24 Facts About Erastus Hussey

Erastus Hussey was a leading abolitionist, a stationmaster on the Underground Railroad, and one of the founders of the Republican Party.

Erastus Hussey supported himself and his family as a farmer, teacher, businessman, legislator, and editor.

Erastus Hussey was born in Scipio, Cayuga County, New York on December 5,1800.

Erastus Hussey grew up on a farm located on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake.

Erastus Hussey augmented his school education from books in an extensive library and became a schoolteacher.

Erastus Hussey saved his earnings to travel west, he first walked to Buffalo, New York, then took a boat to Detroit.

Erastus Hussey arrived on September 25,1824, and the following month, he was the first purchaser of land in Plymouth, Michigan.

On February 21,1827, Hussey married Sarah E Bowen, whose parents were Lucretia and Benjamin Bowen.

Erastus Hussey settled in Plymouth with a 160-acre farm, where he was a wheat farmer from 1827 to 1836.

Erastus Hussey advocated for free education, paid for by a general tax.

Erastus Hussey was a director of the school system for three years and was a trustee.

Erastus Hussey was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives, serving the Fifteenth Legislature in 1850.

On July 6,1854, Erastus Hussey attended the "Under the Oaks" convention in Jackson, Michigan, where the Republican Party had one of its earliest meetings.

Erastus Hussey sat on Finance, Federal Relations, and State Prison committees.

Erastus Hussey helped introduce Michigan's Personal Freedom Act of 1855.

Erastus Hussey was one of the first aldermen of the city.

Erastus Hussey was a delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention, where Abraham Lincoln was nominated as a presidential candidate.

Erastus Hussey learned about the Underground Railroad when a man from Indiana, John Cross, asked if Erastus Hussey would operate a station in Battle Creek.

Soon the Erastus Hussey home had become one of the main stations on the Underground Railroad.

Erastus Hussey spoke of some of the people who passed through his and his wife's house:.

Erastus Hussey had been a slave of Wade Hampton and some called him by that name.

Erastus Hussey once heard that there was a group of slaveowners who were traveling through Michigan.

Erastus Hussey printed a warning on newspaper broadsides that they should not enter Battle Creek.

Erastus Hussey traveled west within the state to Niles, where he met up with the slaveowners and delivered the handbills to them.