Scroggins, Alfred – Died 1898

SCROGGINS

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 5/19/2024 at 21:00:45

Source: Decorah Republican June 9, 1898 P 5 C 2

Alfred Scroggins Dead.
Alfred Scroggins, or "Nigger Alfred,” as he was more familiarly known when he lived in Decorah, died at five o’clock this morning at the county hospital at Freeport after an illness of fifteen days.
Alfred came to Decorah almost immediately after the war closed. As a runaway slave he had many experiences and narrow escapes from capture, in his efforts to reach the north. For many years he was an employee in the REPUBLICAN and Posten offices, performing janitor work, running errands, and turning the press before steam was employed—in fact making himself generally useful. He was not like a good many of the colored people for he was willing to work, performing whatever was given him to do to the best of his ability, and had a never-ending supply of good nature.
While working at the Posten office he pulled a sheet of paper down from a shelf on which was some concentrated lye. This got in his eyes and later he caught cold in them, resulting in blindness. For years after he lived in Decorah, but finally had to go to the county farm where he died.