Name/Title
Home For Aged and Dependent Ex SlavesEntry/Object ID
9999.BHF.285Scope and Content
Home For Aged and Dependent Ex Slaves
Slavery in Buchanan County by Roy E. Coy Fall 1962.
Preliminary report on the Eighth Census of 1860 shows Buchanan County having 21,799 whites with 101 free Negroes and 2,011Negro slaves.
St. Joseph once had a home for aged and dependent ex-slaves of U.S.A. with offices at No. 1 and 4, 118 1/2 North 5th Street, in 1895. Mr. C. S. Baker, President of this home wrote the following letter to Mr. Thomas E. Tootle, grandfather of Mrs. George Eckel.
Mr. Thomas E. Tootle Esq. We mail you a photograph of the Home to be exclusive for old Negroes who must have performed slave labor. This photograph shows what progress we had made up to the time it was destroyed partially by the wind storm in August. The letter continues on to ask for assistance. Because they are identified with the colored race it would not permit them to call and consume his valuable time. So they were sending the communication and photographs feeling satisfied that he would do what his judgment dictates best.
Another article they have requested contributions from the
Governors of several States and from other distinguished statemen and kind hearted women. By sending communications to governors of states, we have received a brick or more than one representing that State. There are copies of letters that were sent to those states.
There is a photocopy of the home. In 1887 there was a home for aged and dependent ex-slaves at Seventeenth and Highland. It operated for two years. Many of the slaves were more than 100 years old, had no known relatives living, and were wholly dependent upon the charity of the people.
St. Joseph News Press, Feb. 2015
St. Joseph was home to noble cause for ex-slaves
Column by Alonzo Weston regarding the history of the Home.Collection
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Black History, Home for Aged & Dependent Ex-SlavesRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
C. S. BakerPerson or Organization
Coy, RoyPerson or Organization
Eckel, GeorgePerson or Organization
Thomas E. Tootle Esq.
