John Todd
American abolitionist
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Why Is John Todd Influential?
(Suggest an Edit or Addition)According to Wikipedia, John Todd was an American Congregationalist minister, co-founder of Tabor College in Tabor, Iowa, a leading abolitionist and a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Background John Todd was born November 10, 1818, in West Hanover, Pennsylvania. He was the second son and fifth child of Capt. James Todd and Sally Ainsworth Todd. The Todds' ancestors were Scotch Irish and Presbyterians, and Todd grew up attending a Presbyterian church. Todd was an early graduate of Oberlin College and its seminary . In the 1850s, Todd moved West to help start an Oberlin-like school on the Iowa frontier. He was one of the founders of Tabor, in southwestern Iowa, and its Congregational Church, which he served as pastor for more than 30 years. He is also the basis for the abolitionist preacher and grandfather of John Ames, main character in Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Gilead .
