WILLIAM RHEA

RHEA, COMBS, SQUIRES, MCCLELLAND

Posted By: Nancee Seifert (email)
Date: 11/8/2009 at 15:52:32

Decatur County Journal
Leon, Iowa
Thursday, June 23, 1910

In the last issue of the Princeton Telegraph the following concerning a Leon
resident appears:

WILLIAM RHEA, seventy-five years of age and a resident of Leon, Iowa, is
probably the only Mercer County slave living who was freed by Abraham
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. This aged colored man was a
Mercer County visitor Monday and returned to his home yesterday after making
a visit to Mrs. JAMES COMBS and Mrs. WM. SQUIRES, grandchildren of his old
master. He was formerly the property of SEABOLD RHEA, who emigrated from
Tennessee in 1839 and settled on a farm three miles southwest of Goshen.
Coming with Mr. RHEA and his family were three slaves, all of whom were
natives of Georgia.

These were named WILLIAM, SIMON and TILLER, the last named a colored woman,
who, after the death of her master and mistress, thirty years ago, took up
her abode with the MCCLELLAND family at Leon and afterwards married there,
dying a few years ago. SIMON died in this county and is buried in the Goshen
Cemetery. WILLIAM, the only survivor, now in his seventy-sixth year, is a
hale and hearty old Negro, with a good memory. He spent a few hours in
Princeton Monday and talked interestingly of the old days. He had been to
the old RHEA homestead, now occupied by BAZIL MELTON and family, but saw
little there that he could remember. In fact, an aged oak tree was the only
landmark that he was sure he recognized. Acquaintances of the old slave
inform us that after the death of his master he moved to Leon, where, by
economy and industry, he accumulated considerable property. He is honest
and reliable and is held in high regard by the people of that section. He
never married.
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Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
November 6, 2009
iggy29@grm.net