Caroline Escape Marker
A historic site in Madison, Indiana, a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing, Caroline Escape Marker is filed here for what the record attaches to it. NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad. It sits in the archive under dark history, Underground Railroad history and the Underground Railroad. The dossier holds 3 documented facts — a documented spine with no haunting reports attached. The site is open to visitors.
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Is Caroline Escape Marker haunted?
No claims are filed here — the record keeps this place for its documented history, not for a haunting on file.
The record — long form
On the night of October 31, 1847, a woman the record knows only as Caroline crossed the Ohio River near Madison, Indiana, with her four children — Francis, twelve; John, near seven; Amanda, four; and Henry, two. Her owner, George Ray of Trimble County, Kentucky, printed a five-hundred-dollar reward. A conductor named Waggoner carried the family out of Madison to Douglas McCoy's place in Decatur County, arriving in the early hours of November 1, and the Black and white households of Fugit Township hid them near Clarksburg.
The case of the rescuer
A local man named Woodson Clark lured Caroline into a locked building — she was found, separated from her children, and freed after neighbors went for Luther Donnell, who obtained a writ of habeas corpus to force the search. With Ray's slave hunters in town and the usual route compromised, Caroline was disguised as a man, the children couriered separately, and the family was reunited in Union County and run on to Canada — where the census later records her under the name Rachel Beach. Indiana prosecuted the rescuer instead: Donnell was convicted in 1849 under the state law against aiding fugitives, fined, and the state supreme court reversed him in 1852 — leaning on Prigg v. Pennsylvania, the pro-slavery ruling that federal law supersedes state action on fugitives, turned sideways into a shield.
The marker stands in Decatur County near the roads the family walked. Ray got a civil judgment for his lost 'property'; Caroline got Canada. The file counts that as the ledger balance.
Two accounts on file
NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.
The Caroline escape—where the woman and her children ran.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing
NPS Network to Freedom
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 23IN01, source row 428. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened.
UGRR enrichment wave 3; VERIFY task auto-queued.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Documented history
NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Caroline Escape Marker's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. The record appears in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. The date is part of the site's documented spine.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceCaroline Escape Marker is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' documents the entry. The date is part of the site's documented spine.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceCaroline’s escape is documented. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. The record appears in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. It is the kind of fact the rest of the dossier leans on.
Verified historyNational Park Service
Sources on file
- 01Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01National Park Service · government · A1
- 02NPS Network to Freedom listingNational Park Service · government · A1
- 03Underground RailroadWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
Field notes & open questions
Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 23IN01, source row 428. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened.