Description
D. E. Farnsworth received a letter from F. G. Adams, secretary of the State Historical Society, today. in which he gives some interesting information concerning the early history of the Congregational church which is to abandoned after tonight's memorial service. (Omitted for brevity) Rev. J. H. Byrd, the first Congregational minister, was a strong Free State man. In Leavenworth County, in 1859, he was maltreated by border ruffians, and at one time was for many days a prisoner in their camp. On one occasion in Atchison, at great personal risk, he liberated a slave woman and her child. They were the property of Duff Green, of the Mount Pleasant neighborhood. He had sold the woman and child to a slave trader, and had put them in a room in the Massasoit house, to await a steamer to St. Joe (St. Joseph, Missouri). But when he went for them the next morning, they were not there: they had been liberated by Rev. Byrd, who carried them to the home of Andrew J. Evans, who lived in the Independence Creek neighborhood. Evans took them in, and hid them in a loft. He was surrounded by pro-slavery neighbors, but managed to conceal the fugitives 3 days, when a man named Louis Gaylord carried them a distance further on, and they finally reached Ohio in safety. The owner of the woman suspected Byrd, and a mob of pro-slavery men surrounded his house the next day. He refused to let them in until they produced a search warrant. Of course, they found no one there, and their suspicions were laid to rest. Mr. Byrd, at that time, lived in a house standing where the B & M. Railroad shops now stand. His daughter, Mary Byrd, taught school in Atchison about 15 years ago and is now a famous astronomer. (Researcher’s Note: Underground Railroad)Date(s) of Creation
7/14/1896
