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Article Title: Fact and Folklore in the Story of “John Brown’s Cave” and the Underground Railroad in Nebraska

Full Citation: James E Potter, “Fact and Folklore in the Story of ‘John Brown’s Cave’ and the Underground Railroad in Nebraska, Nebraska History 83 (2002): 73-88.

URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NH2002J_Browns_Cave.pdf Date: 11/24/2010

Article Summary: This article examines available evidence in order to determine the extent to which John Brown’s Cave and the adjacent Mayhew log cabin in Nebraska City may or may not have contributed to the escape of fugitive slaves. It has been alleged that through Brown’s direct involvement, the “cave” was an important Underground Railroad station, sheltering scores if not hundreds of black fugitives who were making their way out of bondage. The article debunks the story of the cave, concluding that it is an example of folklore that demonstrates how generations of Nebraskans have come to regard the crusade against slavery as a meaningful part of their past.

Cataloging Information:

Names: John Brown, Barbara Mayhew, John Henry Kagi, Carol Kammen, Larry Gara, John Blue, William P Birchfield, Allen B Mayhew, A H Reid, Henry H Bartling, Mr Haskins, Edward Bartling, Carsten N Karstens, Calvin Chapman, Ned C Abbott, Mrs Henry Cleve, Charles Bickel, Fred Roberts, John Henry Kagy, John Boulware, Louise Pound, Abraham Kagey, Barbara Kagey Mayhew, Lena Linhoff, Edward Mayhew, Henry H Mayhew, Charles Mayhew, John Wayland, Jim Lane, Stephen F Nuckolls, George Gill, Dr Whitenger, Alexander Majors, Jacob Dawson, Stephen W “Squire” Kennedy, A R Keim, W W Cox, Alice (Lockwood) Minick, David Lockwood, Napoleon [slave], John Rastall, J W Cassell, R E Hawley, Lemuel B Irwin, Daniel Cady Cole, Ben T Skeen, John H Kearnes, James Redpath, Richard Brownlee, James Goodrich, Lewis Atherton, Wilbur H Siebert

Place Names: Nebraska City, Nebraska; Harper’s Ferry, Virginia; Johnson County, Iowa; Otoe County, Nebraska; Civil Bend, Iowa; Nebraska Territory; Missouri; Nemaha County, Nebraska; Brownville, Nebraska; Tabor, Iowa; Nemaha City, Nebraska; On River Road, Martin Stowell, Mount Vernon; Northern Kansas Trail; Richardson County, Nebraska; Topeka, Kansas; Holt County, Kansas; Atchison County, Kansas; Missouri River; Bates County, Missouri; Vernon County, Missouri

Keywords: Bleeding Kansas; Underground Railroad; National Landmark; History News; The Liberty Line: The Legend of the Underground Railroad; Nebraska City Times; Chicago Times; Nebraska City News; The Vegetable Society; Omaha Bee; broom maker; Black Den; School for the Blind; Omaha World-Herald; Nebraska Department of Public Works; Nebraska: A Guide to the Cornhusker State; Federal Writers Project; Nebraska State Historical Society; Nebraska History; Old Log Cabin Home; John Henry Kagy and The Old Log Cabin Home; The Nebraska Advertiser; Pony Express; Wyoming Telescope; Falls City Broad Axe; History of Nebraska; American Reformer; One Family Travels West; The Underground Railroad, From Slavery to Freedom; Mayhew Cabin; John Brown’s Cave

Photographs / Images: John Brown’s Cave tourist attraction; Nebraska City in 1865; Dr John Blue; John Brown; Henry H Bartlin; Ned C Abbott; Alexander Majors, co-founder of the Pony Express; Alice Minick; Daniel Cady Cole family

fACT ANi) fOLKLOt

By James E. Potter

ew, if any, sites associated with slave insurrection with his abortive raid assumed the status of undisputed history. Nebraska history have become on Harper's Ferry, Virginia. It has been Recent tourism guides, newspaper articles, Fmore encrusted with legend and alleged that through Brown's direct and even a state historical marker all lore than "John Brown's Cave" and the involvement, and with the assistance attest to the story's remarkable vitality. adjacent Mayhew log cabin in Nebraska of numerous "conductors" at "stations" The announcement of a National Park City, which together have been operated throughout southeastern Nebraska, of Service theme study of Underground as a tourist attraction for more than sixty which John Brown's Cave was the most Railroad resources in the United States years. Less than a decade after the Civil important, scores if not hundreds of to determine their eligibility for National War, accounts gained currency that the black fugitives made their way out of Landmark or National Register status "cave" and cabin had been a major bondage. The fact that Barbara Mayhew, prompted a new look at the history and depot on the Underground Railroad, the sister of one of Brown's close associates, folklore associated with John Brown's secret prewar network by which slaves John Henry Kagi, lived in the cabin with Cave and the Underground Railroad in escaped to freedom. her husband and children in the late Nebraska.] Other essential elements of the story 1850s, and Kagi visited his sister there, Above: Operated as a tourist attraction held that the "railroad's" Nebraska route helped solidify the site's presumed for more than sixty years, "John Brown's was laid out by none other than John connection to John Brown and the Cave" and the adjacent Mayhew cabin Brown of "Bleeding Kansas" fame, who Underground Railroad. in Nebraska City have played a central was hanged in 1859 for fomenting a Since the 1870s these basic presump­ role in the history and folklore of Nebraska's association with the Underground Rail­ tions have been passed down through road, the secret pre-Civil War network by James E. Paller is senior research historian at oral and written accounts and they the Nebraska State Historical Society. which slaves escaped to freedom. Photo survive virtually intact today. They have by Don Cunningham

73 Nebraska History - Summer 2002

"Nebraska City. The landing and City as Seen from the Iowa Side of the Missouri River, in 1865." Lithograph by A. E. Matthews. NSHS-RG2291 1-13

In order to evaluate the various claims, about how we think about the past? News, November 14, 1874. The article's several issues bear further analysis. First, Carol Kammen reviewed the difficulty author was Dr. John Blue, city physician, what was the origin of the claims that of researching the local history of the former editor of the Nebraska City Times, the Mayhew cabin and associated "cave" Underground Railroad in the spring 1999 and sometime correspondent for the was a depot on the Underground Rail­ History News. "Because it was conceived Chicago Times. Blue, who came to road, how credible are they, and what, in secrecy and conducted in silence," Nebraska City after the Civil War, visited if any, was John Brown's connection to said Kammen, "it has few records to tell the site with William P. Birchfield, first the site? Second, what level of Under­ its story." Those that do survive have sheriff of Otoe County, and wrote his ground Railroad activity in Nebraska been expanded upon with folklore and article for the Chicago newspaper. [t was can be documented, and what realistic fiction. "Yet, precisely because reliable then reprinted locally.3 estimates can be derived for the number information is scarce, the local historian Blue's account provided many of slaves who actually escaped via this needs to be even more vigilant regarding essential elements of the story of John route located on the western periphery the subject." Kammen adds, "About no Brown's Cave, which have been repeated of slaveholding territory? Third, although other local topic, except possibly the in most subsequent retellings: The cave the Mayhew cabin is said to be the oldest weather, are there more legends, more was on property owned by Allen B. or second oldest building in Nebraska hearsay, or more dubious claims; about Mayhew, reportedly one of John Brown's still at or near its original site, what no other topic is there more to question." men (Mayhew was, in fact, John Henry evidence is available regarding the Larry Gara expressed similar cautions Kagi's brother-in-law; Kagi was one of cabin's probable construction date? in his 1961 book, The Liberty Line: The Brown's associates in antislavery war­ Finally, what is the importance of the Legend ofthe Underground Railroad. 2 fare in Kansas and was killed in the stories and beliefs associated with the The earliest known published source 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry); the cave site and with the Underground Railroad, alleging that the Mayhew cabin and was dug in the fall of 1856, and though regardless of whether they can be sub­ cave was a station on the Underground it was supposed to be merely a root stantiated, and what do they tell us Railroad appeared in the Nebraska City house or potato cellar, its true use as a

