations. The subject was not often openly discussed in the early 1900s.

Alonzo’s Portrait

A framed portrait of Alonzo Chamberlain, along with a composite of 20 other family photos, has embellished the wall of our home since the 1980s. Behind that stern stare, I thought, there must be an intriguing story, but we knew little about him. He was merely a family history place holder between his famous father Spencer and his well known son, John Harry, who was the mayor of Spencer, Iowa. The Watchman article and Alonzo’s obituary, sent to me earlier by Joan Alexander of the Glover Historical Society, changed his family status.

From these two articles I put together his biography The Secret Life of Alonzo Chamberlain and published it in my family blog on August 24, 2017. That post has received over 400 views.

Modern Media

Robin Smith of the Caledonian/Orleans County Record picked up the story and her paper published it on September 1, 2017. Her article placed Alonzo’s portrait and the photo of his historic home on the front page. It featured a telephone interview with me about my blog post. The article which also appeared on the Caledonian Record Facebook page received 58 “shares” and 128 “Likes.”

A second story by Robin Smith appeared in the November issue of Vermont’s Northland Journal. This article presented a new perspective in that it featured an interview with Glover historian, Joan Alexander. Joan has been a tremendous help to me since 2008. First with the story of Runaway Pond. Then she found an 1810 Glover resident named Increase Chamberlain, who turned out to be the step-father of Spencer Chamberlain.

Now she helped me trace Alonzo’s history in Glover. His secret was well kept, and the only thing we knew about him was where he lived. She took photos of his home and farm as it is today (2017) for my website.

The Family Photo Album 

To my pleasant surprise, the Northland Journal published a second article. It was titled Grandpa’s Old Photo Album by Dennis Chamberlain, from a sub-titled section of my website about our antique family photo album. The copper engraving on the cover appeared to be a depiction of a fugitive slave.

The earliest photos in the album were of Alonzo’s family taken in the 1860s. I believe the album may have been a personalized gift to Alonzo from an organization or a family member who knew of his passion for helping runaway slaves. The picture of what appears to be an African man riding on a horse alone through the woods is too good to avoid this type of speculation.

After much searching in Google for this type of photo album,  I finally found a similar album with a different copper plaque. Apparently, it was a birthday present as it was inscribed on the inside cover “Anne’s birthday 1887”. This gives us a good indication that the 1880s is the time that these albums were on the market.

New information found about the “fugitive slave”

The Northland Journal in the Grandpa’s Old Photo Album article, added the following caption below the album’s copper cover picture.

“This is the engraving on the album cover that Dennis Chamberlain provided and interpreted as a fugitive slave. A Google search did not turn up any information about such an image. Can anyone help?

A quick response was received by a Northland Journal subscrber.  He found a picture of the original art. It was a depictiion of  a mounted arab scout by a famous German Artist, Adolf Sdhreyer.

Adolf Schreyer 1828-1899, was a German painter renowned for his dynamic and atmospheric paintings of horses and battles, and depictions of masculine Arab warriors. He served as a war artist in the Austrian army.  In the early 1860s Schreyer traveled through North Africa, Egypt and Syria where he immersed himself in Bedouin life.¹

Links:

Chapter 18- The Secret Life of Alonzo Chamberlain
The biography of Alonzo Chamberlain and activity of the underground railroad in Vermont between 1840 and 1855.

© Copyright Dennis D. Chamberlain, The Chamberlain Story, 2017. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the written content of this site without express and written permission from the author and owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that credit is given to Dennis D. Chamberlain and direction to  www.thechamberlainstory.com.

References:

1- Christie’s, New York, 19th Century European Art, April 19, 2005, lot //www.invaluable.com/artist/schreyer-adolf-zs47ru08kt