In 1838 in Marion County, a black man known as Bill Anderson or Bill Mitchell fled bondage in a Virginia salt works and settled near Marion, but after he was recognized there, a dispatch to Virginia led the alleged slaveholder to demand his incarceration by local authorities. Forty days after his capture, six strangers arrived in Marion claiming ownership and carrying bowie knives, pistols, and clubs. During the trial, one of the men, identified as Smith, produced notes of sale showing that three of them had purchased Bill at different times, with John Smith as the most recent buyer. After a lengthy preamble, local Underground Railroad stationmaster Judge Ozies Bowen ruled for the prisoner, saying that Mr. Smith and John Smith might be two different persons. The Virginians refused to accept the verdict, drew weapons, and fought to seize Bill in a violent struggle in which clubs and pistols pummeled bodies and several Quakers fought back. A local black man helped Bill escape, and Quakers escorted the two to the Rueben Benedict home near Marngo in Morrow County. After a long and anxious night, Bill continued north to Oberlin and then to freedom in Canada.