74 John Brown's Cave and the Underground Railroad in Nebraska slave hideout was discovered only after the Civil War; the cave entrance was in a dense thicket in a ravine west of the Mayhew cabin, and a tunnel burrowed directly under Mayhew's house, where there was a secret trapdoor in the floor; ten feet inside the ravine entrance to the cave were two "cross wings," where guards were stationed and where a few resolute men could have "held the position against a battalion;" the aboli­ tionists who used the cave to hide runaway slaves disguised their true purpose by calling themselves "The Vegetarian Society"; slaves would come to the cave at night and members of the society would then transport them across the Missouri River to Iowa; three or four times John Brown personally accompanied the slave-running expedi­ tions. The article termed the site "John Brown's Cave," and the appellation has survived unchanged. Dr. John Blue, Nebraska City physiCian The inspiration for Blue's article is John Brown came to national attention and former editor of the Nebraska City In 1855 when he led a raid against pro­ unknown. Earlier that year, in June 1874, Times wrote the earliest published ac­ slavery forces that had attacked the free­ prominent abolitionists from across count alleging that the cave and cabin soil town of Lawrence, Kansas. In 1859 he the country gathered in Chicago for a were a station on the Underground Rail­ led a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers reunion. Blue was not recorded as having road. Blue's account in the Nebraska City Ferry, Virginia. Many of his men were News in 1874 introduced many of the killed, including John Kagi, brother of Bar­ attended, nor would he likely have essential elements of the story, which bara Mayhew, who lived in the Nebraska been welcome, because he evidently have been repeated in most subsequent City Mayhew cabin. Brown was hanged owned slaves while he lived at Brunswick, retellings. A. C. Edmonds, Pen Sketches on December 2,1859. F. B. Sanborn, Missouri, before the war. He probably of Nebraskans (Lincoln: R. &J. Wilbur, 1871), The Life and Letters ofJohn Brown (Bos­ plate VI ton: Roberts Brothers, 1891) frontispiece. heard about the gathering, and may have read some of the many published recollections of stirring events connected last into the gigantic war of the rebellion, The next known published version with "Bleeding Kansas" and the Under­ which revolutionized the entire political, of the story of John Brown's cave was ground Railroad that appeared in the commercial, social, and industrial a non-bylined article headlined "The Chicago papers. The publicity afforded policy of the nation." In a remarkable Vegetable Society" in the March 3, 1890, the reunion could have been Blue's bit of prescience, Reid predicted that edition of the Omaha Bee, reprinted motivation to write his Chicago Times someone would buy the cave someday, March 20 by the Nebraska City News. article:! "fence it in, advertise it well, charge 25 This article took further license, though A. H. Reid, the editor of the Nebraska cents admission, and make quite a spec. many elements of Blue's 1874 account City News in 1874, in a postscript to Blue's out of it."5 remained intact. According to the Bee, article, noted that a German family who Reid repeated some of the now stan­ "The Vegetable Society" had dug the lived in the former Mayhew cabin was dard lore about John Brown's cave in cave. The hidden entrance and the then using the cave for a calf stable. A his 1883 history of Johnson County, Iowa. deadly cross wings were both described, shed originally sitting atop one of the In a footnote, he claimed to have visited as was the long tunnel leading to cross wings, and from which a ladder the cave twice in 1874. He again Mayhew's house. The cave's defensive extended down into the back of the cave, described the cross wings, and recalled status had improved; two men could had already been tom down. Reid further that the shed over the manhole into the hold it against an army. According to embellished Blue's account, noting, "On cave had been disguised as a smoke­ the Bee, slaves were hidden in the cave this obscure spot occurred some of the house. He made no mention of a tunnel only during the day. At night, they slept exciting seed-incidents which grew at from the Mayhew cabin into the cave. 6 in Mayhew's house. (It must have been Nebraska History - Summer 2002 crowded. Mayhew and his wife had four to the "drugged stuff sold here as high, and Henry H. Bartling, owner of children; the house was 12 x 16 ft., with imported wines." The article said that the property and one of Nebraska City's a loft.) The article concluded with a Mayhew was planning to make a prominent businessmen, decided to complaint that the unnamed current considerable quantity of wine that fall 9 open the cave to the public. By this time, owner of the Mayhew cabin had These references suggest that Mayhew, the cave had collapsed; only some "desecrated" the cave by converting it like most settlers in the days before depressions remained. Bartling and his to horse stables and pig pens. 7 refrigeration, had a practical need for sons probed down twelve feet and struck The Bee article proved too much for timbers near the suspected entrance. Edward M. Mayhew, Allen Mayhew's Although the newspaper indicated that son, who had lived in the cabin with his further digging was to be done, there family from about age six (1855) until was no subsequent reference to Bartling he was eleven or twelve (1861 or 1862). having succeeded in re-excavating the Writing from his home in Kansas, the cave. Bartling died three years later and forty-year-old Mayhew provided a very the property passed to his son, Edward. 10 different version of the cave's history. This setback did not quell the sprout­ Mayhew contradicted the Bee's descrip­ ing of new John Brown's Cave stories. tion of the cave's size and its distance The Nebraska City News of December 31, from the cabin. He stated that there was 1909, published the reminiscences of no passageway or tunnel connecting the seventy-six-year-old Carsten N. Karstens, cave with the house. The main entrance a German immigrant who had arrived in to the cave was a large door in plain Nebraska City as a youth of twenty-three sight, with a secondary entrance having in August 1857. With Karstens's account, a ladder leading down into the back of however, recollections of John Brown's the cave. The cave, according to Mayhew, Cave began to shift from mere descrip­ was dug for storing potatoes and later tions of having visited the cave or was enlarged as a wine cellar. "There hearing about its alleged use, to claims never was a negro in said cave while of having actually participated in trans­ Mayhew owned it, neither was John porting slaves to or from the site. Karstens Brown ever in the cave or on the place." said he learned of "John Brown's Gang" Mayhew recalled that his uncle, John Henry H. Bartling owned the property in soon after arriving in Nebraska City. He Henry Kagi, once brought fourteen 1901. Although by then the cave had claimed to have helped guide runaway blacks to the house for breakfast; after collapsed, he decided to re-excavate it slaves from what he termed the "three­ eating they continued north on foot. and open it to the public. Bartling died story" cave across the Missouri River to three years later, and there is no record "There were negroes in the house; John Civil Bend, Iowa. En route, "there were indicating that his plans were ever carried Kagy [sic] was there and was killed at out. NSHS-RG2411-304 three or four stations" at Wyoming, a Harper's Ferry; Mayhew lived there and small town on the Missouri River north had a cave or wine cellar, and that is all storage such as a cave or wine cellar of Nebraska City. Karstens recalled the there is in this great mystery."8 would provide, and had been making work as being very dangerous; "We Contemporary sources tend to support wine since 1859. The quantities of were armed to the teeth with revolvers, Edward Mayhew's statements about broom corn required to operate a shotguns, and bowie knives."11 how the cave was used. The Nebraska "manufactory" would also require storage, Calvin Chapman provided a subse­ City News of July 14,1860, remarked and it is unlikely that sufficient room quent account in a similar vein in 1925. that Allen Mayhew and a Mr. Haskins was available in Mayhew's tiny cabin. In a sworn affidavit, the eighty-one-year­ living in the west part of town were ship­ Unlike John Blue's article, Edward old Chapman told of driving wagon loads ping large quantities of brooms of their Mayhew's statement did not become of slaves from the "Black Den" (John own manufacture to St. Louis and else­ part of the lore surrounding John Brown's Brown's Cave) beginning in the fall of where. In February 1861 the paper again Cave. In fact, no more was heard of it 1859, soon after his arrival in Nebraska mentioned Mayhew's broom "manufac­ until thirty-five years later when Mayhew City. The sixteen-year-old Chapman tory." On July 13,1861, an article again had an opportunity to tell his version made no fewer than ten trips from the reported that Allen Mayhew had twenty­ of what did and did not take place there; cave, across the river to Iowa, carrying five gallons of native wine for sale. The in the meantime, other variations of the from four to ten slaves each time. All the editor had sampled the wine, made two basic cave story surfaced. slaves were men. He got his instructions years earlier, and pronounced it superior By 1901 interest in the cave remained from his brother, Tom, didn't know who

