The Jan and Aagje Ton Farm Site

The site of the farm of Jan and Aagje Ton is a reconcognized stop on the Underground Railroad.   In 2022, an official marker of the Illinois State Historical Society was installed at the farm site.  This is at the location of Chicago's Finest Marina, owned by Ronald Gaines and his family.  It is located on the north side of the Little Calumet River as part of the Cal-Sag Channel.  Its northern edge is 134th Street and 134th Place runs through the middle of the site.  The original 40-acre farm site is located about six blocks east of Indiana Avenue, reaching to Beaubien Woods Forest Preserve.

In the years before the Civil War, Dutch immigrants, including Jan and Aagje Ton, assisted freedom seekers escaping enslavement in the South and traveling from Chicago to safety in Canada.  In 2020, the National Park Service recognized this as part of the Network to Freedom listing of nationally significant Underground Railroad sites.