Mrs Clara Brown

MRS. CLARA BROWN. – As space was allowed in the Denver volume of Colorado's history for the biographical sketch of one distinguished lady – Miss Alida C. Avery, M. D., it seems but fair that this volume should give space to another. Clara Brown, better known as Aunt Clara, the first colored woman that ever crossed the plains for Pike's Peak, deserves at least a passing notice. Aunt Clara was born Jan. 1, 1800, near Fredericksburg, Va., a slave of one Ambrose Smith, who removed with his family and slaves to Russellville, Logan Co., Ky., in 1809. Aunt Clara was married in her eighteenth year, and was the mother of four children — three girls and one boy, viz., Margaret, Eliza, Palina and Richard. At the death of her master, Ambrose Smith, in 1835, she, with her husband and children, were sold to different purchasers, and they forever parted. Aunt Clara was purchased by George Brown, of Russellville, who died in 1856. She was again sold and purchased by the heirs of Mr. Brown, and emancipated. The laws of Kentucky then requiring that all emancipated slaves should leave the State within one year, Aunt Clara, then in her fifty-seventh year, went to St. Louis, Mo., and thence to Leavenworth, Kan., spending the year 1858, in Leavenworth. Early in 1859, she joined the gold-hunting army for Auraria, Cherry Creek, now Denver, she agreeing to cook for a mess of twenty-five men, out of a party of sixty, the conditions being that they transport her stoves, wash-tubs, wash-board and clothes-box, for her services as cook during the trip. She rode with her things in one of the ox-wagons, there being thirty in the train, drawn by six yoke of oxen each, and, after eight weeks, landed in Auraria, now West Denver. After a few weeks' rest, she again packed up her earthly goods and removed to Gregory Point, thence to Mountain City, now Central City. She soon founded the first laundry ever started in Gilpin Co. The prices being paid her were for blue and red flannel shirts, 50 cents, and other clothes in proportion. In a few years she had accumulated property valued at about $10,000. At the close of the war, she went to her old Kentucky home, and hunted up all her relatives that could be found, thirty-four in number, and brought them to Leavenworth by steamboat, and then purchased a train, crossed the plains, and settled her relatives in Denver, Central City and Georgetown. Feeling the approach of old age, she has recently removed from Central City to Denver, and built herself a little cottage home near the corner of Twenty-third and Arapahoe streets. She is now doing all she can in dispensing charity to all the needy. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and has been for the last fifty years. Many interesting incidents might be added of her long and useful life, would space allow.

SOURCE: O. L. Baskin & Co., Publisher, History of Clear Creek and Boulder Valleys, Colorado, p. 443

Robert Blake

ROBERT BLAKE. Contraband on board of the U.S.S. Marblehead in the engagement with the rebel batteries on Stono River, December 25, 1863; serving as a powder-boy, displayed extraordinary courage, alacrity, and intelligence in the discharge of his duties under trying circumstances, and merited the admiration of all.

SOURCE: Government Printing Office, Record of Medals of Honor Issued to the  Bluejackets and Marines of the United States Navy 1862-1910, p. 11

Caesar Blackwell

Caesar Blackwell. A slave of Lowndes County, Alabama. Said to have been a full-blooded African. He was a gifted preacher. Bought by the Baptist Association of that State, for $1,000. He was not set free, but James McLemore was appointed his guardian. He was ordained and licensed to preach. He is reported to have visited the churches in company with the white preachers and to have occupied the pulpits with them. He aided and assisted the white preachers in their work.

SOURCE: Monroe N. Work, Editor, Negro Year Book and Annual Encyclopedia of the Negro, Volume 6, p. 201

Solomon Bayley

Bayley, Solomon, a colored preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Liberia. He was born a slave in Delaware, and, after cruel hardships, gained his freedom. He emigrated to Liberia about 1832 and, at the organization of the Conference in 1834, was returned supernumerary. He died at Monrovia in great peace in Oct., 1839. “Father Bayley was a good preacher. His language was good, his doctrine sound, and his manner forcible; his conversation was a blessing, and his reward is on high.” — Mott, Sketches of Persons of Color; Minutes of Conferences, iii, 62.

SOURCE: John McClintock, James Strong, Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Volume 1, p. 704

Richard Allen

ALLEN, Richard, clergyman and founder of the African Methodist church, was born in 1760, of colored parents. In 1777 he joined the Methodist Society in Delaware, and five years later became a local preacher. He was instrumental in erecting the first African church in America, which was built in Philadelphia, in 1793. Some time previous to that difficulties arose between the white and colored members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and an agitation was started among the latter for a separate organization. Led by Richard Allen, a blacksmith shop was purchased in Philadelphia in 1794, and a separate place of worship was opened, which was dedicated by Bishop Asbury, June 29, 1794. The church was named Bethel, and Richard Allen acted as their chief pastor. In 1799 he was ordained deacon by Bishop Asbury, being the first ordained colored minister in this country. He remained in connection with the Methodist Episcopal church until 1816, when, owing to new difficulties having arisen, he withdrew with a large number of the colored membership, and assisted in organizing the African Methodist Episcopal church. On Apr. 9, 1816, a convention met in Philadelphia, whose members constituted themselves into the new religious body. Mr. Allen was elected bishop on the 10th, and was consecrated the next day by Rev. Absalom Jones, a priest of the Protestant Episcopal church, and four other regularly ordained ministers. Although a man of but little education, Bishop Allen was distinguished for his energy and sound judgment, and administered the new organization with much credit. He acted as its spiritual head until his death, which occurred in Philadelphia, Penn., March 26, 1831.

