TRUMBULL COUNTY OHIO - BIO: Bacon, John G. (pub. 1925)
***************************************************************************
OHGENWEB NOTICE:  All distribution rights to this electronic data are
reserved by the submitter.  Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted
material will require the permission of the copyright owner.
***************************************************************************
File contributed for use on the Trumbull County Pages by
Margaret Strickland 
margstri@bmi.net
August 28, 2001
***************************************************************************


Subj: [OHTRUMBU] Bacon,Part 2 of Vol. II - History of Ohio, 1925
Date: 8/30/2001 9:36:39 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From:    margstri@bmi.net (Margaret Strickland)
To:    OHTRUMBU-L@rootsweb.com



For Gayle in Cincinnati:

John G. BACON - Volume II, page 224 - Anti-Slavery & Other Movements:
The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue - Pages 224 - 231

In the month of January, 1856, John Price, a negro lad aged eighteen years,
escaped from his master, John G. Bacon, a citizen of Mason County, Kentucky.
He found his way to Oberlin, the seat of Oberlin College, from a very early
date a center of anti-slavery influence, a station on the Underground
Railroad and a "city of refuge" to fugitives from the land of bondage.
Finding the atmosphere of Oberlin congenial, John, like other sons of Ham,
concluded that he would tarry here and extend his sojourn indefinitely.

Here he remained unmolested until late in August, 1858.  At that time a man
by the name of Anderson Jennings, a neighbor of John G. Bacon, was in
Oberlin looking for some slaves who had escaped from his uncle's estate.
While here he learned that the fugitive, John Price, was in the town and so
notified his friend Bacon by letter.  Armed with a power of attorney and
accompanied by agents of the United States Government, Jennings proceeded to
plan the capture of John, a rather delicate undertaking in the Town of
Oberlin, where almost every citizen was an anti-slavery warrior and the
entire body of college students were political or actual crusaders of the
rescue of the bondsman.

"Almost every citizen," not everyone, as we shall see.  A farmer near
Oberlin by the name of Boynton consented, for a consideration, to aid in the
capture and restoration of the colored property and sent his son,
Shakespeare Boynton, to inveigle John Price into the country to get work and
then turn him over to the slave hunters.  The ruse succeeded and John was
arrested September 13th and hurried to the Village of Wellington about eight
miles distant, where he was taken to a hotel by his captors to await the
arrival of the south-bound train.

The citizens of Oberlin, a portion of whom were colored, were continually on
their guard against slave hunters.  They soon discovered that John was
missing and that he had been spirited away in the direction of Wellington.

The alarm spread rapidly.  Horses and vehicles were requisitioned without
formality.  Merchants, bankers, doctors and lawyers rushed to the street and
joined the flying expedition to Wellington.  Class rooms were
unceremoniously emptied and students and their professors, with one intent,
hatless and heedles of everything except to circumvent the "minions of the
slave power," vied with each other in their efforts to shorten the distance
between themselves and the captive.  "On to Wellington" was the one
impelling thought that inspired and directed all.

Who first reached the destination is not known, but there is no doubt that
the expedition covered the distance in record time, for that early day.
John was still in the hotel, guarded by his captors.  Earlier in the day
there had been in the village a fire that had attracted many people who were
still on the street.  When the vanguard from Oberlin arrived they joined and
made it indieed an "Oberlin-Wellington" enterprise.

The hotel was promptly surrounded by a great crowd of people.  The room in
which John was confined was soon located.  While some were discussing how he
should be liberated " a big black man who had himself been a slave, dashed
the door off the hinges, * * *picked John up on his shoulders, rushed down
the street, hustled him into a wagon and with break-neck speed drove him
somewhere into the country, no one knew where."

John Price had escaped.  From this time forward he disappeared from the
history of the notable rescue so far as his personal presence was concerned.
The case went to the courts where it continued long, in the midst of
unabating excitment and publicity that attracted the attention of the whole
country.  A grand jury, assembled by the United states district judge on
December 7, 1858, brought bills against the following citizens of Oberlin
and Wellington:

John H. Scott, John Watson, Simeon Busnell, James R. Shepard, Ansel W.
Lyman, Henry Evans, Wilson Evands, David Watson, Wm. E. Serimeger, Henry E.
Peck, James M. Fitch, William Watson, Thomas Gena, Oliver S. B. Wall, Walter
Soules, William Seiples, Ralph Plumb, John Mandeville, Mathew De Wolfe,
Franklin Lewis, John Hartwell, Albert Loveland, Lewis Hines, Matthew
Gillett, Chauncey Goodyear, Lorin Wadsworth, David Williams, Henry D. Niles,
Eli Boise, Charles Langston, James Bartlett, Robert Windsor, William E.
Lincoln, Jeremiah Fox, John Copeland, James H. Bartlett, Robert L. Cummings.

These, practically without exception, were prominent citizens of the two
towns.  The same day the marshal of the District Court served notice on
fifteen of the Oberlin rescuers who were under indictment and commanded them
to appear before the court in Cleveland.  In the midst of a large concourse
of their fellow citizens who cheered them as they boarded the train, the
indicted men, on the following day, started to the Forest City.  At
Wellington the marshal was not so fortunate.  He found a few only of the
citizens of the village upon whom he had notices to serve.

With due formalities the trial opened.  The Government was represented by
the United States District Attorney George W. Belden and George Bliss.  The
resuers were represented by able cousel.  Rufus P. Spalding, former justice
of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and later for a number of terms congressman
from the Cleveland district; Franklin T. Backus, Albert G. Riddle,
congressman and diplomat; and Seneca O. Griswold, soon to appear at
Charlestown, Virginia, to defend John Brown, all were eminent lawyers and
all volunteered their services free, an emphatic indication of their
interest in the cause.

* * *
The trial convened on April 6, 1859 and continued till noon of the seventh
day.  The article continues on with information on the trial through page
231.

Margaret Strickland
Walla Walla, WA


==============================