The father of Grinnell Willis was once the employer of which former slave and future writer?
Grinnell Willis Grinnell Willis (1848-1930) was a textile merchant and philanthropist, and the son of noted poet Nathaniel Parker Willis. Willis founded and ran Grinnell Willis & Company. He also funded several civic projects in the Morristown, New Jersey area.
Roger Hooker Leavitt Col. Roger Hooker Leavitt (July 21, 1805 – July 17, 1885) was a prominent landowner, early industrialist and Massachusetts politician who with other family members was an ardent abolitionist, using his home in Charlemont, Massachusetts as an Underground Railroad station for slaves escaped from the South. The escaped slave Basil Dorsey lived in Leavitt's home for nearly six years until eventually settling in Florence, Massachusetts.