SOURCE: James T. White & Company, Publisher, The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Volume 13, p. 200-1

Archer Alexander

ALEXANDER, Archer, hero, was born near Richmond, Va., about 1810, a slave, and in 1831 was taken to Missouri by his master. In 1861, at the breaking out of the civil war, he performed a very heroic deed. Learning that a detachment of Federal troops was to pass over a railroad bridge, the timbers of which he knew to have been cut in order to wreck the train, Alexander, at the hazard of his life, gave the information to a prominent Union man, thus preventing disaster to the detachment. He was suspected of doing this, and was taken prisoner by a committee of Confederate sympathizers, but escaped, fleeing to St. Louis, where he obtained employment under protection of the Federal provost-marshal. In the bronze group, “Freedom's Memorial,” in the capitol grounds in Washington, he was the model of Thomas Ball the sculptor, from which “The Freedman” in the group was made. See “The story of Archer Alexander.” He died in St. Louis, Dec. 8, 1879.

SOURCE: John Howard Brown, Editor, Lamb's Biographical Dictionary of the United States, Volume 1, p. 55

Absalom Jones

Absalom Jones ordained a deacon in the Protestant Episcopal Church, First Negro in the United States to be ordained, in any denomination [of] the ministry. Like Richard Allen, Jones was a leader of the colored people of Philadelphia. He had been a slave and purchased his freedom. He was a member of St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church, and withdrew with Richard Allen and jointly with him founded the Free African Society and the Independent African Church. He was the first Negro to be ordained to the ministry of the Episcopal Church.

SOURCE: Monroe N. Work, Negro Year Book: An Annual Encyclopedia of the Negro 1921-1922, p. 199

George Moses Horton

HORTON, George Moses, slave-poet, a fullblooded negro, was born in Chatham county, N. C., about 1798. He began to dictate verses before he had learned to read or write, and won the interest of Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz (q. v.), who gave him instruction. He worked on his master's farm until about 1831, when Dr. Joseph Caldwell, then president of the University of North Carolina, secured him employment in the village of Chapel Hill, where he wrote verses, acrostics, and love letters for the students at twenty-five cents each. He hoped to buy his freedom and a passage to Liberia, but took to drink after the death of Dr. Caldwell in 1835. He went to Philadelphia after the war with a Federal general. He published “The Hope of Liberty” (Raleigh, 1829); a second volume of verse appeared in 1838, and a third about 1850, with an autobiography. He also published novels and essays. He died about 1880.

SOURCE: James T. White & Co., Publisher, The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Volume 7, p. 93

Anthony Burns

BURNS, Anthony, fugitive slave, b. in Virginia about 1830; d. in St. Catharines, Canada, 27 July, 1862. He effected his escape from slavery in Virginia, and was at work in Boston in the winter of 1853-'4. On 23 May, 1854, the U. S. house of representatives passed the Kansas-Nebraska bill repealing the Missouri compromise, and permitting the extension of negro slavery, which had been restricted since 1820. The news caused great indignation throughout the free states, especially in Boston, where the anti-slavery party had its headquarters. Just at this crisis Burns was arrested by U. S. Marshal Watson Freeman, under the provisions of the fugitive-slave act, on a warrant sworn out by Charles F. Suttle. He was confined in the Boston court-house under a strong guard, and on 25 May was taken before U. S. Commissioner Loring for examination. Through the efforts of Wendell Phillips and Theodore Parker, an adjournment was secured to 27 May, and in the mean time a mass-meeting was called at Faneuil hall, and the U. S. marshal summoned a large posse of extra deputies, who were armed and stationed in and about the court-house to guard against an expected attempt at the rescue of Burns. The meeting at Faneuil hall was addressed by the most prominent men of Boston, and could hardly be restrained from adjourning in a body to storm the court-house. While this assembly was in session, a premature attempt to rescue Burns was made under the leadership of Thomas W. Higginson. A door of the courthouse was battered in, one of the deputies was killed in the fight, and Col. Higginson and others of the assailants were wounded. A call for re-enforcements was sent to Faneuil hall, but in the confusion it never reached the chairman. On the next day the examination was held before Commissioner Loring, Richard H. Dana and Charles M. Ellis appearing for the prisoner. The evidence showed that Burns was amenable under the law, and his surrender to his master was ordered. When the decision was made known, many houses were draped in black, and the state of popular feeling was such that the government directed that the prisoner be sent to Virginia on board the revenue cutter “Morris.” He was escorted to the wharf by a strong guard, through streets packed with excited crowds. At the wharf the tumult seemed about to culminate in riot, when the Rev. Daniel Foster (who was killed in action early in the civil war) exclaimed, “Let us pray!” and silence fell upon the multitude, who stood with uncovered heads, while Burns was hurried on board the cutter. A more impressively dramatic ending, or one more characteristic of an excited but law-abiding and God-fearing New England community, could hardly be conceived for this famous case. Burns afterward studied at Oberlin college, and eventually became a Baptist minister, and settled in Canada, where, during the closing years of his life, he presided over a congregation of his own color. See “Anthony Burns, A History,” by C. E. Stevens (Boston, 1854).

SOURCE: James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, Editors, Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography, Volume 1, p. 460