"John Baton Vashon" (4-26-1792-December 29,1853)

Born free in Norfolk Virginia,the son of George Vashon,a white slaveholder's son,and a family slave named Fanny.As a young man John was one of the many African-American soldiers to fight in the war of 1812.After the war at the age of 20,he became a seaman aboard warship U.S.S. Revenge.During  battle with the British off the coast of Brazil,John was captured and help prisoner for two years.His freedom was secured in exchange for a British soldier.George returned to Leesburg,Virginia,where he met Anne Smith.In 1822,he moved his wife and daughter,Mary Frances,to Carlisle Pennsylvania,where he opened a successful public saloon and a livery stable.It was there where his son,George was born.In 1829,the Vashon family relocated to Pittsburgh.George was a successful barber,landowner,and proprietor of Pittsburgh's first bathhouse,on third Street between Market & Ferry Streets.Clienteles included white men & women during the day,at night it was a station for slaves traveling the Underground Railroad.George was trustee of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and cofounder in 1832 of the Pittsburgh African Education Society.In 1833,John organized and hosted the first meeting of the Pittsburgh Anti Slavery Society in his home.In 1841 John took and active part in the Proceedings of the State Convention of the Colored Freemen of Pennsylvania held in Pittsburgh August 23-25.A strong supporter of the early abolitionist journals,John was a financial supporter and agent for William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator.One of the wealthiest African-American in Pittsburgh,John in 1850 and colleagues purchased the freedom of one of his barber apprentices,George White,who was threatened with recaptured by individuals who entered John's shop and recognized the youth.John afterward,took the young man into his home.John raised his son,George,and his daughter,Mary Frances,in the abolitionist tradition.He spared no expense on their education,sending George to Oberlin College and Mary Frances to the Female Academy of Miss Sarah M. Douglass in Philadelphia.Mary Frances placed ads in Martin Delany's The Mystery Newspapers under the pseudonym of Fanny Homewood,using the first name of her father's mother.John Vashon's brother,Halson also resided in Pittsburgh,and joined his brother in the antislavery crusade.On December 29, 1853 John,en route as delegate to the National Convention of Veterans of the War of 1812,collapsed and died in a Pittsburgh train station of heart failure.An editorial reported:"He fell with his harness on,and died in the last act of service to his breather,and in obedience of his country.