76 John Brown's Cave and the Underground Railroad in Nebraska was in charge of the operation, and these occasions." Finally, his article never knew the Mayhews. He never mentioned that other unnamed old-timers saw the fugitives arrive, or talked to the had told him of "a barn down on Otoe parties that brought them in.12 street. ..where they hid the runaways," At least Chapman did not claim that and of "runaway colored folk up in a John Brown personally delivered the cave in Bone's Pasture."ll slaves to the cave. Brown had gone east Abbott's article was not the only one in February 1859 and had been arrested to relate stories of caves, hideouts, and after his October 1859 raid on Harper's tunnels in Nebraska City. A few weeks Ferry, so he was nowhere near Nebraska earlier the magazine section of the City when Chapman was supposed to September 1, 1929, issue of the Sunday have been transporting slaves. World-Herald had published a story Chapman's statement and several about another secret tunnel in Nebraska other 1925 recollections of John Brown's City. The newspaper got the story from Cave had been collected by Ned C. Charles Bickel's daughter, Mrs. Henry Abbott, superintendent of the School for Cleve, who had heard it from her father the Blind at Nebraska City, a member of twenty-two years before in October 1907 the governing board of the Nebraska as he lay on his deathbed. Bickel had State Historical Society, and a man made his daughter swear not to divulge deeply interested in history. Abbott's the story for at least twenty years. project was an attempt to place the Bickel, a stonemason who came to history of John Brown's Cave before the Nebraska City in 1865, according to the public, complete with evidence that he World-Herald article, had been hired by believed confirmed the cave as a major an unnamed but prominent man, under station on the Underground Railroad. an oath of secrecy, to brick up a tunnel The result was his article published in originating in a chamber beneath the 1929 in the Omaha World-Herald. basement of the man's house. According Perhaps because Abbott was already to Bickel's employer, this tunnel led convinced that stories of the cave being from the house and terminated four a station on the Underground Railroad Ned C. Abbott gathered many accounts blocks away in a shack near the were true, he could not evaluate his of John Brown's Cave, hoping to confirm Missouri River. Parts of the tunnel were sources objectively. Admitting that after that it was a major Underground Railroad thirty-five feet beneath the surface. the passage of so much time, testimony station. He was a member of the governing Slaves were brought across the river to board of the Nebraska State Historical from still-living persons was suspect Society, and his 1929 article in the Omaha Nebraska City, and hurried through the because "so many dreams have mingled World-Herald lent credibility to the stories tunnel to the house. From there, they with their recollections, so many fancies circulating about the house and cave, were taken to John Brown's Cave. At have woven themselves into the pattern even though he gave considerable weight least this is the story Mrs. Cleve recalled of fact, so many visions have crowded in to accounts that tended to confirm his hearing from her father as he lay dying. point of view and discounted contrary among the memories," Abbott proceeded evidence. NSHS-RG2411- 10 Mrs. Cleve refused to give the name of to disregard his own warning. He found the Nebraska City man in whose house Calvin Chapman's 1925 statement cred­ the cabin. Chapman, though barely six­ the secret tunnel had supposedly origi­ ible, but discounted Edward Mayhew's teen when he supposedly transported nated, nor was there any speculation 1925 letter to Abbott in which Mayhew slaves from John Brown's Cave and an about how a thirty-five-foot-deep tunnel reiterated what he had said about the old man when he told about it, was could have been excavated for four cave in 1890, again stating that the cave among those whose memories Abbott blocks without anyone knowing of it. had been enlarged in 1861 as a wine termed "material that seems to have There was no explanation why escaping cellar. This was exactly the period when genuine merit." Although he failed to slaves would have been brought across Allen Mayhew was making brooms and cite any sources, Abbott stated, "evidence the river from Iowa, when Iowa was the wine, but Abbott probably was not is plentiful that [John] Brown himself usual destination for slaves purportedly aware of the contemporary evidence. often drove a large lumber wagon, or in traveling on the Nebraska route of the Edward Mayhew's recollection was winter, a bobsled, his precious freight of Underground Railroad. 11 suspect, according to Abbott, because human chattels lying flat on the floor .... Shortly after the Cleve and Abbott he was "a mere boy" when he lived in The fiery zealot was seen by many on articles were published, the Nebraslw

77 Nebraska History - Summer 2002

City News issued a special diamond stand, and pop-bottle repository."16 on the Mayhew and Kagey families, and anniversary edition that included many These announcements elicited yet reviewed John Brown's exploits in Kansas, stories about the city's past. Among another recollection of the cabin and Nebraska, and elsewhere leading up to them was one about John Brown's Cave cave in the Underground Railroad days. his October 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry. that told of local men visiting the site Fred Roberts, pictured in the newspaper No footnotes were provided, but a care­ several months earlier to see whether standing beside the cabin, noted that he ful reading of Bartling's publication the cave might be reopened. All they had been born in the cabin seventy-four indicates much of the information could find were the wooded ravine and years earlier on October 18, 1864. about the cave and its alleged role in a depression believed to be the cave's Although the Roberts family moved the Underground Railroad was drawn western end. The depression was "similar from the house when Fred was five, he from the Blue article and subsequent to others in dozens of other ravines remembered playing in the cave with recollections or newspaper articles. along South Table Creek." The project its cross wings, "which made defense Bartling also added some totally new material. For example, he alleged a conversation between Allen Mayhew The cave development is a 'natura/'. It is there and and John Brown in which Brown said, "We want to put slaves in your house and all it needs is a suitable setting-parking lot. Sunday to transport them." Mayhew supposedly lecturer. hot-dog stand. and pop-bottle repository. admitted to being a "slave sympathizer," but refused the use of his house because Nebraska City News, August 1, 1937 his neighbors would find out. Like earlier writers on the subject, Bartling attributed the escape of hundreds of slaves from Missouri to the activities was abandoned because the men deter­ easy in case of attack." A trapdoor led of John Brown and his followers. He mined it would take several months and from the cabin into the cave. 17 stated, "Nearly always the first trip in hundreds of dollars to open the cave. By February 1938 the work of restor­ the morning of John Boulware's ferry The paper then reprinted John Blue's ing the cabin and cave was nearing [across the Missouri River] carried a 1874 article, once again placing the completion. Although the cabin had load of slaves."19 Even if a "load" con­ "genesis" version of the cave story been moved, the cave conformed to the sisted of only two slaves and the ferry before the public. IS early descriptions, complete with a tunnel ran daily for only six months of the year, There the matter rested until the from cave to cabin, three chambers in more than 1,000 fugitives would have Nebraska Department of Public Works which the slaves had been secreted, thus been transported from Nebraska in 1937 selected a new route for and an outlet in the nearby creek bank. City in just three years, a number that Nebraska Highway 2 that promised to Because the cave was slated for public would strain the credulity of even the cut across the Bartling property and visitation, Bartling had made its chambers most fervent believers in an active threatened the Mayhew cabin. This large enough so visitors could walk Nebraska branch of the Underground proved a blessing in disguise for Edward through them upright and walled them Railroad. Bartling and others in Nebraska City who with brick and limestone. He admitted The opening of John Brown's Cave had long lamented the site's inaccessi­ that the tunnel to the cabin was new, to visitation and the publication of bility and lack of development. In July but that the chambers and tunnel to the Bartling's booklet seemed to ordain the Bartling announced that he had begun creek bank were "in precisely their site's significance as a station on the moving the Mayhew cabin some fifty original places." He did not divulge how Underground Railroad. Nebraska History, feet to the north of its original location he had managed to determine the cave's the quarterly of the state historical society, to make room for the highway. He also exact location when visitors to the site in published an article that closely para- ! told of his plans to restore the cabin 1929 had found only a depression similar phrased the Bartling pamphlet, with an and beautify the grounds, and said he to dozens of other depressions nearby. IS equal lack of documentation. The 1939 intended to "venture into other business While Bartling was preparing the Federal Writers Project's Nebraska: A enterprises on the grounds nearby and cave and cabin for public visitation, Guide to the Comhusker State mentioned may call the place 'John Brown's Town.'" he was also writing a booklet giving the the cave with an interesting variation: The newspaper concurred: "The cave history of the site. It was published in If danger threatened, the slaves escaped development is a 'natural.' It is there May 1938, and entitled John Henry Kagy through the tunnel to Table Creek and and all it needs is a suitable setting­ and the Old Log Cabin Home. The pam­ "took refuge in its waters. "20 The place­ parking lot, Sunday lecturer, hot-dog phlet included biographical information ment of a Nebraska State Historical

