Underground Railroad

Although Bloomington was not a hugely active Underground Railroad station, a group of early settlers in the Reformed Presbyterian Church of South Carolina came to Monroe County to escape the institution of slavery there. Some of the most active participants were Thomas Smith and James Clark.

A typical slave route would have been from Walnut Ridge, near Salem, to Bloomington and then up to Mooresville, although in later years some Reformed Presbyterians moved to Morgantown, providing a way station between Bloomington and Mooresville. Samuel Gordon, three miles south of town, was often the first point of contact for a slave, and from there he would be taken to the house of Thomas Smith. Robert Ewing, John Blair, and an African-American woman known as Auntie Myrears also provided temporary shelter in town.

The Mershons, Kersaws, and Adkins were local families that found work as slave catchers and the Raiload workers often had to avoid them.