https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-lplks/original/5f242bd90e6b0c782cd596d118494c58.pdf 0aece36b3c54289d1ee64a448d6a23aa PDF Text Text Biographies of 30 African Americans buried in Potter’s Field at Oak Hill Cemetery (by Jeanne Klein, Lawrence NAACP) George Robertson (1863-1882), lot 1179 Isaac King (1860-1882), lot 1169 Two lynching victims, George Robertson and Isaac King, have no census records, although they reportedly lived in Eudora at the time. Their approximate ages and grave numbers are known from their interment records. Eliza Vinegar (1842-1873), lot 201 Peter Vinegar (1836-1882) and Margaret “Sis” Vinegar (1866-1889), lot 1167 It appears that the Vinegar family may have come to Lawrence from Arkansas and settled here by 1866. The 1870 census for the 4th Ward listed Peter (b. 1836 KY), age 34, laborer; Eliza (b. 1845 AR), age 25, keeping house; and four children: Archie (b. 1857 AR), age 13, at home; Americus (b. 1864 AR), age 6; Margaret (b. 1866 KS), age 4; and Dina (Dora) (b. 1856 KS), age 14, at school [sic]. Dora’s birth year and age were listed incorrectly because in 1882 she said she was twelve years old, making her birth year 1870.1 To raise her seven children, Eliza Vinegar (1842-1873) worked as a washerwoman on New Hampshire street near 9th street blocks from the AME church. While living in impoverished conditions in 1869, she had already survived a vicious attack while Peter was gone one evening when two white drunken men forcibly entered her home, smashed all the furniture, and tossed her baby in its cradle across the room while insulting her with racist language.2 In February 1873, Black citizens of the Second Baptist Church accused city officers of failing to care for sick and destitute families. They discovered that Mrs. Vinegar had died from smallpox on Tuesday, February 4 at 5 p.m., but was not buried in potter’s field until Wednesday evening. “Those who buried her found her laying on the floor just as she died.”3 Dr. Richard Morris, the city’s health officer, responded to these charges as follows: ….To correct any false impressions…, I wish to inform the public that all the wood and provisions used by the family for two months or more have been furnished by the city, also medical treatment, medicines, and clothing mostly by the [white] ladies of the Benevolent Aid Society. Moreover, while these same colored citizens were busy organizing a meeting to censure and find fault, a committee of three ladies, consisting of Mrs. Grovenor, Mrs. Adwers, and Mrs. [Dr.] Morris, were devoting their time to the collection, purchasing, and making clothing and bedding for the [Vinegar] family, in 1 See Dora’s sworn statement during the coroner’s inquest, Tribune, June 5, 1882. No census records can be found for three additional children, per https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/47419399/eliza-vinegar. Mame Vinegar was also twelve years old, but no age was mentioned for Josh Vinegar, in Journal, June 8, 1882. No census records or news reports exist for Richard Vinegar and Isaac Vinegar (1861-1912), https://www.findagrave.com/ memorial/47420091/isaac_vinegar. Peter Vinegar was paid 90¢, $6, and $1.40 as a witness in three trials, Tribune, Jan. 24, Apr. 11, & Nov. 28, 1867. 2 One man, Joe Osborne, was arrested and fined $20 and costs. He also paid Mrs. Vinegar $25 in damages, in “Disgraceful Proceedings,” Tribune, Dec. 1 & 3, 1869; “Police Court,” Journal, Dec. 3, 1869. 3 “Resolution,” Tribune, Feb. 12, 1873. �order that they might be removed and newly clad whenever it was deemed safe to the public to have the change made. I have visited this family almost every day for two months and supplied all their wants as promptly and as diligently as I would any other family, white or colored, under like circumstances. The charge that Mrs. Vinegar died Tuesday evening and was not removed and buried till Wednesday evening is true and was the very best thing that could be done in safety to the public. I will state further that during these two long months of suffering of this unfortunate family, not the first one of their people have offered me one word of sympathy in their behalf, nor one morsel of food, nor clothing, nor aid of any description whatever. And it was with the greatest difficulty and at an exorbitant price, that I succeeded in procuring two colored men who had had the disease to bury this woman after her death.4 Much of the same sort could be said concerning other poor, cared for by the city, but as this article is already much longer than I intended it, I shall forbear. I am gratified to state that, so far, the disease with which the Vinegar family has been afflicted has been kept under control and hope soon to be able to say that Lawrence is free from any further spread of smallpox. R. MORRIS, Health Officer.5 Peter Vinegar (1836-1882), the third lynching victim, was implicated in Bausman’s murder, likely based on his earlier brushes with the law in police court. In 1872, he was accused of stabbing Miles Daniels, a Black man, over a card game quarrel at Dan Stone’s saloon. Even though Daniels struck first and was fined $50, Vinegar firmly denied having a knife but was fined $75.6 Two years after his wife’s death, he was charged for a robbery in Eudora with two other men, but the case was dismissed for insufficient evidence. He was also fined $5 for habitual drunkenness, and two “naughty” women who boarded at his house were jailed.7 In 1876, police officers arrested Peter’s 12-year-old son Americus for stealing several jars of preserves discovered under the floor. Although Peter “expressed considerable surprise and showed great mortification” over his son’s arrest, two disreputable women boarders told officers that Peter “instigated” the theft. The Tribune added, “It is a notorious fact that this ogre forces [his children] to steal and beats them when they are unsuccessful.”8 A Black girl also filed a complaint against Peter Vinegar and a Black woman for assaulting her with sticks and stones, and he was back in jail for an unknown charge in 1880.9 Later that year, while railing against several Black thieving families, the Tribune incited racial violence as follows: “Among the worst of these is the notorious Vinegar family, whose names are familiar to readers of the police notes, and who should be treated by the city as vagrants. A proper treatment would be to suspend them by a rope over the dam and permit them to soak about forty-eight hours.”10 4 Her interment record shows that Bailey and Smith, white undertakers, were paid $8 (about $210 in 2025 dollars) for her burial. 5 Quoted in “The Health Officer Speaks,” Tribune, Feb. 16, 1873 (emphasis in original). 6 “Stabbing Affray,” Tribune, Dec. 10 & 11, 1872; “Police Court,” Western Home Journal, Dec. 12, 1872. 7 In Journal, Aug 6, 1875; Dec. 28, 1875; Oct. 27, 1875. 8 Quoted in “The Vinegars,” Tribune, May 3, 1876. 9 In Journal, Jan. 24, 1877; Feb. 5, 1880. 10 Quoted in “Vagrants,” Tribune, May 5, 1880. �After Bausman’s murder, the Tribune explained the family’s impoverished circumstances further and held Lawrence citizens responsible for the family’s destitution: The shocking and repulsive character of the loathsome ‘Vinegar’ den which has been turned inside out in our city, ought not to be a surprise to any person who has resided in Lawrence during the last ten years. At least eight years since when the Vinegar children were all young, they might have been seen any morning going about from house to house asking for something to eat. If you questioned one of the forlorn, shivering, half-naked little outcasts, she would say, ‘Father doesn’t earn enough to buy us all something to eat, Mother is dead, and ‘Sis’ can’t get no pay for work. I ain’t had nothing to eat since yesterday. If you can’t gimme a piece of bread, just let me get a little warm.’ All this, and much more, many a citizen of Lawrence can remember about these vagabond children. The dirty miserable little objects would offer to work and pay for cold victuals or old clothes, but their reputation had preceded them and no one felt like trusting them to remain upon the premises, and so they were ordered to get out as quickly as possible. Now then, given this quantity of hunger, cold, homelessness and childish helplessness, leave it alone to look after itself, and what right has any one to suppose that the result will be other than deceit, theft, murder and all possible kinds of depravity. And if in addition to the problem of poverty, ignorance and idleness we add, as in the case of the Vinegar family, the dreadful factor of inherited evil tendencies, and the further complication of race disadvantages, we have a situation from which we may be certain the worst possible will result. Indeed, the matter of surprise is that worse and more of it has not come about long before this. This shocking murder which has just been perpetrated in our very midst is only another reminder of the truth which men must learn sooner or later—that they must not merely attend to their own affairs, or rather, their neighbors’ affairs are their affairs too. ….If ten years since the city of Lawrence had seen to it that the numerous members of this Vinegar family had been set to work, if poor little hungry mouths of the smaller children had been supplied with wholesome food, and the pitiful little bare limbs comfortably clad, who supposes that we should have had now with us all the horror and the expense of this murderous event. Of course, the problem of how to deal with the desperately poor and the ignorant is not easily worked out; nevertheless it might be done…. For all the pain and the honor which the citizens of Lawrence have experienced within the last few days, the best citizens are responsible. They are only reaping the inevitable, the legitimate harvest of their own neglect and incompetency during the last ten years. Politicians, business men, ministers, teachers, men and women of Lawrence how seriously will you take this question into consideration and how carefully will you work out the result of your conscientious thought about it. It is too late to undo the dreadful past, but it is not too late to see to it that next winter shall not find one little cold and hungry child, black or white, in our beautiful city…. Of this much we may be sure: ignorance and idleness mean murder, drunkenness and desolation of all sorts. And this also may we remember: we are our brothers’ keepers.11 11 Quoted in “The Lesson of It,” Tribune, June 8, 1882. �Like her brother Americus, Margaret “Sis” Vinegar (1866-1889) also faced criminal charges in police court. In the late 1870s and early 80s, she was charged with stealing a valuable ring from a white woman that she sold for 35¢ and later a pair of shoes from a store that put her in the county jail.12 Police also believed she stole $20 rather than found it as she claimed.13 During the coroner’s inquest over Bausman’s murder, Margaret denied any role in the murder and stated, “I wouldn’t lie for nobody.”14 Four months later, John Waller, a Black attorney, and other lawyers defended her against charges that she was involved in Bausman’s murder. In her testimony, she said she was 15 years old (b. 1867) and explained her meeting with Bausman who had been drinking whiskey. During “the commission of their crime,” King and Robertson struck Bausman over the head. “She begged them not to kill him and fled home.” At the opening of the trial, “Mr. Waller made a very able appeal in behalf of his client, giving an account of the unfavorable conditions under which she had been brought up, and the trials she had to contend with.”15 District Court Judge Stephen Nelson then explained the differences between murder in the first and second degrees to the jury: …If you find from the evidence that the defendant had an assignation for illicit intercourse with [Bausman] and [that Robertson and King killed him] without the connivance [knowledge] of the defendant, then you must find her not guilty, even though you find that during their illicit and improper intercourse the defendant feloniously appropriated [Bausman’s] money; for in order to find her guilty, you [must find] that she conspired with the parties who used force so that the acts of each one became the acts of all…. After less than three hours, the jury convicted her manslaughter in the second degree.16 When a new trial was granted, Sis was allowed to “board out” from the county jail due “to her delicate condition.”17 Yet at her second trial, another all-white jury convicted her of murder in the first degree within fifteen minutes. She “displayed not the least sign of emotion or interest regarding her future” because she “had undoubtedly given up all hope of ever gaining her liberty.”18 John Waller then responded as follows: In the first place we did not expect that ‘Sis’ Vinegar could be cleared in a community where the minds of the whole public has been excited to its highest zenith…; and second, where her father, against whom there was no charges, was [hung]….We will always believe that ‘Sis’ Vinegar is innocent of the murder of Bausman, and to send her to the penitentiary for life…is no less a crime than was [her father’s hanging]. We do not criticize the Jurors as such, [but it looks as if] our [white] officers were afraid to put a man of color on the jury….19 12 “Robberies,” Journal, June 1, 1877; “A Sour Case,” (Lawrence) Reporter, July 11, 1879. “Who Has Lost Money?” Journal, Jan. 27 & 28, 1880. 