SALEM Brochure points to anti-slave locations

A photograph and text are included for each site.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- The city's tourism advisory board is using Salem's ties to the past to encourage visits.
The agency is preparing to release a brochure that identifies 13 sites in the city that were linked to the Underground Railroad or the anti-slavery movement.
Now visitors to the city, with the brochure's help, can undertake a self-guided tour that will help them find each historical location, many of which today are private homes or businesses. Besides photographs, the brochure also provides thumbnail histories of the sites.
The text tells of trap doors, false closets, plots to tar-and-feather abolitionists and a Quaker girl's clever way of misleading slave hunters.
Maps
To guide visitors, the brochure includes two maps. One shows Salem's general location in Northeast Ohio, the other is a detailed view of the city, with each location shown as a number in a circle.
The numbers coincide with the photographs and historical text on the brochure.
"We were looking for something different for our tourism brochure," David Schwartz, tourism board chairman, said of the publication.
Schwartz's wife, Arlene, former regional director of the Ohio Underground Railroad Association, did the research necessary for the brochure. Lois Mountz of Mountz Galleries, on Broadway Avenue, took the photographs.
"We hope it will stir some interest in the city," Schwartz said of the brochure, which will be distributed through the library, and area museums and merchants. To obtain a copy, call the tourism office at (330) 337-2536, Schwartz said.