Iowa Heritage Illustrated

No Questions Asked
Editor’s note: Devoted to historical research, 
journalist August Richter preserved early ac­
counts o f antislavery activities in Davenport. 
Richter credits the following account to “ that 
sturdy, honest philanthropist” William H. 
Holmes.The story begins with the arrival o f 
Erastus Ripley, one o f the Iowa Band.
S
ometime in 1852, I was awakened at daylight by 
Professor E. Ripley (of Iowa College) who asked 
the loan of a peddling wagon, the box of which, 
back of the front seat, made it easy to conceal a few 
persons in the rear by adding a canvass flap from the top 
of the back of the driver’s seat. Mr. Ripley said he was in 
charge of a family— man, wife and three children— who 
had been brought here by their owner, who designed 
crossing Iowa to Northwestern Missouri!
While [the party] was stopping over at the LeClaire 
House [Hotel], some waiters of the same hue told the 
man that his family were lawfully free, because [they 
were] brought by their master to a free State, but that he 
could not trust to that, because the people would stand 
by the master.... Being one of the exceptional slaves who 
would leave his master if he could, he trusted to his black 
brethren__
The professor relied on John L. Davies for a pair of 
horses, and Mr. Tade.a young student of Theology, was 
willing to practice his theory of helping humanity, by 
[crossing the Mississippi and] driving to Galesburg, [Illi­
nois,] the nearest known station on the “ underground 
station,’’ an organization whose chief actors did not 
parade their names and official titles.. . .  Mrs. Holmes 
hastily prepared a day’s rations for the travelers, while 
I was adding an extra curtain to the wagon. Believing in 
a proper use o f ... weapons, I inquired of the man if he 
was armed, and found his LeClaire House brethren had 
furnished him a pistol and a small amount of money.
Before these arrangements could be completed, 
the negroes were missed; handbills were circulated 
over the city describing the property lost and offering 
a liberal reward, and we had grave fears about getting
over on the ferry-boat. But my wagon had crossed fre­
quently, and its appearance excited no suspicion. Un­
fortunately the boat had just left the dock, and the half 
hour standing in the street seemed a long time. During 
the delay it occurred to me that more money might be 
needed, and I had but two dollars with me. I was pass­
ing by Mr. Thomas [Gilbrath?], whom I knew to be safe. 
He had just two dollars with him, but said he would 
borrow more if necessary, and volunteered to stand 
on Front street, near the wagon, to keep off possible 
intruders, and probably no one man could or would 
have kept off more than he, had occasion required.
The next passer-by was Hiram Price, then an hon­
ored leader in a party prompt to prove its pro-slavery 
zeal, but I knew him to have a humane heart beneath 
the surface garb of a partisan, and that he did not suffer 
his sympathies to evaporate in words alone. I accosted 
him, saying, “ I want some money for a benevolent pur­
pose, and no questions asked.’’ He promptly took out 
his pocket-book, lifted the top note— five dollars—  
without a word as to the object, only asking, “ is that 
enough for my share?” but with a look that suggested 
he knew the general direction it would take, and if he 
had seen the handbill I presume he inferred the specific 
use; but it is probable he does not till this day know 
he was a contributor to the flight of this family from a 
State too weak to interpose in favor of freedom.
Soon afterwards Mr. Ripley called to say he had heard 
from Galesburg that, under the banner of a Queen our 
fugitives had found in Canada what the boasted “ Flag of 
the Free” would not give— personal liberty!
...I listened to many speculations as to who hid them 
and where, as also to countless curses on the fanatics 
who would seriously damage business here, because the 
LeClaire House would not be filled with summer board­
ers from St. Louis. The majority of the talkers, at least, 
sympathized with . . . the slave owner— who supposed 
that every man in Iowa belonged to the bodyguard of 
slavery. No day of my not unhappy life has given higher 
satisfaction than that in which I heard of the safe exodus 
of this humble family. ❖
Source: August Richter Collection, State Historical Society of Iowa (Iowa City). 
The text has been broken into additional paragraphs for ease o f reading.
Sunttiier 2009 53