14 Quote in “Vinegar Tribe,” Tribune, June 7, 1882; “Unveiling of the Mystery,” Western Home Journal, June 8, 1882. 15 Quoted in “Murder in the Second Degree!” Journal, Oct. 6, 1882. 16 Quotes in Journal, “On Trial for Life,” Oct, 5, 1882; “Murder in the Second Degree!” Oct. 6, 1882. 17 “The Jail,” Journal, Jan. 26, 1883. 18 Quoted in “Sis Vinegar” second trial, Apr. 11, 1883. 19 Quoted in “The Trial and Conviction of Margaret Vinegar,” Western Recorder, Apr. 12, 1883. 13 �Judge Nelson sentenced her to life at the Kansas penitentiary in Lansing.20 While there, Sis paid $5 to a local butcher for a meat bill her family owed. “She has a very good reputation with the prison officials for good behavior” and had saved up the money earned for good conduct.21 In 1888, John Waller applied for her pardon from Gov. Martin, backed by many Black citizens.22 However, Margaret Vinegar died from TB on February 1, 1889 around age 20. She may have been buried at the penitentiary’s graveyard, although no records exist.23 Therefore, her memorial grave marker is added to Peter Vinegar’s grave marker in lot 1167 at potter’s field. Her EJI marker, located near the old courthouse at the municipal pool, was dedicated on June 10, 2023.24 It reads as follows: The Sexual Assault of Margaret “Sis” Vinegar In June 1882, two Black men discovered a white man sexually assaulting 14-year-old Margaret “Sis” Vinegar. The Black men, who were living with the Vinegar family at the time, came to Margaret’s defense and the white assailant was killed. Although she was just 14 and had been the victim of a sexual assault, Margaret was arrested along with her father and the two Black men who rescued her. While in jail, she was terrorized by a white lynch mob that broke into the jail and debated whether or not to lynch her, ultimately voting not to by a majority of one. However, the mob did kidnap her father and rescuers and lynched all three of them on June 10. Margaret remained in jail and in October she was tried for capital murder of the white man who sexually assaulted her. An all-white jury quickly convicted her. Her lawyers requested a new trial in another county, and in 1883 a second all-white jury convicted Margaret and sentenced her to execution. A local newspaper in Lawrence celebrated the conviction: “very little surprise was manifest at the finding of the jury, which is undoubtedly a just one.” A few years later after her conviction, Margaret died from tuberculosis in 1889 while incarcerated in Lansing. Decades after the era of enslavement, sexual violence against Black girls and women was tolerated and unaddressed. Margaret Vinegar became a victim of this violence and the racial bias that punished all who resisted the horrors of this abuse. 20 “The Vinegar Sentence,” Western Home Journal, Apr. 19, 1883; “Bound for the Pen,” Journal, Apr. 26, 1883. Evening Tribune, Dec. 6, 1884; “A Creditable Act,” Gazette, Dec. 1, 1884. 22 “Application for Pardon,” Tribune, Sept. 28, 1888; Evening Tribune, Feb. 4, 1889. 23 Atchison Globe, Feb. 2, 1889; Journal, Feb. 5, 1889; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/ 47466854/margaretvinegar was taken down. 24 Maya Hodison, “Margaret ‘Sis’ Vinegar memorialized,” Lawrence Times, June 10, 2023. 21 �Elias L. Bradley (1819-1896), lot 1346 and Frances E. Bradley (1845-1891), lot 1474 Brazil Bradley (1866-1891), lot 1470 and Jennie Bradley (1875-1893), lot 1428 Elias L. Bradley (1819-1896) was a very well-known pioneering barber, a devout Christian of St. Luke AME Church, and an honorable Mason who actively engaged with the Lawrence community. His life’s story, as reported in Lawrence newspapers, bears witness to an industrious and conscientious man who cared for others’ needs while practicing his trade over his six decades-long career. Given that his various barber shops served as inter-racial gathering venues for conversations, he well understood the need for calming racial tensions with a clean shave, soothing shampoo, and expertly trimmed haircut. On August 13, 1820, when Eli was eighteen months old, his white father, Edward Bradley, emancipated him and his younger sister Caroline in Hempstead County, Arkansas, having already freed his enslaved mother, Ann, and his three brothers (Zeb, Dan, and Gad) in 1815 and 1818.25 In his youth, Eli learned to read and write and apprenticed as a barber for five years, beginning in 1832, writing, “I claim to be inferior to none at the trade.” While living with his mother and sister in Little Rock, Arkansas, by 1850, he plied his trade and bore a child, Julia Agnes, in 1851 with his first wife. Upon learning about the bloody border wars between free staters in Kansas Territory and Missouri’s proslavery guerillas, he came to Lawrence for the first time in 1856, opened a barber shop, and later “shouldered the musket to stand in the defense of our city” during Confederate Gen. Price’s 1864 threatening raid.26 Frances Esther Mumford (1845-1891) (also born in Hempstead County, Arkansas) married Elias Bradley on May 26, 1860 at Fort Scott, Kansas. In 1861, the couple moved with Julia Agnes to Lawrence, where Mrs. Bradley would raise their eight children and Mr. Bradley would resume barbering.27 Upon opening “a bathing establishment” downtown on Massachusetts Street “for the benefit of all who may patronize him,” he pointed out the following: “Gentlemen, I have been almost disheartened in my adventure of opening business among you. I was told in the South that the Northern people would not patronize me much—that I would starve—that I would find out that the Northerners were not friends to the colored man. Now is the chance to prove it to the contrary.”28 One year later, when William Quantrill and his Missouri guerillas murdered men and destroyed Lawrence on August 21, 1863, Bradley saw a white man shot and his body thrown into a burning building.29 The Bradley family survived but “lost all”—presumably their home, his workplace, and possessions. They received some relief ($12.10 worth of groceries or $286 in 2025 dollars) and some clothing.30 Two years later, he owned $500 in real estate property and 25 Hempstead County Deeds Record Book I, 118-19, in Dena White, “Slavery in Hempstead County, Arkansas,” honors thesis, Ouachita Baptist University, 1984, 41-42, https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/cgi/ viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1195&context=honors_theses. See also https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bradley-15833. 26 In Tribune, “Barber Shop!” Apr. 5, 1867, “1856,” Dec. 21, 1872. 27 (Fort Scott) True Democrat, May 26, 1860. No news can be found on what happened to Julia. 28 Quoted in advertisement, Journal, Sept. 4, 1862; “Tonsorial,” Tribune, Feb. 20, 1862. 29 Tribune, June 1, 1870. 30 See Bradley listed in “Lawrence Relief Commission,” Tribune, Oct. 3, 1863. �$500 in personal property (worth a total of $18,283 in 2025 dollars).31 Although he claimed $478 ($11,305) in raid damages, he did not receive sufficient payments, much like the majority of claimants.32 Yet surviving the raid became a great source of pride, especially for Black businessmen. With others, Bradley met at Fred W. Read’s store to plan the first reunion of raid survivors at South Park on August 21, 1891, and his name appeared on survivors’ lists through 1895.33 After the Lawrence massacre, Bradley’s frequent newspaper advertisements, touting his years of experience, attracted men, women, and children, both Black and white, to his barber shops at different downtown locations on Massachusetts Street.34 For instance, Major B. S. Henning, a white Union officer and railroad executive, “used to come up from Kansas City to get his hair cut by Bradley. He had become so well suited with the work that barber did in this line, that he would try no one else.”35 After Bradley spent $190 (over $4,000) on three handsome new chairs from Chicago, Rev. David G. Lett and his son Hannibal moved their “Crystal Palace” from Topeka in 1870 to his enlarged and improved stand at 70 Massachusetts, where “his former patrons [could] hardly recognize the place” now “up in such fine style.”36 At some point, a picture of an old horse, labeled “Blood will tell,” hung in his shop.37 Over the course of his extensive career until at least 1890, he “always received a full share of patronage,” along with several Black barbers who partnered or worked with him, including William H. Butler, John M. Mitchell, Mark Anthony, (James?) Stewart, John L. Waller, and James Gross.38 In 1879, Bradley and Butler “defied any barber or barbers to excel us in shaving or hair-cutting.” Frank Willard, a white barber, accepted their challenge with a bet of $100 and John Mitchell refereed.39 Given his writing skills, Bradley often served as a secretary for various gatherings. In 1865, he recorded a huge July 4th celebration among Black folks in which soldiers and women, dressed in white representing 35 states, paraded downtown.40 Together with other civil rights 31 See “African-Americans in the 1865 Kansas Census (Douglas County)” by Debby Lowery and Judy Sweets (selfpublished, 2006), 14. 32 “Quantrill Raid Claims,” Tribune, Mar. 11, 1887. Although claimants reportedly received 4% interest on their amounts in 1887, the principal, in annual installments of 10%, was not paid until January 1890. See Katie H. Armitage, “‘Out of the Ashes’: The Rebuilding of Lawrence and the Quest for Quantrill Raid Claims,” Kansas History 37 (Winter 2014-15): 226-41, especially 235 on Bradley. 33 In Journal, “Business Men Who ‘Still Live,’” Aug. 21, 1889; “Quantrell [sic] Didn’t Get Them,” Aug. 18, 1891. During this reunion, C. W. Smith registered at least 30 Black residents out of more than 380 survivors, at https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/225627. 34 One ad ran from April 15, 1869 thru February 25, 1870; in Tribune, “Head-Quarters Shop,” Dec. 27, 1868; barber shop with a bathhouse “to keep the outer man clean,” at 9 th and Mass., July 8, 1873; on Massachusetts north of 7th Street, Journal, May 12, 1876; “Star of the West,” (Kansas) University Courier, Nov. 3, 1879; at 622 Massachusetts in his final advertisement, Journal, Dec. 24, 1890. 35 Quoted in Lawrence Daily Gazette, July 12, 1890. 36 “New Chairs,” Tribune, Sept. 7, 1869; quoted in Journal, Mar. 1, 1870; Tribune, Feb. 26, 1870. Bradley also obtained a liquor license, Journal, Sept. 8, 1870. Months later, Lett and his son dissolved their partnership with Bradley by mutual consent and opened a new shop at 58 Mass., Journal, Mar. 28, 1871; Standard, July 20, 1871. 37 “Correspondence” by Lamonte from Augusta, Kansas, in Tribune, Sept. 3, 1873. 38 In Tribune, quoted in partnership with Gross, Mar. 11, 1881; their purchase of two pairs of steel hair-cutting shears, May 17, 1881; Butler, Dec. 25, 1864; “Barber Shop!” Apr. 5, 1867; Mitchell, July 18, 1871; Anthony, June 5, 1877; Waller, Nov. 10, 1880. He also sponsored a masquerade ball at Eldridge Hall with a barber, Aug. 8, 1871. 