Thomas Townsend located on the A. M. Townsend property, one and one-half miles north of Fredericktown in 1808. He was one of the Friends from Maryland, and true to his Quaker principles, kept a station on "the underground railroad." It is related of him that he would harbor as many as twenty fugitive slaves at a time, and when they were sufficiently recruited, set their faces toward the north star, and send them on their way rejoicing. Mr. Townsend died March 18, 1859, aged seventy-eight. He has no representative now in the township.

from: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=knoxcooh&id=I10809