INDIAN HILL, Ohio — Daniel Buford doesn't remember much. He only lived there until he was 5. But he remembers one light bulb hanging from a wire in the ceiling. He tells me that's how most of the rooms were.
Now 71, Buford is sitting in what used to be a kitchen. He points to the remnants of a cistern where his family used to get water. It's one of the only things left that really resembles a home — one of the only things that shows how his family moved here with nothing, but found a way to survive.
“I used to actually live in these ruins," Buford said.
Buford holds up his right hand, laughing while he taps a walking stick against his palm.
"Somewhere on that hand, there’s some stitches that I earned right on this property," Buford said. "My blood is literally in this land."
He smiles now. Because this is something he's been dreaming about.
“My family’s history is Ohio history," Buford said. "And our story has never been told."
It's a story about people escaping slavery — his great-grandparents — and finding a home here in Indian Hill.
"Morgan's raiders were looking for slaves, and they went to Indian Hill knowing there were some up there, but they never did find us," Buford said, laughing.
Go inside a secret community with ties to the Underground Railroad here:
“This was a perfect place to live and avoid the racism that was completely surrounding them — and establish a community,” said Ken Barnett Tankersley, a retired professor of archaeology at the University of Cincinnati. “That’s what this story is actually all about.”
Barnett Tankersley is a world-renowned archaeologist who went to school with Buford in Madisonville. He was studying the history of this community a few years ago when Buford moved back home from California because the former reverend sensed this story was being lost to history.
“I needed to come back and protect my heritage," Buford said.
Buford inherited his family's property and soon began cleaning it up. By now, it looked more like a forest than anywhere that might have housed people escaping slavery.
So, when he shows me the property on Camargo Road, he brings a machete to cut through the branches and weeds that have largely overtaken it.
“Buckle up," Buford said.
After he cleared it out, he brought Barnett Tankersley there. And then, the professor brought a class of students. They looked to see if there was evidence to support Buford's story.
There was.
"When you think about archaeological sites, these are the rarest of all of them," Barnett Tankersley said. "The site had never been documented — no one knew anything about this except Dan and his family."
As we walk through the woods on a recent morning, Barnett Tankersley stops and picks up a brick. He places his hand on its side, the way someone would have while molding it hundreds of years ago.
Then, he points out a palm-sized imperfection.
"I know for someone else, it’s just a brick," Barnett Tankersley said. "But what’s amazing is it literally has the handprint of Dan’s ancestor still on it."
What's next?
Now, Buford is working with another group of UC students to continue documenting the area.
“We’ve barely scratched the surface,” Buford said.
He plans to meet with community members and others from UC later this month. He hopes one day his family's property will be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
