Biography
Calvin Fairbank was a Methodist minister and antislavery activist who helped enslaved people escape from Kentucky to Ohio via the Underground Railroad. He served two long sentences in the Kentucky State Penitentiary at Frankfort: 5 years (1845-1849) for assisting Lewis Hayden's family, and 12 years (1852-1864) for assisting Tamar — a total of approximately 17 years. He published How the Way Was Prepared in 1890.
Original imposed term distinguished from time served
The National Register nomination for the Newton Craig House and Penitentiary Buildings Complex, prepared in 1984, states on PDF page 7 that Delia Webster received two years and Calvin Fairbank fifteen years for helping the Hayden family escape. The first Fairbank case therefore records fifteen years as the imposed term, not five years as if that were the sentence. This does not add fifteen years to the imprisonment counter or alter recorded custody endpoints. The nomination groups the Lexington trials in December; the existing precise February 18, 1845 sentencing entry is retained as a date conflict requiring judgment-record verification rather than overwritten with a guessed day. Webster’s September 30, 1844 arrest and February 24, 1845 pardon are already recorded; a pardon is not independently treated here as a new physical-release record.
