474:, and members pledged "our fortunes and our sacred honor, to stand by those individuals on whom this hand of government may fall; that we will help to bear with them any pecuniary losses to which they may be subjected, and manifest in every way we can, our sympathy for them, and show that we suffer as those who are bound with them." Other speakers included the Reverend R.R. Raymond, the Rev. Samuel J. May, William H. Burleigh, Lyman Clary and George Barnes.
481:, an escaped slave apprehended and jailed in Syracuse. That evening, a crowd of two to three thousand people gathered outside the jail. The crowd eventually rescued and freed Henry. At the time, Wheaton was with fellow abolitionist Judge Charles Sedgwick to prepare a kidnapping complaint against the agent sent to catch Henry.
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In 1835, soon after the birth of their first child, the
Wheaton family moved to Syracuse, where Charles went into the hardware business. Wheaton and a variety of partners, including his brother Horace, built a prosperous company. Over the course of 20 years, the Wheatons lived in seven houses, moving
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that did not prohibit slavery, opposed any fugitive slave law, and supported abolition of slavery in the national capital, stating, "We should rejoice to witness the removal of this stain upon the national character." Despite much publicly stated opposition in the North, the southern slave states
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The Law required all citizens to support capturing escaped slaves and returning them to their masters, even if found in northern states that prohibited slavery. US Marshals were to enforce the law. Its passage aroused the anti-slavery movement in
Syracuse. On October 4, 1850, a biracial group
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to the
Wheaton house. The federal government tried to find witnesses against the Wheatons and others. Ellen Wheaton estimated that perhaps half of Syracuse residents supported the rescue. She wrote, "Charles confidently expected to be arrested, but has not been as yet. The proceedings of the
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in the 1800s. He regularly wrote a column, "Sunday's Doings," that reviewed the sermons of local ministers. He also reported on congregations, noting the attendance (or lack) of prominent church members. To prepare his column, Wheaton visited up to three local churches on any given Sunday.
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When
Wheaton died in 1882 at the age of 72, the bank and businesses of Northfield closed for the funeral as a sign of respect. A tribute of the time read, "In Northfield his editorial pen was ever at the disposal of any good cause, and he was a leader in all progressive causes."
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style at 405 Washington Street, where they moved in 1868. The house was divided and moved in 1938. Both portions of the original house still stand in
Northfield. The main house is about five blocks south of its original location and the "L" portion is on 9th Street West.
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Newspapers across the state denounced the overtaking of the jail and freeing the prisoner. Some 677 Syracuse-area residents signed a petition of protest against the action. After four days of hiding Henry, abolitionists disguised him in women's clothing and took him to
350:. Ellen noted their departure in her diary, " thinks very highly of the climate and resources in Minnesota, and says it is rapidly filling up with an Eastern population." The Norths were to play an important role in Wheaton's life after Ellen's early death in 1858.
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On
October 15, Wheaton spoke to a meeting at the Congregational Church to make "common cause, in view of various arrests rumored to have been made, or to be made under the Fugitive Slave act, and on charges of Treason." The meeting was led by men of both races:
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to escape from her masters, a family from
Mississippi who were staying at a local hotel. Officials suspected Charles Wheaton of being involved. Local law enforcement officers searched the Wheaton's home for Powell without success. She made it to Canada.
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in 1860, Wheaton married the widow Martha
Elizabeth (Archibald) Wagener in 1861. She had also moved from central New York, migrating with her parents after losing her husband and their three sons to illness. The senior Archibalds owned flour mills in
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Charles and Mary
Wheaton had five children: Frederick (1862–1881), Robert (1863–1898), Allan (1866–1934), Edith (1868–1950) and Annabel (1870–1946). They also reared together some of the younger of Wheaton's 12 children from his first marriage.
