Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-01-30
CALVIN FAIRBANKS.
History Of a Fugitive who lnclted Slaves
to Run on.
B~reckinridss News.l

slaves TO run on, and exciting them to
armed instruction. During the war
he was released from imprisonment.
His original sentence, we think, was
thirty years, with two other indict-
ments to be acted upon at the expira
tion of his term. The trial occurred.
at Versailles, Woodford county. He.
came TO Uynthiana, Woodford county,
in 1913 or 1874, from the East. He
was a mar apparently t~hirty-two or
thirty-three years of age, tall, full
bearded and slightly stopped. He had
the appearance Of one in delicate
health. He was a clergyman Of the
Presbyterian faith. He was accom-
panied by his wife, a most estimable
lady, quiet and unassuming in man
ners, and her sister, Miss Della Web
ster, who was also convicted at the
same time with Fairbanks, and for the
same crime. Her shameful ~liasion
with the keeper Of the p%enitentiary,
and her luck in securing from him a
valuable tract of land on the Ohio
river, in Gallatin county, on which she
resides and off which she has accumu-
lated a handsome competency, have
long ago been duly recorded in the
ChroniQue Scandaleuse of those times.
Fairbanks, his wife, and Miss Web
ster organized a school at Cynthi-
ana, and the writer of this was
one Of their scholars. Fairbanks
himself was a man who readily
mastered a child's heart. He was
winning of speech, gentle as a woman
in his ways, and possessed a fund Of
patience we have never seen equaled
in any other human being. His wife
was fairly idolized by the scholars.
Miss Webster appeared to be the only
one OF the three possessed Of mascu-
Unity in nature and disposition. She
possessed one accomplishment to per-
lection. She was master of the pencil,
and could draw exquisitely. They
left Cynthiana, sOjourned a while in
Bourbon, from whence Mrs. Fairbanks
returned East, and finally brought up
in Woodford, where Fairbanks and
Miss Webster took charge of a school.
In the summer of 1845 = we think it
was-a rumor originating among the
blacks, gained currency hat the ne
grOes were being armed, and on a GER
tain day would all march off in a body
for the Ohio river, their objective
point being Canada. Nobody at first
paid any attention to it, but in a few
days confirmation of its truth came
down from Woodford and Fayette
from sources entitled to credit, and
there was at once a blaze of excitement
all along the line of their contemplated
march. There was arming in hot
haste by the citizens, and a determine
ton to Illustrate the exodus at all risks.
Sure enough a gang of forty-eight or
fifty negro men under the lead of
Fairbanks, all well armed, did take
up their line of march for freedom.
One moonlight night they passed
C~ynthiana, marching to the east of
the town some mile and a half. Next
morning pursuers started out after
and overlook them some ten or twelve
miles away, among the Beaver hills,
and close by Main Licking river, in
the northern edge of Harrison. Here
a pitched battle ensued in the vicinity
of the village of Claysville, resulting
in the rOut and capture of the greater
portion of the blacks-the few escap-
ing being apprehended in Bracken
county within the next few days-with
the loss Of one white man killed and
several wounded, and a casualty of
three killed and eight or ten wounded
on the part of the blacks. Among
the captives was Fairbanks. He was
brought to Cynthiana and lodged in
jail, a guard of determined men keep
ing a large and excited mob at bay
until the arrival of Captain o. p.
Beard and his company of infantry
from Lexington, who immediately
surrounded the Jail, the authorities
giving orders to use bullets and bayo-
nets if the mob attempted to force the
guard. That night crowds of armed
men kept coming into the town from
every direction, and it became evident
that if the prisoner remained in town
until morning the military would prove
inadequate to protect him from the
popular fury. About midnight, AID
Thompson, the high sheriff of the
county, had a carriage secretly con.
yeyed across the river to a point oppo-
site the Jail, at what was then called
the Middle ford. He then, in con
junction with Sam January, stole Fair
banks out by a back way, waded the
river at the ford, entered the carriage.
and by daylight had their prisoner
safely under lock and key in the Lex
ington Jail. The fury of the mob.
when the fight of the officer and pris-
oner became known, is simply indies
eribable. Had not Captain Beard
been a cool, wise and patient man, the
streets of Cynthiana would have run
red with blood. One blow Of the fist,
stricken by a man on either side.
would have precipitated a frightful
carnage. But along toward noon the
copnsels of the civil disposed and law
abiding began to have good effect
upon the mob, which began to crumble
away and leave for their homes the
Lexington soldiers took up their re-
turn march, and thus ended one of the
most exciting periods we ever had the
the fortune to witness. From LEX
ingtOn, Fairbanks was taken to Yer
sailles-the negroes having rendez-
vOused in Woodford county. and
started from there, although they had
focked from Jessamine, Anderson.
Madison and Scott, picking up a few in
Fayette and Bourbon as they marched
, north-where he and Miss Webster
were tried and sent to the peniten.