I N D I A N A S TAT E M U S E U M A N D H I S T O R I C S I T E S
CROSSROADS EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2021
KNOWING WHERE YOU COME FROM VOLUNTEER SHARES FAMILY CONNECTIONS WITH LEVI AND CATHARINE COFFIN STATE HISTORIC SITE
By Marc Allan Shari Petersime needed a postretirement activity. The year was 2014, and she’d just retired after 39 years teaching junior and senior high school special education students at Northeastern High School in Fountain City, Indiana. A friend inquired: How about becoming a volunteer tour guide at the nearby Levi and Catharine Coffin State Historic Site? “And I laughed at her,” Petersime said, “because I thought, ‘OK, a blind person is going to give tours?’” At the time, Petersime, who was born with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare, inherited degenerative eye disease that causes severe vision impairment, “thought Levi Coffin was this guy who had this house and he hid a few slaves.” Still, she thought she might enjoy taking visitors through one room in the Underground Railroad stop. Then she started reading about the Coffins, who provided safe passage for more than 1,000 escaped slaves on their way to freedom from 1826-1847. She was fascinated. She volunteered to give tours of the three rooms on the lower level of the house.
Soon, she felt comfortable enough to guide visitors upstairs too, to show them the hidden areas where the Coffins provided shelter. Now, seven years later, the 70-year-old Petersime has taken thousands of people through the historic house.
“I enjoy telling the story,” she said. “I feel like it’s partly my story.” Petersime said her ancestors came from Longtown, a community founded by former slaves and free Blacks about 15 miles north of Fountain City that straddles Randolph County in Indiana and Darke County in Ohio. Some of the wagons of slaves that Levi Coffin directed into Ohio went through Longtown. “Some of my ancestors also hid them there,” she said. “Some were slaves and some were also some of the Underground Railroad operators.”
Levi Coffin’s 1876 book, Reminiscences, includes a story about Petersime’s thirdgreat-grandfather, William Thompson, an Underground Railroad conductor who moved to Longtown at Coffin’s suggestion. In the Coffin house is a pair of wooden shoes worn by William Bush, a runaway slave, that were donated by Petersime’s great aunt. Petersime feels a great connection to the house and its history, and that comes through in her tours. “Visitors have noted to me that they appreciate Shari connecting her own family’s story to the history we speak to at the site,” said Joanna Hahn, central regional director for the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites. “That helps to personalize the experiences of those the Coffins helped and shows how there are people living today that are connected to those stories. It’s great to work with individuals like Shari who are passionate in sharing this history and accommodating our visitors’ questions and curiosity.” Petersime’s favorite part of the tour is continued on next page