39 “Trying to Razor Row,” Lawrence Reporter, Mar. 24, 1879. No report on who won the bet. 40 “Celebration by the Colored People of Lawrence,” Tribune, July 6, 1865. �activists, such as Charles H. Langston, he petitioned legislators to strike the word “white” from the Kansas Constitution, to grant suffrage to Black men (regardless of class), and to abolish racial segregation in public places (including barber shops) beginning in 1866.41 While his peers remained disenfranchised, his name appeared on a list of qualified voters as a freedman in 1868, two years before the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment.42 When rumors spread over two separate racial “outrages” in 1873, Bradley recorded citizens’ denunciations of “unlawful deeds” committed by Black men on white females.43 Ever conscious of the economic struggles among lower class citizens, he also “determined to do justice to the laboring class and all who may patronize them” by charging only 25¢ ($7.45) for a shave and haircut, and 15¢ ($4.50) for children’s haircuts, sometimes reducing his prices to 10¢ ($3.00).44 St. Luke AME Church became his spiritual home, perhaps since its founding in 1862. In addition to religious services, congregants also gathered for “indignation” meetings to protest racial discriminations. For instance, in 1874, citizens and parents vehemently opposed C. B. Mustard, an incompetent white teacher at the Black-segregated Vermont street school where Bradley’s children attended.45 Two years later, Bradley and ten other barbers agreed to limit their hours on Sundays from 6:00 to 10:00 a.m., until 1882, when six barbers decided to close on Sundays but operate on Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. to midnight.46 In 1879, Bradley also joined a meeting, led by Rev. Richard Ricketts, to protest the city council’s failure to appoint any Black men to positions.47 For her part, Frances reportedly “professed a hope in Christ in 1885,” one year after Elias retired from St. Luke’s board.48 As a morally upright and sober man, Bradley may have been a charter member of the Far West Lodge No. 5, an all-Black “secret” society of Ancient, Free, and Accepted Masons established in Lawrence in 1866. The following year, on June 24 (St. John’s Day), Capt. William D. Matthews organized the Most Worshipful King Solomon Grand Lodge of the State of Kansas headquartered in Leavenworth. Bradley served as an officer (secretary, treasurer, and trustee) for this state lodge from 1871 through 1885, as well as secretary for Lawrence’s Far West Lodge No. 5 in 1876.49 Beginning in 1889, several tragic deaths occurred in the Bradley family. First, son 41 Bradley was one of three secretaries for a “Colored Men’s Convention” at Frazer’s Hall, Tribune, Oct. 18, 1866; see also “A Call to the Colored Citizens,” Journal, Jan. 14, 1887. One Journal reporter thought he “never meddles in politics,” Jan. 6, 1877. 42 See listed names in the First Ward, Tribune, Mar. 19, 1868. To prepare for a celebration of the Fifteenth Amendment on August 1, 1870 in Leavenworth, Bradley served on the Ways and Means Committee, Tribune, June 23, 1870. 43 “To Whom It May Concern,” Tribune, Apr. 1, 1873 in response to “The Situation,” Journal, Mar. 30, 1873. 44 “I X L Barber Shop,” Tribune, Jan. 17, 1879; Reporter, Apr. 2, 1879; (Lawrence) Kansas Mirror, Nov. 3, 1881; Journal, August 19, 1882. 45 Secretary E. L. Bradley and Hannibal Lett, Tribune, Aug. 11, 1874. 46 In Tribune, “Notice,” June 1, 1876; Oct. 12, 1882. 47 “Indignation Caucus of the Colored Men,” Tribune, May 23, 1879. 48 Quoted in her obituary, Journal, Feb. 18, 1891; “The AME Church,” Evening Tribune, Jan. 17, 1884. 49 In Journal, “Masonic Grand Lodge,” July 28, 1871; Mar. 24, 1876; “Masonic,” Oct. 15, 1878, Dec. 10, 1881; “King Solomon’s Grand Lodge,” Nov. 24, 1882, “Notice,” Sept. 13, 1884, “To Whom It May Concern,” Nov. 20, 1885; in Tribune, “Masonic Demonstration,” July 18, 1873; Mar. 23, 1876; “Masonic,” Western Recorder, Oct. 19, 1883; “Masonic” committee, Evening Tribune, Mar. 15, 1890. �Elmore (1861-1889), a well-educated 29-year-old man born deaf who loved to fish at the Kansas River, disappeared from the family home in mid-August. (For nine years, Elmore had attended the “Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb” in Olathe—a tuition-free school that offered free room and board to its students.) Twelve days later, Elmore’s body was found 25 miles downriver near DeSoto. By the time Elias had arrived in DeSoto, the coroner had already buried his son in the town’s “Silent Cemetery.”50 One year later, the family also grieved over the passing of “little Wilfrid” (unknown birth year).51 Seven months later, Mrs. Frances Bradley, age 45, died quite suddenly from heart disease at the family home on north Kentucky Street. After her AME funeral, she was buried in Oak Hill’s potter’s field. In his card of thanks, Mr. Bradley wrote: Please allow me...to return heartfelt thanks to our many kind friends for their kind assistance and sincere sympathy towards my bereaved family. Honor to all who have done so much to show their love and respect. Words fail to express my sense of appreciation of those deeds which spoke louder than words. Such expressions will not be unnoticed nor unrewarded by Him who controls the destiny of His creatures; to whom, with much love, I would commend each of you.52 Another seven months passed when Elias’ 25-year-old son Brazil (“Bud” or “Bead”) (1866-1891), also a barber downtown, died from tuberculosis. He, too, was buried in potter’s field. The year before, Bud had engaged in an altercation with another Black barber whom he cut severely with a razor. Immediately after this incident, Bud ran to his family’s home, changed out of his bloodied coat, and skipped town for an unknown period of time.53 Then, in February 1893, Elias’ 17-year-old daughter Jennie Bradley (1875-1893) died of typhoid pneumonia. Her body was brought from Kansas City and also buried in potter’s field after the funeral.54 Little is known about Bradley’s remaining four children, only that Lawrence H. Bradley (b. 1864) was released from police court for an assault he did not commit.55 Mary Bradley (b. 1869) married Ernest Russell on March 23, 1891, in Iowa, a ceremony that Lawrence witnessed.56 No marriage was ever announced about Anna (b. 1871). At age 16, daughter Sarah (b. 1880) was the sole family member living with her father one year before his death.57 After a very long-lived and highly successful career as a tonsorial artist and entrepreneurial businessman, Elias L. Bradley died at age 77—while still barbering downtown at 50 “Elmore Bradley,” Journal, Sept. 20, 1889; “Disappeared,” Gazette, Sept. 23, 1889. On the history of the Kansas School for the Deaf, see https://www.osagecountyonline.com/archives/42697. No burial record for Elmore Bradley exists in the DeSoto Cemetery, http://www.interment.net/data/us/ks/johnson/ desoto/index.htm. 51 “Card of Thanks,” Journal, July 28, 1890. His burial place remains unknown. 52 Quoted in Journal, Feb. 28, 1891; “Francis Esther Bradley,” obituary, Feb. 21, 1891; “Died Suddenly,” Gazette, Feb. 16, 1891. 53 In Gazette, “Brazel [sic] Bradley,” Aug. 6, 1891 and “Razors in the Air,” May 5, 1891 (also Journal); and “Prisoners Escaped,” Journal, June 19, 1885. 54 Gazette, Feb. 24, 1893. 55 “Police Court,” Journal and (Lawrence) Kansas Herald, Aug. 28, 1883. 56 See https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bradley-15833. 57 1895 Kansas census. �5 east 9th Street. Congregants at St. Luke AME Church honored him as “a man of sterling qualities, a Christian whose daily deportment proved his faith was well founded.” His Masonic brothers conducted his AME funeral and led him to his burial place—in potter’s field.58 Newspapers do not explain why Frances, Elias, and two of their eight children were buried in Oak Hill’s potter’s field. Despite Mr. Bradley’s wealth of AME friends, Masonic brothers, co-workers, and thousands of customers over his six decades-long career, why could no one come forward to pay for family burials in one standard plot within Oak Hill Cemetery? Instead, the Bradley family lies at rest in separate paupers’ lots. As Mrs. Bradley’s epigraph reads: Forever here my rest shall be, Close to thy bleeding side. It’s all my hope, and all my plea, For me the Savior died.59 58 59 “In Honor of E. L. Bradley,” World, Mar. 18, 1896; Journal, Mar. 9 & 14, 1896. Quoted in obituary for “Francis [sic] Esther Bradley,” Journal, Feb. 18, 1891. © Jeanne Klein 2022 �Edward P. Washington (1850-1883), lot 29 (NE ½) (transcribed and edited by Jeanne Klein 2022) John L. Waller (1850-1907), an African American lawyer and politician, wrote the following articles in his Western Recorder newspaper published in Lawrence.60 “Death of E. P. Washington,” March 17, 1883: We are pained this week to chronicle the death of Edward P. Washington, who died of smallpox on the [Addis] Island on the [Kansas/Kaw] river bank, east of the city about a mile. The writer has known Ed. Washington for the last eighteen years; we were boys together, and have haunted over many a hill, and fished in many a stream in Iowa, years ago. He lived on a farm northwest of Marshalltown, Iowa, where he grew to manhood and married Miss Sarah Murray of Oskaloosa, Iowa. Ed Washington was a young man, being thirty-three years old on the 3rd day of January last past. He and his wife came to Kansas one year ago in company with [his] parents. They settled in Lawrence, where they have worked hard, and made a comfortable living. They have made many friends in their new home, and Mr. Washington, being of a long-lived family, would have lived, no doubt, to the age of at least sixty to seventy, perhaps more. As it is, he and his wife were forced down upon the island to live or die, with a case of smallpox, for which they were in no way responsible, while others, who had been equally exposed, were placed in a house removed from the smallpox. It is the verdict of almost everyone with whom we have conversed with reference to this matter, that Washington and his family should have been sent to the pest house west of the city, where his life, and that of his wife, would have no doubt been saved. We certainly doubt the wisdom of compelling people who are in good health to remain in company with any contagious disease. It is all well enough to send persons who have already had smallpox, but we think it a sacrifice of life to send persons to live with it, who are in danger of taking it. Mrs. Washington, widow of the deceased, is a most worthy young woman. We tender to her our most heartfelt sympathy in her sad affliction. March 22, 1883: This is doubtless a canard, but it is absolutely true, yes an awful fact that under the instructions of Mayor [J. D. Bowersock] of this city, Ed. Washington, one among our most worthy colored citizens, was forced down on the island, as also was his wife, to live or die with a case of smallpox. They were placed in a thing called a “pest house.” This building is situated on the south bank of the Kaw, about one mile east of the city. It is surrounded by a group of swamps which makes it next to impossible for a man to recover even from the most common disease. Suppose we grant for the sake of the argument that Mr. [Dan] Crew did make the remark attributed to him. Can it be compared to the loss of a life, which widows a woman, and turns her out in the world as destitute as a pauper? Mr. Bowersock carried into effect, though plied upon another victim, what our contemporary charges Mr. Crew to have advised in the case of the child. We further avow that E. P. Washington might as well have been “wrapped up in a blanket, and thrown in the river,” as to have been placed, yes FORCED to go and remain on that island, with the smallpox. We will never forget the last words he said to us. We met him on the corner of Warren [9th] and Rhode Island streets, the day they took them to the island, and seeing us, his eyes filled with tears and he choked up, and remarked in a 60 For details on Mr. Waller, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Waller. �suppressed tone, “Goodbye, John, my family is ruined.” It was the last time we ever saw him. Can colored men forget how bitterly his wife wept when it was found that she and her husband had to go and stay with that case of smallpox? We reiterate what we said in the RECORDER last week. Washington should have been placed in a house separate from the smallpox. He might as well have been shot as sent to the place where he met his death. No, the facts are that the present Mayor of this city has no sympathy for colored people, and they can never prosper while he is at the head of the city government, and the sooner they realize this fact the better it will be for them. We charge the death of Ed. Washington upon the head of the Mayor of this city. And what shall be said of the disconsolate and bereaved widow of Washington? There are white people here who will testify to the fact of her industry, her good character, and womanly bearing; and from Marshalltown, Iowa, more than a thousand of the best citizens there would speak in her favor but only see her now weeping and uncomforted by any friend, down in the woods, on a desolate island, in obedience to the edict of the man whom our contemporary asks the suffrage of the colored voters of this city.61 May 10, 1883: The City Council allowed Mrs. Sarah Washington, widow of Edward Washington, who died on the island of smallpox, one hundred and seventy-five dollars [$5,164 in 2022 dollars] for property destroyed, and for her services as a nurse in the pest house. We are glad that this disconsolate woman has been awarded a few dollars with which to clothe and feed herself. The loss of her husband no City Council can repay. “No More Smallpox in the City,” Lawrence Gazette, April 19, 1883: We are happy to be able to state that the great danger from the spread of smallpox in this city is over.... At the Dolan house, in Wakarusa Township, there are three cases.... There have been in this city the following cases (and only these) during the present year: Child of Ben Fletcher, Lotta Anthony, [and] Ed Washington [all Black]....These cases were all taken to the pest house on the island [in February].... The case on the island was a new importation from Kansas City; first appearance of the disease in this case April 11. The patient was immediately placed in the pest house on the island, making in all twelve cases. Two cases just taking disease. Four deaths have occurred as follows: March 8, Ed Washington; April 11, child of Dolan; April 14, J. W. Dolan; April 16, child of Dolan.62 C. W. Smith, Chairman Board of Health 61 S. B. Smith, Waller’s brother-in-law living in Carroll, Iowa, was also sorry to learn of Washington’s death, Western Recorder, Apr. 5, 1883. 