APRIL 20 ISSUE ANSWERS (photo to right): This is an oil portrait of Sarah Lerrich, wife of Peter Lerrich, owners of Spring Hill Farm, the documented site of a station on the Underground Railroad in Shelby Township, Michigan. Their daughter Libereta Lerrich Green, during the 1850’s, recalls the enormous, already mature cedar tree the family planted on top of the hill directly above the spring. They named it the “Beacon Tree” knowing that surely it could certainly be seen. Libereta recalls her parents praying with a group of people kneeling around the tree, speaking of “black brethren,” “the down trodden race” and brothers and sisters in servitude. Strange wagons and slaves were hidden during the ten years prior to the Civil War. Peter and Sarah were brave even in the face a neighbor who said he was hunting for slaves because he needed the bounty money to pay off his mortgage on his farm and felt justified because he was a pro-slavery man. “The Beacon Tree- A tail of the Underground Railroad” by Libereta Lerrich Green was reprinted by the Lee Memorial Fund that published oral and written history pertaining to Macomb County. The dual paintings of Sarah and Peter were donated to the Romeo Historical Society for safe keeping along with the pamphlet and other artifacts of the Lerrich’s. Visit the Romeo Historical Society Archives Museum at 290 North Main some Tuesday evening. Joan Beringer, Romeo Historical Society staff