A Delicious Taste Of History, Intrigue and Hospitality.
His office was in the wing room on the South side of the house, now known to
Don’s Pomeroy House patrons as the Study, and it was connected to his general
store by a diagonal walk. This area of Strongsville became known as Public Square
chiefly because it was the central location where people always came to meet,
socialize and exchange ideas. In addition to his other activities, Alanson found time
to be a leader in the Congregation Church. The people who went to the Congregation
Church Sunday morning services, and who lived too far away to return for the second
preaching service that Sunday afternoon, were always invited over to “The Homestead”
for the hospitality of an afternoon dinner. (Back then, a country mile was far in the days
of the horse-and-buggy with bad roads and deep mud holes.)
President Lincoln and the Union Army were popular with the citizens of
Strongsville. In fact many of those citizens, including the Pomeroys,
were Abolitionists. The Pomeroys’ steadfast belief in hospitality and
equality led them to set up “The Homestead” as a station of the
Underground Railroad. Harlan Pomeroy, one of six children of
Alanson and Keziah, frequently told of catching brief glimpses of
slaves when the cellar door would be opened. He would frequently
see his mother going down the cellar steps with trays of fresh
steaming food.
The Underground Railroad was a very secret society. Its operations
were never written or recorded and, of course, kept from the children.
Years later, Harlan relayed a story told to him by his father that
slaves would be brought in from Oberlin by night concealed in a
load of hay. They were hidden in the Pomeroy House cellar until
word was received from Rocky River that the next boat would be
leaving for Canada. Alanson, under cover of darkness, would then
hide the slaves in his wagons and make the long journey to
Rocky River leading to freedom.
Eventually Harlan became a prominent physician in Cleveland
and bought-out the other heirs of “The Homestead.”