On December 28, 1836, two freedom seekers, Harry Bird and George, were rescued in Utica by Black men described by Jermain Loguen as “the brave colored men of Utica” and by their White abolitionist partners. After escaping enslavement from Mary Geyer's plantation in Woodstock, Virginia, they had reached Utica by way of the Underground Railroad, but two agents pursuing them with the help of local constables brought them to be tried before Judge Chester Hayden. Because local law enforcement was required to cooperate in capturing freedom seekers and agents could seek a certificate from a local judge to return captives to the South, Harry Bird and George were taken to Hayden's law office on Genesee Street. Nearby merchant Spencer Kellogg saw them there and summoned abolitionist lawyer Alvan Stewart, who demanded to represent them and argued that they were free men of color who should be released. Hayden postponed a decision and detained them in an upstairs back room with the slave-catchers, but while he was away a crowd of Black and White men broke into the building, overpowered the jailers, and freed the two men. Harry and George were then guided to Mexico, New York, where Starr and Harriet Clark helped send them on to Oswego before they eventually departed for freedom in Canada. Reverend George Stores later met them in Mexico and learned their story firsthand. The rescue strengthened Oneida County's reputation as a major center of the abolitionist movement and showed the essential cooperation of Black and White people in the Underground Railroad.