USA > Illinois > Morgan County > Jacksonville > Historic Morgan and classic Jacksonville > Part 23
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"I was."
"Were all of the seven men, spoken of above, abolitionists ?"
"I think so. I am certain that Wolcott, Mathers, Foreman and myself were. Per- haps all were not so active as some of us."
"Were the active ones known by the public to be such ?"
"Yes; and we were the most hated and despised of men. We were the most un- popular people in town for a long time, and were almost socially ostracised. Although there was a New England settlement here, which in the main sympathised fully with the abolition movement, still the element of southern descent and feelings predomin- ated, and the best and otherwise worthiest people of the town united in deeming us fanatics and revolutionists. The churches were all against us with the exception of the Congregational church, of which a number of abolitionists were members. We could get no other church when we wished to have a lecture or an address by any eminent agitator like Wm. T. Allen or Owen Lovejoy."
"Will you please mention some of the Jacksonville abolitionists ?"
"Well besides those already named there were Thomas Melendy, J. B. Turner, Samuel Adams, Timothy Chamberlain, William Kirby, William Carter, Julius and Samuel Willard, Azel Pierson, William Holland and Henry Irving, William H. Williams and William Strawn."
"Sometimes our opponents created disturbances at these abolition meetings. I re-
137
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD TIMES.
member once when Wm. Allen, a noted preacher, was addressing us, at the Congrega- tional church, some malicious person threw a black rag baby straight at his head. Ax you may imagine we were all very indignant. The feeling against us was intense. Men came to my store- ohl customers and refused to deal any longer with me because 1 was an abolitionist. The fact that Richard Yates, then a Whig, dined at the house of Willard, created a great commotion and was used against him. But such opposition deterred neither him nor us."
"Was there any abolition organization here ?"
"No formal organization, but we were firmly united and known to be so. As I said, the New Englanders in general sympathized with us, but their cantiousness and con- servatism didn't permit some of them to admit it publicly."
"Did the underground railroad run through here ?"
"Well, there was an occasional passenger. One night when I went home my wife informed me there was company to be entertained, and surely enough I found them in the barn-three fugitive slave women from Missouri. We clothed, fed and cheered them, and while n musical party were gathered at our house, the three women (clad in the well-known garments of the three daughters of Wm. Holland, who had come to the house as invited guests) were quietly moved, escorted by Mr. Holland, Prof. Turner and myself to the house of Azel Pierson, thence to Mrs. Kirby's, whence after a stay of ten days, Benj. Henderson took them in a closed carriage to Lyman's at Pleasant Plains, and Lyman sent them on their way rejoicing. They had been tracked to Jacksonville by officials acting under the odious Fugitive Slave law, and at the time of their concenl- ment at Mrs. Kirby's they were advertised all over town and rewards offered for them. This was the only case of fugitives I was connected with. But I have no doubt there were many others. Timothy Chamberlain was a particularly active 'underground rail- road man.' As it was a penitentiary offense in those days to harbor or assist a fugitive slave, you may rest assured not very many were ever connected with the enterprise and the few that were, didn't talk much about it."
"As for Wolcott and me and the others named, we never denied the charge, and I consider it one of the greatest compliments I ever received, that when the colored peo- ple of Jacksonville held their first emancipation celebration, they chose me, a white man, to be their chairman. It was a great and a memorable honor."
"The survivors of your original band are very few in number, Mr. King ?"
"Very few. They are almost all dead. Turner, Chamberlain, Irving, Henderson. Foreman and myself are all that are alive now; and of the eight, who formed that first Republican club Foreman and I alone survive."
"Tell me about that first meeting of that club."
"Well, Elihu Wolcott, a noble pioneer in that movement, presided at that meeting. and we organized such a club. We met quietly for a time in my store, and afterwards held meetings in a room in a building owned by John Mathers, on the square, two doors south of East State street, where I now own a storeroom, occupied by Phelps & Osborne, a dry goods firm."
"The object of your organization being as stated, what kind of work did you set out to do?"
"Well, we first turned our attention to the 'sinews of war' and went quietly to rais- ing money. Our membership being so small, you can Imagine that our subscriptions were not very numerous. All gave what they could. There were not many, in addition to the original eight, who contributed anything. Our next step was to purchase and disseminate literature. We procured and distributed a large number of pamphlets. They served to awaken no little feeling and prepared the way for a still more effective campaign document .- Uncle Tom's Cabin."