78 John Brown's Cave and the Underground Railroad in Nebraska

Marker in front of the cabin in the 1970s Kagey Mayhew, came to Nebraska and was illegal to settle in Nebraska Territory offered additional reassurance that the claimed land. While not entirely accurate, before its official organization on May 30, cave was an authentic Underground these dates are fairly close to the facts.23 1854.25 Railroad station. Save for only minor In the 1940 edition, Allen and Barbara The Mayhews were in Nebraska City embellishments and an occasional chal­ Mayhew arrived in Nebraska City in 1851 in 1854, according to the first territorial lenge, the story of John Brown's Cave and six years passed before Mayhew census, and Allen Mayhew is credited and the Mayhew Cabin as it exists today filed his preemption claim. The claim with being present when the townsite had become firmly established.21 that Abraham Kagey, "an experienced was laid out on July 10 of that year. He Nebraska scholar and folklorist timber man," helped build the cabin, filed a preemption claim March 30, 1857. Louise Pound mounted the major chal­ implies that he, too, must have come Under the Preemption Act, it was possible lenge to the John Brown's Cave story to Nebraska in 1851 or 1852. The cabin to have settled on a tract in advance of after 1938. Her 1948 Nebraska History had thus become the oldest building the filing, but it is hardly likely that he article entitled, "Nebraska Cave Lore," then standing in Nebraska. The elder did so as early as 1851. These data square included a section on the cave. Pound Kagey dug the cave. Also new was the well with the supposition that the cabin examined many of the same accounts statement by Mrs. Lena Linhoff that may have been built as early as 1855. cited above, as well as several John when she lived in the cabin in 1886 and Edward Mayhew recalled living in the Brown biographies, and concluded that 1887, the names of no less than fifteen cabin from the time he was about six, Brown never lived in the cabin and slaves were still visible in the cellar on and he had been born September 21, probably never visited it. She also cited the door casing leading to the cave. 1849.26 Edward Mayhew's 1925 letter as credible (That statement had prompted Louise In 1961 John Wayland, a Kagey evidence that the cave had not been Pound to wonder how Linhoff knew the descendent, published John Kagi and used to hide fugitive slaves before the names were those of Negroes.) John Brown. Wayland had access to Mayhews left there "about 1860." Also new in the 1940 edition was an documents that cleared up some of the According to Pound, Bartling's Old Log extended biographical sketch of John previous misinformation about John Cabin Home suffered from "many Henry Kagi that reproduced a Kagi letter Henry Kagi and Abraham Kagey in omissions and he is vague concerning from Nebraska City, which Bartling Nebraska. The elder Kagey had gone to essentials," another way of saying dated as 1853. This dating helped bolster California in 1852 and did not return Bartling did not document many of his his allegations that the Mayhews and east until the summer of 1856. He then assertions. While Pound left open the John Henry Kagi were in Nebraska City moved to Nebraska City. If the Mayhew question of the "historicity" of the John much earlier than they really were. He Cabin had not yet been built, then Brown Cabin and Cave, she concluded, misread the true date of 1855 on the Abraham may have helped build it. He "considerable folklore has sprung up Kagi letter, which is in the Kansas State could also have dug the cave, which about them."22 Like Edward Mayhew's Historical Society collections. That John Edward Mayhew said was dug that fall. statements from 1890 and 1925, Pound's Henry was in Nebraska City in 1855 is Wayland had read one or more of assessment failed to gain a foothold confirmed by his listing in the 1855 Bartling's booklets and seemed confused among the sources on which the modem­ Otoe County census as a "Professor of about when Allen and Barbara Mayhew day story of John Brown's Cave was Phonography." Bartling made other had gone to Nebraska. In one place he based. additions or changes in the 1940, 1943, has them there in 1854, in another he Related to the claims about the and 1961 editions of Old Log Cabin credits Mayhew with building the cabin Mayhew cabin and cave as a major station Home, but they are not material here.24 "in or about 1853," and finally, has the for escaping slaves is the attribution of Records that may not have been Mayhews coming to Nebraska "in 1852 the cabin as Nebraska's oldest standing accessible to Bartling in 1938 or 1940 or thereabouts,· which Wayland says building, with a construction date of shed a different light on the probable was the year of their marriage. Had he 1851 or 1852. This claim seems to have construction date of the Mayhew cabin. known of the family's 1860 census originated with Edward Bartling in the The 1860 census of Nebraska Territory enumeration, listing Edward Mayhew as second edition of his John Henry Kagy lists the Mayhew family and their four being ten years old, he would have real­ and The Old Log Cabin Home (1940). children. Edward, age ten, and Henry H., ized that the marriage date was suspect In the 1938 edition, Bartling reported age eight, had both been born in Ohio, unless Edward Mayhew had been born that Allen and Barbara Mayhew and while Charles, age four, had been born out of wedlockY Of particular interest their children came to Nebraska City in in Nebraska. This data makes it impos­ also is Wayland's discussion of the later 1855, and the cabin was their home by sible for the family to have been in lives of the Kagey and Mayhew families. 1857. The next year Abraham Kagey, the Nebraska as early as 1851. That early date After Allen Mayhew died during a trip to father of John Henry Kagi and Barbara is implausible, regardless, because it Utah in 1862, the cabin property was

79 Nebraska History - Summer 2002 sold. Edward Mayhew continued to live der. His many biographers generally offered a reward of $200. The paper in Otoe County until sometime in the agree on the approximate dates he reported the women had been taken to 1880s, as did his grandfather, Abraham would have passed through Nebraska: "the little abolition hole" of Civil Bend, Kagey. Barbara Mayhew remarried, and August 3-10, 1856; October 5-9, 1856; Iowa, across the river and about eight died in 1882.28 November 2-4,1857; November 18-22, miles from Nebraska City, and then to In order to determine the extent to 1857; June 23-26, 1858; and February Tabor, Iowa, but a party of seventy-five which John Brown's Cave mayor may 1-4, 1859.30 The number of slaves Brown men sent in pursuit failed to find them.33 not have contributed to the escape of personally escorted north from Kansas Nuckolls later located one of the women fugitive slaves, it is necessary to examine was eleven or, perhaps, twelve. There in Chicago, but failed to recover her. and evaluate evidence of Underground is no dispute that eleven slaves taken John Brown's departure from Kansas Railroad activity in southeastern during Brown's raid into Missouri from with the eleven slaves from the Missouri Nebraska Territory from 1855 to 1861. Kansas in December 1858 accompanied raid attracted the attention of both the John Brown figures prominently in stories-of the cave itself, as well as in recollections of the broader operations In al/, John Brown spent a total of no more than thirty of the Underground Railroad, and those accounts must be correlated to what is days in Nebraska, most of it traveling back and forth known about his activities in Nebraska. from the Nebraska City area to the Kansas border.... Because the Underground Railroad was The number of slaves Brown personally escorted a secret and often illegal endeavor, primary sources for its operations are north from Kansas was eleven or, perhaps, twelve. generally not available. For the period under study, however, contemporary newspaper articles and manuscript him north through Nebraska in early Brownville and Nebraska City papers. sources left by Brown and his associates, February 1859 on his final departure for The Nebraska Advertiser in its February 10, provide some means to assess the cred­ the East. His attack on Harper's Ferry 1859, edition reported Brown's passage ibility of recollections, both regarding took place that October.3] through Nemaha City "at midnight, on the number of escaping slaves Brown is Between 1857 and 1860 there are sev­ Saturday night last [February 6], with alleged to have aided directly, and the eral contemporary references to slave thirteen negroes." Although Brown had broader estimates of how many fugitives escapes through or from Nebraska. The indeed passed through the area, it had may have been aided by the Nebraska first involved three black men, supposedly been a few days earlier. Even contem­ line of the Underground Railroad. escaped slaves from Platte County, porary accounts contain inaccuracies Although John Brown spent many Missouri, and Atchison County, Kansas, that plague Underground Railroad months in Kansas between his arrival in who were discovered by citizens research. The Nebraska City News of the fall of 1855 and his final departure in (perhaps including slave hunters) near February 12 also mentioned that the early 1859, most of his visits to Nebraska Brownville, Nemaha County, in September party passed through the city last Friday were brief as he passed through on his 1857. In the ensuing shootout, one white evening [February 5] and devoted a travels back and forth from Kansas and man was killed, one black man was column of invective against Brown, "his the East. The route through Nebraska wounded and captured, and the other precious gang," and the "rankest Black Territory was also used by hundreds of two blacks escaped. The captured black Republicans," presumably anyone who "free soil" emigrants, as well as armed was indicted for murder, but there is no supported abolition. parties who supported the free state information that he was tried. He may Edward Mayhew in 1890 stated that cause, on their way to or from Kansas. have been returned to his owner. At his uncle, John Henry Kagi, once It allowed them to avoid crossing least one of the other black men involved brought fourteen slaves to the Mayhew proslavery Missouri to reach their desti­ in the Brownville incident, along with cabin for breakfast. It is possible that this nation. Jim Lane, a prominent abolition ten other supposed fugitive slaves, was was the Brown party of February 1859 leader and sometime Brown confidant, captured several weeks later in lowa.32 and Mayhew was off about the numbers. is credited with establishing the route, In the fall of 1858 two slave women Kagi did visit the Mayhews about this which was named for him.29 owned by Stephen F. Nuckolls of time, because his February 7 letter from In all, John Brown spent a total of no Nebraska City escaped. The Nebraska Tabor, Iowa, reported that he had been more than thirty days in Nebraska, most City News, a Democratic paper, attributed alone at his sister's house a few days of it traveling back and forth from the their loss to enticement by "some vile, earlier when the deputy U.S. marshal for Nebraska City area to the Kansas bor- white-livered abolitionist." Nuckolls southern Nebraska and a small posse