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with their family in 1810. They had followed three of the elder
Wheaton's sisters: Lydia, Sylvia and Loraine, who had already moved to Pompey with their families, part of a westward migration of many in the state in the years after the
564:, which they had founded. The following year, Wheaton moved there with many of his 12 children, joining other Syracuse families who had migrated to join the North family. When John North had earlier suffered financial failure in the
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After his second marriage in 1861, Wheaton and his large family first took over the second floor of the American House Hotel, built by John North in 1857. (The hotel became the first building of Northfield College, later renamed
273:. She is reported to have owned the first piano in Pompey. She is best known for a notable diary she kept from 1850 to 1858, detailing her life as a wife and mother of a large family. The Wheaton family privately published
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indicted Wheaton and twelve other men—nine European Americans and four African Americans— for the action at the jail and Henry's escape, but Wheaton was never arrested or tried. The event became known as the
568:, Wheaton purchased his interests in the local flour mill and other properties—an act that may have economically saved the town. For some time, Wheaton's Northfield Mills produced "choice family flour."
588:. Ames and the Archibalds perfected flour milling processes that produced what was recognized as the best flour in the nation with higher yields at the mills. The Ames Mill was the basis of the
458:; John Wilkinson, R.R. Raymond, and John Thomas. They intended to resist the Fugitive Slave Law and sent copies of their resolution to the newspaper, political representatives, and Congress.
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campus. There he served with the Minnesota legislature. The father of a total of 17 children, he had an active family life. He later became the editor of two local newspapers.
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of Onondaga County for 14 years, and held numerous other political offices. The original Birdseye House is now part of the Onondaga County Freedom Trail. A descendant founded
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Wheaton sold his share of the hardware business in 1853. He also sold the Wheaton Block for $ 112,000, the largest sale to that date in Syracuse. He invested heavily in a
410:, helping escaped slaves travel to Canada. His public reputation as an abolitionist was such that the family seamstress, a Mrs. MacManus, was said to have reported to a
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When his hardware store burned in 1851, Wheaton built C.A. Wheaton & Co.—housed in the city's grandest mercantile block, a four-story building overlooking the
251:. The father was one of Onondaga County's leading politicians. Birdseye practiced law and served two terms in Congress. He was postmaster of Pompey Hill for 22 years,
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of thirteen men. They included Wheaton, Lyman Clary, Vivus W. Smith, Charles B. Sedgwick, Hiram Putnam, E.W. Leavenworth, Abner Bates, George Barnes, P.H. Agan,
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As a young man, Charles clerked in the general store owned by his brother-in-law Moses Seymour Marsh. Retail businesses were a growing part of the economy.
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and Clinton Square. In 1852, the Wheatons were at the peak of their wealth. They moved to Fayette Park, one of the city's most fashionable neighborhoods.
188:, the son of Augustus Wheaton, a farmer and drover, and his wife. He had two brothers. The parents purchased a 410 acres (1.7 km) farm in the town of
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each gave a 10-acre (40,000 m) plot of land to the fledgling Northfield College to establish the college campus just north of the main part of town.
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Charles and Ellen Wheaton had twelve children together, including Cornelia (b. 1835), Lucia, Henry Birdseye, and Charles A. Wheaton (b. 1853).
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Wheaton suffered after the death of his wife Ellen in 1858. His friends the Norths wrote from Minnesota in 1859, urging him to join them in
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Wheaton was one of 600 people in Syracuse who signed a call for a meeting at the Syracuse City Hall on May 16, 1850, to discuss the proposed
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Ellen Douglas Birdseye (March 13, 1816 – December 17, 1858); Martha Elizabeth (Archibald) Wagener (August 19, 1826 - March 29, 1912)
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Ellen died suddenly at age 42 on December 17, 1858, the day after the wedding of their eldest daughter Cornelia. Her funeral was a
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in Syracuse. He and other pro-abolition supporters left the First Presbyterian Church, which would not take a position against
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Church in Syracuse, where they were both members for a time. They had been neighbors in Pompey. He was 25 and she was 18.
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on the Free Democratic ticket. He was defeated each time. He also ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Syracuse on the
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to larger homes as family and fortune grew. None of the Wheaton homes in Syracuse are believed to exist.
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Charles Wheaton's eldest brother Orlin J. became a farmer and drover like their father. Their brother
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personally. Their anti-slavery activities began as early as 1838, when Wheaton helped found the First
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The Jerry rescue : the Fugitive Slave Law, Northern rights, and the American sectional crisis
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When the federal government investigated the case, it traced the file used to cut Henry's
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are as secret as possible—and everything wears the appearance of injustice and
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141:(1809–1882) was a businessman and major figure in the central New York state
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In 1864 Wheaton sold the flour mill to Captain Jesse Ames and his sons, John and
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The Wheatons were part of a large network of abolitionists in Syracuse and knew
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Between 1839 and 1847, the Wheatons operated their house as a station on
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Petition to the House of Representatives, HR31A-G23.1, National Archives
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newspaper in March 2002. Birdseye Wheaton died in 1858 at age 42 from
205:. Charles attended the Pompey Academy, a well-regarded boys' school.
