she spoke to about bringing a carriage for her, but thought it was Samuel M. Painter, as he conveyed more from West Chester than any other person. He said he did not remember taking her, that he took so many he could not now separate one incident entirely from another, unless something at the time made a special impression upon his mind; but if he did take her, it was to John Vickers', as it was there he took all. Not being able to ascertain anything different from all enquiries I could make, I accepted that as most likely to be correct. In my subsequent gleaning of incidents I asked Capt. Isaiah Price for some reminiscences of his father's Underground Railroad work. Among them he related the incident of their taking Rachel Harris away while her pursuers were searching for her. This could be accepted then as correct, and was the first positive information received. Rachel afterwards wrote to Hannah Jeffries and others in West Chester, saying she was contented and happy. The slaveholder and his assistants continued their search in the borough for two days, and then abandoned it. For the part Mrs. Worthington took in the grand success, her friends for a long time humorously called her" the little abolitionist." Some time during their sojourn at Johnson's Rachel and her huband were met by Dr. Bartholomew Fussell and Graceanna Lewis. As was his wont this kind heartedman soon entered into conversation with her, and in a few minutes discovered that she had once been a pupil of his during his residence in Maryland many years before. At the moment of recognition she sprang up, overwhelmJ* ing him with her manifestations of delight, crying: “You Dr. Fussell? You Dr. Fussell? Don't you remember me? I'm Rache-Cunningham's Rache, down at Bush River Neck." Then receding to view him better, she exclaimed, "Lord bless de child! how he is grown!" The Doctor by this time had become quite corpulent. She then recounted her wretched experiences in slavery while the property of "Mort" Cunningham, who had come to capture her, and rehearsed the incidents of her escape in her naturally dramatic style, and said that from her hiding place in the garret she heard the men hunting for her in the alley below. Graceanna Lewis, shortly after this event, in a private company, was impersonating Rachel in her description of her escape from West Chester, without telling who the fugitive was, when Abbie Kimber, recognising the description of the woman, and her perfectly natural manner of dramatizing scenes and incidents, at once exclaimed: "That's our Rache." ter. ABIGAIL KIMBER. (Born 1804.-Died Third Month 22d, 1871.) Abigail Kimber, daughter of Emmor Kimber, was a woman of superior mind and excellent traits of characAt the early age of fourteen she became a teacher in her father's school, and soon exhibited rare capabilities for her vocation. Her quick perceptions enabled her to comprehend without an effort the intellectual needs of her pupils, and she applied herself with diligence and tact to supply the helps which each required. Her high standard of worth, her own example and her enthusiastic love for her pupils inspired them with a proper idea of their duty, and no one, it is said, ever left the school that did not carry with her grateful recollections of the care and kindness of Miss Abbie, as well as a warm admiration of her superior intellect and noble nature. She continued in the profession of teaching for thirty years. At a very early period of the anti-slavery cause she enrolled herself among its advocates, and from that hour she labored with rare devotion and activity in its behalf. At different periods she filled the offices of President, Vice President, and Recording Secretary of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, and for many years she was a member of the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. In those days when Government officials gave up anti-slavery meetings to the mercy or the fury of mobs, and abolitionists walked to their assemblies and sat therein, solemnly, as confronting mortal peril, she never faltered, nor shrank from the duty of maintaining freedom of speech, and demanding freedom for the slave. She was a delegate to the World's Convention which met in London in the summer of 1840. To what great extent the influence of her example and the noble aims and purposes in life she instilled into the minds of her pupils have spread throughout the world as they left the school-room, and in their turn became teachers and mothers, or to what extent she swayed the sceptre of good over matured minds in those days when it required a vast amount of heroism and moral stamina in woman to come publicly to the front and advocate the rights of humanity, no pen can tell, nor mind can adequately conceive. "As tiny pebbles cast in sea Make circles to the farther shore, GERTRUDE KIMBER BURLEIGH, sister of Abigail Kimber, was also endowed with superior intellectual gifts and moral force of character. She became the wife of that able apostle of anti-slavery and temperance, so well known and beloved throughout Chester county, Charles C. Burleigh. I append a communication sent me by one of her friends and a former pupil of their school. Gertrude K. Burleigh, youngest daughter of Emmor and Susanna Kimber, was born at Kimberton, Chester county, Pennsylvania, on the 14th of June, 1816. In a cultured home, she was remarkable for her sprightliness and power of entertaining others. In this she had a life-long training. Her mother, a member of the Chester county Jacksen family, was characterized by such sweetness of disposition that everybody loved "Friend Susan," and throughout the wide circle of the pupils educated at the Kimberton Boarding School, few were greater favorites than she. The rare qualities of her nature reappeared in her daughters as an active benevolence which had for its object the welfare of others under all the circumstances of the life which surrounded them. Gertrude was a most loyal friend, noble and high-minded to a superlative degree, exercising a powerful influence on the pupils of the school. As a matter of course, she became an enthusiastic anti-slavery woman, and when in the height of his splendid oratorical powers, C. C. Burleigh was welcomed to her father's residence, mated natures were found. In writing concerning her, William Lloyd Garrison says: "Mrs. Burleigh, long before she became a wife. and mother, warmly espoused the cause of the enslaved millions at the South, and throughout the long and eventful struggle for the overthrow of slavery, remained faithful to her early convictions and cheerfully accepted whatever of private ostracism or public obloquy attended those not ashamed to be known as abolitionists of an uncompromising stamp. In whatever she did she was sure to be thoroughly persuaded in her own mind, and to act independently of all considerations of selfishness or worldly expediency. She had rare elements of character, which, as opportunity presented, fitted her to be a true heroine; one afraid of no deprivation, disposed to shrink from no cross, and at all times prepared to decide for herself what was right and where the path of duty lay. I shall always cherish her memory and remember with pleasure that she placed me on the list of her closely attached friends." She died at Florence, Mass., on the 26th of August, 1869, in the fifty-fourth year of her age, mourned and loved by the community in which she had zealously labored. Her true worth was fully understood and most highly appreciated by these co-workers, and at her funeral, Florence Hall was so densely crowded that all could not find seats, some of the discourses being exceedingly appropriate and touching. |