80 John Brown's Cave and the Underground Railroad in Nebraska tried to arrest him. "While he was securing not listed, even though Mayhew's February 1859, the eleven or twelve a larger posse, I escaped."34 Edward brother-in-law was one of Brown's captured in Iowa some weeks after the Mayhew recalled that officers from closest confidants. Brownville incident, and the seven who Missouri had tried to arrest Kagi at the The contemporary accounts of slave fled from Nuckolls and Majors (about time he brought the fourteen blacks to escapes in Nebraska before and after thirty, altogether) are reasonably well the cabin, but the fugitive slaves (if that 1859 attest that a flight to freedom did documented. Large groups of fugitive is what they were) were evidently gone not depend upon the personal interven­ slaves would have been hard to conceal when the posse arrived, because Kagi tion of John Brown. In addition to the and that is probably one reason the was alone. Mayhew was clear that John episodes mentioned above, three women press noticed them. It is clear from the Brown never visited the cabin, and and two boys owned by overland Brownville episode, and suggested by recalled that the fourteen slaves Kagi freighting and Pony Express magnate the Nuckolls and Majors escapes, that brought were on foot, not in wagons as Alexander Majors disappeared from his some blacks boarded the Underground were those in the Brown party.35 Never­ home in Nebraska City in June 1860. Railroad on their own. It is likely tha,t theless, it is possible that Kagi brought Once again the newspaper unleashed others also escaped via Nebraska during Brown's Missouri fugitives to the cabin its invective upon abolitionists, "the this period, perhaps one or two at a for a quick breakfast while his leader worst possible enemy a good negro can time, whose passage may not have been was elsewhere. have." The editor noted, however, that noticed. The probability that most slave George Gill a member of Brown's the servants had fled on their own, escapes were of the latter variety makes group and a friend of Kagi's, told of stay­ and were "supposed to have taken the it hard to credit accounts that have slaves ing overnight at Mayhew's house during Underground Railroad to Canada." passing over the Nebraska line of the the February journey out of Kansas. He He doubted "whether. ..the fugitives Underground Railroad by the hundreds. had fallen behind the main party, was have bettered their condition ....and Only a few of the post-Civil War recol­ further delayed when intercepted by they may encounter difficulties not lections of Underground Railroad members of a posse, and did not arrive expected by them or contemplated by activity in Nebraska seem to be based in Nebraska City until late in the their advisers, if any such there were."38 on documented slave escapes; most evening. "I stopped over night with In August 1860 the Nebraska City paper offer nothing upon which to assess their Kagi's brother-in-law, Mr. Mayhew, but heard of a group of nineteen blacks validity but the author's claims. had some difficulty finding him, having passing through on the "under ground We have already noted John Blue's had to inquire some."36 Evidently Kagi railroad" to their "depot at Wyoming." The statement (1874) that John Brown was no longer at the house, and Gill Democratic editor of the Nebraska City personally accompanied slave-running mentions no other members of Brown's News charged that the Wyoming depot expeditions three or four times. A. T. party as having been there. If the was in the home of Jacob Dawson, the Andreas in his History ofNebraska (1882) Mayhew cabin had been regularly used former editor of the Wyoming Te/escope mentioned the Underground Railroad as a stopping place for fugitive slaves, and the "most liberal [Republican] we in several of the county history sections. it seems surprising that Gill, one of have known for a long while."39 At about For example, John Brown made "frequent Brown's close associates, did not know the same time, the Falls City Broad Axe visits" to his supporters in Nemaha where to locate it. reported that a cargo of fugitive slaves, County. Only two were actually men­ As John Brown was leaving Kansas in "numbering half a dozen or more" and tioned: one was when Brown was 1859, he wrote a treatise that has come accompanied by some thirty or forty alleged to have brought fourteen slaves to be known as "John Brown's Parallels." heavily armed white men, had passed to the Underground Railroad station at On the back of the document he jotted through Salem in Richardson County. Peru; the other was his well known trip a list of names and places along his Although the number of escapees is out of Kansas in February 1859, when escape route. The Nebraska localities different, it is possible that this was the his cargo of eleven slaves were fed at were "Nemaha City," "On River Road, same group supposed to have been the home of Stephen W. "Squire" Martin Stowell, Mount Vernon [Peru] ," seen at Nebraska City and Wyoming.40 Kennedy near Nemaha City. Because "Dr. Whitenger and Sibley, Nebraska If the fourteen slaves mentioned by Brown made only the one trip with a City" and "Mr. Vincent, Ira Reed, Mr. Edward Mayhew were not the same group of slaves, perhaps Andreas has Garner."37 While some have attributed group brought out by Brown in February somehow divided the single trip into these as "stations" on the Underground 1859, adding them to the numbers two separate occasions. (Or perhaps Railroad, they may have been merely provided by contemporary accounts of the fourteen were the ones Kagi brought the names of people and places where escaping slaves between 1857 and 1860 to breakfast at the Mayhew cabin?)41 Brown knew he might get aid. Signifi­ brings the total to approximately sixty­ Brown also spent "a large amount of cantly, Mayhew at Nebraska City was five. Of these, the eleven with Brown in time in Richardson County." "To record

81 Nebraska History - Summer 2002

unnamed contributor of th e Richardson County history, went on to say, however, that the history of these times "has already drifted out of the brains of its witnesses," perhaps an unintended acknowledgment that John Brown's exploits in Nebraska were already passing into myth and legend."2 Other late nineteenth-century recol­ lections embellished upon the developing lore of the Underground Railroad. One was that of A. R. Keirn, focusing on Richardson County, published by the Nebraska State Historical Society in 1887. Keirn stated that Brown brought a fugitive slave north to Falls City in the fall of 1855. At this time, Brown also "made the preliminary survey of the famous Under­ ground Railroad." John Brown made his headquarters at a hotel during his frequent visits to Falls City, which Keirn reckons at "four or five visits, ...each time bringing slaves." Brown would usually be found in town, "in close conversation with his friends." Keirn credits Brown with two or three raids into Missouri. In describing Brown's final exodus from Kansas with the captured slaves, Keirn has the Brown party camping in the Falls City area for two or three days, spending the night in two different residences. At one of them, Brown discussed his pending Harper's Ferry raid with his hos!. 43 Keirn's claims are easily disposed of. John Brown had barely reached Kansas in the fall of 1855 and he did not travel there via Nebraska. The only documented trip through the Falls City area in which Brown conducted slaves was the one in February 1859, and he did not linger there for two or three days. The party crossed the Nebraska line on February 1, and reached Tabor, Iowa, across the river from Nebraska City, on February 5. Alexander Majors, a wealthy freighter and co-founder of the Pony Express, was one of Nor is it likely that Brown would have several Nebraska slaveholders from whom slaves escaped without the intervention of discussed his treasonous plans to attack John Brown. Three women and two boys disappeared from his home in Nebraska City in June 1860, and were thought, according to the Nebraska City News to have "taken Harper's Ferry with anyone but his closest the Underground Railroad to Canada." NSHS-RG2411-3392 confidants. W. W. Cox in his 1893 reminiscences, a tithe of the exploits of John Brown to Richardson County, Neb. and thence also published by the state historical and his fri ends on the Northern Kansas northward would requ ire a book of society, was considerably less specific trail , through Brown County [Kansas] considerable size." Andreas, or the than Keirn about Underground Railroad

82 John Brown's Cave and the Underground Railroad in Nebraska

activity. Cox claimed to have visited the surrounded the wagons preparatory "great cave" at Mayhew's place in 1860. to starting") she attributes the description The cave "was undoubtedly a hiding of the trip to George Gill, a member and resting place for fugitives." When of Brown's party at the time, whose it came to details, however, Cox was account had been published in the content to claim that John Brown rested American Reformer. Interestingly, in her and fed "scores and scores" of fugitive 193(j family history, One Family Travels slaves at Nebraska City4~ West , Minick omitted any claim of having Alice Minick was the next person to seen John Brown in 1859, though the explain the workings of the Under­ other Underground Railroad episodes ground Railroad in her paper read at the she related in 1896 were included. state historical society's 1896 annual Whether or not Minick was actually meeting. Minick attributed the "Nebraska present on that day in 1859, at least line" as being "directly under th e man­ there is corroborating evidence that agement and leadership of John Brown" Brown passed near Nemaha City with who "often passed over the route, slaves at that time." personally accompanying the fugitives." John Rastall of Chicago, after reading While she admitted there was no way of the Minick article, offered his own brief correctly estimating the number of slaves account of his role in assisting a fugitive that were assisted over the Nebraska line, slave to escape north from Topeka, "it is safe to say that there were several Kansas, to Nebraska City in 1856. Once hundred." As a child, Minick, then Alice across the Missouri River, Rastall and his Lockwood , lived with her parents near friends turned over the black man to a Nemaha City in Nemaha County. Yet Congregational minister at Oskaloosa, much of her recollection has to do with Iowa, who was an agent of the Under­ Underground Rai lroad activity in th e ground Railroad. Rastall was inclined to Falls City area. Minick names many think, "this was the first passenger on Richardson County residents who were the U.G.R.R. through Nebraska from active "station" operators. Minick also Kansas ...·;·; related a childhood experience in J. W. Cassell in 1917 reca lled an which she saw slaves being hidden in a aborted John Brown visit to his father's cave on the farm of Houston Russell, house south of Nebraska City in the just north of Nemaha City. She had gone summer of 1857. A man came wanting to the cave with Russell's daughter to dinner for seventeen men. The unnamed get vegetables for a meal. According to In reminiscences read at the historical visitor said that the party included Minick, her father David Lockwood kept society's annual meeting in 1896, Alice seventeen blacks, plus John Brown and Minick reported on Underground Railroad a station just west of Nemaha City; th ere activity in Richardson County from her himself. Before the meal could be was also a vacant house in town where childhood. Although most of the stories prepared, however, John Brown said, large numbers of slaves were housed. cannot be verified, her account of John "No, we can't make any new friends She remembered awakening one morn­ Brown's presence near Nemaha City with now," and Cassell's family could not ing to find her mother cooking breakfast a group of escaping slaves in 1859 is cor­ induce him to stop. Concluded Cassell , roborated by other evidence of Brown's for three fugitives."'; presence on that occasion. "[t was a common occurrence to see Minick tells of one slave, Napoleon negroes moving up and down the road.";" by name, who had left his family behind Whether or not escaping slaves passed in Missouri. Her father warned Napoleon a bullet had pierced l\Japoleon's heart." I the Cassell farm at this time, we can against returning to slave territory to One wonders how the teenage Minick discount John Brown's presence. He rescue his family. Nevertheless, some learned these details of Napoleon's fate. was in the East during most of 1857, months later Napoleon did return to the The final episode in Minick's account passing through Nebraska twice in house of his wife's owner, seeking to is her narrative of John Brown's February November. On neither of those trips spirit his family away in th e middle of 1859 appearance in Nemaha County with was Brown accompanied by slaves. the night. While he waited breathlessly thirteen [eleven 1fugitives. Although We have alread y mentioned the for his wife to come out, "there came Minick claims to have been present recollections of Carsten N. Karstens the sharp crack of a pistol-a flash-and (" [ can now seC' that group as they ( 1909) , Calvin Chapman (1925). and