"Immediately upon its publication we determined to procure a number of copies of that soul stirring production and circulate them gratis in the interest of our cause."
"We had to send to Cleveland, Ohio, to get the books. Wolcott, Mathers and myself
138
"UNCLE TOM" --- AIDING FUGITIVE SLAVES.
supplied the funds and we bought five hundred copies. We scattered them, discreetly and judiciously, far and wide. They did more to increase the hostility to slavery than any other agency, in this vicinity. They were read and re-read by man, woman and child in every neighborhood, and at the very mention of 'Uncle Tom' the blood boiled in every just man's veins."
"Several Methodist ministers and other friends helped us circulate them. The Rev. Mr. Hindall, a circuit rider, was especially active in the work. Rev. James H. Dickens was also full of enthusiasm. A German friend, too, at Beardstown, helped us in the good work."
"We had only a few real Republican addresses before the Fremont campaign. One of the first strong anti-slavery speeches made here was by Abraham Lincoln. He spoke in the court house park, and when he came out sharp and strong against slavery I threw up my hat and shouted .Hurrah for Abe Lincoln for president of the United States'."
"Members of your organization took prominent parts, I suppose, in the first Repub- lican conventions in this region ?"
"Yes; we were many of us members of the conventions here and of the state con. ventions during all that period."
Mr. Henry Irving was one of the bravest men connected with the underground rail- road and did good service on it from 1843 until the war. Though his principal work was that of conducting he always did what he could in the way of entertaining fugitives. Once he kept a man in the garret of his house for a week, the roads being so closely watched that it was unsafe for anyone to start away with his guest, and so cleverly did he manage the affair that he finally got away with him in spite of the vigilance of the slave catchers. He and William Strawn once took a runaway on horse-back to Pleasant Plains. Returning with the extra horse they were alarmed at meeting Judge Lockwood, who they feared would suspect what they had been doing, but if he did, he never spoke of it. The man had been steward on a steamboat and was quite valuable which cansed the owner to pursue him hotly, but he was a bright active fellow and declared he would never be taken alive.
The darkest nights were chosen for the trips which Mr. Irving made, Farmington being the station to which he generally drove, and he still speaks highly of the good people in that village who were always so willing to aid the cause. One trip is especi- ally impressed on his memory, which he undertook one very dark disagreeable night. There were something near a dozen persons aboard and the station was between thirty- five and forty miles distant. The darkness could almost be felt and the roads being none of the best, no time was to be lost. Frequently he had to get out of the wagon and feel for the track when passing over the prairie. Once the sound of approaching hoofs caused the hearts of the whole company to stand still. Stopping the team he re. quested perfect silence, but they were soon relieved by finding that two stray horses had caused their fright. The road was bad and they frequently strayed from the track, and nothing but the excellence of Ebenezer Carter's team brought them through. Day- light appeared when they were yet some miles from Farmington and then from behind every bush they looked for an enemy to appear and every sound seemed to be that of pursuers. Their destination was safely reached, however, and after resting the next day the fugitives went on and their brave conductor returned.
This is but one of a host of adventures through which he passed, never once being apprehended by the officers of the law though often suspected and pursued. He still vividly recalls the early abolition meetings when so much disorder was created by the enemies of freedom, causing Prof. Turner on one occasion at the court house to pound on the platform with his cane and shout, in the language of Gen. Jackson, "By the Eter- nal, we will have order here."
These were times in which political excitement ran high. The anti-slavery senti- ment was developing and men were risking proscription, persecution and punishment
139
IRVING AND TURNER AS R. R. CONDUCTORS.
