Ottawa historical marker commemorated to tell Jim Gray’s, local abolitionists’ story

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Robert L. Carter of Ottawa wanted those in attendance Monday for the dedication of a state historical marker commemorating the 1859 escape of a runaway slave to understand the sacrifices several local abolitionists made.

And for their story not to be forgotten.

Despite storms during the commemoration Monday, the historical marker was unveiled after the rain subsided on the downtown La Salle County courthouse’s northern lawn.

Carter spoke to more than 50 people in attendance, gathered indoors at the nearby Aussem Tours, 624 Court St., because of the afternoon storm.

He talked about the Dred Scott Case and how it made Black Americans not considered citizens federally, despite state laws that allowed citizenship. He spoke about how it further created a cottage industry of slave hunters, and set the stage for the Jim Gray case in Ottawa.

In 1859, Jim Gray, a slave who escaped from Missouri, was apprehended in Illinois by slave hunters. He arrived in in Ottawa by train round in chains with a rope around his neck for a hearing before Justice John Dean Caton of the Illinois Supreme Court.

Caton ruled Gray free of state charges, but also ruled Gray’s captors would have to take him before the United States Commissioner at Springfield for a hearin under the Federal Fugitive Slave Law.

With the likely outcome being Gray’s return to slavery in Missouri, the crowd’s abolitionists freed Gray and provided a carriage where he was quickly driven out of town to safety enroute to Canada. Ottawa businessman John Hossack and others involved in the escape were taken to Chicago for trial where they were given fines and jail time, but also treated as celebrities.

“It’s a tribute to the willingness of those to sacrifice so much in the North,” Carter said.

Carter was joined by other speakers Ottawa historian Charles Stanley, Ottawa Historic Preservation Commission member and Ottawa Historical and Scouting Heritage Museum Director Mollie Perrot and former Mayor Bob Eschbach. The presentation was emceed by James Keely of the La Salle County Bar Association.

“I’m impressed to see so many people interested in Ottawa history,” Perrot said to a crowd that filled the room at Aussem Tours, while about a dozen others listened from outside, shielded by umbrellas in the rain storm.

Perrot said Jim Gray’s story, along with others commemorated on historical plaques across the city, make up the city’s culture and heritage.

Eschbach focused on Hossack’s story, pointing out the Hossack House, 210 Prospect Ave., is visible from downtown, on top of a hill on the southern side of the Illinois River. Eschbach said Hossack was born in Scotland and immigrated to Canada, moving to Illinois to become a contractor on the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which runs through Ottawa. Hossack participated in the Underground Railroad, at one time housing 13 fugitive slaves.

Eschbach shared Hossack’s speech after he was convicted of violating the Fugitive Slave Law.

“A single remark, and I have done. From the testimony, and from your rendering and interpretation of the law, the jury have found me guilty; yes, guilty of carrying out the great principles of the Declaration of Independence; yes, guilty of carrying out the still greater principles of the Son of God. Great God! can these things be? Can it be possible? What country is this? Can it be that I live in a land boasting of freedom, of morality, of Christianity? How long, how long shall the people bow down and worship this great image set up in this nation? Yes, the jury say guilty, but recommend me to the mercy of the court. Mercy, sir, is kindness to the guilty. I am guilty of no crime, I therefore ask for no mercy. No, sir, I ask for no mercy; I ask for justice. Mercy is what I ask of my God. Justice in the courts of my adopted country is all I ask. It is the inhuman and infamous law that is wrong, not me.”

The cast aluminum marker is sponsored by the Ottawa Historic Preservation Commission, the La Salle County Bar Association, the William G. Pomeroy Foundation and the Illinois State Historical Society. Stanley thanked these organizations for their help in bringing the historical marker to fruition.

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