Starr Clark, praised by Reverend M.D. Kinney for believing in impartial justice for all men without regard to condition or color, arrived in Mexico in 1832 and quickly became active in the abolitionist community. He wrote the first antislavery petition Oswego County sent to Congress, was a founder of the Oswego County Anti-Slavery Society, and made his tin shop a meeting place for local abolitionists. According to Clark family oral tradition, the house and the shop next door sheltered people escaping slavery, and the shop became a busy Underground Railroad hub. Clark housed slaves seeking freedom in his home or in the homes of other families, and arranged transportation for the next stage of their journey to Canada. In 1851, William "Jerry" Henry, a freedom seeker from Missouri who had lived in Syracuse, sought refuge there in Mexico while fleeing arrest under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. In an 1839 letter, Gerrit Smith reported that two fugitive slaves, Williams and Scott, had arrived safely in Canada and praised Starr Clark and his family for their extraordinary kindness to them. The tin shop also served as the Mexico post office and held the area's only subscription to the Albany Daily Evening Journal, drawing residents there to hear and discuss the news.