1)3 Nebraska History - Summer 2002

Edward Mayhew (1925) . As part of the data-gathering for his 1929 article, N. C. Abbott also recorded a statement by R. E. Hawley of Nebraska City, who related a story he heard from his uncle, Lemuel B. Irwin. Irwin told Hawley of being accosted one evening in the winter of 1857 or 1858 by a gray-bearded stranger driving a covered wagon. The man asked directions to the ice road across the Missouri River. Irwin, then a boy of ten, agreed to show the way, and the man thanked him by giving him a coin , which in the darkness Irwin took to be a quarter, but which turned out to be a ten-dollar gold piece. A short time later five men arrived, inquiring the where­ abouts of the man and his wagon. The men told Irwin that the man they were after had been inciting slaves to run away from Missouri and "Hangin' would be none too good for old John Brown."so Unless Irwin was mistaken on the date of this event, he could not have seen Brown, who was not in Nebraska City during the winter of 1857 or 1858. [t is possible that Irwin's date should really Daniel Cady Cole of Peru, Nebraska, (seated, left) also claimed to have met John be 1859, and the recollection refers to Brown near Nemaha City in 1859. Although some details of his account are inconsistent Brown's February 1859 journey with with other reports, it stands up well to scrutiny, and may have an underlying basis in eleven slaves. Yet Brown had crossed fact. NSHS-RG3557 the Missouri from Nebraska City to Iowa and back several times, sometimes in preparing to leave when Cole saw them.51 to have seen John Brown in January the winter. Why would he need a guide? Cole was slightly off on the date and 1858, his story includes many of the And why would Brown, often in desperate confused about the number of slaves essentials that Cole and others have need of money to finance his operations, involved, but other parts of his account related about the February 1859 trip. give Irwin a ten-dollar gold piece merely stand up well to scrutiny. Brown and his According to Skeen, his father refused for providing directions? entourage did pass through Nemaha to shelter and feed Brown's eleven fugi­ Daniel Cady Cole of Peru was City and Nebraska City in February 1859 tives and directed the party to Squire another person who claimed to have and Cole did teach school there at the Kennedy's. The next morning Skeen met John Brown, telling the same story time. While there is no documentation and his brothers and sisters were on in at least three accounts. Cole was confirming that Brown stopped at their way to the Fairview school, where teaching school near Nemaha City in Kennedy's house, it would have been Daniel Cole was teacher, when they saw 1859, and boarding with Squire Kennedy. possible for him to have done so, and the the covered wagons in the Kennedy yard. He recalled that one morning in [ate visit is one of the few stories appearing in Perhaps to bolster his credibility, Skeen January when he came down for break­ several of the recollective accounts that noted, "Young as [ was at the time, he fast, there was a covered wagon in may have an underlying basis in fact. "2 [Brown) made a vivid impression upon Kennedy's yard. Kennedy invited Cole Another person who claimed to have me."~, 3 It's impossible to determine over and introduced him to John Brown. seen Brown at Squire Kennedy's place whether Skeen's story had been influ­ Although the wagon cover was fastened was Ben T. Skeen of Auburn , so stated enced by reading other recollections tightly, Kennedy told Cole that Brown had in a 1931 newspaper article. Skeen's such as Cole's, but his inconsistencies seventeen slaves inside. Brown 's party father had settled near Nemaha City in could well be due to an old man's faulty had arrived soon after midnight, Mrs. the spring of 1858. Although eighty-year­ memory of events from decades in the Kennedy had fed them, and they were old Ben also garbled the date, claiming past.

84 John Brown's Cave and the Underground Railroad in Nebraska

While there may be some truth to of 1857 or 1858 might actually refer to Nebraska, and the operations of the Skeen's account, the article's author, the 1859 journey. There is no evidence, Underground Railroad? Some might John H. Kearnes, seized the opportunity however, that John Brown himself was argue that we should not expect to find to float some new stories about Nemaha involved in conducting mass slave much, if any, documentation of the County's contribution to the thrilling escapes. Not only are his movements operations of this secret network and days of the Underground Railroad. He fairly well documented, his biographers should, therefore, rely upon the recol­ stated that Brown "rushed many a cargo make it clear that he had little interest lections of those who claimed first-hand of fugitive slaves through Nemaha in "this piecemeal method of weakening knowledge of its activities. The absence County" in the months of December, slavery," when a bold attack might spark a of documentation does not prove that January, and February of 1856, 1857, mass slave uprising.56 Brown had gone the Mayhew cabin and cave was not a and 1858. What's more, in two years' west in the first place to help secure station or that Underground Railroad time, Brown had succeeded in reducing Kansas for the free state cause, and not activity did not occur in Nebraska. the slave populations of Holt and primarily to set up and promote slave Nevertheless, the historical record Atchison counties in Missouri Gust across escapes on the Underground Railroad. provides some contemporary evidence the river from Nemaha County) from Regarding Underground Railroad by which to evaluate the credibility of five hundred to fifty. In this scenario activity as it affected slavery on the later claims. the slaves were ferried west across the western border of Missouri, which If the site was indeed a major station Missouri River to freedom in Nebraska. would have been the source for most on the Underground Railroad, and if None of these statements has a basis in slaves escaping through Nebraska, that site and others were instrumental fact. Not only was John Brown nowhere Missouri historians Richard Brownlee, in the escape of hundreds of slaves, and near Nebraska during the months men­ James Goodrich, and Lewis Atherton if such activities were known to as many tioned, it appears Kearnes borrowed and concluded the Underground Railroad persons as those who later claimed garbled James Redpath's estimate that was "never organized to the point where some involvement with them, how did after Brown's 1858 raid into Missouri, it was effective." Although some Missouri these activities escape notice by the the slave population of Bates and county histories remarked about slave anti-abolition press, particularly the Vernon counties (far south of the two owners moving their slaves to the interior Nebraska City News? On the several oc­ Kearnes mentioned and adjacent to to keep them from being stolen, "the casions when local slaves made good Kansas) was reduced from five hundred county histories are just not that credible." their escape, and on the single instance to "not over fifty."54 Even Redpath's figures The scholars, who had mined Missouri when John Brown actually conducted are unlikely. Modern-day scholars have newspapers and manuscripts for many slaves through Nebraska City, the paper's estimated that the number of slaves years, "do not remember seeing any editor was quick to implicate the "white­ escaping from bondage during the late information that would provide a sub­ livered abolitionists." It seems unlikely antebellum years ranged from one thou­ stantial generalization on this issue."57 that Allen Mayhew, John Henry Kagi, sand to fifteen hundred annually in the If only some of the extravagant and John Brown could have operated nation as a whole.55 Because Nebraska claims of Underground Railroad activity a slave depot on the scale that later and Kansas were on the margin of slave­ in Nebraska were true, it seems strange accounts would have us believe without holding territory, it would be hard to that Wilbur H. Siebert in his 1898 book, raising some suspicion from the editor credit more than a handful of escapees The Underground Railroad, From Slavery or others among the community's size­ in any given year over what was, at best, to Freedom, listed no operatives from able proslavery element. Nor is it an indirect route to freedom. Nebraska. An appendix records approxi­ reasonable to think escaping slaves The one factual thread that seems to mately 3,000 names of men and women could have used the same trails and hid­ stand out from the claims of mass slave from twenty states who allegedly had ing places repeatedly without detection escapes on the Nebraska branch of the some connection with such activity. The authorities would have been extra Underground Railroad has to do with Thirty-four names are from Fremont vigilant after having once nearly arrested John Brown's February 1859 trek out of County, Iowa, across the river from Kagi, a John Brown associate, at the Kansas. Not only is this episode men­ Nebraska City. Either Siebert passed Mayhew cabin. The newspaper that had tioned in contemporary sources, but in over some Nebraskans, or he found roundly damned the "white-livered several recollections that, although nothing on which to base the inclusion abolitionists" is unlikely to have praised fuzzy on exact dates and numbers, of Nebraska "conductors."SB Allen Mayhew as a thrifty broom maker seem to describe the same incident. So what are we to make of the mass and purveyor of homemade wine if Even less credible tales, such as the of source material that has accumulated rumors had connected him with illicit Hawley/Irwin report of a John Brown in the past 140 years or so relating to the traffic in fugitive slaves. sighting in Nebraska City in the winter Mayhew cabin and cave, John Brown in There are small facts that likely