62 For three weeks, Dr. A. G. Abedelai personally cared for J. W. Dolan, a white farmer in Wakarusa Township and chairman of the county Democratic party, and his children, “Honor to Whom Honor is Due,” Gazette, Apr. 26, 1883. �Lettie A. Anthony (1865-1883), lot 1248 (transcribed & edited by Jeanne Klein 2022) “Horrible Catastrophe,” (Lawrence) Kansas Herald, July 10, 1883: Yesterday evening, about seven o’clock, at a boarding house on Massachusetts street kept by Mrs. [F. J.] Rodemeyer [white], Lettie Anthony, a colored girl, was burnt so severely by attempting to start a fire with coal oil, that she will probably not survive. It seems that Mrs. Rodemeyer was eating supper, and sent word to the girl in the kitchen, to make her some warm tea. The fire was low and to hurry it up, the girl took a can of kerosene oil and began to pour it on the embers. The result was what might have been expected; the oil caught fire, and the can exploded, throwing the contents all over the girl. In one moment, she was one mass of flames. She rushed out into the yard, where Mr. David Hall [white] happened to be. He picked up a blanket lying near at hand and wrapped her up in it. Mrs. Rodemeyer had seen the girl as she went out of the house all in flames and had seized a bed quilt and followed her. When she arrived, the blanket Mr. Hall first used was on fire, and he took the quilt she brought, and with the two, succeeded in smothering the flames, but not until the girl’s clothing had been entirely burned off from her. Drs. Miller and Punton were called and did everything in their power to relieve her suffering, but she is burnt so badly that in all probability she will not recover from the effects. The skin was burnt off from almost the entire body, and in many places, the flesh only hung by shreds. The little girl who took her word to bring the tea was slightly burned. The girl’s father [Edmund] lives near Eudora on a farm, her mother [Jane] having died some weeks since. She has two cousins in Lawrence, Mollie Stephens and Mrs. Lettie Burnside. She was down on the island during the smallpox scare with the Washington family [Edward and Sarah].63 LATER Lettie Anthony died at ten o’clock this morning, after fourteen hours of horrible suffering. Her funeral will be attended tomorrow. John L. Waller, Western Recorder, July 19, 1883 (African American perspective): A very sad affair occurred Monday evening at the boarding house of Mrs. Rodemeyer on Massachusetts street. Lettie Anthony, a young colored girl, was attempting to start a quick fire by pouring in coal oil, when the oil took fire, exploded the can and set her clothing on fire. The girl ran to the yard a sheet of living flame. Here a Mr. Hall threw a blanket around her and the flames soon smothered. But her clothes were burned up and her body a seething mass of burned flesh. Physicians were called and all was done that medical skill could do, but the girl died on Tuesday afternoon. She was from Eudora where her father [Edmund] lives. He also has relatives in this city and was with Mr. [Edward] Washington’s family on the island when he died of smallpox last winter. 63 See Edmund Anthony family and Lettie and Isaac Burnside family in 1865 Kansas census; Miss M. Stephens, a domestic at 1015 Tennessee street, in 1886 city directory; Mrs. and Mr. Rodemeyer and D. H. Hall in 1885 Kansas census. For details about smallpox on the Kansas River island, see Edward P. Washington who died there on March 8, 1883. �Sarah Thurston (1840-1885), lot 1206, Ann Eliza Thurston (1863-1882), lot 1177, Ulysses Thurston (1869-1884), lot 1286, and Maggie B. Thurston (1873-1887), lot 1156 Edward Thurston (1832-1908), born enslaved in Tennessee, endured a long life, mostly as a low-wage laborer with his large family. Upon settling in Lawrence around 1862, he first worked as a farm laborer in rural Wakarusa Township with his wife Sarah (Sally), a domestic servant, and their two children, Silas (b. 1862) and Annie (1864-1882), both born here.64 The family survived Quantrill’s raid in August 1863, and Sally obtained $3.50 worth of groceries ($83 in 2022 dollars) in raid relief for her family, including one child (Annie).65 Mr. Thurston listed himself as a stone quarrier in the 1866 city directory. Beginning in 1875, Mr. and Mrs. Thurston lost five children to common diseases, and each were buried in potter’s field at Oak Hill Cemetery: six-year-old Emma (1869-1875), infant Lulu (1875-1876), 19-year-old Ann Eliza (1863-1882), infant Burnetta (1882), and 16-year-old Ulysses (1869-1884).66 After a year-long illness, Sarah Thurston (1840-1885) died at age 45 from TB at the family home on New York street.67 Two years later, 14-year-old Maggie (18731887) died from typhoid fever and her funeral was held at St. Luke AME Church.68 Given the loss of so many children and his wage-earning wife, Edward turned to selling intoxicating liquor in the low-lying, east-side Bottoms, like so many other African Americans who defied the 1881 Kansas prohibition law by working in this lucrative business.69 After his first charge in 1888 was dismissed for lack of evidence, he was fined $100 ($3,275 in 2022 dollars) for selling whiskey but his 30-day jail sentence was commuted by commissioners.70 In 1893, he was arrested for “keeping a disorderly house” (prostitution), fined $59.50 ($1,970), and sent to jail “in default of payment”; but fifty friends petitioned the city council to pardon him.71 The following year, his 14-year-old daughter Alice Thurston (1880-?) began using a sharp knife to fight other Black women “in jealous envy” over Black men, first with Mrs. “Speevy” Gunter over Nick Allen and then with Mary (Mame) Ford whom she cut severely on both cheeks. This second assault charge “with intent to kill,” short of manslaughter, confined her 64 See “African Americans in the 1865 Kansas Census (Douglas County)” by Debby Lowry and Judy Sweets (selfpublished, 2006), 47. Mr. and Mrs. Thurston could not read or write due to slave codes. 65 Listed in “Lawrence Relief Commission,” Tribune, Oct. 3, 1863. No obituary or burial place exists for Silas Thurston. “E. Thurston” registered as a raid survivor with undertaker C. W. Smith at the first reunion of survivors on Aug. 18, 1891, https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/225627. For details, see Jeanne Klein, “African American Survivors and Victims of Quantrill’s Raid on Lawrence,” available for $5 at Watkins Museum of History. 66 Edward (and/or friends) may have buried his children himself for $3, cheaper than undertakers’ charges. See B. Jean Snedeger, Complete Tombstone Census of Douglas County, Kansas, vol. 1 (Lawrence: Douglas County Genealogical Society, 1987), 224. No obituaries were published for Emma, Lulu, Ann Eliza, or Burnetta. Emma and Burnetta do not appear in the 1875 Kansas census, taken on March 1. Obituary for Ulysses in (Lawrence) Kansas Daily Herald, Apr. 22, 1884. 67 Western Recorder, July 4, 1884; Journal, Aug. 5, 1885. 68 Evening Tribune, Oct. 24, 1887. See 1885 Kansas census listing Edward, Sarah, Maggie, Cora, Alice, and Willie. 69 For details, see Dennis Domer, “The East Bottoms: A Landscape History of Lawrence’s Red-light District,” in The Enduring Struggle for Freedom, vol. 2 (Lawrence: Watkins Museum, 2022), 336-50. 70 Evening Tribune, Dec. 19, 1888; Journal-Tribune, Apr. 28, 1892, June 9, 1892. 71 Lawrence Gazette, Mar. 31, 1893; World, May 2 & 4, 1893. No report on whether councilmen pardoned him. �to the county jail for six months.72 Yet six months after her release from jail, Alice murdered Ella Lane, another Black red-light district woman, on 6th street over another Black boyfriend, Labe Anderson, a case that initially attracted much court room attention. After spending four years in the state penitentiary, she was released and “restored to citizenship” by Gov. Stanley in 1899.73 Meanwhile, Edward faced more fines ($300) (over $10,000) and 30-day jail sentences for selling whiskey and “maintaining a nuisance [house].” Yet several downtown merchants (who benefited from bootlegged liquor) asked the city attorney to dismiss his last case once he paid his court costs. It appears that Mr. Thurston may have “retired” from bootlegging after this last reported incident, especially if his children supported him with their wages.74 Will Thurston (b. 1879), Edward’s oldest son, grew up with his good friend George “Nash” Walker (1872-1911), a prominent Black performer who showcased his productions at the Bowersock Opera House [now Liberty Hall]. During his 1902 visit, Walker was an honored guest of the white Elks fraternal order, writing: On the morning of July 4th, I was awakened by a complimentary visitation of the [Haskell Institute] Indian brass band, which served as a reminder to prepare to make good my promise to participate in the [Elks’] parade. Just then Willie Thurston rushed into my apartments yelling, ‘For God’s sake, Nash, get up. The white folks are about to parade and you are the only darkey in the procession, so fix up and get right. If you don’t, we sure will tell you about it after the parade is over, and Mr. Donnelly has got you the white horses and trap [carriage] all fixed up for your special benefit. Please get up, Nash.’75 Two years later, Will plead guilty to “disturbing the peace” by smacking Genesee Drake, a young Black woman, in the mouth for calling him racist names. He paid his fine and court costs ($6.50 or $217) but reportedly “concluded he did not get his money’s worth.”76 In 1905, Will lived with his father and older sister Cora at 818 Indiana. Cora (Thurston) Alexander (b. 1876), a domestic servant, had married and then divorced William A. Alexander (a cook) in 1901.77 In 1908, Edward Thurston, around age 76, died at his home (211 W. 6th street) from blood poisoning (sepsis).78 After his funeral at St. Luke AME church, he was buried at Oak Hill 72 “Cutting Scrape,” Gazette, Oct. 29, 1894; in Journal-Tribune, “More Cutting,” Oct. 29 & “district court,” Nov. 14, 1894. Her birth year varied from 1878 in 1880 US census or 1880 in 1885 Kansas census. 73 In Journal-Tribune, jail release, May 22, 1895; detailed in “Killed with a Knife,” Nov. 9, 1895; in World, “One Dead, One Hurt,” Nov. 9 & “The Lane Murder,” Nov. 11, 1895; “The Thurston Murder Case,” Feb. 6, 1896, June 12, 1899. Several friends cheerfully accompanied her with an officer from the county jail to the depot, in Journal, Feb. 21, 1896. No further information or obituary can be found for Alice Thurston. 74 In Journal, “Caught Selling Whiskey,” Mar. 11, 1896, “Police Court,” Mar. 16, 1896, police court, July 26, 1898, “Council Meeting,” Nov. 8, 1898. No follow-up report confirmed whether he was pardoned. 75 Quoted in Jeffersonian Gazette, July 24, 1902. Walker requested and obtained black horses for his carriage. 76 Quoted in “Police Doings,” Gazette and police court, Journal, Sept. 22, 1904; birth year in 1885 Kansas census and 1900 US census. No obituary for Will Thurston can be found. 77 See 1885 and 1905 Kansas census; divorce, World, Aug. 29, 1901; 1905 city directory. Miss Mary A. Patterson (b. 1874), a Black domestic, also boarded with the Thurston family in 1905. The 1895 Kansas census for Edward, William, Cora, and Alice also listed “M. Thurston” as a male born in Ohio with no birth year. 78 World, Nov. 11, 1908. Some confusion arises over whether Mr. Thurston remarried. The 1909 city directory, published around the time of his death, listed Edward with his wife Julia living at 211 W. Pinckney (6 th) Street. The �Cemetery in a grave he had purchased and reserved for himself (Sec. 11, GR 43)—far away from his family buried in potter’s field. 