cumstances and
the high excitement that prevailed at the time Rachel Parker, then a
girl, was kidnapped.

Of all the men who desired that justice be done Rachel Parker, who was
kidnapped by Thomas McCrery and others on the last day of 1851, from
the home of Joseph C. Miller, West Nottingham, township, not one took
deeper and more determined interest in the matter than the late Dr.
John Miller Dickey of Oxford. He became a leader in the affair and
repeatedly went to Baltimore, where Rachel was in jail, and got a
number of the most influential citizens of Baltimore interested to
have justice brought about. The late Levi K. Brown of Lancaster county
was also active in the matter and rendered much valuable assistance.

The matter had now become so generally known that effectual help was
received from the late Senator Henry S. Evans, West Chester, who
brought the circumstances to the attention of our Legislature, by
which means the case became a State affair.

Dr. Dickey and others attended the trial in January, 1853. The
proceedings lasted eight days, during which, as one of the claimant's
attorneys expressed it, "an entire neighborhood" appeared and "an
avalanche of testimony" was borne to the girl's free birth. Evidence
was produced from Baltimore that she was not the girl who had been
lost. Forty-nine witnesses were heard and many more were ready when a
compromise was proposed and agreed to. Notwithstanding this
overwhelming evidence, there was still some fear that a Baltimore jury
would decide against the girl, and it was thought wise to give way.
The chief end was gained: Rachel Parker was declared free born; the
same jury gave a verdict also for her sister Elizabeth who had been
found in New Orleans and brought North, and the two were restored to
their mother.

The costs of the trial were divided, these amounting to $1000, besides
$3000 expended by the State of Pennsylvania and heavy outlays by
friendly citizens of Baltimore and Chester County.

Judge Bell of West Chester, one of the Pennsylvania counsel, wrote
thus after all was over to the West Chester _Republican and Democrat_:

"Too much praise cannot be accorded to the host of witnesses from
Chester County and the neighboring districts, who promptly on the call
of justice and humanity, exchanged the comforts of home for the
inconvenience and supposed dangers of sojourn in a strange city, under
circumstances well calculated to deter a merely selfish person