A series from 1908/1909 "Western Work" a regional publication
of the Society of Friends
published in Oskaloosa, IA, from 1894 - 1912
first editor was Absalom Rosenberger
David M. Edwards editor last three years.
Compiled and typed in December 1999 - January 2000
by Jean (Hallowell) Leeper
her great great grandfather Charles Maxwell,
was Rachel's brother.
Slavery Issue and Salem
Many things transpired
within a few years that were calculated to arouse every abolitionist
to action. One of which was the coming of two families from Virginia,
bringing a slave woman with them, that had cared for each of them in
infancy, and they expected to keep her as a slave here. Finding that
impossible since neither the law nor public opinion would sustain
them, (the people saw that if they allowed one to be held her more
would be brought),the new comers gave out the word that she was
discontented they would take her back to their old home. Instead,
they took her to a slave state and sold her to strangers, receiving
as compensation one beast of burden, and the remnants of an old
store. Then they began the work of returning fleeing slaves for
bounty, receiving two hundred dollars for the return of one company
that they tracked to a barn. They were not allowed to go on in peace,
for as they started, rising early in the morning thinking the
neighbors would not be up, an old man stopped them and with the tied
slaves listening told them
the awful wickedness of what they were doing, and that the curse of
God would rest upon them. They went on and got their money, but no
one could ever see that it did them any good. Shortly after their
return, a dying man, a brother of Nathan Kellum sent for one that
lived nearest and told him with the power that is given to one
standing on the threshold of the eternal world the consequences of
what he was doing, and this work ceased.
Fugitive Slaves
By this time Daggas
slaves had made their escape, and several families that believed
in
"free soil" had been added to the band already here, and the slaves
were coming in larger number. Seventeen in this company successfully
crossed the Des Moines river and got within a mile of Salem before
they became aware that they were followed. They scattered so quickly
that none of them were taken just at the time, and one old man full
of faith in God and the Quakers ran into town asking for help about
the middle of the afternoon. He was gotten out of sight for a few
minutes until men could think. Paul Way solved the problem by coming
to the door and calling out, if any body wanted to follow him they
would have to be in a hurry as he was going. He went to the hitch
rack, untied his horse, sprang into the saddle and started home at
full speed. Two men who understood his action got the negro out and
onto another horse, gave him the little grand son he was carrying and
away he went fast enough to keep in sight. The Missourians came in
time to see him leave and started in pursuit, but Paul Way made too
many turns and they lost them and returned to watch for others. This
one was taken in an old lime kiln about three miles north east of
town and hidden. He was fed and kept that night and another day. Two
of my sisters and myself sat up until near morning making clothes for
the child. On the second night the old man and child were taken to
the Kellum home, but so near morning that they could not safely take
them to the "lone tree," so the conductor went to the nearest
neighbor, Francis Shelldan's and they made a rail pen just high
enough so that the man could hold his head up straight when sitting
on the ground. Straw as hastily thrown over it and the man and child
out in. In a very short time one of the Missourians was along the
road inquiring of they had seen any colored people pass that road.
All day the man and his wife cleaned wheat with a fanning mill set so
the chaff fell in the pen, and that night men from Denmark came for
him.
Just before dark one evening a young man lightly tapped on door of
the Joel Garretson home four miles east of Salem. The wife cautiously
opened it, and by waving her hand showed him the way to the orchard,
where he went and found a hiding place underneath a bushy peach tree
that had tall grass meeting the limbs. In a little while the men were
there hunting him, and as they thought went all over that orchard.
When they were tired and left Joel Garretson took him to where Joseph
D. Hoag would expect to find any one that needed help. (Which was a
certain thicket) and took him food and returned to the hose to see
what would come next. They did not have to wait long until some one
came with the wife and babe of the young man, and they were taken ti
him in the thicket during the night. J. D. Hoag conveyed them to a
hiding place near his home where they remained during the day. At
night the conductor on the underground railroad came, riding as
though going to a wolf chase, but the returns had to be different.
With the woman for the horse and the two men walking they proceeded.
The moon was shining and enough of the slave holders and their men
were there so that their patrols passed over the road every thirty
minutes. Under these conditions the trip was made by keeping
sufficient distance from the road, only when it must be crossed, and
then wait for a cloud in the clear sky to cover the moon, but it came
and while not large was thick enough to make a deep shadow in which
they crossed the road and thanked God for it and took courage. When
they met the man from Denmark, it was so late at night they had to
secrete the slaves in a ravine, three miles this side of Denmark.
Then the race for safety and perhaps life began. The distance of
seven miles home was covered at a speed that no one timed. The father
who was up watching, took Nathan Kellum's horse to the back stall,
hid the saddle and bridle, gave the horse a few rubs to even up the
hair, and fed all the horses in the stable, when approaching
footsteps warned him, and he concealed himself while the salve
holders examined the horses. They said none of them had been run or
they had not been sweating, and were breathing evenly, so they left,
not wanting to waste their time.