1917 city directory listed “Julia Thurston (c) (wid Edward)” living at 828 Vermont, her address since 1911 with Pryor and Martha Wallace. “Mrs. Julia Thurston” married George W. Marshall in Baldwin City, Gazette, Mar. 23, 1918. The 1910 and 1920 US censuses indicate that she was born in 1855 in Kansas. © Jeanne Klein 2022 �Richard Voorhees (1861-1883), lot 1151 No census records can be found for Richard or his parents. Two news reported his death and funeral as follows: Richard Voorhees, aged about twenty-two years, died at the residence of his parents in this city yesterday, after an illness of nearly one year. Dick, as he was familiarly called, was one of the brightest colored boys in the city. When a mere lad, he came into the JOURNAL office intending to learn the printer’s trade. After about a year of service, he became tired of his situation and abandoned his idea of becoming a printer, though for the short time he had worked, he made rapid progress. We do not know how his time was spent for several years, but when we next saw him, he had again turned up in the JOURNAL office, this time as engineer and assistant to the pressman, and there he remained as long as he was able to work at anything. Dick had an immense amount of natural ability, and it was a constant wonderment to us how he had accumulated so much information with the advantages he had. He had a deep, rich voice and has delighted many of our citizens with his singing. He was one of the principal members of the Silver Leaf Club, whose serenades are familiar to every resident of the city. He was a member of the colored [Telephone] band, and one of its best performers.79 He could not possibly have had a musical education, yet he could read music as [as well as] a printed page and delighted in it. He wrote a good hand and was well posted on current topics of the day. What he might have been with cultivation and advantages no one knows. Just enough of the outside dross had been knocked off to show a glimmer of the metal beneath. How pure a gem this was will never be known. Mr. Voorhees was a member of the colored [Second] Baptist church of this city. The funeral will be attended at 2:30 o’clock this afternoon.80 The funeral of Richard Voorhees took place yesterday afternoon from the Baptist church on Ohio street [later known as the 9th Street Baptist Church]. A large number of friends of the deceased were present to pay their last tribute of respect to the dead. The services were conducted in a most impressive manner by Rev. [Dudley] Lee who paid a high tribute of respect to the deceased during his remarks. The following named gentleman of the Silver Leaf Club, of which Mr. Voorhees was a member, acted as pall bearers: Israel Allen, Isaac Johnson, Wm. Allen, Richard Gates, John Henderson, [and] Jesse Allen.81 79 Band leader J. Cyrus Richardson (1851-1911) organized, trained, and led the all-Black Telephone Band from 1882 through the 1890s, ultimately with 45 members. Wearing elegant uniforms, this cornet band marched in downtown parades and furnished music for Black Republican rallies, Black Masonic festivals, and many other social events; for example, see Tribune, Apr. 21, 1882 and Journal, June 20, 1896. The Silver Leaf Club, composed of African American men, included James R. Miller, Floyd Polk, Frank P. Hunter, A. Reynolds, J. H. Stewart, R. Smith, J. A. Kennedy, L.W. George; president John Fishback, vice-president Charles Bryant, and concert manager Josiah [Cyrus] Richardson, in Journal, July 6, 1880, July 6 and Aug. 23, 1882. 80 “Died,” Journal, Feb. 21, 1883. 81 “Funeral Services,” Journal, Feb. 22, 1883. �Isaac Allen (1820-1902) and Hagar Allen (1834-1917), lot 1285 William Allen (1863-1883), lot 1147 and Israel Allen (1859-1904), lot 799 Isaac Allen (ca. 1820-1902) and his wife Hagar Allen (ca. 1834-1917), both enslaved in Kentucky, married in 1848. By 1865, they had settled in Lawrence, where they raised three sons Israel, William, and (James) Robert.82 In 1871, Mr. Allen purchased a lot on New York street from a white realtor E. D. Ladd for $65 ($1,588 in 2022 dollars).83 Although he and his sons labored at unspecified jobs, this property debt may have kept the family impoverished, forcing their burials in potter’s field at Oak Hill Cemetery.84 In 1883, son William “Willie” Allen (1863-1883), who had recently married, died unexpectedly of pneumonia at his parents’ home. As John L. Waller wrote in the Western Recorder, “He was a fine young man of some twenty-three summers, and his death...will be a sad blow to his widow and parents, as well as by the hosts of friends which he has in the community. [His] death will remind [many] young people that the young die as well as the old. The widow and parents of the deceased have our most tender sympathy, and it is hoped that they may be reconciled to the fact that ‘Jesus doeth all things well.’” His funeral at St. Luke AME church, conducted by Rev. B. F. Bates, “was very solemn and impressive” and “well filled” with friends.85 Son Israel Allen (1859-1904) played baseball in the local Eagles club and also sang in a glee club.86 Beginning in 1883, he and other Black men began working the Third Ward polls, in which they were “simply invincible, and should not be forgotten.”87 He was also a Prelate in the masonic Knights of Pythias.88 In 1885, he married Dora Cosby at Rev. Bates’ home, where the couple received “many beautiful and useful presents,” from a large number of friends.89 While working as a brick hod-carrier and plasterer in Sedalia, Missouri, he died from falling off a scaffold in 1904, having recently plastered his mother’s house.90 Two years earlier in June 1902, the fire department was called out to the Allen’s small frame home at 1343 New York Street when sparks from a flue caught fire on the old splintery roof. Although Isaac Allen was not seriously injured, he died that evening of “old age and general debility.” The city paid $13.50 ($468) to dig his grave and provide his coffin and burial at Oak Hill’s potter’s field.91 Although son Robert Allen (1867-?) was reportedly living in Lawrence at the time of his 82 Birth years for Isaac and Hagar vary considerably; see 1865, 1870, 1875, and 1880 censuses, and marriage year in 1900 US census. Israel and William were born in Missouri and Robert was born in Lawrence. 83 “Real Estate Transfers,” Tribune, May 7, 1871. 84 See 1879, 1883, 1886, 1888, 1893, 1900, and 1902 city directories. 85 Quoted in Western Recorder. Mar. 29, 1883. The name of his wife was not published. 86 Journal, Aug. 20, 1878; Tribune, October 29, 1880. 87 Quoted in Western Recorder, Nov. 9, 1883; in Journal, elected Republican delegate in the Third Ward, June 14, 1884, Sept. 26, 1885, June 25, 1886. 88 Journal, Aug. 13, 1885. 89 Tribune, Sept. 4, 1885. 90 Gazette, Oct. 18, 1904. 91 World, June 3 and July 14, 1902. �father’s death, his life story remains somewhat unverifiable. In 1885, at age 18, he married 17year-old Ann Eliza Penetione (1866-?) who bore a daughter Rosa.92 Ten years later, a “Robert Allen” was deemed guilty for assaulting Marcus Hamilton, the same Black man whom Hagar Allen had had arrested for disturbing her peace in 1885.93 This Robert Allen may have been sent to the Lansing penitentiary for his crime.94 Alternatively, Robert and Ann Allen may have moved to Kansas City, Missouri, but their common names make their death years uncertain.95 Hagar Allen also adopted a daughter Mabel Allen (1884-1928?), who married Fred F. Stewart in 1908 and then moved to Des Moines, Iowa.96 In 1916, Mrs. Stewart wanted to care for her elderly mother, so she sent “Aunt Hagar” money to pay her expenses to Des Moines.97 Mrs. Allen died there one year later, and her body was returned to Lawrence for her funeral at St. Luke AME church and burial in potter’s field at Oak Hill Cemetery.98 92 See March 1885 Kansas census and marriage license issued to Robert Allen and Annie E. Penetione, Evening Tribune, June 3, 1885, as well as a ten-pound son born to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Allen, World, Nov. 24, 1894; and 1888 city directory for Robert Allen, a laborer, living at his parents’ home. 93 In Journal, see July 22 and Nov. 15, 1895 and July 25, 1885. 94 See Robert Allen’s application for parole, Lansing News, Apr. 7, 1911. 95 For example, see Missouri death certificate for Robert Allen, born July 29, 1867, who died in 1937 with no obituary, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/108469619/robert-allen, and an obituary for “Mrs. Robert Allen,” Kansas City (MO) Journal, Feb. 22, 1899. 96 See 1895 Kansas census; marriage license, Jeffersonian Gazette, Nov. 4, 1908; and 1910 US census for Mabel and Fred Stewart. 97 In “Lost Steady Boarder,” Sept. 18, 1916, the Gazette reported that Mrs. Allen had been living at the county poor home “for the past ten years,” even though 1909, 1911, and 1913 city directories list her residence at 1345 New York. 98 “Funeral of Hager Allen,” Gazette, Oct. 18, 1917. According to her internment record, she was buried on October 3, 1917 with location unknown. Therefore, her memorial marker is included with her husband Isaac in lot 1285. © Jeanne Klein 2022 �Albert “Shucks” Woods (1844-1894), lot 1396 Albert (Ab.) Woods (1844-1894), a short-statured man, was born enslaved on July 18, 1844 in Arkansas. Known by every man, woman, and child in Lawrence as “Shucks,” “he was a quiet, good-natured fellow and never meddled with other folks’ business,” although some folks considered him to be an “eccentric character.” Sometime during or after the Civil War, he had one arm shot off, but this disability did not interfere with or stop him from working energetically at various jobs around town. “He worked all the time and at anything that was offered him,” such as sawing wood, setting an example for younger generations.99 Among his many odd jobs, he cared for an old sorrel horse with a game leg that a white tailor gave him and also sold Newfoundland and Dalmatian (“coach”) dogs.100 Tragedy struck one evening in 1869 when the Woods’ “small shanty” at the corner of Vermont and 6th streets (near the county jail) was consumed by fire. His wife Lucretia (18471930) was out at time, but when she saw the flames from the roof, she rushed into the house and saved their four-year-old child Johnny. The family lost everything in the fire, but merchants and citizens quickly came to the family’s aid by donating money and provisions totaling $101.75 (or $2,229 in 2022 dollars). Within weeks, people raised a new house with a hearthstone for the family on north Kentucky street.101 (One year later, the Vermont street school at 610 Vermont would be built behind their home.) In 1873, Mr. and Mrs. Woods lost two children: 4-year-old Mary (May) (1869-1873) and 7-year-old Johnny (1866-1873). After Mary’s death from pneumonia on May 28, Johnny drowned in the Kansas (Kaw) River on June 26. While playing along the river with some other boys above the bridge, he got on a log that rolled him into the river and the swift current carried him away. He rose up four times, but there was no one nearby who could rescue him. Mary was buried in potter’s field, but apparently Johnny’s body was never found for a proper burial.102 Feeling the sting of his family’s poverty, Edward/Edwin (Ed) (1872-1889), the eldest son, joined the “Steal Drive Gang” at age 11 with other Black boys beginning in 1883. He and another boy stole fifteen new grain sacks from a wagon and then sold most sacks to Star Grocery for 10¢ each and other sacks to a boy to buy a knife and some dice. When Albert could not pay his son’s $31.50 fine ($398 in 2022 dollars), Ed was sent to the reform school. But he was arrested for two more thefts (a buffalo robe and four pairs of pants) and spent time in the reform school or the county jail. After serving a two-year term in the state penitentiary for breaking into a house, he was released in 1887 and began working for Carmean and Harbaugh at their livery stable, saving his earnings to support his parents. Then, two years later, his reckless Black friend, Bud Franklin, a one-armed bootlegger, shot him in the stomach through a glass door when Ed 99 Quotes in “’Shucks’ is Dead,” Journal-Tribune and Gazette, Sept. 22, 1894. Birth date in B. Jean Snedeger, Complete Tombstone Census of Douglas County, Kansas, vol. 1 (Lawrence: Douglas County Genealogical Society, 1987), 227. 100 In Journal, July 27, 1886 and May 8, 1891. 101 “Fire,” Journal, Nov. 21, 1869; “Thanks” and financial “Statement,” by W. S. Shotwell, Tribune, Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, 1869. Mr. Woods also received $4.00 from the city’s pauper account, Journal, Apr. 6, 1870. 