05/04/2026
Monday Morning Musings:
Finding bias.
The first photograph shows a particular paragraph, written by a very influential, and well researched author, but defines the bias of the writer.
This author, is a Black man, and his history was written with the intention of highlighting the contributions of free Blacks on the Underground Railroad. He wrote detail rich stories about how freed slaves helped fugitives escape and make their way to freedom. This is not a fictionalized or inflated history, it's an excellent read and the writer knows his stuff, it's a great source.
However, upon deep research, I can't find King Tompkins anywhere in the annals of Sullivan County History. In fact, I haven't found King Tompkins anywhere...
Beyond being insulted that our little county only got a three sentence paragraph to cover a deep seated tradition that started before Sullivan County was founded, I became confused. Who was King Tompkins?
I dug in.
I started researching the Underground Railroad to familiarize myself with the stories I'd been told growing up. I went to Facebook, asked questions, found more sources, and corroborated some of the stories, some have not been corroborated yet, and either LaPorte did a good job covering its own tracks, or was a hotbed of abolitionism, with many folks providing material help only, to the folks who were physically harboring fugitives, or was uninvolved entirely.
The Genesee Road was the "Main Line" of the Underground Railroad in Sullivan County. Starting in the South Western portion and working its way North, Northeast through the Western and Northwestern townships, from Shrewsbury, to Hillsgrove, along Elk Creek through Elkland, and into Fox townships. From Lincoln Falls, the Underground Railroad route seems to split, passengers could go towards Shunk and Canton, or through Elkland into Southern Bradford County, and on to Towanda.
The Snells in Hillsgrove were known to maintain a station in Hillsgrove. Lincoln Falls was known to host a station. Marshall Battin near Shunk was a known Conductor, and Ellen and Joel McCarty of the Shunk area were likely the brains behind the operation here in Sullivan County. Ellen was likely a Station Master, with Conductors, Agents, and Stations under her management.
Through all my research, I have not found anyone by the name of King Tompkins. I have however, studied the 1872 map of Sullivan County extensively. Upon tracing the route 1,000 times, I noticed that just about at the Lincoln Falls area, there are two farms right next to each other denoted. A King farm, and a Thompkins farm.
It's my belief that this author, failed to research Sullivan County correctly, he did write letters to every historical society in Pennsylvania, maybe Sullivan failed to respond before the publication, or maybe he got a short note saying, follow the old Genesee Road, leading him to the King Thompkins revelation. He wanted to showcase Black Conductors in every county in the state. It's possible, he didn't find the info he was looking for, so he took a shot at creating a character to benefit his motives.
King Tompkins is an example of author bias.
This is why we can't trust history to AI, because AI would likely cite this source to provide info to researchers, and AI, is not educated in history. We need real historians to research history, because we are trained to study the history of the history, as well as the history, to give you real information, and w**d out bias.
Thanks for reading and supporting real history.
