This was the site of the Riley family homeplace, where the owners of Josiah Henson lived; Henson was one of the people on whom Harriet Beecher Stowe based a character in her 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Henson served as overseer of Amos Riley's farms from 1825 to 1829. After learning that his owner planned to sell him "down the river," he escaped to Canada and lived there for the rest of his life. In 1849, he was invited to visit Mrs. Stowe in Andover, Massachusetts.