102 “Drowned,” Journal, June 27, 1873; May in 1870 US census. Three other children were also buried in potter’s field: Martha Woods, age 7 months (1874), child of James and Alosia Woods; another Mary Woods, age 4-5 and George Woods, age 1 (parents unknown) who died in March 1876. �tried to retrieve his coat. Ed was carried to the bathhouse on Vermont street, examined by the coroner, and sent to his parents’ home. At the preliminary trial, Albert had to testify that his son died from a fatal pistol shot. After Edwin’s funeral, he was buried in Section 4 (grave 997) at Oak Hill Cemetery.103 Five year later in 1894, Albert “Shucks” Woods died from a physical “strain” that “paralyzed him and injured [his] vital parts.” After “a large number of friends” attended his funeral, he was buried in potter’s field at Oak Hill Cemetery.104 In 1901, Lucretia Woods married James Essex (1852-1933), a widowed farmer, and they lived at 1115 Indiana Street. Having joined the First Grand Independent Benevolent Society of Kansas, founded in Leavenworth in 1868, as a charter member, she and husband shared activities in Lawrence’s No. 2 lodge. As one of Lawrence’s earliest residents, Mrs. Essex attended an Old Settlers’ reunion in 1926 and died in 1930 at the age of 82. Her funeral was held at St. Luke AME church.105 Before her death, two of her older sons died from heartbreaking deaths: Albert “Little Shucks” Woods (1882-1906) died in a tragic train accident on the Santa Fe tracks, and Oscar A., known as “Hun,” (1886-1925) struggled with alcoholism and drowned in the Kansas (Kaw) River when he fell out of a skiff south of the dam.106 Daughter Alice (Mrs. Edward Howard) (1884-1936) died at her home (420 Michigan street) from a cerebral embolism (stroke), and Bert Woods (1879-1858) died in Kansas City, Missouri, where he had been working for many years.107 103 In Journal, “Petty Thieving,” Jan. 7, 1883, “Police Court,” Jan. 10, 1883; “A Gang of Juvenile Thieves,” Mar. 19, 1884; “District Court,” Nov. 12, 1885, “Fatal Shooting Scrape,” Apr. 28, 1889; “To the Reform School,” (Lawrence) Kansas Herald, Mar. 18, 1884; in Evening Tribune, “Edwin Woods Fatally Shot,” Apr. 29, 1889, funeral, Apr. 30, 1889, “The Preliminary [Trial],” May 1, 1889. Although there was some talk about lynching Franklin, “the excitement soon died out,” in “Saturday Night’s Murder,” Gazette, May 2, 1889. Bud Franklin was charged with second degree manslaughter and sentenced three to five years at the state penitentiary, in “The Verdict,” Evening Tribune, May 18, 1889. 104 Quoted in “’Shucks’ is Dead,” Journal-Tribune, Sept. 22 & 23, 1894. 105 Marriage license, Journal, Oct. 24, 1901; in LDJ-W, “Review Old Times,” May 8, 1926; her obituary, Jan. 3, 1930; buried in Section 4, grave 1693, although her grave marker reads “Died Jan 3, 1929,” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25938350/ lucretia-essex; James Essex obituary, October 5, 1933. 106 “Burial of “Shucks” Woods, Journal and Gazette, Aug. 8, 1906. Albert Jr. lies buried in Section 11, grave 15. Beginning in 1907, Oscar faced fines for petty crimes and drunkenness, in Journal, July 8, 1907, Apr. 27 & Nov. 8, 1909; in Gazette, May 19 & Sept. 14, 1910; in LDJ-W, “Kaw Gets Sunday Toll of Two Men,” July 20, funeral, Aug. 3, and “Card of Thanks,” Aug. 5, 1925. Oscar Wood [sic] lies buried in Section 11, Row B, grave 35. 107 “Mrs. Alice W. Howard,” LDJ-W, Oct. 27, 1936. She lies buried in Section 6, lot 167. Bert Woods lies buried in KCMO, see https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/ 39952232/bert-woods, although his birthplace is incorrect. �Randolph Morgan (1846-1871), lot 181 Randolph Morgan served briefly in Co. G, First KS Colored Volunteers/79th USCT.108 The 1865 Douglas County census listed him at age 19 born in 1846 in Arkansas. Only one news report explained his death at age 21 on October 20, 1871: SUFFERING.—Dr. Carl Neumann reports a case of intense suffering at the house of Randolph Morgan on Pennsylvania street. A colored man who lost an arm in the service of the Union is probably recovery; and his wife is also sick. They have no food or attendants. We trust the authorities will take this case in hand.109 108 109 See http://www.ksgenweb.org/archives/statewide/military/civilwar/adjutant/1col/g.html. Journal, Oct. 20, 1871. His wife’s first name is unknown. �Juda/Judy Shepherd (1812-1873), lot 223 General (Lee) Shepherd (1849-1877), lot 406 and Peter Shepherd (1857-1879), lot 492 Samuel B. Shepard (ca. 1810-1909) built the first log cabin courthouse in Independence, MO in 1827. He escaped to Lawrence in 1862 and survived Quantrill’s raid while working for R.W. Ludington.110 The 1865 census in Kanwaka Township listed Samuel Shepard (b. 1810 VA), age 55; his wife Juda Shepard (b. 1812 KY), age 53; son Lee L. Shepard (b. 1849 MO), age 49; and daughter Martha J. Shepard (b. 1851 MO), age 14.111 According to the 1870 census, Peter Shepard (b. 1857 KY), boarded with a white homeopathic physician and his family. No obituaries can be found for Juda, “General” Lee, or Peter Shepherd/Shepard.112 “Judy” Shepard died from breast cancer on December 3, 1873, despite this reported surgery: SURGICAL.—We were shown a few days since at Dr. Fesler’s office a large fatty tumor that Dr. F. had successfully removed from the breast of Mrs. Judy Shepard of this city. The operation was skillfully performed in the presence of Mr. Goss, Dr. Holmes and others on the 6th and the patient is doing well. It is proper to say her that the doctor has but recently located in Lawrence. He has enjoyed a large practice in Philadelphia and St. Louis. He has an office fitted up in good style with plates enough to form a perfect museum. In surgical instruments the doctor has everything. These combined with skill in handling will enable him to remove successfully any foreign substance that may intrude upon the human body.113 110 Samuel Shepard lies buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in old Section 5, lot 142 with his daughter Mattie (Shepard) Hamilton. For details, read https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/34282793/samuel-bailey-shepard. 111 See “African Americans in the 1865 Kansas Census (Douglas County)” by Debby Lowry and Judy Sweets (selfpublished, 2006), 41. 112 Their respective burials are listed in B. Jean Snedeger, Complete Tombstone Census of Douglas County, Kansas, vol. 1 (Lawrence: Douglas County Genealogical Society, 1987), 223, based on their interment records. 113 Quoted in Spirit of Kansas (Lawrence), Apr 19, 1873. No obituary has been found for her death. �Anna Strode (1846-1889), lot 1490 After her death from blood poisoning, Anna Strode was buried in potter’s field (lot 1490) at the city’s expense. The city paid for the burial permit and the opening and closing of her grave— likely because her husband Frank Strode was serving time at the state penitentiary in Lansing.114 She left seven children (ages 8-21).115 In late July 1883, Frank Strode was threatened with lynching at the jail for attempting to rape Major Theodore Wiseman’s 11-year-old daughter after breaking into the home.116 John Waller, Black editor of the Western Recorder, and Charley C. Thacher, white editor the local Herald, engaged in lengthy protracted debate, initially over a Kansas City Times article that recalled the 1882 lynchings and how the Strode case could trigger a race riot in Lawrence. In general, Waller argued that Black residents had lost patience with white oppressions, while Thacher continued to fan the flames with his racist biases about Black residents. In January 1884, John Waller and his law partner C.W. Mitchem defended Frank Strode. The jury found him guilty of burglary in the first degree within twenty minutes and Strode was sentenced to ten years in the state penitentiary. Waller affirmed, “We do not doubt that the community feels better to see a man sentenced according to the law than to disgrace the town by mob-law.”117 By 1890, Strode’s sentence had been reduced by two years with his time expiring in early February 1892.118 His actual release, death, and burial site remain unknown. After his sentencing, the Journal reported that Mrs. Strode was ill and “in very needy circumstances.” The family was “crowded into a little house” at the corner of Tennessee and 14th streets and did not “have the facilities to keep themselves comfortable during the cold winter.” Benevolent citizens were asked to contribute toward their welfare by contacting Marshal Prentice.119 114 Journal, Feb. 10 & 12, 1889. Ages in 1875, 1880, and 1885 censuses. 116 “Attempted Outrage!” Journal, July 31, 1883. 117 Western Recorder, Morning News, Journal, and WHJ, all dated Jan. 3, 1884. For details, see “Two More Threatened Lynchings, 1883” at https://www.blacklawrenceks.com/racist-violence. 118 “Record of Douglas County Prisoners in Lansing,” Journal, May 29, 1890. 119 “Deserving People,” Journal, Mar. 4, 1884. 115 �James W. Hoyt (1851-1898), lot 1298 James (Jim) Willard Hoyt (1851-1898), born in Missouri, was an aggressive African American politician who participated in city, county, and state Republican party politics through thick and thin. Although it is not known when he moved from Missouri and married, his wife Fannie (Blackburn) Hoyt (1858-1944), reportedly born in Missouri or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, came to Lawrence at an early age. She gave birth to their first child Corinne (Cora) in Lawrence in January 1875, and the family resided at 1009 New Jersey Street.120 Over the years, Mr. Hoyt held various jobs as a laborer (1883), a Pullman car porter (1887-88), a billiard saloon owner (1891-92), and a restaurant keeper (1893), despite crushing his foot and losing some toes under a railroad car in Kansas City in 1884.121 He also managed the local Eagles Base Ball Club and their competitions with the Kansas City Brown Stockings and Topeka Blue Stockings teams, performed in Queen Esther at the Bowersock Opera House, and chaired a grand picnic of Black folks at Shepherd’s grove, where civil rights activist Charles H. Langston spoke.122 Hoyt entered politics, beginning in 1878, as a Republican delegate for the southeastern Third Ward.123 In 1884, partisan tensions heightened when Democratic Governor George W. Glick wanted the state’s 1881 prohibition law re-submitted as a constitutional amendment. Although some Republicans favored re-submission, Hoyt aired his views in regard to an unknown circular: My attention has been recently called to a circular entitled “Some reasons why colored men should vote for re-submission,” to which my name is signed, in connection with others, [but] I can only speak for myself. As to the contents of this circular I know nothing. My name was signed without my knowledge or consent. And I have no sympathy whatever, with its sentiments. I believe it is intended to deceive and mislead, for I know of no intelligent colored man who favors the suggestion in it. Whatever I may have believed on this subject, the lying statements of this circular has caused me to think differently. I am, therefore, opposed to the views of this circular, and brand every statement made in it as false and untrue. And so far as advising colored men to vote for Geo. W. Glick, [where] his Democratic record is concerned, I would advise them to vote the Republican [ticket], headed by that gallant soldier and noble patriot, John A. Martin 120 For her birth place, see obituary for “Mrs. Fannie Hoyt,” LDJ-W, June 21, 1944 and the 1905 Kansas census. The 1865 Kansas census listed Fannie (age 8, born around 1857) and her parents, Washington and Lucinda Blackburn, as born in Missouri and living in Wakarusa Township; however, the birthdate on Fannie Hoyt’s Oak Hill grave marker in Section 15 reads, “September 14, 1864,” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/ 22588918/fannie-hoyt. See Corinne Hoyt Eagleson, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/ 125176258/corinne-eagleson. The first mention of James Hoyt appeared in (Lawrence) Republican Journal, Oct. 28, 1875, when he supported a white man for county commissioner. See address in 1883, 1889, and 1898 city directories. Like other paupers, the city paid for Fanny Hoyt’s groceries, “Council Proceedings,” Journal, Dec. 21, 1877. 121 See 1883, 1888, and 1893 city directories; in Evening Tribune, Dec. 5, 1884 & July 1, 1887; Gazette, July 24, 1891. He also sprained his ankle while stepping off a moving train, Gazette, Dec. 12, 1891. Years earlier, an unknown assailant shot him in the hip in Kansas City, Western Home Journal (Lawrence), July 17, 1879. 122 In Journal, Aug. 20, 1878 and July 31, August 14, August 19, September 9, 1886. The all-Black production of Queen Esther starred Alice Hayden, mother of George “Nash” Walker, Evening Tribune, May 28, 1884. 