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Delia Webster

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Delia Webster, abolitionist. Delia (front left) with her sisters: Mary Jane (front right), Martha (back left), and Betsey (back right).[1]

Delia Ann Webster (1817-1904)

Delia Ann Webster was an American teacher and abolitionist in Kentucky who, with Calvin Fairbank, aided many slaves, including Lewis Hayden, his wife Harriet, and their son Joseph to escape to Ohio (and then to Canada). She was convicted and sentenced to 2 years in prison for aiding the Haydens' escape, but pardoned after 2 months. The death year was originally shown as 1876, yet she's found in the 1900 Census, and she'd not found in the 1910 Census. The "Find a Grave Record" indicates 1904, therefore, changing it to 1904. I'm curious how 1876 was determined, but believe there had been a false report of her death. Or, another thought, could she have intentionally wanted folks to think she had died?

In 1854 Webster bought a farm along the Ohio River in Trimble County, Kentucky with the financial help of Boston abolitionists, and operated it as a station on the Underground Railroad. She was arrested a second time for her efforts to aid fugitive slaves, but the trial was discharged. Soon after, her home and farm were vandalized and subject to arson. Unable to pay for its expenses and her loan, she lost it to creditors. She moved to the free state of Indiana, where she taught school until her death. This is not accurate, as she livrd with her sisters family and died in Des Moines, Iowa in 1904. A newspaper report dated 3-25-1885, states 20 slaves had gone missing. Another report states how she was roused from her bed and taken by a mob to jail. Even with 3 guards, she had stated she was ill, and she managed to escape. Numerous newspaper reports about the trial, and her daily activities can be found on Chronicling American, the National Archives.

In 1996 she was honored as one of the Kentucky Women Remembered. A watercolor hangs in her honor in the Kentucky Capitol Building.

2015, Delia Webster is buried in an unmarked grave. Efforts are being made to obtain a Tombstone/Monument to honor her, by her 200th birthday, Dec. 2017.

Early life

Delia Webster was born December 17, 1817 to Benejah Webster and his wife in Vergennes, Vermont; she was one of four sisters, 10 children total.

Delia Webster's family came to America from England in 1630, Connecticut Colonial Governor John Webster is a noted Founding Father of Hartford, Ct. This lineage is fully listed in the Genealogy book for Governor John Webster, published about 1910. Delia was a descendant of the Governor's son Thomas. Noah Webster, lexographer, is also her relative. A relationship to Daniel Webster is unclear.

She attended the Vergennes Classical School. She began teaching school at 12 years of age. Webster was raised near the farm Rokeby which was used to shelter travelers on the Underground Railroad. The farm has been designated a National Historic Landmark.[2]

In the spring of 1835, she obtained a teaching position. Webster went to Ohio to take classes at Oberlin College, the first integrated college in the United States. The town of Oberlin was a "hotbed of abolitionism" and supporters ran stations on the Underground Railroad, assisting escaped slaves to freedom.[3][4][5]

Lexington, Kentucky

Reverend Calvin Fairbank, abolitionist

Webster traveled to Lexington, Kentucky in 1843. She decided to stay there to teach art and was a co-founder of the Lexington Female Academy.[3][4]

Webster's abolitionist efforts in Lexington were described in an 1921 article in Indiana Magazine of History:

She came to be hated by the slave masters as well as feared by them. While nothing could be established against her, she was constantly under suspicion and was subjected to threats intermingled with much persecution. With all this opposition, she continued her work just the same, traveling from one locality to another, always coming in contact with slaves and teaching them the avenues of escape and very frequently aiding them directly in the work herself.[6]

Lewis Hayden, 19th-century portrait, ex-slave, abolitionist, businessman, Republican Party representative from Boston to the Massachusetts state legislature in 1873.

She often worked with Methodist minister, Calvin Fairbank. It was said that "Northern Kentucky suffered greatly for her effective work."[6][7]

In 1844, Webster and Rev. Calvin Fairbanks assisted three slaves, the Haydens, in their escape to Ohio, where they transported them by wagon. Their role was discovered, and she and Fairbanks were arrested. They were tried separately. She was tried and sentenced in 1845, to "2 years hard labor in the Kentucky Penitentiary for aiding and abducting slaves." On February 24, 1845, Webster was pardoned by Governor John J. Crittenden, at the urging of the penitentiary warden, Newton B. Craig. After Webster was pardoned, she did not contact Craig again. He was reported to have been annoyed and desired to exact revenge "for being tricked".[3][4][8]

According to a 1911 account:

Miss Delia Webster is the lady who was sentenced to the State penitentiary for abducting our silly old servants into Ohio. But the jury of Kentucky noblemen who returned the verdict -- being married men, and long used to forgiving a woman anything -- petitioned the governor to pardon Miss Delia on the ground that she belongs to the sect that can do no wrong -- and be punished for it. Whereupon the governor, seasoned to the like large experience, pardoned the lady.[9]

