The acquisition of knowledge is our family's priority, and for us, hands-on experiences are the most effective learning tools. We've developed a methodology in which we select one topic and connect many subjects to it-- including math, science, history . . . This method is perfectly suited to the web, and is born out of James Burke's theory of "Connections."
To begin our current odyssey, we walked out our front door, and into history. We live in Mound City, Kansas-- the fountainhead of the western route of the Underground Railroad-- the "Lane Trail." The first stops along this route were some of the most critical, and perilous on the road to freedom. Few places have been so important to our nation's history, and so forgotten.
We've chosen John Brown's 1858 raid into Missouri to tell this story of the "Lane Trail." In this raid, Brown liberated 11 slaves, including "Sam and Jane," and led them to freedom in Canada.
Although the history of "Border Wars" (between Abolitionists and Pro-Slavers along the border of Kansas and Missouri prior to the Civil War) has been the subject of many books, the significant history of the Underground Railroad through this area is not well known, and has yet to be gathered in one spot . . . so we expect many "discoveries."
It would be a tedious task to document every occurrence, and that is not our goal. Our goal is to personalize the history, experience the events "first hand," and get a feel for the time. In this exploration, we'll collect isolated fragments, and let authentic documents, actual accounts and photographs tell the story. We will weave in interesting sites, events, and personalities for a "virtual fieldtrip."
As you join us on this fieldtrip, speak
up . . . ask questions . . . share information. We hope to link up with
other Underground Railroad sites, and build a "virtual museum" of this history.
When two opposing fronts meet on the plains of Kansas, a storm is inevitable.
As extreme forces on either side of the slavery issue collided, many Kansas settlers gave their "last full measure of devotion." The tornado that resulted swept across the country and ripped the nation in two. Causing horrible destruction and loss of life, it was to challenge what we could endure as a nation, and as individuals.
The great experiment of democracy was first put to the test on Kansas ground. We learned that "any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure" and that a "government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." -"Border Wars" 1995
During the 1850's, the border area between Kansas Territory and Missouri was a hotbed of activity, and a sequence of events occurred, leading up to Brown's raid. Although the actual event took place December 20, 1858, we will begin our journey in May, several months before the raid.
Our first stop is Trading Post, one of the earliest settlements in Kansas and a Chouteau trading franchise. It is located about one hour south of Kansas City, just south of the junction of U.S. Highway 69 and Kansas Highway 52.
It was at the Trading Post Museum that we met our first guide, Curator Alice Widner. With her help, we traveled back in time to see Trading Post as it was in the 1800's. She shared with us photos of the Trading Post Mill which was a centerpoint of the community, and the ford which crossed the Marais des Cygne River.
In 1858, Trading Post was used by Missouri Pro-Slavers as a "doggery"-- a gathering place and a whiskey watering hole. James Montgomery-- leader of the Free-State movement in Linn County, Kansas -- was a man of strong religious conviction, and believed this site to be the cauldron where anti-slavery sentiments brewed.
On March 17, Montgomery rode to Trading Post to break up a gathering of Missouri Ruffians, ordering the men to leave the territory. He then removed any incentive to stay by taking an axe to the wooden barrels of corn whiskey stored there.
Anger over the incident festered and fermented, and in the early hours of May 18, a band of Missouri Ruffians, led by Charles Hamilton (sometimes Hamelton), gathered at West Point, Mo. to plan their revenge.
We wanted to find the spot where Pro-Slave forces rallied that night, so we headed due east 6 miles from Trading Post. Although the no evidence of the town remains, we found the West Point Cemetery, about 2 miles north of Amsterdam, Mo.
West Point was, for a time, a rallying point for Pro-Slavers making raids into Kansas. In 1856, 400 Border Ruffians gathered here, before heading out to burn Sugar Mound, Kansas-- a Free-State enclave east of Mound City.
About daybreak on May 18, 1858, 30 Pro-Slavers rode out from West Point. They headed west toward the Trading Post area in Linn County, Kansas. We followed the band, who were fueled by revenge and corn whiskey, as they rounded up 11 Free-State sympathizers.
The hostages were marched northeast of Trading Post to a ravine one mile from the Missouri line, and shot. The incident, known as the Marais des Cygne Massacre, aroused the emotions of Abolitionist Northerners, fueled by newspaper and magazine accounts, including John Greenleaf Whittier's Marais des Cygne Massacre.
We wanted to tromp through the fields where the hostages were marched at gunpoint. We wanted to see the ravine where the 11 were lined up. We wanted to hear the shots of gunfire. We wanted to understand the emotions behind the incident.
For more information, we visited the Marais des Cygne Massacre Park, located 4 miles east of U.S. Highway 69, about 1 1/2 miles north of Trading Post. It is a Kansas State Historical Site, and a Civil War era stone home houses a small museum.
On May 16, 1997, a reenactment of the Marais des Cygne Massacre was held at the park. Several incidents were recreated by reenactors from across the Midwest. With a collection of make-shift period clothes, we volunteered to lead children's games.
With a canopy of tall walnuts, and a carpet of thick grass, this is a perfect spot for a picnic. On this trip, we dressed the kids in period clothes, and brought two dutch ovens, one with beef stew and the other with a cherry cobbler. We brought water in a crock, and sat on blankets to eat lunch.
While we were there, we "invited" Rev. B.L. Read, one of the survivors, and his wife Sarah Read, to talk with us about their recollections of the event. We "met" Sarah at the reenactment and were impressed with her story and her courage. On that fateful day in May 1858, she watched from a distance as her husband was taken prisoner. Even when the wives of other hostages were unable to recognize impending doom, or fell to pieces, Sarah gathered her skirts and petticoats, and ran after the mob, traveling over 9 miles on foot that day.
