In 1837, an enslaved family of three escaped from Missouri and in 1839 settled six miles north of here with the name Rhodes. In 1844, Singleton Vaughn arrived at their home to claim them, and the family resisted until neighbors arrived. Vaughn agreed to take the family to Noblesville for trial, but en route a crowd stopped him and demanded that the family be taken to Westfield. Urged on by the crowd, the driver of the wagon carrying the family sped to Westfield, and the family escaped before the wagon reached town. Vaughn then sued some in the crowd for interfering with his right to reclaim slaves. In Vaughn v. Williams in 1845, a jury found the defendants not guilty, deciding that the Rhodes family had been freed when a previous owner moved them to Illinois, a free state.