James Stanton ~ Quaker Minister to African Americans and Native Americans

James Stanton (1779-1852) of Springboro, Ohio was an abolitionist and member of The Society of Friends (Orthodox). Born of Quaker parents in Dinwiddie Co., Virginia, Stanton achieved considerable success in assisting the plight of that state’s black population. In 1826 Stanton and his family moved to Warren County, Ohio and purchased a 114-acre farm in Clear Creek Township. The farm, known as Greenhill Farm, was a station on the Underground Railroad. The house is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. “James was a ‘lay preacher’ in the Society of Friends and made many trips among the Indians of the Miami Valley and as far away as the Oklahoma Territory. He married Ann Jones and they had a daughter Catherine Ann who was six years old when she and her family came here from Virginia in 1826” (Springboro Sesquicentennial, 1815-1965, A Souvenir Booklet Telling The Story In Word And Picture And Dedicated To Those Who Have Lived And Labored In The Community During The Past One Hundred Fifty Years, p. 19).

James Stanton, as well as being a conductor on the Underground Railroad in Ohio, was also on the Indian Concerns Committee of Indiana Yearly Meeting (Orthodox). He and his neice, Ann Stanton assisted Elizabeth Harvey and her family after her husband, Dr. Jesse Harvey of Harveysburg, Ohio who was the superintendent of the facility, died in 1849 at the Quaker Shawnee Mission in Kansas Territory (now Johnson Co., Kansas), see Ohio Yearly Meeting Minutes, 1849, p 18.