Felicity
Underground Railroad and Abolitionist Sites

(13) Felicity Wesleyan Church

The Felicity Wesleyan Church was formed in 1847, when forty members of the Methodist Church left over the slavery issue. Among its members were conductors of the Underground Railroad including Dr. Mathew Gibson, Nelson Gibson and Joseph Parrish. Rev. Silas Chase, noted abolitionist and conductor, pastored here as well as the Bethel Wesleyan Church. (305 Main St., Felicity)

(14) Will Sleet Home Site

This parcel of land was once the home site of Will Sleet, a prominent member of the Felicity Underground Railroad network. Sleet, a blacksmith by occupation, was a free Kentucky-born African American. He assisted a number of fugitive slaves on their way north and is specifically mentioned by Peter Stokes in his escape narrative in the Wilbur Siebert Papers. (411 Harrison Ave., Felicity)

(15) Andrew Powell Home Site

This was once the residence of Andrew Powell. Powell was a wealthy businessman who used his ornate and well-known private carriage to transport fugitive slaves from the Ohio River to Felicity. (416 Union St., Felicity)

(16) Oliver Perry Spencer Fee Store... O.P.S. Fee Store

Oliver Perry Spencer Fee (1823-1873) was the grandson of Felicity’s founder, William Fee. He attended the Democratic National Convention in 1860. Fee loudly proclaimed pro-slavery sentiments in order to gain the trust of slave owners, when he was in-fact the Felicity stationmaster. When slave hunters came to him for help, he directed them in the opposite direction. Fee fed and clothed the escapees from his store, located at this site. (208 Main St., Felicity)

(17) Felicity Cemetery

The Felicity Cemetery is the burial site of Arthur Fee (1791-1879) and Oliver Perry Spencer Fee (1823-1873), noted abolitionists and key members of the Underground Railroad activity in Felicity. (Light St., Felicity)

(18) Arthur Fee Home Site

On this parcel of land was once the residence of Arthur Fee (1791-1879), a member of the prominent abolitionist Fee Family. He was cousin of the Fee’s in Moscow and a second cousin of John Gregg Fee, the noted Kentucky abolitionist. Fee kept fugitives in his fruit cellar before he secured their transportation further into Bethel. He chose “Arthur Fee tried to be a good man” as his epitaph. (1 Moore Lane, Felicity)