The Marais des Cygne Massacre enraged John Brown. Near the ravine, on the site of the present stone house, Brown built Fort Snyder. The wooden door of Fort Snyder is displayed at Trading Post Museum, and four of those slain during the Marais des Cygne Massacre are buried in the cemetery just west of the Trading Post Museum, near a monument.
After the massacre, Brown and Montgomery established border patrols along the state line, from Fort Snyder to Fort Bayne about 18 miles south in Bourbon County. "Jayhawkers," armed with Sharps Rifles, took shifts along this border.
Fort Bayne was the site of several important incidents, so we knew this location was important. In an attempt to locate the fort, and to understand why Brown made the raid into Missouri on Dec. 20, we stopped by the Osaga Historical Society, which is located in the old St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Fulton, Kansas.
Fulton is located 3 miles southwest of U.S. Highway 69, and County Road 566 on Kansas Highway 7. There we met our next guides, Velma Nickerson and Jean Smelzela. Osaga Historical Society is history in the trenches-- a fun stop and a great example of the volunteer efforts that keep history alive. They called in the "reserves" and Marie Arbogast of Hume, Mo. arrived minutes later with her Bayne file in hand.
We learned that in December 1858, Brown was resting at Fort Bayne, while recuperating from a fever and nursing his ego after Montgomery assumed a leadership role in a raid of Fort Scott earlier that month. Thin and pale, Brown had grown a full beard and mustache, transforming the "Madman" into "Moses."
According to most histories, a "Jayhawker," patrolling the border near Fort Bayne, came across a Missouri slave named "Jim," who asked to speak with John Brown.
Jim told "good Captain Brown" that he and his family were to be sold from his master, James Lawrence.
"The renewal of disturbances across the line made (James Lawrence's son-in-law) Mr. Hicklin uneasy for fear that (James) Montgomery or (John) Brown would invade Missouri and take away the slaves under his charge belonging to the Lawrence estate. Accordingly he agreed to allow the administrator of the estate, Peter Duncan, Esq., to take all the slaves on the plantation up into Jackson and Lafayette counties (in Missouri) and hire them out for safety, or keep them there until peace should again be restored in Kansas. Mr. Hicklin had control of the slaves until March following, but he waived his right and arranged to let the administrator have them on the first of January. The arrangement was freely talked of and the slaves were fully aware of it.
"Jim learned of the plan to take him back to the hemp-breaks of Jackson (County, Missouri): and learned, too, that a few miles to the westward were a number of men whose plan was to liberate slaves whenever they could, and of the two plans he liked the later much the better." - taken from History of Vernon County.
After talking with Velma and Jean, and "triangulating" info from historical books, a township map, and a newly found dissertation about Barnesville, we set out for a horseshoe curve in the Osage River, just 1 1/2 miles northeast of Fulton. Passing through corn fields, our kids poured over the maps, and clues, and whooped when we found an old ford on the river. Directly south of the ford, John Brown had erected a crude cabin.
Again, no structures remain, but "peeking" into history, we looked through the chinks of Fort Bayne, as John Brown and John Henry Kagi , divided the 24 men gathered there on the evening of Dec. 20.
We were ready now to get the Missouri perspective of this raid, and to locate the exact spots from where the slaves were taken. The next day, we visited the Bushwacker Museum in Nevada, Mo. We were fortunate to meet Curator and Author Patrick Brophy, who has done extensive research on the raid, and he guided us through the events. He was generous with information, and together we combed through his Brown's raid file. As the kids "threw" together a snack of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, he told us about the raid.
After getting directions to the locations of the raid, we loaded up the van (a process that on a good day takes almost five minutes) and counted off. With ten in a van, we recognize that there is a good possibility that we will leave one behind.
Heading north on "V" highway, we found an area that suited the descriptions of the David Cruise farm, which was raided by Kagi and 15 men. Although no original structures still exist, we found the site where the river bends north, and where "Jane" would have walked to haul water, or gather wild onions or garlic.
"Jane" was nine months pregnant in Dec. 1858. On Dec. 20, she was only days from delivery. Her master, Cruise, was killed in the raid by Aaron Dwight Stevens.
"Sam" was taken from the Lawrence farm, 4 miles south of present Hume, Mo. With Brophy's directions we found the Lawrence family cemetery, and James Lawrence's grave. The Lawrence farm was located just west of the cemetery, and only a few stones from the foundation still lay in the spot.
James Lawrence was a Tennessee native, who moved to the farm four miles south of the present Hume, Mo. in 1855. He died in Feb. 1858, and his daughter and son-in-law were running the farm at the time of the raid. Sam, as well as Jim and his family, were listed on the Lawrence probate records, along with candlesticks, sorrel mares, and a featherbed.
While walking through the cemetery, we met Harvey G. Hicklin, Lawrence's son-in-law, who spoke openly about the raid of his home on Dec. 20, 1858.
We also met with David Cruise's son, Rufus, who was 13 when his witnessed his father's murder.
The oppression of the heat and the history was beginning to take it's toll, and we were ready to head home. The balmy breeze and a drink of ice water calmed the hordes, and Fallon told us about the book she is reading, "Addy," one of the series, "An American Girl."
Before we set out on this odyssey, reports of slavery were a distant pang, but hearing the story from those who lived it, and seeing actual photographs of slave purchases, the reality of the institution comes sharply into focus. We were reeling from history.
We know from historical accounts that Brown's raiding party, including the 11 slaves and two white hostages, returned to Fort Bayne. There they spent the day sleeping out in the brush, waiting for nightfall when they could make their way north towards the Wattles' house, where one of the most important events in the history of our nation took place. . . where the seeds of the Civil War germinated.
There's a sign up ahead . . . DETOUR.