Abolitionist. John Van Sandt was born in Fleming County, Kentucky about twenty miles south of the Ohio River. He was the son of Elisha and Margaret Crawford Van Zandt. His father was a Revolutionary War Veteran. While living in Kentucky he was a former slave owner. Supporting his views against the institution of slavery, he took his slaves into Ohio and granted them their freedom. Van Sandt decided to stay in Ohio and purchased a farm overlooking the Miami & Erie Canal near Glendale in Hamilton County. The estate was named Mount Pierpont after an abolitionist from Massachusetts. He soon became one of the first trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Cincinnati. He also became an abolitionist himself, and earned notoriety in the annals of American history as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. He is known to have harbored runaway fugitive slaves, actions that resulted in his banishment from the Church. The church board voted 17 to 7 in favor of expulsion for breaking the nation's law, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. Hamilton County is on the border with the slave state of Kentucky and many of the white citizens of the area did not support the abolitionists. Van Sandt continued to operate as a conductor even though he suffered repercussion from his neighbors because of his involvement. One of the slaves that received his help was Eliza Harris, whose escape from her master was documented in "Uncle Tom's Cabin", a novel that was the best-seller of the era and a fueling ingredient to the abolitionists' movement, authored by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Stowe, also a resident of Cincinnati, used Van Sandt as the model for another character in the story, that of John Van Trompe. The house at Mount Pierpont became known as the "Eliza House". Underground tunnels were later found near the house that led to the nearby canal. He was caught by local authorities south of Lebanon, Ohio while attempting to aid eight runaway slaves just before dawn on the morning of April 23, 1842. All of the fugitives were captured except for one. He was tried and convicted, sentenced to imprisonment, fined $500 and ordered to pay an additional $1200 in damages to the owner of the "property". Van Sandt's lawyers, Salmon P. Chase and Thomas Morris, appealed the court's decision and the case erupted into a legal battle that went on for over five years eventually landing in the Supreme Court. The argument for the defense was that the federal act required proof to the accused that the blacks that he assisted escaped from a slave state. The legal team was joined by William H. Seward before facing the nation's highest court. Chase was a powerful and successful Cincinnati attorney who had defended several runaway slaves and he and Seward went on to became famous political figures. The case continued into 1847 and was not yet at its close when Van Sandt died on May 25th. When the trial was finally concluded, the court ruled against him 9 to 0. The slaves were returned to Kentucky to their owner, Wharton Jones, and the farm at Mount Pierpont was sold to pay for his debts. He was first married in 1814 to Nancy Northcott of Fleming County, Kentucky and they had seven children. After her death in 1837, he married his second wife, Nancy "Mercy" Bowen in Hamilton County and had four more children. The family was scattered amongst various states when their home was sold. Their name of Van Sandt is now commonly spelled as Van Zandt. John was initially buried in the Old Salem Churchyard near his home alongside his first wife. They were removed to Wesleyan Cemetery in Cumminsville, a Cincinnati neighborhood referred to as Northside, and re-interred on January 30, 1888. A large rectangular and upright stone tablet was placed on the centennial of his birth in 1891. The gravestone is plain, but quite descriptive and it is engraved with a lengthy statement that reads: "In him Christianity had a living witness. He saw God as his Father and received every man as a brother. The cause of the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the oppressed was his cause. He fed, clothed, sheltered, and guarded them. He was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. (second paragraph) The foregoing is from the slab erected by his associates of 50 years ago in the efforts and perils of aiding fugitive slaves to freedom. The record of all those brave men is on high". In 2005, a historical marker was erected near his home by the Ohio Historical Society stating that it was one of the most active stations on the Underground Railroad. Joyce Coleman, a historian from Cincinnati, fought for five years so that John Van Sandt could be recognized, leading to the placement of the marker and his posthumous reinstatement to the church. No existing photograph or portrait of John Van Sandt is known to exist.