----- Original Message ----- From: nboyd To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, January 20, 2006 4:44 PM Subject: Underground Railroad from Thumbprints in Time 1996 Taken from “Thumbprints in Time” Fremont County Iowa Family/History Book 1996 Hope this helps Nancy M. Body The Underground Railroad There were many in Fremont County who were interested in the anti-slavery movement years before John Brown came on the scene. In the summer of 1834 a traveler on his way to Utah camped overnight near present day Tabor. In the party were six slaves and five of them made known to some of the residents that they desired to escape. During the night aid was furnished and they were taken across the Nishnabotna River and concealed in the timber and brush. The next day the traveler discovered the chores were not done and that his human chattels had escaped. Securing the aid of some pro-slavery sympathizers in the neighboring community a man hunt was organized. Some of those involved in the escape volunteered to search in the area of concealment. Of course, the slaves were not found and the “underground railroad” in the county was begun. Thirty percent of the county’s population at this time had come from slave states. Many had come to Iowa in opposition to slavery but there were many who were pro-slavery. Others considered the subject as a meddling in the affairs of another state and wanted no part of it. In 1855 on September 15, a meeting by the Anti-Slavery Friends of Fremont County was held in Sidney with the opposition present though uninvited. Those assembled for the meeting were assaulted by the pro-slavery group with the usual method of disapproval at the time-stale eggs. By 1856 Maria Gaston wrote in her Reminiscences that their homes in Tabor were overflowing with people passing to and from to Kansas trying to secure it choice of being a free state. After physical battles in Kansas the anti-slavery fighters retired to Tabor sick and sometimes dying. Woodsheds became makeshift hospitals. Weapons were stockpiled. Men drilled in the park; some done in preparation should the town become a battle ground in this controversy. Jim Lane kept the anti-slavery emigrants coming thru Fremont County headed for Kansas. The U. S. Marshall’s were looking for Lane and Brown to arrest them for bringing armed men into Kansas. Pro-Slavery Missourians were looking for them too, planning revenge. Capt. Lane was an expert military man. Dr. Blanchard had fifteen years as a missionary in Kansas and knew the territory and Mr. Gaston had the compassion to free the slaves. Each made a decision to give their lives if need be for this cause. Therefore, if slaves made it to Kansas in 1856, odds were good they’d find freedom through Lane’s Trail and the protection of Lane’s Army of the North. The starting point for the Trail which became the Underground Railroad was Topeka, Kansas with the final point in Canada; if at all possible they were to go through Civil Bend. Tunnels under ground were used as an escape route from slavery to freedom. Iowa being a free state was a first refuge for the slaves from Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. They crossed on John Boulware’s ferry at Eastport in Benton Township into an area where abolitionists would help with transportation to Chicago and Canada by using false bottomed wagons and hiding them in caves. In spite of help and protection there are stories of deaths and bounty hunters. Congregationalists who first settled in Civil Bend and later founded Tabor in 1852 believed it their duty to assist the escaping slaves. John Brown and General Jim Lane were in Fremont County and Tabor often and for periods of time. From Eastport slaves headed for Civil Bend where a shelter was in the basement of Dr. Ira Blanchard’s home. Later this property was known as the Alex Bebout home. A picture of the basement where they hid the slaves appeared in the Nebraska City News Press Vol. 106-#264 in 1960 when Lola Bebout lived there. On the main floor a bed lifted up so people could go down steps to a basement that would hold 15-20 people. A fireplace was built in the basement so slaves could cook their own food. It was tied into the main floor’s chimney. Tunnels from the house led to the barn. Unfortunately this house has been torn down. Other residents of Civil Bend fed hungry slaves, sent food with them and provided extra clothing as they were directed towards Lewis and Grinnel, Iowa. Most slave running was done at night and Rev. Todd of Tabor was known to have disguised one negro as his wife thus, using his horse and buggy. Once two female slavers were stolen in Nebraska City and brought to Civil Bend and transported to Chicago. Mr. Nuckols of Nebraska City had four slaves that were helped to Civil Bend and on to freedom by way of Copeland Landing, a crossing from Old Wyoming in Nebraska. Lester W. Platt hid them in a wagon and covered them with flour sacks of grain and took them on to Tabor. John Brown and Jim lane had a camp in a grove west of Mr. Gaston’s. Buzzard’s Nest was the name given to the Tabor Underground where, food shelter and care was given. The route for slaves from Eastport followed a path via Lester Platt’s, Richard R. Rickett’s, George B. Gaston/s Rube Williams, Joseph Treat’s and Sturgis Williams from Eureka in Benton Township to Tabor which was in Scott Township at this time. Hunters of slaves were blamed for the burning of school buildings and homes. Rube William’s home and barn were built with money collected from lawsuits against Mr. Nuckols. Later the barn was burned and many thought it was done by Mr. Nuckols. There were three black families living in Civil Bend. The Garner family settled southwest of Dr. Blanchard who had been a missionary among the Shawnee and Delaware Indians from 1833-1847. Though Mr. Garner paid $1.50 per acre for his 60 acres and put $30.00 down, Dr. Blanchard and George Gaston had to sign a bond that the Garners would never be county charges. After Mr. Garner died his children left Civil Bend and Dr. Blanchard paid the $45.00 due on the land then later sold it. The Garner children got a judgment after Dr. Blanchard died. Blacks who were free in the county had to have on file at the courthouse papers proving their freedom. In the Fremont County Courthouse today there are papers proving that a Mr. Joseph Garner, a free black, purchased for four hundred dollars a twenty-seven year old negro woman, Jane and her five children in 1839 from a Mr. John Marr of Johnson County Missouri. The children’s names were Lucinda, 7, John Green 5, Nancy Savannah 4, George Washington 3 and Isham Garner 3 months. After Mr. Garner died on son was reported to have been “hung by the neck” by a group from Nebraska City who were looking for two negro women owned by S. F. Nuckols. Other black families were the Avery’s and Smiths. When Missouri acquired the Platte Purchase in 1837, slave territory reached its most northwestern limits within the United States-namely the southern half of Fremont County! The Fremont Countian might be startled to know that just a few miles east of Civil Bend at Big Springs (Knox) slavery existed in the 1840’s when Captain John Whitehead brought two slaves with him when he purchased the home of Stephen Cooper. In 1846 Jacob McKissick had a slave woman with her children. The appraisers of James Mobley’s estate delivered ownership of 14 year old Lucy worth $300 to Elizabeth Mobley, the widow. On November 10, 1846 Margaret Eberman of Austin bought a black slave named Betsy from Nathan Meeks. Do these facts help one understand something more about the county’s culture? (Material from Jean Schobert: Wayne Polk’s article Something about the Underground Railroad published in the Sidney Argus Herald, 1952, Slavery in Fremont County, by Walter Farwell published in Sidney Argus Herald; interview with Lew Bebout) --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 0603-4, 01/20/2006 Tested on: 1/20/2006 6:44:27 PM avast! - copyright (c) 2000-2004 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.com -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 267.14.21/236 - Release Date: 1/20/2006