Reverend John Smith, also known as “Lame” John Smith, was a Methodist Minister in Hartland for a few years (likely 1860-1862). Hartland was as part of the underground railroad and John Smith was involved in that. There are various tunnels and secret compartments in houses throughout Hartland but we do not know which ones John Smith was involved with other than to say the underground railroad as a whole.He was friends with Taylor Groce and Solomon Northrup, the latter being a free man who was put into slavery and it took 12 years to win his case and free him. Harriett Beecher Stowe used Solomon as a basis for her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin and a movie was made called “Twelve Years A Slave”.
After leaving Hartland, Smith was involved with Groce and Northrup in the Underground Railroad in New York state.