USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Discovery and conquests of the Northwest, with the history of Chicago, Vol. II > Part 23
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In interviewing Mrs. Mary Jones, widow of the late John Jones (colored), her words are herewith re-
John Jones.
ported verbatim, the better to express her recollections of the eventful period of the anti-slavery issue:
About the time we came to Chicago, 1845, there were three girls who escaped from slavery in Missouri, who came here in a wagon covered in straw, which was late in the fall, and they remained here until navigation opened, and then they were sent on to Canada.
At one time Dr. Dyer told a slave in front of the old Tremont house: "You don't belong to anybody. Go about your own business." His master heard what the
*The material for the foregoing sketch was furnished by Stella Dyer, loving daughter of Dr. Dyer.
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doctor said, and he rushed up and struck him, which caused a fight, and in the disturbance the doctor broke his cane over the slave owner's head, and after that friends of the doctor made him a present of a fine gold headed cane, which is now in the Historical Society.
The fugitive slave law was passed on a Saturday night, and on Sunday, after the law had been passed, the friends of freedom chartered cars enough to send every fugitive slave from here and around the country, out of this country into Canada. They went out and loaded up the cars at what I believe was then called the Sherman street station, and I remember at that time, a man came along who looked as if he might do a great deal of fighting, and he told the slave owners and friends, "if they would bring one man at a time he would not leave one of them." The men who got these cars together, what few I now remember, were Charles V. Dyer, Zebina Eastman, John Jones, L. C. P. Freer, Calvin De Wolf, Henry Bradford, Mr. Bridges, Louis Isabell, H. O. Wagner and others.
The first time I ever met John Brown he came to our house one afternoon with Fred Douglas, and they sat up until late and John Brown stayed all night. Mr. Douglas said he was a nice man, and Mr. Jones wanted to know if I could make some provision for him to stay all night, that he did not want to send him away, and he remained all night. I told Mr. Jones I thought he was a little off on the slavery question, and that I did not think he was right, and that I did not believe he could ever do what he wanted to do, and that somebody would have to give up his life before it was done. The next morning I asked him if he had any family. He said: "Yes, madam, I have quite a large family, be- sides over a million other people I am looking out for, and some of these days I am going to free them, if I live long enough." I thought to myself, How are you going to free them? Well then, after that time, until he went to Kansas, he dropped into our house most any
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time, generally in the morning, and stayed until long in the afternoon.
He would talk about the slavery question, about war, and say what might be done in the hills and moun- tains of Pennsylvania ; and Mr. Jones would say : "Why, Mr. Brown, that is all wind, and there is nothing to it ; and besides, you would lose your life if you un- dertook to carry out your plans." And I remember how Mr. Brown looked when he snapped his finger
BENE
John Brown
and said : "What do I care for my life?" He spoke low and distinctly, and said, with a snap of his finger : " What do I care for my life, if I can do what I want to do-if I can free these negroes?" But Mr. Jones told him that he did not believe his ideas would ever be carried out. During the several times that he was com- ing to our house, and in these talks, I remember that he also said to Mr. Jones : "I tell you what you do, Mr. Jones ; you lay in a supply of sugar, corn, coffee and cotton, because I am going to raise the price of it"- meaning, of course, that he expected to stop slavery,
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and that more would have to be paid for raising these articles.
