Nancy Beasley, author of The Underground Railroad in DeKalb County, talks to a crowd of around 50 on Saturday at Mayslake Congregational Church in rural DeKalb County. (Photo by Jack

It’s a quiet tiny country church located amid corn and soybean fields in a stretch of rural DeKalb County.

Yet the current Mayfield Congregational Church played a significant role in the Underground Railroad, one of the great social movements of the mid-19th century which helped secure freedom for escaped slaves from the South.

The role of the church and its congregation — many buried in an adjacent cemetery — was marked last Saturday with dedication of a plaque saluting abolitionists affiliated with the then-Mayfield Wesleyan Methodist Church, the onetime affiliation of the DeKalb County church.

“We need to honor the memory of these pioneers and not let them sit on the library shelves,” said Nancy Beasley, author of “The Underground Railroad in DeKalb County,” during short presentations inside the church, located northwest of Sycamore.

Beasley also spoke at two other plaque dedications on Saturday at notable Underground Railroad stops and home of anti-slavery activists: the former farm home of Deacon David West east of Sycamore as well as the Somonauk’s United Presbyterian Church.

“We are honored to recognize three of the main historical locations of the Underground Railroad in DeKalb County, locations that contributed to the history of the Underground Railroad,” Beasley said.

The plaques were sponsored by the DeKalb County Historical-Genealogical Society.

Nancy Beasley (second from left) introduces the plaque commemorating the involvement of DeKalb County citizens in the mid-19th Century Underground Railroad. Below, the unveiling is recorded by some of the 45 persons in attendance at Mayfield Congregational Church. (Photo by Jack McCarthy / Chronicle Media)

The Mayfield plaque salutes the “Abolitionists from Mayfield Wesleyan Methodist Church defied the law and helped runaway slaves enroute to freedom in Canada before the Civil War.”

Prior to and during the Civil War, there was widespread opposition to slavery and support for efforts to secure transportation for escaped slaves enroute to new homes. Beasley wrote in her book that more than 600 men and women and their families aided the anti-slavery movement in DeKalb County.