Start your trip meter at 0.0 at the Ripley County Historical Society Archives building on Washington Street on the Ripley County Courthouse square in Versailles Go south to S.R.50 turn left to trip meter 4.1 and turn left on S.R.129. Go to trip meter 6.5 to County Road 200N and turn right. Go to trip meter 7.1 to Tour Stop 1.
Tour Stop 1 (39° 5′ 49″ N 85° 10′ 33″ W) –Universalist Cemetery at Stringtown: This was the area where home of Ichabod Sheldon, Squire Knapp, and other Yankee abolitionists.
>>Continue west on County Road 200N. to S.R.101 and turn north. Go to trip meter 9.7 and turn right onto Old Milan Road.
Tour Stop 2 (39° 8′ 47″ N 85° 7′ 54″ W) — Old Milan: This is where the home of Stephen S. Harding, Station #7 on the UGRR route from Aurora was located. Harding was acknowledged as heading up the anti-slavery movement in Ripley County.
>>Tour Stops 2 and 3 are next to each other immediately after you turn right onto Old Milan Road. Harding’s house is on the left.
Tour Stop 3 (39° 8′ 47″ N 85° 7′ 53″ W) — Old Road: This old road runs through Moores Hill to Wilmington, where Orthaniel Reed brought runaway slaves from Rising Sun and Aurora. There was another UGRR route located from William Wymand’s at Manchester Landing near Aurora that came to Old Milan.
>>Return to and cross S.R.101 and go one block west in Old Milan to the junction of Berlin Street (the Old Pierceville Road) and Chapell Street in Old Milan to Tour Stop 4.
Tour Stop 4 (39° 8′ 48″ N 85° 7′ 59″ W) — Milan Freewill Baptist Church: The Milan Freewill Baptist Church once stood near this intersection. Freewill Baptists were among the most active anti-slavery churches. Reverend Charles Ide had a bounty on his head from Kentucky slave owners. The old road to Pierceville started here.
>>Turn right on Chapell Street and go one block north and Tour Stop 5, which is on the right.
Tour Stop 5 (39° 8′ 52″ N 85° 7′ 59″ W) — Old Aurora Road: If you follow this old road to Old Delaware (now Lookout) it will follow the early UGRR route to Napoleon.
>>Turn right and return to S.R.101. Carefully turn left (north) on S.R.101 and watch for sharp right turn at trip meter 15.1. Continue on S.R.101 to trip meter 16.2 to Tour Stop 6.
Tour Stop 6 (39° 10′ 40″ N 85° 6′ 46″ W) — Franklin Freewill Baptist Church: This church is now known as the Pilgrim Old Regular Church. In 1838, Elder Ezekiel Stites and Reverend Richard Kelley led an anti-slavery group splitting the Milan Regular Baptist Church and founded the Franklin Freewill Baptist Church on land given by Thomas Fuller. At one time they met in the Anderson Schoolhouse near this site.
>>Continue north on S.R. 101 to S.R.48, turn left and go to S.R. 129. At trip meter 20.8 turn left and go to trip meter 27.8 to Tour Stop 7, which is located on the right side of S.R.129 at Old Milan Road.
Tour Stop 7 (39° 8′ 51″ N 85° 12′ 35″ W) — Delaware Freewill Baptist Church: This church was located just across S.R.129 south of Old Milan Road. Philip Anthony and Jefferson Stevens were active in the UGRR. The antebellum Hegedorn brothers’ farmhouses still stand.
>>Go south on S.R.129 and at Prattsburg Road turn left. Go to trip meter 29.9 to Prattsburg Cemetery.
Tour Stop 8 (39° 9 39″ N 85° 11′ 6″ W) — Prattsburg Freewill Baptist Church: Rev. Kelly and Elder Redlon, noted Leaders of the Free Will Baptists in Pierceville who ran the UGRR route past Mud Pike church.
>>Return to S.R.129, go south to trip meter 33.4, Delaware Fire Company building to Tour Stop 9, turn right onto S.R. 350.
Tour Stop 9 (39° 9′ 2″ N 85° 12′ 21″ W) — Homer, the old name for Delaware Station: This was the home of Philip Anthony at the junction of old Delaware Road from Versailles, an important UGRR route.
>>Turn around and go east on S.R. 350 to trip meter 35.2. Turn right and cross the railroad tracks. Go one block to church steeple to Tour Stop 10.
Tour Stop 10 (39° 8′ 2″ N 85° 10′ 46″ W) — Old site of Pierceville Freewill Baptist Church: Elder Redlon led the UGRR forces here after Philip Anthony died in 1856.
>>Return to Versailles via S.R.129 and U.S.50.