John Gregg Fee received a degree from Augusta College and went to Lane Theological Seminary. A spiritual experience began his career as a nationally known and determined abolitionist. He was a founder of Berea College and wanted low-cost education for all persons of good moral character, regardless of race, and he wrote several pamphlets advocating racial reform. Arnold Gragston, born circa 1840, lived on the Jack Tabb farm and helped many slaves escape to freedom by rowing them from Dover in Mason County across the Ohio River under cover of dark nights. On one return trip he was almost caught but escaped to the woods. After more than four years of helping others, he crossed the river and became a free man. He died in 1938.