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John Brown’s Railroad Rolled
Through Iowa City
by
Irving
Weber
Brown,
Slaves
Hid in Homes |
It seems
incredible today, but on Feb 24, 1855, John Brown, the famed
abolitionist, was calmly enjoying a dish of ice cream at Baumer’s
Restaurant and Ice Cream Parlor in Iowa City. The business was on
Clinton Street, the second door south of the four-story brick St. James
Hotel (now Dey Building).
John Kagi,
the fiery ex-school teacher and his trusted assistant in his
anti-slavery crusade, was with him. While they were in the back room,
or “Ladies Parlor” enjoying their refreshments, two men – George
Boatman and a blacksmith named Rice – came in the front door with a
rope in their hands and asked if John Brown was there. Baumer answered,
“no, I haven’t seen any John Brown. Why, what do you want of him?”
“Why he’s that damned slave thief from Kansas, and we’re
going to hang him”, they replied and then started off.
Baumer went back to the “Ladies Parlor” and inquired, “Is your name
John Brown?” And Brown answered, “Yes sir, that’s my name – old John
Brown from Kansas.” “Well sir, they’re going to hand you;
been two men here with a rope looking for you, and I told them you
wasn’t here.”
Brown
arose, opened his overcoat, displaying a belt hung full of revolvers
and bowie knives, and said, “Let them come on, I’m ready for them.”
Brown never was hesitant about using weapons to aid his cause in
freeing slaves. Baumer, who was a Republican,
told them to go back in a little room where he made the ice cream, and
he would go out and learn what he could about what was going on so they
would know what to do.
He then
went to the corner of Washington and Dubuque streets, where there was a
street meeting in front of the Metropolitan building (now the Jefferson
building). A group of pro-slavery sympathizers were trying to figure
out how to capture John Brown and his companions and get the blood
money offered as a reward for them.
The leaders
of this gang of hungry slave-hounds had gone over to the Quaker Pedee
settlement 12 miles east of Iowa City, near Springdale, the Sunday
before, and seen the number of escaping slaves Brown had just brought
through Iowa City to Pedee, awaiting a boxcar to take them to Chicago
and on to Canada. The report on Pedee was being given to the excited
mob.
There was
much bullying talk and blusher, but the mob knew full well that the
Brown group was armed to the teeth, and no one was brave enough to risk
a direct confrontation, but wanted to catch them off guard. They did
appoint a committee to watch Dr. Jesse Bowen’s barn where Brown’s team
of mules and saddle horse were being stabled for the night and three
committees to watch the West Branch Road, which they expected Brown and
Kagi to be taking the next day.
Meanwhile,
Baumer returned and told Brown and Kagi what he had learned. Mrs.
Baumer went with them out the back door and showed them the way in the
dark to Dr. Bowen’s house at 914 Iowa Avenue, where they were to sleep
that night.
I was born
and raised across the street (927 Iowa Ave.) from the Bowen house and
it had always been pointed out as a stop on John Brown’s “underground
railroad.” Much later the Dr. R. H. Vollands lived at that location and
then the A. M. Ewers family.
Another
interesting Iowa City connection with John Brown is the fact that Susan
(Mrs. Earl M.) Rogers, librarian at the Iowa State Historical Society,
is the great-great-granddaughter of John Brown – her grandmother was
Brown’s youngest daughter, Ellen.
All this
was taking place in Iowa City just eight months prior to Oct 19, 1859,
when John Brown and his band of 22, including five blacks, stormed and
captured the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Va. (now West Virginia).
Of the 22, six were Iowans, and three were his sons.
The battle
raged for three days with the local citizens gathering what weapons
were available, and two companies of militia trying to force Brown and
his band out, but without success. Finally, a company of Marines under
the command of none other than Robert E. Lee, later general of the
Confederate forces, tried to get Brown to surrender. When Brown
refused, they battered their way in with sheer numbers, and captured
Brown and the few of his band still alive. Brown was tried, convicted,
sentenced to death. He was hanged in December of that year.
Thus ended
the life of John Brown at the age of 59. To the abolitionists, he was a
martyr.
To return
to John Brown’s Iowa connection, which is an important part of American
history, Brown began his last journey, similar to many previous ones,
in Kansas. He crossed the Missouri River in Nebraska accompanied by a
few of his party and 12 blacks. The first stop in Iowa was in Tabor, in
the southwest part of the state. They then proceeded to Des Moines
where John Teescale, editor of the Register and an old friend from
Ohio, paid the group’s ferry fare across the Des Moines River.
The next
stop was Grinnell, where Brown could always count on 4th District
Congressman John B. Grinnell for shelter, food and funds. On this
occasion, Grinnell arranged for the group to attend church. General
Rosseau delivered a discourse to Brown and his group and the 12 blacks.
The service was attended by many local people, interested in the
novelty of the occasion, who contributed generously to Brown and his
anti-slavery program.
In Iowa
City, John Brown was supported by Dr. Jesse Bowen, W. Penn Clark, Col.
S. C. Trowbridge and other abolitionists who supplied guidance, funds
and shelter for the group until they reached the safety of the William
Maxson farm, referred to as Pedee, just east of Springdale.
It was
there that Brown felt the slaves were secure, and where he was training
his group for the attack on the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry. From
Pedee’s the 12 slaves were loaded in a boxcar in West Liberty and sent
to Canada, via Chicago. At this time, Iowa City was the terminus of the
Mississippi and Missouri Railroad, the only railroad to have crossed
the Mississippi.
How many
depots on the “underground railroad” were there in Iowa City? No one
knows for sure, but probably not many. Every year or so someone calls
to tell me of a new one they have heard about.
The house
at 914 Iowa Ave. had been fully documented in the 1836-1882 history of
Johnson County. The Pownall Home at 1602 N. Dubuque St., built in 1857
by Louis Englert, has deep caves under the basement that reportedly
were used by Brown.
The Bruce
Glasgow home at 834 N. Johnson St., the restored 1854 home of Hugh
Downey, Iowa City’s first banker, had some subterranean that hearsay
has Brown using.
Iowa City
proved most valuable to Brown’s cause, and he had many local supporters
here. But politically, Iowa City was probably “too hot” on the issue to
safely sponsor anything other than emergency depots.
(Source:
Iowa City
Press Citizen (Iowa City, Iowa) 27 Jun 1987 pg. 19)
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