Mayhew Cabin

Last updated
Mayhew Cabin
Mayhew Cabin from S 1.JPG
Front (south) of Mayhew Cabin.
USA Nebraska location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location2012 4th Corso, Nebraska City, Nebraska
Coordinates 40°40′24″N95°52′12.1″W / 40.67333°N 95.870028°W / 40.67333; -95.870028
Arealess than 1 acre (0.40 ha) [1]
NRHP reference No. 11000013 [2]
Added to NRHPFebruary 11, 2011 [2]

The Mayhew Cabin (officially Mayhew Cabin & Historic Village, also known as John Brown's Cave), in Nebraska City, Nebraska, is the only Underground Railroad site in Nebraska officially recognized by the National Park Service. [3] It is included among the sites of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

Contents

History

The Mayhew Cabin was built in 1855 by Allen and Barbara (Kagi) Mayhew, who had moved to Nebraska in 1854. [1] Mrs. Mayhew's younger brother John Henry Kagi came to stay with the Mayhews in 1855. Kagi had earned a law degree and had strong anti-slavery views. By 1856, he had moved to Kansas Territory and became an ally of the abolitionist John Brown.

Kagi became Brown's most trusted advisor and his "Secretary of War". Brown believed that slavery would not end without bloodshed. Brown had for years been formulating a plan that he was convinced would end slavery forever – a raid on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. This effort was supposed to arm slaves who would in turn hold an armed uprising against their masters. Once free, they would form a community where they could live peacefully. But, before he moved forward with that plan, Brown, Kagi, and the rest of Brown's followers were dealing with anti-slavery efforts in "Bleeding Kansas". By December 1858, they were at Bain's Fort, having freed an anti-slavery friend from captivity.

At the behest of a slave named Jim Daniels, on December 20, 1858, Brown and a group of his men, including Kagi, rode into Vernon County, Missouri from Kansas with the intention of taking Daniels and other slaves from their masters and taking them all the way to Canada to freedom. When they neared their destination they split into two groups. Brown's group set off to free the Daniels family first. Daniels, his pregnant wife, and their two children were owned by the James Lawrence estate and were at the home of Lawrence's son-in-law, Harvey Hicklin, and his wife. At gunpoint, the Daniels family was taken, along with another male slave named Sam Harper.

Brown's group then went to the home of Isaac Larue and at gunpoint took several slaves consisting of Sam Harper's mother, little sisters, little brother, and an unrelated male slave. Simultaneously, the group led by Kagi and Colonel Whipple (Aaron Dwight Stevens) raided the home of David Cruise and took a slave named Jane, with Whipple killing Cruise in the process. The two groups met and headed for Kansas with their eleven fugitives. For weeks, the escaping slaves were hidden, receiving aid at various locations in northeast Kansas. Mrs. Daniels gave birth to a son, who was named after John Brown.

In early 1859, the group of twelve were led north through Nebraska. In February 1859, they stayed at the cabin of John Kagi's sister, Barbara Mayhew. The group was continually hounded by an armed posse. Despite a posse attempting to take John Kagi at his sister's cabin, they made it safely across the river into Iowa and then eventually reached freedom in Windsor, Ontario, Canada on March 12, 1859.

The twelve consisted of the eleven slaves plus one child born during the trek, in three families: the Harper family, the Daniels family, and one unrelated male. [4]

According to the National Park Service:

The Mayhew Cabin was built in 1855 from hand hewn cottonwood trees and served as the home of the Mayhew family until 1864, when the cabin and surrounding property were first sold. The property continued to change hands through the end of the 19th century until 1937, when owner Edward Bartling had the cabin moved to prevent its destruction by a highway project. During the move, the cabin underwent restoration, exposing its original 1850s exterior materials. The authentic "old fashioned" look facilitated Bartling’s desire to open the cabin to the public and develop his property as a tourist park. In addition to restoring the cabin, Bartling had a cave built underneath the cabin to help interpret the Mayhew family’s rumored association with the Underground Railroad. The cave consists of a cellar and connecting tunnels, sleeping quarters, and a tunnel exiting to a nearby ravine. The cabin remained open to the public from 1938 to 2002 as the John Brown’s Cave tourist attraction. [5] [1]

