In 1835, Dr. James Pettit moved to Fredonia and purchased about 25 acres in the area of today's Temple and Matteson Streets, where his home stood in an area then known as Cordova. A surgeon in the army during the War of 1812, he later came to the Fredonia area and built a successful patent medicine business, selling "Pettit's Eye Salve" and other remedies throughout the area and beyond. Deeply devoted, with his family, to ending slavery in the United States, he joined with neighbors after arriving in Fredonia to take part in the Underground Railroad, helping enslaved people escape to freedom. Dr. Pettit and his wife Lucy assisted many slaves traveling to Canada during their years in Fredonia, and his son Eber Pettit also became an important part of the local Underground Railroad community. Years later, Eber Pettit published the well-known book "Sketches of the Underground Railroad," highlighting the activities of the Pettit family and other conductors on the Underground Railroad.