After being in Kansas awhile, he came on here with thirteen slaves. One morning some one rang the bell, and Mr. Jones went down and answered the bell, about daylight, and I heard several men talking. I had been reading about how many men he had around him, and I said to my husband : "I do not want John Brown's fighters. I am willing to take care of him, but not his fighters," and told him that he would lay himself liable, but he said : "They are here, and I am going to let them in." I don't know how many, but four or five of the roughest looking men I ever saw. They had boots up to their knees, and their pants down in their boots, and they looked like they were ready to fight , but they behaved very nicely, and I came down- stairs right away. But Mr. Brown said: "Now, Mr. Jones, if you will give my men a little bite, as they have had nothing to eat, we will go away from you, and won't be heard of any more to-day ; and just give them a little bite of something." So we did, and Mr. Jones came downstairs and we all had breakfast ; so then Mr. Brown went away, or started, and I asked him if he would not have some more coffee, and he said: "Yes, I will take a little more coffee, because I ate very little dinner yesterday, and will have some more coffee." That shows he had system in all things. Sure enough, these men went away and my husband left, and nobody was left at the house but John Brown and I ; and by and by a boy came to the door-I think he was a train boy who peddled books on the train-and asked for Mr. Jones. I told him he was not in. He said the conductor told him to come to Mr. Jones and see where he was, be- cause he said all the people who came in this morning were suspicious looking people and had negroes with them, and the conductor thought they were going to take the negroes down to Missouri and sell them, and he did not want it that way I did not say to him that John
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Brown was in the house, but I kept that a secret ; and I did not tell him that I knew about these men, because I did not ; but I told him where to go to find the anti- slavery people-Mr. Freer and Dr. Dyer. What he wanted was some one to look after these slaves and see that they were not sent to Missouri. He said there was a very suspicious white man who bad these negroes, and it was supposed they intended to take them to Missouri, while the negroes believed they were going to be taken to Canada. But the boy left, and by and by I answered the door again, and there was Mr. Pinker- ton, whom I had met before, and I began a conversation with him. And just at that time the fugitive slave law was in force, and altogether it made me feel a little nervous, as I did not know whether he was on the right side or not. But he spoke, and said: "This is Mrs. Jones, I believe," and said: "Is John Brown stopping with you?" I thought the truth was the best, any- how, and asked him to come in, and did not know what the result might be. But as soon as he saw John Brown I knew they were friends, and Mr. Pinkerton was on the right side ; and so they were very friendly together and were very glad to see each other. Mr. Pinkerton said he had been to see the slaves Mr. Brown had brought in, and he said they were going to be looked after. "I am going to get money enough to send these negroes out of the city," he said ; "Mrs. Jones will take good care of you to-day," and of course I said "Yes." And then their anti-slavery friends came up to see John Brown, and Dr. Dyer suggested giving him a suit of clothes and said that would be a good disguise for him. Dr. Dyer, Mr. Freer, and I do not know how many, were there ; and one man, whose name I cannot remember, was about the same size as John Brown, and he went down in town and fitted the clothes on himself, because they did not want to send John Brown down in town. He brought them to John
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Brown, and I guess John Brown was hung in these same clothes.
One of the girls which I told you about, that came here from Missouri covered with straw, is now living in Chicago. They were all sent away from Chicago. One got married and died, and I do not know what be- came of the other; but one drifted back to Chicago. Her husband had been in the war, and she came here to see if Mr. Jones could identify her to get a pension, and she had four girls. One of the girls lived with us for five years, and went to school and was accepted as a teacher.
MR. RUFUS BLANCHARD :
My Dear Sir .- Replying to your favor of the 19th inst., I herewith inclose you a picture of my father, the late Allan Pinkerton. Concerning his standing with the abolitionists in the early days in Illinois, I would state my father came to this country in 1842; he was a native of Glasgow, Scotland, was married to Joan Crafrae, and sailed the day after his marriage from Glasgow; he was shipwrecked at Sable island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and eventually rescued with the other passengers and landed at Montreal, and from there went to Detroit, and from Detroit overland to Chicago. He was by trade a cooper, and for a short time worked in Chicago, as a cooper, then moved farther west to the Scotch settlement of Dundee, Kane county, Ill., where he established a cooperage business, in company with his brother Robert Pinkerton, and there all of his children were born, with the exception of his youngest daughter, Joan, now Mrs. Wm. J. Chalmers, of Chicago. The settlers around Dundee were mostly Scotch, and were almost entirely abolitionists. He very soon be- came identified with the abolitionists of Chicago, headed by Jas. H. Collins, Dr. Dyer, Calvin De Wolf and other people of that class; and my earliest recol- lection goes back to the house in which I was born-a
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small farm house at the top of the river in Dundee, with a one-story brick store adjoining, and a large cooper shop in the rear. In this cooper shop there were employed a number of white men, and at least a half dozen runaway slaves who had escaped from bond- age, who had made their way that far north, and who had been sent out through the underground railway to a settlement where they were taken in hand by my father, and there they learned their trade as coopers. Some of these people, I believe, are still living, although they would be very old men now.