"John Brown's Cave" sign near cabin Mayhew Cabin John Browns Cave sign.JPG
"John Brown's Cave" sign near cabin

The building was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on February 11, 2010. [2] The listing was announced as the featured listing in the National Park Service's weekly list of February 18, 2011. [6]

Restoration

In 2005 the Mayhew Cabin was restored and the site began operating as a non-profit foundation. The foundation acquired a new museum space in 2010 just to the west of the Mayhew Cabin. The foundation also maintains on the site an historic Mt. Zion AME Church, one of the first black congregations established west of the Missouri River. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Brown (abolitionist)</span> American abolitionist (1800–1859)

John Brown was a prominent leader in the American abolitionist movement in the decades preceding the Civil War. First reaching national prominence in the 1850s for his radical abolitionism and fighting in Bleeding Kansas, Brown was captured, tried, and executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia for a raid and incitement of a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nebraska City, Nebraska</span> City in Nebraska, United States

Nebraska City is a city in Nebraska and the county seat of Otoe County, Nebraska, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 7,222.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fugitive Slave Act of 1850</span> Act of the United States Congress

The Fugitive Slave Act or Fugitive Slave Law was a law passed by the 31st United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern interests in slavery and Northern Free-Soilers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bleeding Kansas</span> Violent slavery-related confrontations in Kansas territory in latter half of 1850s

Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War, was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerrit Smith</span> American abolitionist and politician (1797–1874)

Gerrit Smith, also spelled Gerritt Smith, was an American social reformer, abolitionist, businessman, public intellectual, and philanthropist. Married to Ann Carroll Fitzhugh, Smith was a candidate for President of the United States in 1848, 1856, and 1860. He served a single term in the House of Representatives from 1853 to 1854.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Garrett</span> American abolitionist

Thomas Garrett was an American abolitionist and leader in the Underground Railroad movement before the American Civil War. He helped more than 2,500 African Americans escape slavery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site</span> National Historic Site of the United States

Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site is a 9.65-acre (3.91 ha) United States National Historic Site located 10 miles (16 km) southwest of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, within the municipality of Grantwood Village, Missouri. The site, also known as White Haven, commemorates the life, military career and presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. Five historic structures are preserved at the site, including the childhood home of Ulysses' wife, Julia Dent Grant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oberlin–Wellington Rescue</span> 1858 event in leadup to American Civil War

The Oberlin–Wellington Rescue of 1858 in was a key event in the history of abolitionism in the United States. A cause celèbre and widely publicized, thanks in part to the new telegraph, it is one of the series of events leading up to Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Black Jack</span> Armed engagement of the Bleeding Kansas conflict

The Battle of Black Jack took place on June 2, 1856, when antislavery forces, led by the noted abolitionist John Brown, attacked the encampment of Henry C. Pate near Baldwin City, Kansas. The battle is cited as one incident of "Bleeding Kansas" and a contributing factor leading up to the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865.

The Battle of Osawatomie was an armed engagement that occurred on August 30, 1856, when 250–400 pro-slavery Border ruffians, led by John W. Reid, attacked the town of Osawatomie, Kansas, which had been settled largely by anti-slavery Free-Staters. Reid was intent on destroying the Free-State settlement and then moving on to Topeka and Lawrence to do more of the same. Abolitionist John Brown first learned of the raiders when they shot his son Frederick. With just 40 or so men, Brown tried to defend the town against the pro-slavery partisans, but ultimately was forced to withdraw; five Free-Staters were killed in the battle, and the town of Osawatomie was subsequently looted and burned by Reid's men. The battle was one of a series of violent clashes between abolitionists and pro-slavery partisans in Kansas and Missouri during the Bleeding Kansas era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bristolville, Ohio</span> Unincorporated community in Ohio, United States

Bristolville is an unincorporated community in central Bristol Township, Trumbull County, Ohio, United States. It lies at the intersection of State Routes 45 and 88 and has a post office with the ZIP code 44402. It is part of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area.

