Delia Webster
Delia Ann Webster (December 17, 1817 – January 18, 1904) was an American teacher, author, businesswoman 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 two years in the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Frankfort for aiding the Haydens' escape, but pardoned after two months.
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.
The town of Oberlin was a "hotbed of abolitionism" and supporters ran stations on the Underground Railroad, assisting escaped slaves to freedom.
[2][10] Webster's abolitionist efforts in Lexington were described in a 1921 article in Indiana Magazine of History: She came to be hated by the slave masters as well as feared by them.
On February 24, 1845, Webster was pardoned by Governor John J. Crittenden, at the urging of the penitentiary warden, Newton B.
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.
[18] She taught school during the three years that she lived with her parents in Vermont, but found the harsh winters harmful to her health.
She then went to New York,[17] where she taught school,[2][10][17] was involved in the Woman's suffrage movement,[19] and sought the salt-water air to heal her bronchitis.
[20] Webster returned to Madison, purchased a house, and lived there for a year before moving to Trimble County.
[2][10] 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.
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.
[2][10][23][b] She continued to operate as part of the Underground Railroad and served as a nurse to wounded soldiers along with Harriet Beecher Stowe during the Civil War.
[27][28][8][c] A Kentucky Highway Marker 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.
[30][31]There is also a highway marker at the Trimble county jail at Courthouse Square in Bedford, Kentucky that states she was its most notable resident.
