Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The John Hossack House is a historic house in Ottawa, Illinois, USA. It was built in 1854 55 and was a "station" on the Underground Railroad. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The John Hossack House was built in 1854 55 by John Hossack, a Scottish born Ottawan. Hossack had worked on the Illinois-Michigan Canal in Chicago before arriving in Ottawa. Hossack was an abolitionist who hid as many as 13 fugitive slaves in his house as a stop on the Underground Railroad. In a famous 1860 case involving fugitive slave Jim Gray, Hossack and other Ottawans were convicted in Federal Court in Chicago of violating the Fugitive Slave law.