Calvin Fairbank

Birth Date

1816-11-03

Death Date

1898-10-12

Gender

Race Description

White

Entity Type

Person

United States abolitionist. Pike, New York, native. Married to Mandana Tileston. Began abolitionist activities while working on the Ohio River in 1837 in conjunction with Levi Coffman. Ordained by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1842. Attended Oberlin College in 1844. Began planning with Delia Webster to help enslaved people escape from the Lexington, Kentucky, area in 1844. Successfully transported the family of Lewis Hayden and Harriet Hayden from Lexington to Ripley, Ohio, in 1844 with Webster. Arrested with Webster upon their return to Kentucky. Sentenced to fifteen years in the Kentucky State Penitentiary. Pardoned after serving five years in 1849. Helped another enslaved person escape from Kentucky into Indiana, but was arrested in Indiana by Kentucky officials in 1851. Sentenced to fifteen years in the Kentucky State Penitentiary in 1852. Pardoned by acting and lieutenant governor Richard T. Jacob in 1864.

Calvin Fairbank, Rev. Calvin Fairbank During Slavery Times: How he “Fought the Good Fight” to Prepare “The Way” (Chicago: R. R. McCabe & Co., 1890).
Randolph Paul Runyon, Delia Webster and the Underground Railroad (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1998).
KYR-0001-029-0593.

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