85 Nebraska History - Summer 2002

sparked much of the folklore that has his brother-in-law, John Kagi, did follow would minimize the current emphaSis sprung up about the Mayhew cabin and Brown from Kansas to Harper's Ferry, on John Brown and give more promi­ cave. John Kagi was Allen Mayhew's where he lost his life in the service of nence to what Edward Mayhew had to brother-in-law, Kagi briefly lived in, and Brown's cause. Kagi's role alone would say. It would include his statement that later visited the cabin, and Kagi was have allowed the Mayhews and Kageys blacks were once fed breakfast in the killed during John Brown's raid at to claim a place in the spotlight. Yet cabin, and that his uncle, John Henry Harper's Ferry. It may have seemed Kagi's father and his two sisters lived in Kagi, one of Brown's close associates, logical for later writers to presume a Otoe County for several years after the spent some time there. It would explain direct connection between the Mayhew war, and there is no evidence they ever why early settlers would have needed a place, John Brown, and the Under­ commented publicly regarding their root cellar, and reveal that slaves' flight ground Railroad. Kagi's father, Abraham famous son and brother. Edward Mayhew, to freedom did not depend upon a Kagey, also lived in Otoe County. It is far from trying to capitalize on his network of caves and tunnels or the possible that Mayhew and the elder Kagey uncle's reputation, made determined intervention of an organized abolition were sympathetic to the abolition cause. Edward Mayhew said that black persons were once fed in the house and there is The story of John Brown's Cave can serve some hint that they had been brought both history and heritage. there by John Henry Kagi. But he also said that Allen Mayhew told Kagi not to bring any more blacks to the cabin be­ cause it would make trouble for him. In efforts to disconnect his family from the conspiracy. It would include back­ other words, sympathetic or not, Mayhew tales of its alleged role in the operations ground on slavery in Nebraska Territory was not willing to take significant risks of the Underground Railroad. The com­ before the Civil War, indicate that some to support the escape of slaves. munity, however, had adopted the Nebraskans owned slaves, and tell how Another small fact lies at the bottom Mayhew cabin/John Brown's Cave/ some of those slaves made their escape. of the numerous stories of John Brown Underground Railroad story as its own, This part of the story would acknowl­ sightings and mass slave escapes: and Edward Mayhew might as well have edge that there is credible evidence of Brown's journey out of Kansas with spared himself the effort. activity that links Nebraska in a minor eleven slaves in February 1859. Many Should Edward Mayhew's statement, way to what has become known as the of the accounts of seeing or meeting "There were negroes in the house; John Underground Railroad. Brown connect to this incident, some Kagy was there and was killed at Harpers' The second part of the story would more authentically than others. This was Ferry; Mayhew lived there and had a review how myths about the site have also the single event involving Brown cave or wine cellar, and that is all there evolved and were derived largely from and slaves in Nebraska that was noted is in this great mystery," be accepted as uncritical acceptance of undocumented in contemporary sources. Many of the the last word? While Mayhew is the most oral and written accounts, often provided other accounts of Brown in Nebraska, credible source about the history of John by aged narrators. It would explain how with or without slaves, fall apart when Brown's Cave, there is more to the story. the Underground Railroad legend exem­ compared with his known whereabouts Historians work to dispel myths that plifies the pursuit of a noble cause, often between 1856 and 1859. have crept into the writing of history at significant personal risk, how it has Larry Gara in his book, The Liberty and search for the facts to the extent continued to resonate over time within Line, attributed many of the postwar that sources and reasoned judgment the context of contemporary social and accounts of Underground Railroad will allow. But they must also reckon political issues, and how it has inspired activity to sons, daughters, and even the importance of folklore, which, if it individuals and communities to devise more distant relatives of abolitionists cannot be told as history, nevertheless ways to connect with it. who "doted on the achievements, hero­ forms an important part of our heritage. The story of John Brown's Cave can ism, and loyalty of their forebears." He The story of John Brown's Cave is serve both history and heritage. History added, "Local pride in northern com­ really two stories, and both are worth will benefit from a more realistic reinter­ munities also contributed to the growth telling. The first is simply a more realistic pretation of the site and the folklore that of the legend."59 Gara's assessment is explanation of the probable role the site has grown up about it. The folklore can particularly interesting when the Mayhew may have played during the Under­ help demonstrate and explain how and Kagey families are considered. ground Railroad years within the context generations of Nebraskans have come Whether or not Allen Mayhew partici­ of available evidence about the level of to regard the crusade against slavery as pated in Underground Railroad activity, such activity in Nebraska. The story a meaningful part of their past.

86 John Brown's Cave and the Underground Railroad in Nebraska

published his article linking Mayhew with the UGRR. Notes 9 Nebraska City News, July 14, 1860; Feb. 2, July 13, 1861. 27 Wayland, John Kagi and John Brown, 22, 25,

