The Reverend Guy Beckley (1805-1847), a devout abolitionist, came to Ann Arbor in 1839 with his wife Phyla and their eight children. In 1840 he purchased 28 acres of land adjoining the farm owned by his brother Josiah, to whom he sold all but the plot on which the Guy Beckley House at 1425 Pontiac Trail still stands.

Beckley was well established in Ann Arbor as a minister and lecturer and active in the antislavery movement. He published an influential abolitionist paper, The Signal of Liberty, edited by Theodore Foster. Beckley's house was an important "underground" station on one of the routes from the south.

Beckley was member of the Michigan State Anti-Slavery Society, served on the Executive Committee from 1840 and functioned as Vice-President in 1845.

The Reverend Beckley died in 1847, followed by his wife in 1850.

 

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