661:, reprinted in Dalby Database, Owatonna Library, accessed 11 Jun 2010
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On October 1, 1851, Wheaton was part of a biracial group who rescued
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service and she was buried in Hilltop Cemetery in Pompey, New York.
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In a notable case in 1839, Syracuse abolitionists helped the slave
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in 1923. Selections from the diary were reprinted in the Syracuse
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foundry. He also invested in a project to build a railroad from
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taker that Wheaton was "president of the Underground Railroad."
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In 1849, the Wheatons' close friends and fellow abolitionists,
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After the death of Ellen in 1858 and moving to join friends in
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Ellen was well educated, having attended a girls seminary in
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views and activism, particularly relating to abolition and
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chaired by A.H. Hovey, mayor of Syracuse, appointed a
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Charles Augustus Wheaton was born on 1 July 1809 in
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470:, African American. The group was committed to
438:had enough votes in the US Congress to pass the
212:served as a Representative from New York in the
153:causes. He was one of the founders of the First
684:, Alexander Street Press, accessed 10 Jun 2010
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772:) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
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792:"The Ames Mill | NorthfieldHistorical"
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655:"Charles Augustus Wheaton Biography"
576:.) The family built a new house of
606:Wheaton later became editor of the
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275:The Diary of Ellen Birdseye Wheaton
196:in 1807. They migrated there from
843:Minnesota House of Representatives
34:Minnesota House of Representatives
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734:Murphy, Angela F., 1967- (2016).
693:Marriage record, death record at
671:"Ellen Douglas Birdseye Wheaton"
236:on June 24, 1834, at the First
509:. There he boarded a ship to
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877:New York (state) Free Soilers
91:Republican Party of Minnesota
659:History of Rice County, 1882
88:Democratic Party of New York
897:Underground Railroad people
597:Minnesota State Legislature
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816:"Charles Augustus Wheaton"
203:American Revolutionary War
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46:1867 – 1868 (?)
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491:U.S. District Attorney
257:Birds Eye Frozen Foods
234:Ellen Douglas Birdseye
23:Charles August Wheaton
556:Minnesota (1860-1882)
479:William "Jerry" Henry
397:Congregational Church
312:Northfield, Minnesota
216:and later became the
170:Northfield, Minnesota
155:Congregational Church
117:Northfield, Minnesota
78:Northfield, Minnesota
408:Underground Railroad
305:Angelina Weld Grimké
168:In 1860 he moved to
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682:In the First Person
612:Rice County Journal
608:Northfield Standard
601:Charles M. Goodsell
448:Vigilance Committee
374:economic depression
228:Marriage and family
149:, as well as other
16:American politician
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676:2007-09-27 at the
530:Canal Commissioner
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440:Fugitive Slave Act
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851:Succeeded by
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722:Syracuse Standard
511:Kingston, Ontario
472:nonviolent action
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452:J.W. Loguen
289:Progressive
214:US Congress
151:progressive
866:Categories
854:Jesse Ames
802:2016-08-08
740:. Oxford.
627:References
562:Northfield
550:Temperance
518:grand jury
516:A federal
431:New Mexico
393:John Brown
355:Erie Canal
297:New Jersey
123:Occupation
764:cite book
756:890080195
592:company.
538:Free Soil
370:Tennessee
348:Minnesota
113:Residence
97:Spouse(s)
42:In office
698:Archived
674:Archived
586:Adelbert
267:Cortland
222:Syracuse
159:Syracuse
105:Children
616:Midwest
536:on the
495:knavery
486:fetters
401:slavery
299:run by
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503:Oswego
412:census
327:Career
317:Dundas
271:Albany
210:Horace
190:Pompey
848:1867
657:, in
778:link
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770:link
752:OCLC
742:ISBN
546:1854
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534:1848
435:Utah
433:and
342:and
340:John
303:and
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