1 Among many other sources, the 1999 Southeast 10 Ibid., Dec. 3,1901; Jan. 7, 1905. 37,46,49, Nebraska Visitors Guide (Louisville, Nebr.: Snowdog 2S Ibid., chap. 18; Dale, Mayhew biography in 11 Karstens's biography in Dale, "Otoe County Productions) includes an article headlined, Pioneers," 1401, reports Karstens leaving for St. "Otoe County Pioneers," 1749-51. "Nebraska City was Once Link in Underground Mary's, Iowa, soon after arriving in Nebraska City Railroad"; U.S. Department of the Interior, 29 See Glenn Noble, John Brown and the Jim in August 1857, returning to Nebraska City in April National Park Service, Underground Railroad Lane Trail (Broken Bow, Nebr.: 1977) for a popular 1858. Dale also credits Karstens with knowing very Resources in the United States, Theme Study account of this era. little English. (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1998). 30 A chronology of Brown's travels from his 12 Calvin Chapman affidavit, Mar. 12, 1925, in 2 Carol Kammen, "The Underground Railroad departure for Kansas in 1855 until his death, "John Brown File," Ned Abbott Papers, Nebraska and Local History," History News 54 (Spring 1999): C. December 2, 1859, appears as an appendix in 3-4; Larry Gara, The Liberty Line: The Legend of the State Historical Society (hereafter NSHS). Oswald Garrison Villard, John Brown, 1800-1859: Underground Railroad (Lexington: University of 13 Ibid. The article in which Abbott presents his A Biography Fifty Years After (1910, New York: Kentucky Press, 1961), esp. chap. 8, "Reminiscence findings appears in the Oct. 27, 1929 OmahaSunday Alfred A. Knopf, 1943). Other biographies, including and Romance." World-Herald. The 1925 letter from Edward Mayhew one by Stephen Oates, To Purge This Land with is in the "John Brown File," Abbott Papers, NSHS. Blood, 2d ed. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts 3 Nebraska City News, Nov. 14, 1874. Blue's Press, 1984) provide similar information, though obituary in the Nebraska City News, Mar. 13, 1875, 14 Omaha World-Herald, Magazine Section, Sept. I, not in tabular form. There are numerous noted that he had contributed many articles to the 1929. biographical works on John Brown, the first pub­ Chicago Times. A biography of Blue appears in lished in 1860, which quote from letters, diaries, Raymond E. Dale, "Otoe County Pioneers," type­ 15 Nebraska City News, Nov. 14, 1929. and other extant documents of Brown and his script, 1961-65, Nebraska State Historical Society, 16 Ibid., May 4, 11; July 4; Aug. I, 1937. associates. 252-53, and in A. C. Edmunds, Pen Sketches of 17 Ibid., May 6, Nov. 12,1937. Nebraskans (Lincoln: R. & J. Wilbur, 1871). Dale's 31 Oates, To Purge This Land, 262, 264; James C. exhaustive study consulted newspapers, census 18 Peru Pointer, Feb. 17, 1938. Malin, John Brown and the Legend ofFifty-Six and county records, cemetery records, and (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 19 Edward D. Bartling, John Henry Kagy and the secondary sources to glean biographical data 1942),712. Malin also credits Brown with conducting Old Log Cabin Home (Nebraska City: 1938). The on residents of Otoe County, Nebraska, from 1854 one slave in 1856. Brown, in 1859, conducted 1938 and later editions of Old Log Cabin Home to 1870. eleven adult slaves out of Kansas, but one of the are on file at NSHS. women apparently gave birth en route, adding a 4 The reunion was covered in the Chicago Daily 20 Wayne Overturf, "John Brown's Cabin at child to that total. Tribune, beginning June 9, 1874; it closed June 12. Nebraska City," Nebraska History 21 (April-June Only one person from Nebraska, L. W. Platt of 32 Nebraska Advertiser (Brownville), Sept. 10, 17; 1940): 93-100; Federal Writers Project, Nebraska: near Columbus, was listed as attending. Platt had Nov. 19,26, 1857; Nebraska City News, Dec. 5, 1857. A Guide to the Cornhusker State (1939, Lincoln: lived in Fremont County, Iowa, before the Civil University of Nebraska Press, 1979),274. 33 Nebraska City News, Nov. 27, Dec. 4, 1858. War and is listed as a conductor in Wilbur H. Siebert, The Underground Railroad, From Slavery 21 For the story as it is told today see, for example, 34 Wayland, John Kagi and John Brown, 82-83, to Freedom (New York: Macmillan, 1898), Appendix the 1997 and 1999 Southeast Nebraska Visitors citing original letter at the Kansas State Historical E. Six Iowans attended the reunion. See Chicago Guides, published by the Southeast Nebraska Society. Daily Tribune, June 9, 1874. Travel Council, a story on the cave in Grassroots 35 Mayhew to Abbott, Apr. 24, 1925, "John Brown Blue, a native of New York state, had lived in Nebraska 2 (June 1999), and an article in the File," Abbott Papers, NSHS. Brunswick, Missouri, before the Civil War, where Plattsmouth Journal, Apr. 24, 1997. 36 Richard J. Hinton, John Brown and His Men he was a Democrat and a slaveowner. Blue, how­ 22 Louise Pound, "Nebraska Cave Lore," Nebraska (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1894),225. ever, remained a Union man when the war broke History 29 (December 1948): 308-16. out. When threatened by more radical Unionists, 37 The "Parallels" are published in F. B. Sanborn, 23 Bartling, Old Log Cabin Home (1938), 4-5. he left in 1864 for Brazil, where he remained for The Life and Letters ofJohn Brown (Boston: Roberts several years. Edmunds, Pen Sketches, 168-72. 24 See note 19. Bros., 1891),481-83. Daniel Whitinger was a physi­ cian and druggist, and Samuel P. Sibley was a 5 Nebraska City News, Nov. 14, 1874. 25 1860 population census of Nebraska Territory, shoemaker. Both became active in the Republican Otoe County, 85, NSHS. Of course the military had 6 A. H. Reid, History ofJohnson County, Iowa, Party in the early 1860s and Sibley, as a member an early presence in the region with the first Fort 1836-1882 (Iowa City, 1883), 467n. of the territorial legislature, voted for an act to Kearny, 1846-47, and civilian John Boulware abolish slavery in Nebraska. Whitinger's biography 7 Omaha Bee, Mar. 3, 1890. acted as caretaker of the government property is in Dale, "Otoe County Pioneers," 2753-57; there well before the organization of Nebraska 8 Edward F. Mayhew letter in Nebraska City Sibley's is in the same source, 2330-33. While Territory. News, Apr. 4, 1890. Allen B. Mayhew's biography these men's Republican party affiliation suggests in Dale, "Otoe County Pioneers," 1751, gives 26 Allen B. Mayhew biography in Dale, "Otoe support for abOlition, if they were Underground Edward Mayhew's birthdate as Sept. 21, 1849, County Pioneers," 1749-51. John Pearman, one of Railroad operatives they managed to avoid men­ based on probate records of Allen Mayhew's Otoe County's earliest residents, also mentioned tion as such in any contemporary or recollective estate. The spelling is given variously as Kagi, Mayhew as among those who staked out the town­ accounts. Interestingly, Whitinger owned a farm Kagy, or Kagey. John Wayland, John Kagi and site in July 1854. See Pearman's address to the Old on the west edge of Nebraska City, about a mile John Brown (Strasburg, Va.: Shenandoah Publishing Settler's Reunion as reported in the Nebraska City from the Mayhew property. See U.S. General Land House, 1961) uses Kagi for John and Kagey for News, Feb. 22, 1873. Pearman made no mention Office Tract Books, Vol. 152, NSHS. Garner, Reed, other members of the family. This article follows of anyone's involvement in the Underground Rail­ and Vincent have not been further identified. They the latter convention except for titles and quotes road. This was more than a year before John Blue do not appear in "Otoe County Pioneers."

87 Nebraska History - Summer 2002

Martin Stowell. who had engaged in slave "res­ 43 A. R. Keirn. "John Brown in Richardson County: 51 Nemaha County Granger (Auburn). Jan. 5, cues" and other abolition activity in his native Transactions and Reports ofthe Nebraska State 1915; Nemaha County Herald (Auburn). Apr. 20, Massachusetts. led one of the New England Emi­ Historical Society. v. 2 (Lincoln: 1887). 109-13. 1917; Nebraska City News, Aug. 5. 1928. grant Aid parties to Kansas in 1856. but soon 52 The story appears in Andreas. History of moved to Nebraska. There he seems to have acted 44 W. W. Cox, "Reminiscences of Early Days in Nebraska; J. H. Dundas. Granger History of as an agent or solicitor for funds and commoditi~ Nebraska," Transactions and Reports of the being sent from New England to aid Kansas set­ Nebraska State Historical Society, v. 5 (Lincoln: Nemaha County (Auburn, 1902).37; and in the Minnick recollection. Of course it is possible that. tlers. Stowell correspondence from this period is 1893).73. like other Underground Railroad tales. the later in the Thomas Higginson and Thaddeus Hyatt pa­ 45 Alice A. Minick, "Underground Railroad in accounts have origins in the previous telling of pers at the Kansas State Historical Society (copies Nebraska," Proceedings and Collections ofthe this particular incident. in author's possession). Though various references Nebraska State Historical Society v. 2 (Lincoln: link Stowell to the Underground Railroad they. 53 John H. Kearnes. "Nebraskans Knew John 1898),70-79. like other such claims. are based on recollection Brown." Sunday State Journal (Lincoln). Dec. 27. or are otherwise not attributed. See. for example. 46 Ibid., 75. 1931. A. T. Andreas. comp.. History ofNebraska (Chi­ 54 Ibid.; James Redpath, The Public Life ofCaptain cago: Western Historical Co.. 1882).2:1159. 47 Alice A. Minick, One Family Travels West (Boston: The Meador Press, 1936). Minick was John Brown (Boston: 1860).221. 38 Nebraska City News, June 30, July 5, 1860. in her nineties when she wrote her book. 55 NPS Theme Study, 16. which draws from Gara, 39 Ibid., Aug. II, 1860. Jacob Dawson was editor Liberty Line, 32. and Clement Eaton. Growth of 48 John E. Rastall. "Underground Railroad in of the Wyoming Telescope from 1856 to 1860 Southern Civilization (New York: Harper. 1961),73. according to the newspaper inventory sheet, NSHS. Nebraska." Proceedings and Collections ofthe Nebraska State Historical Society, Second Series, 56 See. for example, Villard, John Brown, 262. 308. 40 Omaha Nebraskian. Aug. 18, 1860, quoting v.5 (Lincoln: 1902),323. 367. Falls City Broad Axe. n.d. 57 Priscilla A. Evans, State Historical Society of 49 J. W. Cassell recollection in Minnie Prey 41 Andreas. History ofNebraska, 2:1152. 1159. Knotts. ed., Nebraska Territorial Pioneers' Association Missouri, to L. G. DeLay. NSHS. Apr. 16. 1976. An article by Benjamin G. Merkel, "The Underground 42 Ibid., 2: 1304. The Andreas description of Reminiscences and Proceedings. v. 1 (Lincoln: Underground Railroad activity in Richardson 1917),42. Railroad and the Missouri Borders. 1840-1860," County was repeated, virtually word for word and Missouri Historical Review 37 (April 1943): 271-85. without attribution, by Lewis C. Edwards in his 50 Notes of a statement by R. E. Hawley to N. C. touches briefly on UGRR activity through Nebraska, History ofRichardson County, Nebraska (Indianapolis: Abbott. Mar. 22, 1925, "John Brown file." Abbott but his sole source is Minick's 1896 recollection. Papers. NSHS. Irwin was eleven years old in 1860, B. F. Bowen & Co., 1917), 113-14. amply demon­ 58 Siebert. Underground Railroad, Appendix E. strating the principal method by which the UGRR according to the territorial census as cited in Dale, 59 Gara. Liberty Line, 178-79. legends have been perpetuated. "Otoe County Pioneers," 1330.

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