for aiding fellow-beings to escape from the unrighteous slave-masters with which the nation was accursed. The laws of the State made its citizens slave catchers and against this the souls of the freedom-loving rebelled. Prof. Turner, one of the old time aboli- tionists of Jacksonville, narrates in the Daily Journal August 2. 1884, the following in- cident of 1846:
One bitterly cold night in December, the fall after we so nobly welcomed the Portu guese to our city, Mr. Irving came to me while in my barn feeding my horse and said that there were three colored women escaped from the St. Louis slave market which their friends had escorted and concealed in an old abandoned cabin, southwest of Negro. town in the fields. If left there they would freeze to death or be captured, as their pursuers and our police were close after them. He wished me to go to their rescue while he returned to the city to watch the police. The man was deeply in earnest, quite up to sobbing and trembling. What could I do? But one thing was possible. I at once cut me a heavy hickory bludgeon from the woodpile-which I could then wield far more fearlessly and unscrupulously than now -hid it under my camblet cloak and proceeded to the rescue, while he returned to town to attend to matters there. Ar- riving at the cabin door I rapped, no one stirred, I repeated my raps but all was still. and I supposed my birds had been captured or had fled from fear. I bethought me to say "I am your friend." At once there was slight rustle and soon the crack of the door was cautiously opened. I quickly reassured them and three trembling, frozen and half dead women stood around me, all, as I afterwards learned, regular members of the or- thodox Methodist church in St. Louis, who had been out of doors for a week, trying to escape from a sale down south, away from all their families and friends, which they deemed far worse in those days than death. Seeing the lanterns of the police glancing about "Negro-town," as we called it, I told them to follow me, one after the other, with- in sight of each other as I led them out of the bright starlight under the shadows of the trees and fences ; and if anything happened to me or them, to scatter and hide in the cornfields. By this time my blood was up. I was ready for business, and determin- ed to defend my charge at all hazards. But it soon occurred to me that I had "got an elephant on my hands," and that it would be impossible to conceal them at my house, or in that of any known anti-slavery man.
Dr. Pierson then lived on the old Post place, one mile or more west of town. He was an elder in the Presbyterian church, a good Christian man, but regarded as pro- slavery in his sympathies. I resolved to take them to him. For I thought I knew the bottom of the old man's heart better than he did himself. So I proceeded to pilot them to the gate that leads to his house, and waited for them to come up. Only two of the three came. 1 supposed the last one had been nabbed, or from her excessively frozen feet had missed her way. I therefore hid the two under the shelter of a fence and brush, and ran back toward town at full speed for the third. I found she had fallen behind and missed her way from excessive lameness. I then took them up to Dr. Pierson's door, rapped and called for the doctor, and said to him: "Here we all are, doctor. I found these strangers, so and so. You know I cannot protect them. I have brought them to you. You must either protect or betray us." "Come in, come in, Mr. Turner. We won't betray you. We will do the best we can for them. Wife, these people need some hot coffee and something to eat." On went the tea kettle, open flew the larder as though the king himself had knocked at the door, as indeed he had. The Lord's children got their supper and left the devil out doors to feed on creeds, ortho- doxies, conservatismns and wind, to his heart's content. They were kept and carefully nursed for a week or two in Dr. Pierson's barn, and a man took my horses and old sleigh and shot them off towards the Canada line. This is all I know about the affair. I heard they got through safely. How those women got to that old cabin I never knew till I read it in the Journal last week. I do not remember to have spoken with any of the parties about it since, as gassing with each other has been no part of our business. But all who really know anything about it will confirm this general statement.
140
PROF. TURNER AT AN "ORTHODOX" PRAYER-MEETING.
The first of January after this, on another bitterly cold night, we had one of our old- fashioned annual union dress-parade prayer meetings, in the basement of the same church in which we had before welcomed the Portuguese. In these meetings all the sects united except the Campbellites, who had not then got fully on their orthodox pina- fores. For, then as now, no faith was deemed orthodox that had not been salted down long enough to begin to petrify and turn to stone. Any true description of those union prayer meetings would now be resented as a caricature.
On this occasion a most excellent Christian man, now in Heaven, but then too or- thodox for either Heaven or earth, quoted freely from the Assembly's catechism, to show the exceeding danger and peril of all heretics and especially of all Unitarians, or men so inclined. I stood the first round very comfortably in silence. But when he again renewed the assault so vigorously that all eyes were turned over to my corner, I could not resist the temptation to reply. I quoted from Christ's creed instead of the church creeds; narrated my experience in detail, as given above, in an effort to conform to Christ's creed, only taking care to implicate no one in it but myself; commended them for their noble reception of the Portuguese in that church but little before, who had been deprived by the tyrrany of the Portuguese of the privilege of reading only one book-the Bible. But here were American-born citizens, orthodox church mem- bers whom the tyrrany of our laws and votes and churches had deprived of the privil- ege of reading all books whatever, from God or man; sealed their immortal souls in total midnight darkness; denying them the right to their own wages, husbands and children, nay to their own souls and bodies; and when about to be sold from all these, fleeing from lusts more dreadful to them than death, with frozen feet and starved bodies, they appealed to me for aid, I was compelled to skulk away, through the darkness of midnight, from all our court houses and officers, our churches and creeds and ortho- doxies, as though I were a whipped dog, or was perpetrating some infamous crime.