The history of slavery in Nebraska is generally seen as short and limited. The issue was contentious for the legislature between the creation of the Nebraska Territory in 1854 and the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allstadt House and Ordinary</span> Historic house in West Virginia, United States

The Allstadt House and Ordinary was built about 1790 on land owned by the Lee family near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, including Phillip Ludwell Lee, Richard Bland Lee and Henry Lee III. The house at the crossroads was sold to the Jacob Allstadt family of Berks County, Pennsylvania in 1811. Allstadt operated an ordinary in the house, and a tollgate on the Harpers Ferry-Charles Town Turnpike, while he resided farther down the road in a stone house. The house was enlarged by the Allstadts c. 1830. The house remained in the family until the death of John Thomas Allstadt in 1923, the last survivor of John Brown's Raid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry</span> 1859 effort by abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in Southern states

John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by abolitionist John Brown, from October 16 to 18, 1859, to initiate a slave revolt in Southern states by taking over the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. It has been called the dress rehearsal for, or tragic prelude to, the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aaron Dwight Stevens</span> American abolitionist (1831-1860)

Aaron Dwight Stevens was an American abolitionist. The only one of John Brown's raiders with military experience, he was the chief military aide to Brown during his failed raid on the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. For his role in the raid, Stevens was executed on March 16, 1860. He was 29.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Brown Museum (Osawatomie, Kansas)</span> Historical museum

The John Brown Museum, also known as the John Brown Museum State Historic Site and John Brown Cabin, is located in Osawatomie, Kansas. The site is operated by the Kansas Historical Society, and includes the log cabin of Reverend Samuel Adair and his wife, Florella, who was the half-sister of the abolitionist John Brown. Brown lived in the cabin during the twenty months he spent in Kansas and conducted many of his abolitionist activities from there. The museum's displays tell the story of John Brown, the Adairs and local abolitionists, and include the original cabin, Adair family furnishings and belongings, and Civil War artifacts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Redpath</span> Anglo-American journalist and activist (1833–1891)

James Redpath was an American journalist and anti-slavery activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marais des Cygnes massacre</span> United States historic place

The Marais des Cygnes massacre is considered the last significant act of violence in Bleeding Kansas prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War. On May 19, 1858, approximately 30 border ruffians led by Charles Hamilton, a Georgia native and proslavery leader, crossed into the Kansas Territory from Missouri. They arrived at Trading Post, Kansas, in the morning and then headed back to Missouri. Along the way, they captured 11 abolitionist Free-Staters, none of whom were armed and, it is said, none of whom had participated in the ongoing violence. Most of the men knew Hamilton and apparently did not realize he meant them harm. These prisoners were led into a defile, where Hamilton ordered his men to shoot, firing the first and last bullet himself. Five men were killed and five severely wounded. Only one Free-Stater escaped injury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Henry Kagi</span> American lawyer

John Henry Kagi, also spelled John Henri Kagi, was an American attorney, abolitionist, and second in command to John Brown in Brown's failed raid on Harper's Ferry. He bore the title of "Secretary of War" in Brown's "provisional government." At age 24, Kagi was killed during the raid. He had previously been active in fighting on the abolitionist side in 1856 in "Bleeding Kansas". He was considered an excellent debater and speaker.

On Sunday night, October 16, 1859, the abolitionist John Brown led a band of 22 in a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bill Hayes and Jessie Nunn (August 2010). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Mayhew Cabin / John Brown's Cave; OT06-D-219" (PDF). National Park Service . Retrieved 2011-03-04. (58 pages, including 16 photos from 2010)
  2. 1 2 3 "Announcements and actions on properties for the National Register of Historic Places for February 18, 2010". Weekly Listings. National Park Service. February 18, 2010. Retrieved 2011-03-04.
  3. "Mayhew Cabin and Historic Village Website, accessed 27 January 2011" . Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  4. Miller, Diane. "National Program Director". National Park Service.
  5. "Weekly Highlight: Mayhew Cabin, Otoe County, Nebraska".
  6. Archived December 7, 2006, at the Wayback Machine