Underground Railroad in Washington County
Last updated 03 October 2020
This article was published in the Evening Journal on November 22, 1930 and transcribed by Joanne Breen.
The Underground Railroad
By Mrs. Steve Crawford
Read before the Kolah Club
Mrs. Crawford is a well versed in the stories of the Underground railroad as anyone in the country. Her grandfather was the Mr. Humphrey,
who she mentions as living two and one-half miles south of Tipton. He was one of the operators, and all through her childhood she was thrilled
by the stories of those far-off days.
In 1850, the South succeeded in putting through what was termed the Fugitive Slave law. By this law a person of negro blood, apprehended in any
state or territory on charge of being a fugitive from his owner, was denied a trial by jury, on his own testimony before a court. All people must
help catch the slave and in no way help him to get away. Out of this law grew the Underground Railroad, or the Grape vine road, which was the name
used to designated the system adopted by some people in the north to aid slaves to escape from their masters. Even Mr. Grimes, who was governor of
Iowa at the time, said In all ways at my command, I intend to hinder the slave hunters' trade.
When a party of slaves entered Iowa from Missouri, they would stop at a station on the Underground railroad and stay there until it was safe for
them to go on. A message was sent on to the next station which read something like this: By tomorrow evenings mail, you will receive two volumes
of the irrepressible conflict bound in black. After reading please forward and oblige_____
This signified to those in the secret the number in the
party, sex, and other details. The slaves were moved on horseback, by covered wagons, or on foot from one place to the next. Dark, stormy nights were preferred.
Many slaves entered Iowa at the southwestern part, Tabor being a strong station, then to Lewis, Des Moines, then to Grinnell, where J. B. Grinnell
would take care of them, in a room in his house called the Liberty room. From Grinnell to Iowa City, West Liberty, Springdale, DeWitt, Low Moor, then
o Clinton on the Mississippi river, where they rested, then across the river into Illinois at Union Grove, and finally across Lake Michigan into Canada.
This was the main line, and there were at least three sublines running east from Tabor to the Mississippi river. One ran through Washington county. At Clay
they had a strong station conducted by Henry Morgan, Alfred Meacham and Manning Wells {*Manning Bidwell Mills}. Many a slave slipped through here, to Washington,
in care of John L. and Mart C. Kilgore and Darriel Yockey.
From here they went to Crawfordsville, where the Rankin House took care of them. One time eleven black people landed here and more were kept in the attic till
it was safe to go on to Columbus City, or Iowa City. The Rankin house was the largest house in Crawfordsville, and stopped for the night. At one time or another
it housed everybody that came to town; therefore, it was called the House of all Nations or Friendly to all nations.
In 1854, an old settler with his parents drove from Muscatine to Crawfordsville, and stopped for the night. Boy fashion, he got out to see what there was to be seen.
He saw a covered wagon at the side of the hotel, or Rankin house, and five negroes just ready to get in. As he looked a man on horseback came along and called out,
Is there a colored boy here by the name of Sam?
Sam said, I knowed massa would come.
Sam had been stolen from his master in Missouri and didn't want leave; so,
he went back to Missouri, but the other went to Iowa City.
Wassonville was another station conducted by George D. Woodin, Isaac Farley, Myron Fisher {*Myron Frisbee} and Dr. N. G. Fields. Wassonville was later called Dayton.
Of course, these conductors had to furnish transportation, food and many times clothing for the fugitives. For reasons known to the operators, the station was not
always in town, but would be one or two miles from town. Take for instance the Humphrey home about two and one-half miles south of Tipton. Whole families of colored
folks would come there, and it was grandfather's place to see that they to Posten's Grove about fifteen miles away. Daylight didn't bother him, he had them all in his
wagon, disguised as sacks of grain. On the lonely spots on the road, the sacks would have wooly heads and black faces, but if a stranger was seen coming the signal
Duck
was given, and sacks of grain remained.
In the eastern part of Iowa, it was harder to run the railroad on account of the fact that it was settled more thickly, it took more people and was more dangerous.
At DeWitt, Captain Burdette, Judge Graham, Mrs. J. D. Stillman. At Low Moor was G. W. Weston, Abel B. Gleason, B. R. Palmer, J. B. Jones, Lawrence Mix and Nelson Olin,
all good station masters.
When the fugitives reached Clinton, C. B. Campbell took care of them either in his attic or cave or in a garden belonging to him, and A. Bather. It happened at one time
that two slaves, a man and wife were in the garret, when word came from DeWitt that slave catchers were in hot pursuit, so Bather borrowed a family carriage from H. P. Standly
and took the couple to the river, where Campbell had gone on ahead and had to pay a high price to get a boat to take them across the river, for it was full of floating ice. On
this trip, the woman whose complexion was very fair passed herself off as mistress and her husband a servant. Not all got away so easily.
Not nearly all the salves came along this route or they entered Iowa all along the southern border. In the southwestern part of the state were several short routes with
stations at Croton, Bloomfield, Lancaster and Cincinnati, which connected with some main line at Salem. This is a Quaker settlement, with timber all around and made hiding
good for the negroes. Then at night they would get into the Quaker homes where they would be fed and helped on to the next station.
At one time nine slaves had almost reached Salem, when they were caught by two slave catchers named Slaughter and McClure. They started back to Missouri with them, when they
met three Quakers, Eilhu Frazier, Tom C. Frazier and Man Johnson, who demanded that the slaves be brought back for trial, but to this the catchers objected. So, one of the
Quakers forgot his Quaker blood and said he wade through Missouri blood before he would let the negroes go. They were brought back, given a trial, and Slaughter and McClure
couldn't show warrants to take the negroes. Things were at a standstill when suddenly Paul Way called out. If anybody want to foller me, let him foller.
Two of the slaves
followed him, and were soon on horseback in route to the next station. The friends took care of the other negroes. Slaughter and McClure left, but said they would be back.
Next week here they came with twenty more to help them. Tom Frazier's home was the first to be searched. It happened, he had slaves in his house, but according to the rules
of the railroad he had warning that the Missouri men were coming and he had the negroes in the timber. When the searchers arrived, Tom and family were eating their dinner calmly.
The searchers found nothing in the Frazier house nor in Salem.
The story is told of Mr. Nuckolls of Nebraska City, who lost two girls in 1858. He correctly guessed they had come to Iowa, and placed a guard on the two rivers. He hurried on to
Tabor, but of course he found nothing, for the two girls had been hurried on to the next station, but knowing Tabor to be a strong station, Mr. Nuckolls, got twenty men and began
a thorough search, often gaining entrance by force and violence. At one house he met with more rebuff than usual. He struck the person over the head causing a permanent injury.
The result was, he had to pay several thousands of dollars damages and didn't find his girls either.
It is possible to tell only a small part of the story of the Underground railroad in Iowa. All the methods used in transportation of slaves have not been described, nor have all
the stations and their agents been named. It must be remembered that this was an underground railroad in other words, underhand work. The train master kept no record of train
schedules, or passengers for if such fill into the hands of those who tried to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law, it would be very hard on the agent.
Enough of the story is known, however, to show that as an institution, the Underground Railroad played it part in the history of Iowa.
The hazards and adventures of the traffic served to lend fascination to the frontier life: and the story of the operation of the system gives a picture of the ideals, the character,
the resourcefulness of the fearlessness of the early settlers of the state of Iowa.
Note {*alternative/validated name added by transcriber that is different from published story}