My father took out his citizenship papers shortly after his arrival, and soon after became a citizen of the United States. He was appointed deputy sheriff in Kane county, and from his position as deputy sheriff, on account of his success in breaking up several gangs of horse thieves and counterfeiters which then infested the country, he was appointed to a similar position in Chicago. He came to this city as deputy sheriff under, I believe, Wm. L. Church, who was then the sheriff. On arriving in Chicago he became actively identified with the workings of the underground railway and the abolitionist party in Chicago; in fact, he became a leader among them, and many an unfortunate slave escaping from bondage passed through his hands to other agents of the under- ground railway, until they were safely landed in Canada.
I recollect-it must have been in 1859 or 1860- when the family resided on Adams street, on the pres- ent site of the general offices of the Burlington rail- road, of my father saying to me that he wanted me to go with him in the evening; he led me through what was then known as Wells street, but now Fifth avenue, to the corner of Polk street, then we turned east to the center of the block between Sherman and Wells streets, where there was a small mill, owned by an old negro named Wagner. This mill was simply grinding cracked
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wheat and cereals of that kind, and the business was quite a small one. In this house were gathered a num- ber of white men and a number of negroes. I recollect distinctly that the white men were bearded and rough looking chaps, some of whom wore overcoats made of blue blankets, and all had the appearance of what we would now call a western man. The meeting that they held was a very secret one, and before we left there my father told me to take a good look at the old man, who appeared to be the leader of the white men and negroes in the house. He explained to me that the old
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allan Pinkerton
man was John Brown, that Brown was a greater man than Napoleon ever dared to be, and as great a man as Washington. This remark impressed me greatly, and my father further told me that these people had been driven out of Kansas by a number of ruffians, and were fleeing to a place of safety in Canada, and that he had to go to raise some money for them. There was a local republican convention in session at the time, and in those days republicanism had not reached the stage which it reached a couple of years later, when Lincoln became the candidate for president. My father went to the convention and insisted that a subscription be
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raised for the purpose of getting these men safely out of Chicago and into Canada. There was some difficulty in raising the money, but he declared that unless the money was paid over to get these men out of town he would march the whole crowd down to the conven- tion hall and allow the United States marshal to take them into custody. This threat had its effect, and $300 or $400 was raised, and that night the whole crowd, headed by John Brown, was sent out of town en route to Canada. This must have been, I think, in 1858 or 1859. At any rate, the next I heard of Brown was the attack that he made on Harper's Ferry.
The picture which I send you in connection with this matter, is a copy of a picture which was given by John Brown to my father shortly after his (Brown's) arrival in Canada, and previous to the attack on Har- per's Ferry.
To the day of his death my father retained his strong abolitionist principles; and during the time he was chief of the secret service in Washington he was enabled to be of great benefit to numerous refugees or contrabands, as they were called, who were fleeing from servitude in the south. WM. A. PINKERTON.
RUFUS BLANCHARD:
Dear Sir .- As you requested of me, I give, herein, some of my early recollections of anti-slavery doings in Chicago. I commenced the study of law in the office of Calvin De Wolf at 71 Lake street in the summer of 1846. Dr. C. V. Dyer occupied the same suite of offices. Dr. Dyer was at that time recognized as the leading spirit among the anti-slavery people of this part of the state, and our office might reasonably have been desig- nated as "The Chicago depot of the underground rail- road." James H. Collins, who stood at the head of the Chicago bar, had his office nearly opposite, and next to Dr. Dyer was recognized the most devoted and energetic friend of the colored man. L. C. Paine Freer, S. D.
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Childs, Daniel Davidson and his brother Orlando and Seth Paine were leading spirits.
