Levi Yale
Connecticut abolitionist and politician (1792–1872)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Levi Yale (April 11, 1792 – February 19, 1872), of Meriden, Connecticut, was a politician, abolitionist, and Underground Railroad agent. He held state and local elected offices and was appointed Meriden postmaster. He co-founded the abolitionist Connecticut Liberty Party and frequently ran as that party's candidate for lieutenant governor.
Levi Yale | |
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Levi Yale | |
| Born | April 11, 1792 Meriden, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Died | February 19, 1872 (aged 79) Meriden, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Occupations | |
| Spouse | Abigail Ellen Bacon |
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| Parents |
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Early life
Levi Yale was born April 11, 1792, to Joel Yale and Esther Clark, members of the Yale family.[1][2] He was the oldest of a large family of children; at age 12 he became his mother's main support, following his father's death.[3] At 16 he began teaching school in the winter and farming his mother's land in the summer.[1][4]
Career
In 1821, Yale was elected a member of the Connecticut State House.[5][4] He was postmaster during the Jackson and Van Buren presidencies and was frequently elected as a town Justice of the Peace.[6][7][8]
In the fall of 1837, Yale, Elisha Cowles, Julius Pratt, and others, invited abolitionist lecturer Rev. Henry G. Ludlow to speak at the Center Congregational church in Meriden.[9][10] Anti-abolionists attempted to prevent the meeting from being held and organized a riot when they were unable to stop it.[11] Stones and eggs were thrown at the attendees.[9] Levi Yale and two others acted as body-guards, protecting and escorting Reverend Ludlow out of the church.[10]
Yale's home was a station of the Underground Railroad, and he has been described as "a man of very pronounced views against slavery, and one who had the courage of his convictions."[12][3] Fugatives found "food and harbor" at his farmhouse, and he helped conduct them from New Haven to Springfield.[13]
In 1841, Yale co-founded the Connecticut Liberty Party, presiding at the Political Anti-Slavery Convention that established the party in the state and nominated its first candidates. As president of the convention, he wrote, signed and published in newspapers a letter requesting the President of the United States, John Tyler, to emancipate his slaves.[14][15]
In 1841, and from 1843 to 1849, Yale was the Liberty party candidate for lieutenant governor of Connecticut.[16] He was elected first selectman of Meriden from 1845 to 1848, and then from 1852 to 1855.[1][17] In 1851 he lost the race for Meriden Judge of Probate. In 1856 he was again elected to the state house.[18]
Yale was a member of the committee that build Meriden's town hall and was among the officers that incorporated the Meriden Savings Bank.[19][20] He was a Congregationalist and was among the members who formed Center Congregational after First Congregational moved to a new location.[21]
Personal life
Levi Yale was married to Abigail Ellen Bacon, of Middletown, Connecticut. They had three children together, two daughters, Harriet Ellen and Emma Louisa, and a son named Levi Bacon Yale. Levi B. was a Republican, Prohibition candidate, nominated for Senator in the 6th District in 1900, and was an active member of the Congregational Church.[1]
He was a great-grandson of Capt. Thomas Yale of Wallingford.,[2] and his uncle, Thomas Yale, was a soldier during the American War of Independence. He was a cousin of Congressman Jonathan Brace and Aetna life insurance founder Thomas Kimberly Brace, as well as of Senators Kenneth S. White and John Baldwin.[22]