From 1838 to the end of the Civil War, the John King Farm served as an Underground Railroad station operated by a network of extended families. The Kings, staunch Presbyterians, received fugitive slaves brought from Henry County to the farm in Fulton County along the ridges through the Great Black Swamp, on an overland route from Ohio to Michigan and then by the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair into Canada. In 1848, John’s brother, Reverend William King, brought fifteen enslaved people whom he had freed to live on the King homestead, where they learned northern agricultural methods, received wages for the first time, and prepared for a life of freedom. The family risked severe penalties by teaching them to read and write alongside the King children. This group became the nucleus of the Buxton Mission founded by Reverend King in Canada, which became a destination for freedom seekers beginning new lives in a free country. The family burial ground, established in 1838-1839, includes a memorial stone honoring William, who is buried in Canada; some headstones were removed when the road was widened, some graves are unmarked, and some inscriptions are unreadable. Families known to be interred in the cemetery are King, Bruce, Hampton, Harrison, Martin, and Shoemaker.