Zebina Eastman was then editing and publishing the Citizen, an abolition paper. Among the incidents of these times which I have bright in my mind, are the following:
One night a number of runaway slaves were brought in, and slept on the floor of the front office. I occupied the rear room of the suite as my sleeping room. Quite early in the morning they were taken to another place, and their butternut clothes were exchanged for others, less conspicuous in Chicago, and their slave names were exchanged for new ones. It was quite the habit to give runaways, thus newly born into liberty, some of the most distinguished names in American history. Shortly after they had left, the United States marshal for this district came to the office and demanded admittance; said there were some runaway slaves in our office, and he had a warrant for their arrest. I told him there were no slaves there, and refused to let him in. He insisted that he knew better, and said if I did not open the door he would break it down. After delaying him as long as I thought it safe to do so, considering the well being of the door, I opened the door and allowed him to sat- isfy himself that what I had said was true-that there were no runaway slaves there.
The marshal seemed to think we would endeavor to send the runaways to Canada by a steamer that was to sail that morning. The steamer was lying at the foot of State street, behind Peck's warehouse, and so having first examined the steamer, and finding there were no runaways stowed away, stationed a number of deputies on the dock to prevent their being taken aboard. By this time the matter had got noised about the city, and a large crowd was gathered on the dock to see what would happen. What did happen was that the runaways all got aboard without the marshals know- ing it, and this is the way it was done: A number of
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negroes, employed upon the boat, were put in a line with the white help, and set to wooding the boat from a pile at the east end of the warehouse, a very con- venient place for our purpose. The runaways were brought down one by one and slipped into the line of wooders in place of colored men who were slipped out until all were aboard and safely stowed away. I do not remember the name of the boat or of the captain, but he was an expert in that line of business. The run- aways were safely landed in Canada in due time.
About the same time an old negro, who had lived in Chicago for a number of years, was kidnapped and carried off into slavery. He was taken from Chicago by team to La Salle and thence by steamer to St. Louis. La Salle was at that time the head of a line of steam- boats running regularly between that place and St. Louis. The supposed kidnappers were Chicago men, and were arrested, but for want of proof they were discharged.
Mr. MacDougall, afterward United States senator from California, defended the kidnappers.
One of the most exciting incidents was that in con- nection with the arrest and trial of a negro alleged in the warrant to be a "copper colored negro." The trial was before Geo. W. Meeker, a United States com- missioner, and it took place in the United States court room, in the old "Saloon " building, on the southeast corner of Clark and Lake streets. Mr. Meeker was a whig, and not very much in sympathy with slave catch- ing; withal he was said to possess considerable policy and shrewdness. At his request Henry A. Clark, a strong democratic young lawyer, sat on one side of him and I on the other, as he said, to take notes of the evidence. I do not remember that he consulted our notes, and I suspected at the time that he did not care so much for our notes of the evidence as he did to learn, through us, what might be taking place outside of the court room. I cannot say what he learned through
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Mr. Clark, but he learned through me, at an opportune time, that there were in the room a body of some fifty men well armed and determined that if he ordered the negro to be taken back into slavery, he would be taken out of that room by force.
I do not remember that I knew any of these men. Their leader was Allan Pinkerton, who at that time was carrying on coopering business at Dundee, and who afterward became the noted detective-the head of the Pinkerton detective agency. The marshal had sus- pected that there might be violence, and had a dozen deputies seated immediately behind the prisoner, ready for any emergency. The controversy in the trial turned upon the identity of the prisoner, whether he answered the description of "copper colored." The commissioner finally found that he was not "copper colored," and ordered his discharge. In an instant, and before the claimant or marshal fairly knew what had been done, the prisoner was seized and hustled out of the court room, and conveyed to a place of safety, while the way of the marshal and his deputies was so blocked that they could not even get out of the room until all traces of the negro were lost.
