James Davis House

According to oral tradition, abolitionist and anti-slavery society member George Bartlett (1798-1893) hid fugitive slaves in a cellar on this property. Guilford had an active anti-slavery society in the mid-19th century, boasting 123 members, including Reverend Mr. Dutton of the First Church. In 1839, members of Dutton’s congregation expressed opposition to the abolitionist meetings that had been held there. This opposition resulted in the minister’s dismissal from First Church in 1842. Consequently, 123 members of the First Church Society with abolitionist sympathies were dismissed in 1843 and went on to form the Third Congregational Church. George Bartlett was one of the 123 members. Horatio Strother, author of The Underground Railroad in Connecticut, mentions a Reverend Zolva Whitmore, who “directed the Underground work of the Bartletts and others of his parishioners.”