123 Third Ward delegate, Journal, Oct. 12, 1878; Evening Tribune, Sept. 26, 1885, June 25, 1886, Mar. 16, 1887. �[elected governor (1885-89)].124 Four years later, he argued for Black representation at state conventions as follows: Four conventions are soon to be held touching both state and national affairs. The election will be of unusual importance and highly interesting to party leaders. The selection of men to be placed in nomination is a question of the highest moment. There can be no question as to the class of white men selected. They will select their representative men; Men who cannot simply read and write, but men who are well posted in the science of our government. The same convention which will be composed principally of white men may select some colored delegates, thus having two races represented from which it is also to be inferred as characterizing the harmony of the races in the fight. In making their choice of colored men, the colored people ask the conventions to select our representative colored men; those that are best posted, and are able to reflect credit upon their race. The colored citizens have feelings, opinions and likes, not unlike our white citizens, and do not want colored men to be sent to conventions simply because they are colored, but because they are able to represent them. There is to be found among the colored people, as among the white people, a progressive element who think there might be some variation in the actions of the conventions at this juncture. Is this progressive element to be or is it not to be represented? I mean, in the conference of honors, why not consider the work and votes of this element as being of some advantage to the object of the conventions. Let us have a change. Jas. W. Hoyt125 Toward these ends, Hoyt became a delegate at state Republican conventions as an intermittent president of the Fred Douglass Club (January-June 1888, 1889, 1892, 1896).126 During the Republican primaries in fall 1889, Hoyt began to pressure Black voters as a forcible speaker. When a dispute arose over the selection of delegates for the Republican county convention, William Fry hit him with a club, rendering him unconscious.127 After this contested primary, the Daily Record supported H. S. Clarke, an independent white candidate for county sheriff.128 As “Col. Jim Hoyt” canvassed the Third Ward, the Republican Journal mocked him as “the king of the boodle bolters” for bribing any Black voter who considered bolting from the 124 Quoted in “A Reply,” Journal, Sept. 28, 1884. See “Re-submission,” (Lawrence) Daily Herald, June 5, 1884. Keep in the mind that during this time the two political parties held reverse views from today. The Grand Old Party (GOP) of Lincoln Republicans emancipated slaves while the Democratic Party supported Southern racism. 125 Quoted in “The Colored Voter. Shall He Have Representation in the Several Conventions?” Journal, Apr. 27, 1888. 126 Evening Tribune, Jan. 25 & 26, 1888; in Journal, Mar. 6, 1888, Apr. 19, May 16, & Nov. 17, 1889; June 16, 1896; Record, Feb. 6, 1890; Journal-Tribune, Feb. 29 & Mar. 1, 1892; World, Apr. 2, 1892 and June 23 & 25, 1896; Gazette, Apr. 25, 1895. 127 On September 21, 1889, three newspapers reported this story: “Brained at the Primaries,” Evening Tribune, Journal, and Gazette. 128 See rationales in “The Ticket,” Record, Oct. 3, 1889. �Republican party, while attacking Clarke with this malicious rhyme: “Sing a song of bolters, pocket full of rocks; buying up the voters everywhere in blocks; subsidizing bummers, men like Col. Jim, then decrying ‘boodle’ using men like him. Isn’t this a pretty sight for the voters’ eyes; they will cast their ballots where there are no flies.”129 (The Journal also raised the specter of the 1882 lynchings claiming that Clarke had “sanctioned” the hanging of Peter Vinegar, an innocent Black man, when his fellow bolter H. B. Asher was sheriff.130) In response, the Record defended Hoyt based on his “letters of commendation from Judge Thacher and Geo. J. Barker [white Republicans] testifying in the highest terms to his good qualities and fitness for the position.”131 “A Colored Citizen” also rebuffed the Journal’s tactics.132 Clarke won the sheriff election by a majority of 534 votes.133 In 1892, Hoyt’s stressful life took a turn for the worse as fights broke out among Black men at his saloon on Massachusetts street south of Pierson’s mill. After pleading guilty to disturbing the peace in February, Hoyt was fined $13.50 ($442 in 2022 dollars) for fighting with Tom Berry in May.134 Then in July, he was arrested for selling liquor without a license, fined $200 ($6,550) for violating the prohibition law, jailed for sixty days, and sentenced to work the rock pile.135 Yet white Republicans needed his services for the next county election, so they gathered 104 petitions from tax-payers for his release. After breaking rocks for 35 days (worth $46), paying $77 in court costs ($123 total or $4,028), and completing his jail sentence in September, the county commissioners released him in October.136 Yet over the ensuing years, several fines for drunk and disorderly behaviors, among other offenses, pushed Jim Hoyt further into poverty.137 Ironically, his eldest daughter Cora chose a relevant topic for her oration during high school commencement in 1893. She discussed the question “Is a Man Responsible for His Crimes?” based on her review of the novel Elsie Venner by Oliver Wendall Holmes Sr.138 Like Cora, Alta and Beatrice Hoyt would lead successful lives in Lawrence, while various crimes would haunt their brothers, Lloyd and George Hoyt.139 After enduring several months of illness without the ability to walk around town, James 129 Journal, Oct. 11, 12 (quote), & 15, 1889. Journal, Oct. 12, 1889; “Asher Again,” Record, Oct. 16, 1889. 131 Quoted in Record, Oct. 16, 1889. 132 “Good Sense,” letter to editor, Record, Oct. 17, 1889. 133 Official count, Record, Nov. 8, 1889. 134 Journal-Tribune, Feb. 8 and May 2, 1892; Record, Feb. 15, 1892. Jess Harper, the son of his Black political colleague Bill Harper, bruised him on the forehead in another altercation involving revolvers, stones, and knives, Record and Journal-Tribune, June 15, 1892; World, June 16, 1892. 135 In World, July 26 and “Jim Hoyt on the Rock Pile,” July 29, 1892. 136 “Jim Is Out,” Record and “County Commissioners,” Journal-Tribune, Oct. 12, 1892; World, Oct. 13, 1892. 137 Fined $7, World, Mar. 7, 1893 and “Hard on Jim,” Feb. 28, 1895; $11.50, Gazette, May 28, 1894; $11.50, Journal-Tribune, July 17, 1896. After working one day as a peace officer with other Black men when fights broke out at Bismarck Grove, Hoyt paid an $18 fine for impersonating a police officer, in Journal-Tribune, “Deputies Driven Off,” June 28, 1895 and “Jim Hoyt in Court,” July 12, 1895. He also spent 100 days in a Kansas City workhouse for vagrancy and theft, World and Journal-Tribune, Aug. 28, 1896. See also “Courts,” Journal-Tribune June 16, 1896. 138 Commencement, World, May 25, 1893; on this novel, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Venner. 139 For example, Beatrice was one of “Five Jolly” girls who celebrated a KU student, World, June 5, 1905. Lloyd plead guilty for trespassing on Santa Fe railroad property, “In the Courts,“ Journal-Tribune Aug. 14, 1895, and George plead guilty for stealing some grain sacks, Gazette, Aug. 27, 1909. 130 �W. Hoyt, age 47, died of heart failure and dropsy in 1898. The Journal now characterized him as a “well-known Negro politician [who] always took a great interest in republican politics, attended every convention he could, and was looked upon as having considerable influence among the members of his race.” The Gazette (formerly the Record) gave him higher honors by noting that “The republican party of Douglas county has sustained a severe loss in the death of that distinguished politician, the Hon. James Hoyt.” After his funeral at St. Luke AME Church, he was buried in potter’s field at Oak Hill Cemetery.140 One wonders how Mrs. Fannie Hoyt bore her family’s trials and tribulations, including the loss of three infants Fannie (1886), William (1888), and Jennie (1894) who were also buried in potter’s field.141 Years later, she endured “two mild cases of smallpox” when her home at 1009 New Jersey street was quarantined, and she accidently cut off the tip of one finger.142 As a long-time member of St. Luke AME church for at least 70 years, her trusting faith in God likely offered some solace. Upon her death in 1944, five children survived her: Corinne (Cora) (Hoyt) Eagleson, Kansas City, MO; Arnetta (Hoyt) Brown, Beatrice (Hoyt) James, James W. Hoyt Jr., and George Hoyt, as well as two grandchildren, Corinne and Odessa James, whom she raised (the latter family members lived in Los Angeles).143 140 “Jim Hoyt Dead,” Journal and World, Dec. 3, 1898; Gazette, Dec. 8, 1898. Fannie, age 18 days, lies buried in lot 1419; brief death notices for William (lot unknown), Journal, Jan. 26, 1888 and Jennie, age 6 months, buried in lot 1118, Gazette, Aug. 15, 1894. 142 Respectively, Journal, June 2, 1901; World, July 24, 1906. 143 “Mrs. Fannie Hoyt,” obituary, Lawrence Daily Journal-World, June 21, 1944. 141 © Jeanne Klein 2022 �Alex Clayton (1843-1872) and 3 children, lot 187 The 1870 census for the 3rd Ward listed the Clayton family as follows: John (b. 1843 KY), age 27, laborer; Polly Ann (b. 1844 AR), age 26, keeping house; Charles (b. 1860 AR), age 10; Jefferson (b. 1866 KS), age 4; and Franklin (b. 1869 KS), age 1.144 In March 1872, an early morning fire at their brick home, located at the corner of New Jersey street and 12th street, took the lives of (John) Alexander, a plasterer (age 35), and his three children: Charles (age 14), Jeffy (age 5), and Frank (age 2½).145 Their heavily charred bodies were buried in one coffin in lot 187 at Oak Hill potter’s field. (An 11-month-old female infant, who died the following day, was buried in lot 188.)146 The city paid undertakers $14 (respectively $8 & $6) ($362 in 2025 dollars) from its pauper account.147 The Tribune called on citizens “to improve this opportunity by our deeds of charity to lighten the burdens of an unfortunate and distressed fellow being.”148 Two people donated money to care for Mrs. Clayton who was severely burned with another infant: Jenny (Susan) Gladden, a Black mother, offered $18 ($12 allowed) and R. G. Verton (white?) donated $30 ($20 allowed). The city renumerated them a total of $32 ($828).149 Although it was thought that Mrs. Clayton “may possibly survive,” no further news reported the final outcome of her condition.150 It is not known whether she stayed in Lawrence or left town. *** Heartrending Incident. A Father and his three children burned to death. The Mother Fatally Burned. Kansas Daily Tribune, March 22, 1872 Yesterday morning at about half past one o’clock, a brick dwelling house on New Jersey Street, south of Hancock [12th] Street in this city, owned by a colored plasterer, named Sandy Clayton, was totally burned; and he and three of his children perished in the flames. His wife and her little [female] child, aged about ten months, escaped from the house but were severely burned. Our reporter gathered the following particulars: On Wednesday evening Mr. and Mrs. Clayton attended church, and on their return home between ten and eleven, discovered that there was a slight smell of smoke in their house. They 144 See John Clayton, (col’d), mason, res. cor. New Jersey and Hancock in 1871 city directory. “Heartrending Incident,” Tribune, Mar. 22, 1872; “A Terrible Calamity,” (Lawrence) Spirit of Kansas, Mar. 23, 1872. 146 “Death,” Tribune, Mar. 23, 1872. The names Alexander, Chas., Jeff., and two children of Alex. are listed from interment records in B. Jean Snedeger, Complete Tombstone Census of Douglas County, Kansas, vol. 1 (Lawrence: Douglas County Genealogical Society, 1987), 210. 147 Bailey & Smith undertakers in city records. 148 Quoted in “A Work of Charity,” Tribune, Mar. 23, 1872, with a description of the home’s remaining brick walls. 149 Claims allowed in “Council Proceedings,” Tribune, Apr. 5, 1872. 150 Mrs. Clayton, Western Home Journal (Lawrence), Mar. 28, 1872. See also “A Card,” Tribune, Mar. 26, 1872, in which three neighbors (1 Black man and 2 white men) forcibly rejected a circulating rumor that a German man made a racist remark about Mr. Clayton. 