Near this location stood the farms of cousins John Alston and John Hunn, Quakers who were well documented operatives on Delaware's Underground Railroad. Alston sometimes employed fugitives as laborers on his farm and in 1850 sheltered a young woman named Molly, who was later captured there by bounty hunters. In his diaries, Alston wrote, "Enable me to keep my heart and house open to receive thy servants that they may rest in their travels." The most notable act of civil disobedience at Hunn's farm came in December 1845, when Samuel D. Burris, a free African American man from Kent County, Delaware, led twelve fugitives escaping from Queen Anne's County, Maryland, to Hunn's farm. Pursued by bounty hunters on their way north to freedom, the group included Samuel and Emeline Hawkins and their six children. For abetting their escape, which was illegal under the laws of the time, Hunn was sued by the owners and severely fined, and the expense caused him to lose his farm and other assets. He continued his Underground Railroad activities in Delaware until the outbreak of the Civil War, then after the Union Navy captured the South Carolina Sea Island in 1862, he relocated there and continued aiding the newly freed. In 1872 Hunn wrote, "I ask no other reward for any efforts made by me in the cause than to feel I have been of service to my fellow-men."