Cannon Brought From Missouri
Returning to Salem,
they or their men watched the town for three days, searching houses
without any warrant of law whatever. They found the cannon had
arrived which they had sent to Missouri for and also reinforcements
of men. In all they number about sev- (way written)
The citizens thought they had endured enough from them and started a
messenger to Mt. Pleasant, ten miles to notify the sheriff and ask
his assistance. During the forenoon the men from Missouri, placed
their cannon in front of a two-story stone house, built by one
Henderson Lewelling, a nursery man. This house had dark rooms in the
cellar, also a pit for storing grafts, but as he was a staunch
abolitionist, slaves might have been hid there. While the Missourians
went all over houses and turned everything upside down, they were
afraid to enter a cellar, for they were too cowardly, and would not
go unless they could make the owner go first, and this man would not
go. They gave out the word that if their slaves were not brought out
during the afternoon, they would raze the home to the ground, and all
the rest of Salem as well. But the old stone house still stands.
The writer had a married sister living in Salem at the time and her
house was searched in common with the rest. We were watching it with
an ocean pilot's glass from an upper window in the Maxwell home five
miles north east of Salem and could see distinctly.
Sheriff Arrives With Armed Men
When the sheriff
arrived the Missourians had their dinners cooked and on the table at
the hotel. The dinner was paid for before it was cooked. The sheriff
gave them just fifteen minutes to leave town. They swore that would
have their dinners. He said that one blast of his bugle would bring
on the company of well armed men, and if they came at his command,
they would come to shoot, and shoot to kill. "Now, gentlemen, you
have your choice to clear the town in fifteen minutes, or take the
consequences." They went. They did not stand on the order of going,
but went, took their cannon and ll their belongings, and went,
grabbing what dinner they could carry.
After that a long law suit ensued. It was not taken out of court
until after the war closed, and then was compromised.
Nine of out seventeen of Dagg's slaves got to Canada. The rest were
returned to slavery.
From this time on the slaveholders adopted the plan of guarding the
river to prevent the slaves getting across, so that from 1848 the
number that came were less, but as the laws became more pro-slavery
the danger to be met was greater. This work proved a very severe test
to the pioneer church. Composed of members from different states and
educated differently, there were three opinions to be harmonized:
1. Let them alone in slavery: that they were better off there than in
Africa.
2. Render them all the assistance possible when they came to us, and
advocate emancipation.
3. We ought to go to them and show them the way to freedom.
The following extract is found in page 13 of First Book of Record
of Salem Monthly Meeting held 8th month 28, 1841. The representatives
report they all attended the Quarterly Meeting (Western Quarterly
Meeting now Bloomingdale, held at Bloomingdale, Indiana) and had
given them in charge fifty-four extracts of our last Yearly Meeting's
minutes, with an epistle on Slavery attached to each extract, and
fifty-five of said epistles separate from said extracts, and
seventy-six copies of an address on Civil Government, which they
produced to this Meeting. The epistle and address were read to
edification and after a time of deliberation the Meeting united in
appointing Thomas Frazier and Jacob Maxwell to wait on our governor
with said epistle and address on behalf of this Meeting and report
when complied with. 9th month 25th 1841, Those appointed to wait on
the governor, report they have attended. He received them with much
kindness and expressed his gratification at the reception of the
documents.
The advice from the Quarterly Meeting clearly pointed out there
should be something done, the Meeting took the middle ground, but an
Indiana Yearly Meeting separated in 1842 on the question, so in 1842
Salem Monthly Meeting separated. Those going out calling themselves
Abolition Friends, built a meeting house, brought land for burying
ground, etc. Thos. Frazler and Edward Osbun being of those that
separated. In a short time, the fact that one person could not know
all that another was doing, caused some to realize that the
difference was only in how the work should be done, and that a great
amount of the assistance that was being rendered to the slaves could
not wisely be reported in the meetings for business. Before the close
of 1843 Elwood Orsbun had returned and Joseph D. Hoag was added to
the church by certificate from Middleton Monthly Meeting, Ohio.
Joseph Hoag, father of Joseph D. Hoag, spent the winter of 1843 and
'44 as a visiting minister to the edification of the church. One of
the sources of strength and encouragement to the church during the
forties was the company and labors of visiting ministers, the first
being Isom Puckett, uncle of our Isom P. Wooten. Then came Jno. D.
Long and Sam'l Taylor, not a minister. Under appointment of New
England yearly Meeting, the two attended the treaty with the Indians
for their lands, held at Agency City, Iowa territory, going to
Washington, D. C., for legal permission to attend the treaty. They
were also chosen and commissioned to represent the United States
government, which they did. They stopped at Salem, going and and
returning from Agency City, and we young people felt it a great
privilege to have them in our home. They told us of life in the east
as well as their experiences in the west, and it meant more than it
would in these days of daily newspapers.
