Nortonville, Kansas, July 22, 1895.
F. G. Adams,
Topeka, Kansas.
Dear Sir,
Your letter of the 17th inst received, but do not know as I can give
you much
infermation that will be of interest to you or others. There was a Mr.
Million
that lived out a mile and a half or two miles South west of Atchison that
had
five or six and perhaps more slaves in 1857, and he kept them I think
until
about 1859. Mr. Hayse living some
mile and a half S. E. of now Cummings, and eleven miles S. W. of
Atchison,
had two or three slaves in 1857 and 1858, and Mr. Newby of Missouri had
land
on Crooked Creek, five miles east of Nortonville at the above date, and
had,
as near as I can remember, some 6 or more slaves. Mr. Green of Monrovia
had
a collered woman and child. In the fall of 1859 he took them to Atchison
on
rout to Missouri or south. While waiting at the hotel, Mr. Bird, then of
Atchison,
but soon after superintendent of the Government Farm at Ft Leavenworth,
took
her and her child, or was the means of her walking out
of the hotel and getting on a horse and riding off in broad daylight.
She was
secreted somewhere in Atchison untill night, when she and her child were
brought
to Milo Carlinton, near Pardee. About 4 oclock the next morning, while on
my
way to Atchison, I met her and Mr. Carlinton some two miles S.W. of
Pardee,
and I should not have known who they were, as it was yet dark, if it had
not
been for Mr. Carlintons dog. They went on about half a mile further and
she
and child were secreted through the day in a little dug out under the
little
house of Lyman Saunders, son of Dennis Saunders. That night at or near
nine
oclock, arrangements all
having been made through the day, Amos Taylor, who was dressed up
quite well
and had on a slikker or plug hat and carried a cain, and was to act as
slave
holder when the case required it, as it did when they remained at Holton
one
day and a night while out, and C. J. Buten as servant to drive the team
and
carrage and they were accompined the most of the first night out with a
body
guard of 4 or 5 men on horseback. They expected to get her in at the
proper
place at Topeka, but they were so watched there, that they could not get
them
in and so had to turn for the N. W. and went as I said, through Holton,
and
they left them at a station in southern Nebraska and they got safe
through to
Canada and Mr. Taylor and Buten returned home safe after some 4 days out.
Respectfully,
Isaac Maris.
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