Three hundred yards east of this location on Oak Road, overlooking
the Miami & Erie Canal, was the house of abolitionist John Van Zandt
1791-1847). For years this house was known as one of the most active
"stations" on the Underground Railroad. In 1842, two bounty hunters
from Sharonville caught Van Zandt helping eight runaway slaves who
had escaped from owner Wharton Jones of Kentucky. Defended in
court by Salmon P. Chase, who became Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court of the United States from 1864-1873. Van Zandt was convicted
and fined. Chase appealed the case to the U. S. Supreme Court, where
he tested the constitutionality of the 1793 Fugitive Slave Law. When
writing her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe used Van Zandt
as the abolitionist character John Van Trompe. Van Zandt's house became
associated with the book and was known as "The Eliza House" named
for one of the novel's main characters

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