Henderson Lewelling House
The Lewelling's continued to own the house after they left Salem, and Nelson Gibbs, the local Justice of the Peace, used it for his office. In 1848 he held a hearing in the house concerning the slaves of Ruel Daggs from Clark County, Missouri who had escaped to Salem. Because of the size of the crowd, the hearing was moved to the Anti-Slavery Quaker Meetinghouse (no longer extant) across the street. Gibbs determined he had no jurisdiction in the case. It led to the federal court case Ruel Daggs vs. Elihu Frazier et al (1850), which was heard in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa in Burlington. The case, which Daggs won, was one of the last major cases using the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, and the only one held west of the Mississippi River.
The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It is noteworthy for its association with both Lewelling's nursery and the Daggs' case. It has been converted into a museum.
See also
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ Cardwell, James Robert (1906). Wikisource. . Oregon Historical Quarterly. Vol. 7, no. 1 – via
- ^ Rebecca Lawin McCarley. "Lewelling, Henderson and Elizabeth (Presnel), House". National Park Service. Retrieved 2017-04-06. with photo(s)