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Living History Open House

Saturday, September 22, 2001

On Saturday, September 22, the Oberlin Heritage Center hosted its fourth annual Living History Open House. Costumed interpreters told the story of the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue, one of the most famous events in Oberlin's activist history. In September of 1858, slave catchers from Kentucky captured a fugitive slave named John Price who was living in Oberlin. When the townspeople found out, they were outraged and rushed to Wadsorth's Inn in nearby Wellington where the slave was being held. They rescued John Price, but many prominent abolitionists were imprisoned for their involvement. Their landmark case has gone down in history as one of the major events leading to the Civil War.

Sam Lyle Medwid portrays Mrs. James Fairchild, in whose house the rescued slave hid before he was taken to safety in Canada.

Matthew Gillet, respected patriarch from Wellington and one of the arrested rescuers, is played by Barney Hartman.

Mrs. James Fairchild tells her story with the help of Simeon Bushnell, played by Marty Buck, who drove the escape wagon back to Oberlin.	Anne Koenning as Catherine Fairchild.

Clara and Glenna Medwid as Alice and Grace Fairchild.

Theron Burnett and Jean Harris keep an eye on the refreshments, while visitors play with historic toys from the Little Red Schoolhouse

Visitors listen attentively while Charles Langston, played by George Abram, repeats the speech that convinced the biased judge to reduce his sentence. He is accompanied by Morgan Franck as Mrs. John Smith, the wife of the abolitionist jailor who let the convicted rescuers stay in her home.

Betty Verlie and Ruth Schwaegerle helped to direct traffic and answer questions about the Jewett House and Monroe House.

Prue Richards portrays Mrs. James Fitch, whose husband was arrested even though he didn't go to Wellington to assist in the rescue. She is accompanied by Thelma Quinn Smith, who plays her own great-grandmother, Winifred Carter Quinn.

Every story has its bad guys. Scott Medwid plays Chauncey Wack, an infamous Oberlin character who ran a saloon in a temperance town and helped the slave-catchers find John Price. Anderson Jennings, one of the slave-catchers from Kentucky, is played by John Hieronymous.