Buddell Sleeper (1806-1888) and his wife, Elizabeth Welch (1802-1889), arrived in Tippecanoe County in the fall of 1835 and became prominent members of the Farmers Institute Quaker Community and the Greenfield Monthly Meeting of Friends. Following the Quaker belief that God’s law stood above man’s law, they took a strong stand against slavery, war, and all forms of oppression. Buddell Sleeper became best remembered as a stationmaster on the Underground Railroad, offering a safe house for fugitive slaves traveling the Freedom Trail to Canada. The Sleeper family and their nephew Isaiah provided food, shelter, and protection while risking serious consequences. During the day, runaways hid below the dining room floor through a trap door, and at night Sleeper concealed them beneath sacks of wheat in a horse-drawn wagon with a false bottom and carried them to the next station, the Hawkins family home in Otterbein.
