For the Journal.
BY JOSEPH A. DUGDALE.

Immortal life with God, of one who was for many years a mutilated Slave,

DIED. – On the 14th Inst., at his residence in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, DAVID JOHNSON, born a Slave but died a Freeman in the Lord. During the rebellion he came to this city with his family, and like all of his class, who were victims of slavery, he was very poor. His fate had been an unusually hard one. His hands and feet had been frozen so that it was with difficulty and suffering that he performed manual labor. He walked bowed down like a man of seventy, while according to his own account, he was but 47 years old. He had secured a comfortable little home, and, by the assistance of some friends, it was all paid for. When Anna E. Dickinson was here and taking a morning walk with a friend, she ?? to see “old Uncle Davie” as we called him, and from the proceeds of her lecture the evening before, had the pleasure of furnishing him just enough to liquidate the remaining debt.

“Uncle Davie” was no beggar, but a noble-souled, simple-hearted man. He was a member of the Baptist church and a pious, devout follower of the Redeemer.

On an occasion during a period of bitter cold weather a person from an impression of duty visited him with a little meal and a few comforts from several friends, and inquired if he’d be offended by the offering. Tears were his first answer. After a moment’s hesitation, he replied, “I have got along pretty well until now, and dis mornin’ de meal and de meat was all gone, and I felt dat de Lord would do something for me, and I take dis as from Him.” God did hear and answer the humble prayer of the old saint. A short time previous to his dissolution he had been engaged in loading and hauling stone, and his feeble frame was strained and injured by over-lifting. He was conscious that he was “to go up higher,” and said the day before he died – “D’ Lord said to me – ‘Will you be one of the men to go wid me?’ and I said yes, and dis is de last night I will be with you.” So it proved. He has left two little lads and the aged mother of his deceased wife, and while we say peace to the ashes of “Uncle Davie,” let our hearts be touched with compassion for the old mother and little children, and when we sit down to our tables, remember to share with the widow and the orphan – bearing in mind the words of Jesus: “Inasmuch as ye did it unto them, ye did it unto me.”


(“Mount Pleasant Journal”, Friday, October 22, 1869, page 1, column 6)