145 �made [a] diligent search in every corner but failed to find any source from which smoke could come and concluded that their apprehensions were groundless. They went to bed with perfectly easy minds. The account of what followed is gathered from Mrs. Clayton herself. She says that between one and two o’clock in the morning, her husband woke up, shouting that the house was on fire. She was roused from sleep and became conscious that the house was on fire, the room in the upper part of the building in which all the family slept being filled with smoke and the light of the fire from the room below clearly bursting in upon them. The children were awakened, and Mrs. Clayton hurriedly took up her youngest child, a babe about ten months old, and started downstairs. In gaining the lower room, and when near the door, she fell and dropped her child and scramble out into the open air. She at once re-entered the house, however, and picked up her child and brought it out. She says that when she left the room in which the family slept, her husband started to follow her, with another of the children in his arms, but one of the children was crying out at the time he turned back. After reaching the open air, Mrs. Clayton looked for her husband every moment. She waited a few seconds but he did not come out. By this time the building was almost completely enveloped in flames. Seeing that her husband did not come out, she looked up at the window of the bedroom and caught a glimpse of him, and immediately afterwards, saw him fall and disappear, as the floor of the second story fell in. Mrs. Clayton then went to the nearest house and gave the alarm. All that we have related happened before anyone came upon the ground. Pretty soon, however, several persons appeared on the ground, among whom was Mr. H. Luther, who was on his way home at the time, and who upon hearing that someone was in the burning house, with the assistance of a colored man, placed a plank up to one of the upper windows and climbed up to it. But the raging fire inside of the burning building really precluded all idea of entering. Later, after the fire had been somewhat subdued, the remains of Mr. Clayton, and that of three of his children, were found in the ruins, horribly charred. The three children were Charles, aged fourteen years, Jeffy, aged five years and Frank, two years and six months. In returning into the building for her child, Mrs. Clayton’s night dress caught fire, and before she could extinguish it, her lower limbs, arms and head were terribly burned, to such an extent, in fact, that yesterday afternoon she was not expected to live. Her little babe’s clothing also caught fire, and the poor little thing is also badly burned about the arms and face, but its injuries are not considered fatal. In the morning the remains were placed in a coffin and taken to the residence of Mr. [James?] Overton, a brother-in-law of the deceased. Mrs. Clayton and her child are also at Mr. Overton’s house, where she is receiving the best care. © Jeanne Klein 2022 �Joshua Jackson (1858-1873), lot 55 The 1870 census in the 6th Ward of North Lawrence listed Nathan (b. 1823 MO), his wife Caroline (b. 1832 TN), and seven children all born in Arkansas, including Joshua (b. 1858) and Charles (b. 1861). In July 1873, Joshua Jackson (age 16) drowned after diving into the Kaw River about a mile north of the bridge. His brother Charles (age 9) waited to see if he would come up and then ran to alert their father Nathan, who searched in vain with neighbors. Joshua’s body was found the following day and the coroner’s jury positively identified his body.151 No funeral was reported. 151 “Drowned in the Kaw,” Tribune, July 8, 1873. �Henry McGee (1853-1886), lot 1188 Henry McGee, born enslaved in Missouri on December 10, 1853, came to Lawrence with his parents Joseph (1805 KY-1895) and Eliza (1830 VA-1896) and brother Robert (b. 1855 MO) by 1865.152 Nothing is known about his brief life, including his marriage to an unnamed woman. Even so, he was known as a “prominent” charter member of the Western Star Lodge, Knights of Pythias, organized in January 1884. He likely heard Paul P. Jones from Chicago speak about this masonic lodge during a festival at Ludington (Eldridge) Hall.153 Two years later, Henry McGee, “a most estimable man,” died from unknown causes on January 29, 1886. He left “a young wife, who mourns the loss of a loving husband, as his parents do of a dutiful son.” In lieu of an obituary, his fellow lodge members published the following: Resolved, That we will cherish with grateful memory the devoted life of our deceased co-laborer; Resolved, That we commend his zeal, his undaunted will and self-sacrificing spirit to members of this Lodge; Resolved, That we hereby tender the bereaved family and friends of our deceased brother our heart-felt sympathy, and pray that He, who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, will give them songs of rejoicing in the night of their affliction.154 More is known about Henry’s brother Robert, who married Elizabeth “Bettie” Morgan in 1879. After Bettie’s death, he and his six children faced charges for various offenses (detailed elsewhere).156 Robert died from severe burns after trying to save a five-year-old child during a fire at 823 Delaware.157 Like his noble father, Clyde McGee died while trying to save his friend from drowning in the Kaw River.158 Sadly, other members of Henry’s family are also buried at potter’s field as follows: 155 McGee family Joseph (1805-1895) Eliza (1830-1896) Bettie (1857-1896) age 90 66 39 relations his father his mother Robert’s wife Lot # 1346 1344 1340 152 obituaries World, June 7, 1895 World, March 27, 1896 Journal, June 23, 1896 Henry’s birthdate in B. Jean Snedeger, Complete Tombstone Census of Douglas County, Kansas, vol. 1 (Lawrence: Douglas County Genealogical Society, 1987), 220; see also 1865 census in Wakarusa Township and 1880 Lawrence census in the 4th Ward. 153 In Evening Tribune, Jan. 11 & 17, 1884; officers, Jan. 12, 1886; in Journal, “K of P Festival,” Jan. 18, 1884; ice cream social at roller coaster park, Aug. 14, 1885. 154 Quoted in “Resolutions of Respect on the Death of Henry McGee,” Journal, Feb. 16, 1886. 155 “Marriage License,” Tribune, Aug. 8, 1879. 156 See 1895 and 1900 censuses. At age 18, Eugene died from pneumonia at the Topeka Reform School, World, Feb. 4, 1909. 157 “His Burns Prove Fatal,” LDJW, Aug. 30, 1911. Robert rests in Sec. 11, F39 and Goldie Estes (McGee) Simpson, lies in Sec. 11, H23 at Oak Hill Cemetery. 158 Democrat, July 23, 1925; Clyde rests in Sec. 8, grave 229. © Jeanne Klein, 2025 �Harry Reeves (1848-1894), lot 1404 Harry (Henry) Reeves, born enslaved in 1848 in Kentucky, was known as an industrious teamster. In the mid- to late-1880s, he lived at 823 & 825 Pennsylvania street before boarding at the home of Mrs. Mary Butler, a washerwoman, at 804 Connecticut by 1893.159 In February 1894, Reeves shot and killed Charles Drake (1859-1894) during a domestic dispute over Drake’s wife, Louisa (Butler) Drake, and his widowed mother-in-law Mary E. Butler.160 While severely wounded by Drake, Reeves told his story in the city jail as follows: “[Charles] Drake came to the house [at 804 Connecticut] between 7 and 7:30 p.m. just while Mrs. Butler and I were sitting at the table, and Mrs. Butler had just gotten up. Drake came in and began abusing and insulting the women. Finally he struck Mrs. Butler, knocked her down and fell on top of her. I then pulled him off and took away a revolver he had in his hand. He continued to scuffle and threw me upon the hot stove. He finally pulled another revolver and shot me twice. The first shot, I think, was the one that entered my bowels, passing around and lodging in the hip; the second [shot] went through my thigh. Drake then started for the door and we were both still scuffling, each having a revolver in hand. As he went out the door, he tried to shoot again and I struck at him with the revolver in my hand. Whether it went off or not I do not know, but I was defending myself and should probably have shot had I known what I was doing.”161 Mrs. Drake and Mrs. Butler told much the same stories. When Asst. Marshal Sam Jeans arrived first at the scene, he found Drake lying dead in the yard with a 38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver in his hand. He had been fatally shot in the breast over the heart and in the stomach. Upon searching the house, officers found Reeves’ revolver in a black chest. Jeans announced, “That is the revolver that killed Charlie Drake” to which Reeves replied, “That is the gun, but what I did with it after the shooting I do not know.”162 Three days later, a coroner’s jury heard strong evidence from many witnesses that “a long and bitter feud” had existed between Drake and Reeves. While Reeves had lived at the Butler residence for some years, Drake felt certain that Reeves had interfered in his family affairs. The jury declared that Reeves had killed Drake in self-defense.163 When Reeves heard the news, he felt “overjoyed” and “confident of getting well”—but he died from his wounds one day later.164 159 His birth year is in the 1875 census while boarding with Mrs. Mary Dorsey; 1886, 1889, and 1893 city directories. 160 Charles Drake had married Louisa Butler on April 24, 1881 but he quarreled with her frequently. She had left him seven months ago and was trying to get a divorce. Mrs. Mary Butler, born in 1843 in Kentucky, used to sell liquor at her 804 Connecticut home, in “A Joint Raided,” Evening Tribune, Aug. 27, 1888. See 1865, 1870, and 1875 census records; address in 1886, 1888, and 1893 city directories. 161 Quoted in “A Man Killed…Charlie Drake the Victim,” Journal-Tribune, Feb. 6, 1894. 162 Quoted in “Shot Dead…Killed by Henry Reeves,” World, Feb. 6, 1894. Sam Jeans, a Black policeman, appointed Asst. Marshal, World, Sept, 12, 1893; then City Marshal for 5 months, Journal, Dec. 1, 1894; May 7, 1895. 163 “Fired in Self-Defense,” Gazette and “In Self Defense,” Journal-Tribune, Feb. 8, 1894. 164 “Reeves Dead,” Gazette, Feb. 9, 1894. His interment record reads “Harvy” Reeves, https://www.findagrave.com/ memorial/251877960/harvey-reeves. Charles Drake was buried at Maple Grove Cemetery, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/245639818/charles-drake. �C.C. James, a prominent civil rights leader, was appointed administrator of Harry Reeves’ estate by the Probate Court.165 165 “Notice of Appointment,” Journal-Tribune, Feb. 17, 1894. � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Biographies of 30 African Americans buried in Potter’s Field at Oak Hill Cemetery Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Klein, Jeanne Description An account of the resource A series of biographical sketches of African American individuals and families who are buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery Potter's Field in Lawrence, Kansas. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource NAACP Lawrence Branch #4045 (Lawrence, Kan.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Lawrence (Kan.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2026 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available NAACP Lawrence Branch #4045 (Lawrence, Kan.) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright Jeanne Klein, 2026. Please contact the copyright holder for permission to use this item. The item may also be subject to rights of privacy, rights of publicity and other restrictions. Subject The topic of the resource Allen, Hagar (1834-1917) Allen, Isaac (1820-1902) Allen, Israel (1859-1904) Allen, Robert (1867-?) Allen, William (1863-1883) Alexander, Cora Thurston (b. 1876) Anthony, Lettie A. (1865-1883) Bradley, Brazil (1866-1891) Bradley, Elias L. (1819-1896) Bradley, Elmore (1861-1889) Bradley, Frances E. Mumford (1845-1891) Bradley, Jennie (1875-1893) Clayton, Alex (1843-1872) Drake, Charles (1859-1894) Howard, Alice Woods (1884-1936) Hoyt, Fannie Blackburn (1858-1944) Hoyt, James W. (1851-1898) Jackson, Joshua (1858-1873) King, Isaac (1860-1882) McGee, Henry (1853-1886) Morgan, Randolph (1846-1871) Reeves, Harry (1848-1894) Shepherd, General (Lee) (1849-1877) Robertson, George (1863-1882) Shepherd, Juda/Judy (1812-1873) Shepherd, Peter (1857-1879) Shepard, Samuel B. (ca. 1810-1909) Stewart, Mabel Allen (1884-1928?) Strode, Anna (1846-1889) Strode, Frank Thurston, Alice (1880-?) Thurston, Ann Eliza (1863-1882) Thurston, Edward (1832-1908) Thurston, Maggie B. (1873-1887) Thurston, Sarah (1840-1885) Thurston, Ulysses (1869-1884) Thurston, Will (b. 1879) Vinegar, Eliza (1842-1873) Vinegar, Margaret “Sis” (1866-1889) Vinegar, Peter (1836-1882) Voorhees, Richard (1861-1883) Washington, Edward P. (1850-1883) Woods, Albert “Little Shucks” (1882-1906) Woods, Albert “Shucks” (1844-1894) Woods, Bert (1879-1858) Woods, Edward/Edwin (Ed) (1872-1889) Woods, Johnny (1866-1873) Woods, Lucretia (1847-1930) Woods, Mary (May) (1869-1873) Woods, Oscar A. “Hun” (1886-1925) Type The nature or genre of the resource Text