The following is a statement in the information regarding Isaac Searle: Isaac Searle’s daughter married John Burlingame. That union indicated there may have been a family connection to the Underground Railroad activity.
Helene Phelan in her book, And Why Not Everyman has listed the Burlingame home as a station on the Underground Railroad. The tradition and oral history of this area of Cattaraugus County has included the Burlingame home as a station on the route slaves took north.
John Burlingame was the son of Ira and Elizabeth Burlingame born in Oxford, Chenango County, New York on the 22nd of July 1820. John married Arvilla Searle (1825-1903) on the 5th of November 1846. They had five children, Florence born in 1848, Alice 1850, Frank 1852, Frederick 1854 and May 1859. On the 1850 Census John is listed as a farmer by trade.
John Burlingame was one of the individuals in the Cadiz area revealed as a station master, conducted by Alfred Rice, the last known conductor on the Underground Railroad.
*It is through the oral history that the Burlingame home is included as a station on the Underground Railroad in the Western part of Cattaraugus County.
Source:
Information regarding birth, death dates and family members from www.ancestry.com