In 1804, James Gilliland, a Presbyterian minister, was forced to leave his home and pulpit in South Carolina because he continued to address the issue of emancipation despite calls from the presbytery and synod to stop. Gilliland relocated to Brown County, OH where he teamed up with a group of men who became known as “the Old Chillicothe Presbytery.”  Many of these men were ministers who had also been forced to leave the South because of their anti-slavery views, including Reverend John Rankin of Ripley, OH. The churches led by these men became centers of anti-slavery sentiments, and many of them, including Gilliland’s church, sheltered runaway slaves.