Father and mother and one sister were absent from home attending
Yearly Meeting at Richmond, Ind. My oldest brother, Charles Maxwell,
was 21 years old and three sisters were older. Brother had just
returned from mill with plenty of breadstuff, though he waited two
weeks at the mill for his work to be done, as that small water power
mill at Farmington on the Des Moines river was called upon to furnish
flour and meal for family use as far as Ackworth, in Warren Co., and
those living the farthest away, were served first by common consent
(or an unwritten law of pioneer life.) We had baked our last cake of
bread one week before he started so that it made three weeks in all
that our food was milk and butter, potatoes and squashes. We were
very thankful to have bread for the travelers when they came. Others
that I recall are Cornelius Douglas and Daniel Taber. Benjamin
Seebohn and Robert Lindley from across the water, also James Jones
and Anna Thornburg. The gospel messages brought by them were a source
of strength to the church, and found good ground in many hearts in
which to spring up and bring forth fruit, and thirty, some sixty and
some an hundred fold.
The educational work
among Friends during the forties, having been ably set forth in the
report of the Sixty-sixth anniversary of the organization of the
Friends church of Salem, Iowa, held 10th month, 8, 1903, we shall not
repeat, but add that one copy of the catalogue issued for the year
ending 3-38-1851 remains in this community, the property of Wm. Bond,
from which we take the following:
Trustees: Lewis Taylor, D. W. Henderson, A. H. Pickering, Joseph D.
Hoag, J. W. Hiatt, Thomas Suiter, Eleazor Andrews and Peter
Hobson.
Officers: Principal, Reuben Darland; assistants, Philip Strahl,
Robert King, Rith A. Holaday.
Librarian: Alfred Bedell
Visiting committee: John Hockett, Thomas Stanley, William Trueblood,
David V. Davis, Rachel Bond, Cynthia Beizly, Lydia Hiatt, Content
King, Elwood Ozbun, Evan Marshall, Henry Darland, William Davis,
Rachel Hockett, Martha N. Darland, Lydia Ozbun, Pheobe Davis.
Of the 322 students enrolled, perhaps Luther B. Gordon, Esther Ellen
Gordon Frame and Eleazar Andrews in the church and Samuel J. Attie,
one of the lumber men of Ft. Madison, in the business world are the
best known.
The following incident will illustrate the need there was at that
time for schools such as Friends organized. In 1845 the settling up
of the estate, made it necessary for a family consisting of three
brothers and four sisters to go to the county seat to sign legal
papers. When the last one had affixed her signature, the officer
remarked that it was very seldom that as many ladies came to his
office all of whom could write their names.
The educational work went on until it gave rise to Whittier college
of the past, and Whittier academy of the present, with their
representatives doing good work from ocean to ocean. One letter read
at the last Alumni meeting was written from Cuba.
Hindrances to the development of true manhood and womanhood that had
to be met, was the rise of spiritualism about this time.
Spiritual rapping began at Rochester, New York, in 1848, and spread
rapidly over the United States, so that when sister and I went back
to Union county, Indiana in 5th month 1849, expecting to attend the
summer school and visit relatives, we met spiritualism on every hand,
and among our near relatives, so there was no escape only to meet it
with an unwavering faith. Having used the Bible as a book of
revelation, read it as a book of history, and studied it as a book of
literature, my first impulse was to compare the new teaching with the
Word, which we had been taught both by parents and ministers. Knowing
this first that no prophecy of the Scriptures is of any private
interpretation; for the prophecy came not in old times by the will of
man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
2 Peter 1:21. And in the light of such plain teachings as. "The soul
that turneth after such as have familiar spirits." " I will even set
my face against that soul." Lev 19:31. Lev. 20:6. I became convinced
that to have anything to do with it would be stepping off the solid
rock., Christ Jesus, to build on a sandy foundations.
In the fifty-nine years that have come and gone since then, I have
had every reason to be thankful for the choice made.
(That summer of 1849
was the cholera epidemic, printed earlier I this document)
On returning to our homes in November spiritual rapping had reached
here, and while it did not cause a separation in the church it
paralyzed the spiritual life of those who embraced it, as do
Spiritualism, Doweyism and Christian Science.
Soon after the organization of the meeting a committee was appointed
to see that every family had a copy of the Scriptures. This work led
to keeping a stock of Bibles for sale and distribution, auxiliary to
the present Association in Philadelphia. In 1850 the Bible school was
organized by a committee appointed by the Monthly Meeting. It was
very large, as the other churches that came later had not yet been
organized. Reuben Darland was the first superintendent, and it has
been held continuously up to the present time. Some notable
conversions occurred in the school the first year of its work.
The subject of Temperance claimed the attention of the people at an
early date. A majority had seen all they wanted of the effects of
alcohol on mind and body before coming here, and were agreed that
they did not need a saloon. Some body thought they wanted to build
the saloon and sell the whiskey. They would not admit that they knew
what "No" meant on that subject, and went right on and bought three
loads of lumber for the building. That was too much for the mothers,
and two women with their plain bonnets took their knitting and chairs
and sat down on the site for the building. When asked how long they
were going to stay, replied, just as long as was necessary. Before
sunset the lumber started away and the saloon has not been built,-
not one , in the history of the town.
A druggist was licensed to sell whiskey, but the events that followed
in the few months that it was tolerated, form the darkest page in its
history. The liquor interests seemed to look this way with envious
eyes and again in 1902, a druggist applied for license to sell
whiskey. The battled had to be fought over again, but it was won
successfully by remonstrance.