Another interesting incident took place before Jus- tice of the Peace Kircheval. His office was in the two- story wooden building on the east side of Clark street, just north of Lake. It was approached only by a stair- way leading from the sidewalk to the second story. Kircheval was a strong pro-slavery man, knew but little law, and had the reputation of deciding his cases accord- ing to his prejudices, with little regard to law or justice if a fugitive was brought before him under the fugitive slave law. The room was crowded with spectators ; even the stairway was filled, and the sidewalk in front of the building. After the case had proceeded for a while, the excitement of the trial and the bad air cre- ated by the crowd very naturally suggested to the jus- tice fresh air and refreshments, which were found in a
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neighboring saloon, to which his honor, the prosecuting lawyers and the constables, except one who was left to guard the prisoner, repaired. The trial was never re- sumed, for during the absence of the court the prisoner was seized, passed over the heads of the crowd and down the stairway to where some persons in waiting ran him down Clark street, whence he disappeared, and was not afterward recaptured.
There were a number of trials before Judge Drum- mond, of the United States circuit court, for inter- ferences with the slave pursuers, but as I did not take any personal interest in these trials I do not remember the particulars well enough to give any account of them.
Immediately following the repeal of the Missouri compromise act, there was a great meeting held in the State street market hall. It was at this meeting that Edwin C. Larned made the speech which gave him his reputation as a great popular speaker, and it was at this meeting that Isaac Cook, familiarly called Ike Cook, rushing onto the stand at the close of Mr. Larned's speech, greatly excited, commenced his answer with, "Truth squashed to earth will rise again, by God, you cannot stop her." The laughter and ap- plause were so tumultuous, Mr. Cook was unable to proceed, and after a while concluded to leave the rest of his speech unsaid.
The driving out of the "free state settlers" from Kansas by the border ruffians, and the appearance of a large number of refugees in Chicago in 1856, gave rise to a great public meeting here, and the formation of the local Kansas committee. I am unable to give the names of the members of the committee, except Isaac N. Arnold and Dr. John Evans. I was added to the committee after it was organized. This committee did something in the way of sending emigrants (properly armed to protect themselves) into Kansas. The border ruffians having practically closed the Missouri river to
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free state emigrants, they had to be sent through Iowa. I went to Iowa City as the agent for this committee, and fitted out the first company of emigrants that went by that route. As there was then no railroad beyond Iowa City, these emigrants had to be conveyed across the state of Iowa into Nebraska, and thence into Kan- sas by teams purchased for that purpose.
It was at the suggestion of this Chicago committee that a convention was held at Buffalo, which organized a national Kansas committee. This convention was
Harvey B. Hard.
composed of probably 500 delegates, and was one of the most notable, on account of the personnel of its mem- bers, I have ever known. Governor Reeder, then late governor of Kansas, presided. The national Kansas committee was composed of one member from each state, except that Illinois had several members. Abraham Lincoln was a member from Illinois. He did not act, however, but designated W. F. M. Arny to act in his place. Gen. J. D. Webster, of Chicago, was vice- president; Geo. W. Dole was treasurer, and I was sec-
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retary of the committee, and we three constituted the executive committee and carried on the business of the committee from Chicago. Our office was in the Marine bank building, northeast corner of Lake and La Salle streets. It was this executive committee that con- ducted the Kansas campaign on the part of the north from the time of its appointment, in 1856, until Kansas was made a free state, and it was this committee that threw into Kansas, in the spring of 1857, the large body of free state settlers who gave to their cause the big majority at the subsequent elections.
HARVEY B. HURD.
When anti-slavery agitation first began, its advo- cates were accused of wishing to array the north against the south to dissolve the Union. They were stigmatized as man stealers, freedom shriekers, lunatics, and other opprobrious epithets were applied to them. Pending this transitory stage of state policy, philo- sophical minds penetrated the ultimatum of this con- flict; and with prophetic words declared that it would not end till all the slaves were set free. The political leaders of both the democratic and whig parties looked upon it as a transient ebullition of sickly sentiment- ality, soon to be eliminated from the body politic; and when Buchanan ran against Fremont, in 1856, and was elected president, on a slavery issue, the slavery party believed that the whole question was settled, never again to be resurrected. It is not strange that partisan politicians might arrive at such a conclusion, for they were neither statesmen nor philosophers. But this illusion was dispelled by the enthusiasm that nomi- nated Abraham Lincoln at Chicago in 1860, as candidate for president of the United States.
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