We have had enough of creeds that never were anything but the bastard and lep- rous progeny of the old Papists and despots of Europe. Let us Americans return to the creed of Him who alone is son of man, son of God and savior of the world, and alone competent to give us a creed.
Of course I do not remember the words of this little speech, but its spirit I can never forget; for at the time I felt that more fines than all my property was then worth and a possible term in the state's prison, in which my old and much beloved classmate Torry gloriously died, hung on every word of its utterance.
The next morning the town was of course astir. Esquire Smith, a southern man, our leading lawyer, one of our grandest old men, was at the prayer meeting and heard, all that was said. The pro-slavery party naturally went to him to get ont writs for me, on my own confession.
He said to them : "You go home and keep quiet. The less you have to say about that meeting the better it will be for you and for us all."
So these poor old slaves are, I suppose, in heaven, with nearly all the others who bore any part in those transactions, while we are still here to thank God every day and every hour that even the lowest and meanest of our citizens cannot now be tempted with crimes and infamies that in those days sorely beset, if they did not overcome the wisest and the best of us, and that all other creeds are so rapidly giving way to the creed of the Christ of God.
The early days of the underground railroad were fraught with great hardship for those who conducted the enterprise. It meant for them social ostracism, great labor and expense as well as the risk of heavy fines and imprisonment; but caring for none of these things these brave souls went forward unflinchingly in the path of duty. No monument can now be reared to their memory which will begin to do them justice; their reward is the gratitude of 4,000,000 liberated slaves, and their monument the grand fact that in our country all men are really free and equal before the law.
At one time a slave girl had escaped, and it was suspected that she was hidden at
141
CHAUNCEY CARTER AND TIMOTHY CHAMBERLAIN
Ebenezer Carter's, two miles south of the city. Immediately a band of southern sym. pathizers rode out there, and driving up to the house, the leader inquired of Chauncey :
"Where's your father !"
"He's not at home just now."
"Where's your mother ?"
"She's gone away, too."
"Isn't there anybody at home ?"
"Yes; I'm here."
"Is that nigger girl about the place ?"
"Well, really, I don't believe I can say."
"You'd better say, for we've got a warrant and are going to search the house."
"All right, if you've legal authority go ahead."
The two daughters were much alarmed, but the boy stood his ground and the crowd left without a chew and cursing the lad for his nonchalance.
At one time a citizen of this county bought a boy in the south and brought him here to work on his farm for a number of months. When his master was taking him back to the south some one in St. Louis told him he was entitled to his freedom and legal proceedings were at once instituted in his behalf. Ebenezer Carter was request. ed to go down and testify, but being busy sent his son Chauncey. The slaveholder met the boy on his arrival, and, shotgun in hand, said :
"What are you doing down here ?"
"I came down to look around a little."
"Well, you'd better make tracks for home and that in a hurry."
"I thought I wouldn't go until I'd seen something of the city."
"Well, I tell you you'd better leave or you'll find it a very unhealthy place."
"I guess I won't go to.day, anyhow."
Nor did he go until he had given his testimony, which we are informed, resulted in the freedom of the slave.
A number of persons now living were acquainted with the history of these days. Among others Mr. Timothy Chamberlain, who says, "I had no active part in the under- ground road, but when Mr. Henderson or some other person would come to me for money or clothes, I knew where to go for them. A good many persons now claim always to have been avowed abolitionists who were certainly not very outspoken then. When I was living in Macoupin county a man from Jacksonville came down there to tell a slave boy who had been brought there from Missouri, that he was entitled to his freedom. He ate dinner with me, but suspecting an armed mob. I urged him to flee for his life, which he did, and none too soon. The next day the mob compelled the slave boy to swear that I had put him up to running away, and they came to my house with him. The leader drew his pistol and said, "Mr. Chamberlain, you have been put- ting this boy up to running away, and we are going to settle with you for it." Backing up against the house I drew a knife and said, "If you attack me I don't expect to live ten minutes, but when 1 go to heaven I will take several of you with me as witnesses. Your accusation is wholly false, but I now say to the boy in the presence of you all that he is entitled to his freedom and can get it in any court in the land. You came here to find an abolitionist, and there was none here, but you see one now right be- fore you."
