How do we know that Orson Ames was involved with the underground railroad?

1) In 1899, Edmund Wheeler wrote a letter describing his experience with the
famous fugitive William "Jerry" McHenry. Wheeler personally spoke with
Jerry, he said. Jerry had stayed one night with Orson Ames before moving for
safety to the home of Asa and Mary Beebe, outside the village.

2. At the Oswego County Anti-Slavery Society meeting on June 21, 1838, Orson
Ames (along with Starr Clark and Joseph M. Barrows) was appointed to be part
of a vigilance committee for the Town of Mexico, to help fugitives from slavery.

Friend of Man, July 4, 1838

"A decided and zealous abolitionist," Orson Ames was "a man of much influence" in
Mexcio township. Born in Litchfield, Connecticut in 1799, he moved to Mexico with his
parents, Leonard and Minerva Ames, about 1804. By 1826, he operated a tannery on
Black Creek, just across Main Street from his own house, on what would later become
the grounds of the Mexico Academy. He also ran a sawmill in the 1820s. In 1833, he
expanded his interests and bought a triphammer factory, also on Black Creek, where he
made scythes and axes. He also operated a shoemaker's shop on South Jefferson
Street.
He was not a church-going man, but he did support education. He became one of the
first trustees of the new Renssalaer-Oswego Academy. By 1855, he had acquired a
farm worth $7225, a tannery worth $2250, and a house worth $2000. He was perhaps
the wealthiest of all the core group of Mexico abolitionists.
Elizabeth Simpson quotes one of Ames' contemporaries who noted that "Mr. Ames was
a man of strong common sense and as honest a man as Mexico ever produced. He
would not take any stock in vanity and foolish fashion. He commenced busniess by
adopting the principle not to spend money till he had earned it and not then, except for
necessary things. This enabled him to pay 100 cents on the dollar and to provide things
honest in the sight of all men."
In 1838, Orson Ames was part of Mexico township's first Vigilance Committee,
organized to help fugitives escape to Canada. Edmund Wheeler, a former resident of
Mexico, noted in a letter to the Mexico Independent in 1899, that the Ames family
housed the fugitive Jerry McHenry for one night in 1851 before sending him to Asa
Beebe's barn north of the village. Orson Ames then wrote to a brother in Oswego
(probably Leonard Ames, Jr.), who made arrangements with a boat captain to take
Jerry McHenry to Canada.
Orson Ames died on February 16, 1867.

Sources:

Friend of Man, July 4, 1838.
Elizabeth Simpson, Elizabeth. Mexico, Mother of Towns (Mexico, 1949), 349-356.
Wellman, Judith. "The Burned-over District Re-visited." Dissertation, University of
Virginia, 1974.

Ames, Orson
Wellman
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