Delia Ann Webster (1845). A History of the Trial of Miss Delia A. Webster

She wrote about the events in "Kentucky Jurisprudence, A History of the Trial of Miss Delia A. Webster. (1845)[10]

New York

After Webster was released, she worked for several years as a teacher in New York.[3][4]

Trimble County, Kentucky

In 1854 Webster bought a 600-acre farm along the Ohio River in Trimble County, Kentucky. The purchase was partly funded from northern abolitionists. Her farm became an Underground Railroad station. She hired freed blacks as farm workers.[3][4] Accusing her of aiding their slaves' escapes, Kentucky slaveowners threatened Webster that she, her crops or her farm might come to harm if she remained in the area.[11]

In 1854 a warrant was issued for her arrest in connection with missing slaves in the area. She was arrested and jailed, but was able to escape. Webster traveled to Madison, Indiana where she was hidden in many city and country locations. She was captured and jailed in Indiana, pending a trial under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. It was conducted in Madison in late July. Newton Craig was a witness for the prosecution. Judge Walker discharged Webster on May 21, 1854. Craig was shot from behind by a man named Mr. Randall, who was believed to be a laborer on Webster's farm. Craig's wounds were not fatal and he did not pursue prosecution of the gunman. Webster's farm had been looted of about $9,000 in household, farm and personal belongings. When she was unable to make her loan payments, a "Webster Farm Association" was founded by people in the anti-slavery movement from Boston, Massachusetts. With their assistance, she was able to keep the farm.[3][4][11][nb 1]

Webster had obtained building materials to build a school on her property. But, in November 1866 her home and the building materials were destroyed in a fire by arsonists. "Over time arsonists destroyed seventeen buildings, four barns, and finally Webster's residence." Without sufficient financial resources, in October 1869 she lost possession of her property.[3][4]

Indiana

Webster moved to Madison, Indiana and taught school. She died in Jeffersonville in 1876.[3][4] However, she was living with her niece, a well known doctor in Iowa. She's buried in Des Moines, Iowa in a cemetery with some of her family.

Legacy and honors

  • Kentucky mile marker 1099 was established to honor Webster, the "Petticoat Abolitionist," in Trimble County at the junction of US 421 and KY 1255.

'Underground railroad' station, a mile west, run by Delia Webster on land bought with funds provided by Northern abolitionists, 1854. Slaveholders filed charges against her. After refusing to leave Ky., she was imprisoned. Following her release she was indicted again by escaped into Indiana. For similar activities in Lexington she had served term in penitentiary, 1844.[12][13]

Notes

  1. ^ Asher said that there was an $8,000 loss; It was reported to be a $9,000 loss in the Indiana Magazine of History.

References

  1. ^ "Delia Webster". North Kentucky Views. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  2. ^ "Rokeby". National Historic Landmarks Program, National Park Service. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h John E. Kleber (18 May 1992). The Kentucky encyclopedia. University Press of Kentucky. p. 939. ISBN 978-0-8131-2883-2. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Brad Asher (30 August 2006). Kentucky. Interlink Books. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-56656-638-4. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  5. ^ Cynthia D. Bittinger (2012). Vermont Women, Native Americans and African Americans: Out of the Shadows of History. The History Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-60949-262-5. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  6. ^ a b George Streiby Cottman; Christopher Bush Coleman; Logan Esarey (1921). Indiana Magazine of History. p. 281. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  7. ^ Robinson (1997). Black Movements in America. Psychology Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-415-91222-8. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  8. ^ George Streiby Cottman; Christopher Bush Coleman; Logan Esarey (1921). Indiana Magazine of History. p. 282. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  9. ^ James Lane Allen (1911). Aftermath, part second of "A Kentucky Cardinal". Macmillan Co. p. 70.
  10. ^ Delia Ann Webster (1845). A History of the Trial of Miss Delia A. Webster: At Lexington, Kentucky, Dec'r 17-21, 1844 Before the Hon. Richard Buckner on a Charge of Aiding Slaves to Escape from that Commonwealth - with Miscellaneous Remarks Including Her Views on American Slavery. H.W. Blaisdell, Printer.
  11. ^ a b George Streiby Cottman; Christopher Bush Coleman; Logan Esarey (1921). Indiana Magazine of History. pp. 283–286. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  12. ^ Melba Porter Hay; Dianne Wells; Thomas H. Appleton (1 March 2002). Roadside History: A Guide to Kentucky Highway Markers. University Press of Kentucky. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-916968-29-8. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  13. ^ "Petticoat Abolitionist marker (photo)". Travel Nostalgiaville. Retrieved May 1, 2013.

Further reading

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