The original winner of the contest picked the name “Charlemont,” to near universal disdain.

[3] In 1858, the former American House Hotel (later torn down and replaced by Herrick Memorial Library) was the site of the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue.

A group of men, both white and black and many from Oberlin, swarmed the hotel to rescue runaway slave John Price.

[citation needed] He was being held by a US Marshal and his men, who intended to return him to his master in Kentucky.

[citation needed] The abolitionists transported Price out of town en route to the Underground Railroad and helped convey him to Canada.

Thirty-seven men were indicted, but only two, Simeon M. Bushnell and Charles Henry Langston, were tried in federal court for interfering with the marshal in carrying out the Fugitive Slave Law.

[citation needed] After Langston's eloquent speech about slavery and discrimination, the judge gave them light sentences.

The events and trial received national attention, and kept the issue of slavery at the forefront of debate.

[citation needed] Archibald M. Willard, painter of the patriotic Spirit of '76 painting, lived in Wellington during the 19th century.

On New Year's Day, 1951, two eleven-year-old boys, Gerald Kordelsky and William Flood, accidentally drowned in an abandoned well at Chismar Farm in Wellington.

[14] Two weeks before Labor Day, in late August, the Lorain County Fair,[15] one of the biggest county fairs in the state of Ohio,[citation needed] takes place west of town on State Route 18 at the fairgrounds.

The event attracts more than 100 artisans and craftspeople and includes live musical performances, children's activities, and the raffle of a handmade quilt.