Although our brief searches have not turned up any verifications, there is physical evidence that Topping Hollow was a stop on the Underground Railroad. The house is full of secret hiding places and passages which may have been for this purpose. Bob Rossi claims there are loose boards in some (or one) closet which can be removed to reveal a passageway that goes down along the chimney to an underground tunnel which then leads to the nearby railroad (1/4 of a mile away). This railroad makes a relatively sharp turn as it passes by, and older trains would have had to slow down quite a bit to handle the turn. That would have given runaway slaves time to catch up to the train and jump on. "And then it's next stop: Canada!" says Rossi. (Actually, the train would have stopped in Amherst and then gone up to Vermont before leaving the country.) He also says there's an old man who still lives in Belchertown who used to crawl around in these tunnels when he was a kid.
So, what have we seen with our own eyes?