"Several of the company began to sympathize with me and the crowd left. When a second attack was contemplated some time later several of these same persons secreted themselves near by without my knowledge so as to be ready to help me if necessary. From that time forward my opinions were pronounced and everybody had a chance to know what they were. My friends thought it safer for me to move back to Jackson- ville which I did, going into the hack business. Sometimes my hack would be missing for a day or two but I had a very good idea where it had gone."
Mr. Jos. H. Bancroft says he took no part directly in aiding fugitive slaves to escape
142
SYMPATHY FOR SLAVE OWNERS IN 1843.
but when he was mysteriously asked for a pair of shoes or other articles he handed them out gladly. Public attention was much aroused by a visit of E. P. Lovejoy to this place about the year 1835 or 1836. It was very detrimental to any man to be known as an Abolitionist. One old lady was looking at some black and white straw bonnets at his store and remarking that they were Abolition bonnets said she wanted none of then. A customer once called him aside very privately and wanted to know it he was an Abolitionist as he had determined to have nothing to do with any such person.
Alderman W. C. Carter being asked at what time 'underground railroad' work was systematically undertaken in this place, answered :
"About the year 1838 or '39. Though but a boy at that time the stirring scenes then enacted have left a vivid impression on my memory. Elihu Wolcott was at that time the head and front of the enterprise, bestowing his money and energies on the cause with a devotion that never wavered and a courage that never faltered. Immediately associated with him were T. W. Melendy, Ebenezer Carter, my father, Benjamin Hen- derson, D. B. Ayers, Dr. M. M. L. Reed, and later, Samuel Willard and his father and some others."
Mr. Carter has in his possession two documents, yellow with age, dated February 22d and 23d, 1843, which we present herewith.
NEWS-EXTRA-NOTICE .- The citizens of Jacksonville are requested to assemble at the court house on Thursday, the 23d inst. at 1 o'clock p. m., for the purpose of express- ing their feeling in relation to the late outrage committed upon the property of a widow lady visiting our town by one of our citizens.
Here followed a list of thirty names of prominent citizens. The meeting was largely attended and the following resolutions unanimously adopted :
"WHEREAS. An outrage having been committed some short time since by two citi- zens of this place upon the property of a stranger and that stranger a widowed lady, the injury was promptly repaired so far as the lady was concerned, and time having now been given that all excitement and intemperance of action might subside, the citizens of Jacksonville believe that it is due to themselves, to the people at large and to their friends at a distance that the public mind should be disabused of all prejudice against the town by publishing to the world a full, fair and unvarnished state of facts, authorized, indorsed and accredited as the act of the town.
"Some short time since a widow lady by the name of Lisle, a resident of Louisiana. on her way home from Kentucky, came to this place to visit a couple of sisters residing here. She was accompanied by her child and nurse and a female slave about 18 years of age. Mrs Lisle was unexpectedly detained here longer than she had anticipated by the closing of the river. On Thursday night of week before last, the night before she intend- ed starting, and did start home in the stage, the negro girl was stolen off by a certain Samuel Willard and conveyed to the house of Ebenezer Carter. two miles south of this place where she was concealed until Saturday evening, when she was run off by J. A. Willard, the father of the former. Many of the citizens promptly volunteered to look for the girl and on Saturday night made the above discovery with the addition that the elder Willard would carry the girl to a Mr. Cushing. one mile south of Greenfield, and from this place she would be conveyed by some other person toward Canada. The pur- suit was so prompt that the girl was taken while in possession of Willard and both brought back to this place when the girl was sent to her mistress. and the two Willards were immediately arraigned, and after a full hearing of the case, defended by N. Coffin, they were admitted to bail in the sum of $2,500 to answer to our penal code at the next March term of our court.
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