The Eliza House

Three hundred yards east on Oak Road, overlooking the Miami & Erie Canal, stood the house of abolitionist John Van Zandt (1791-1847), long known as one of the most active stations on the Underground Railroad. In 1842, two bounty hunters from Sharonville caught Van Zandt helping eight runaway slaves who had escaped from Kentucky owner Wharton Jones. Defended in court by Salmon P. Chase, later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1864-1873, Van Zandt was convicted and fined. Chase appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he tested the constitutionality of the 1793 Fugitive Slave Law. While writing Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe used Van Zandt as the model for the abolitionist character John Van Trompe, and his house became associated with the novel and came to be known as the Eliza House after one of its main characters.

Glendale, Ohio · United States