English

No Questions Asked

gued that Barclay had neither been 
in Virginia nor harmed anyone.
She blasted Virginia's governor:
"You are making radical abolition­
ists faster than scores of Northern 
lecturers could do it."
Governor Samuel Kirkwood re­
jected the first requisition to extradite 
on the very narrowest of technical 
grounds. By the time he reluctantly 
accepted the second, Barclay had 
given into pressure and left Spring- 
dale for Chicago. The Coppoc affair received national 
attention and fueled Southern thoughts of secession.
Barclay Coppoc
When the Civil War came, 22-year-old Barclay 
served in a Kansas regiment as a lieutenant and came 
home to Springdale to enlist recruits. Returning to Mis­
souri, he was on a train that plunged into the river after 
Confederate guerrillas set the bridge on fire. He died 
the next day. ❖
Richard Acton writes about Iowa history and divides his time 
between Cedar Rapids and London, where he serves in the Brit­
ish House of Lords.
This text blends excerpts from two Palimpsest articles by Richard Acton: “An 
Iowan’s Death at Harpers Ferry (Winter 1989); and “The Story of Ann Raley; The 
Mother of the Coppoc Boys" (Spring 1991).
Politics Be Hanged
Editors note: Many ardent abolitionists also 
championed temperance. In this account set in 
Davenport, one cause is sacrificed for the other 
in order to save Barclay Coppoc. The story is 
credited to “Mr.JamesThompson, a Scotchman 
by birth and a merchant tailor by trade, and an 
all around gentleman of the highest type.“
S
itting one evening in my shop, then over [a] book store, 
late in the fall of ’59, an acquaintance came in and abruptly 
asked me if I had heard that [Barclay] Coppac was in town. 
Now this man knew me for an old Abolitionist, and I knew him 
for a whole-souled, dyed-in-the-wool old Democrat, but yet we 
were very good friends for all that; rather fond of a social chat 
and a social glass. Judge, then, how the cold chills ran down my 
back, when I say that at that moment Coppac was within forty 
feet of where we stood, and I knew it! W ith a government 
reward for his arrest, and this loyal Democrat on the war-path, 
hunting up this rumor, [Coppac] might be discovered. Some­
thing must be done, and quickly.
After a second’s thought, and a turn or two across the floor, 
I carelessly answered him; “ Oh, pshaw! who cares for Coppac; 
politics be hanged. Let’s go out and take a walk.” Knowing his 
weakness for good eating and drinking, we strolled down Sec­
ond street and into a famous restaurant of those days, where 
some choice spirits used to meet, and where some choice 
“ spirits” used to vanish, too.
Well, suffice to say that we whiled away that evening w ith­
out once mentioning Coppac or politics either, until “ the wee 
short hour . . . ” when each took his respective road home----
“ [We had] just had plenty," at least he had, to make him forget 
all about Coppac, the fugitive slave law, or the ten command­
ments; which was the little game I had been playing for all the 
evening, and won it, too.
In the meantime Coppac, that very night, or rather morn­
ing, this being the second night he had lain concealed in a little 
room just back of my room, left town in the care of two young 
men, both Quakers, born in Philadelphia, both abolitionists, and 
true as steel. One was a nephew of Adams, and a cousin of 
Coppac, the other a land agent, but at the time kept a confec­
tionary store under Bailey’s Hall, Brady street between Third 
and Fourth. Coppac arrived safely at Springdale (Cedar Coun­
ty) where his widowed mother lived__
To only two individuals did I mention the above incident 
until some years after, and but to a very few since. To my friend 
whose patriotism was quenched that night, but not in water, I
have never lisped a word on the subject__ Both the persons
to whom I djid tell it were old conductors on the “ underground 
railroad,” and both strict temperance men. But both were 
pleased at the use the spirits (if bad) were put to that night. 
One still lives in Davenport. The other has “gone over to the 
majority.”
But it was very amusing to see the twinkle in the eyes 
of John L. Davies as in his earnest manner with knit brows, 
clenched fist, and stammering a little on the first syllable, as 
he always did when he wanted to knock you over with a con­
viction, he exclaimed: “ I d-don’t like liquor. I d-don’t use the 
stuff; b-but I would rather like to have done that myself. You 
d-did perfectly right under the circumstances. G-God bless you, 
Bishop.”
Source: August Richter Collection, State Historical Society of Iowa (Iowa City). 
The text has been broken into additional paragraphs for ease of reading.
86 lawa Heritage Illustrated


Politics Be Hanged

Berrier, Galin

Charlo tta Pyles
by Galin Berrier
N ot many of the free­dom seekers stayed 
in Iowa. Among those 
who settled here were 
Charlotta and Harry Py­
les, with 11 of their 12 
children.Their story was 
told many years later by 
the daughter of Mary El­
len Pyles, their youngest child.
Harry Pyles, fair-skinned and blue-eyed, was a 
free man. His wife, Charlotta (above) with high cheek 
bones, copper complexion, and straight black hair—  
perhaps resembling her Seminole Indian mother—  
was a slave on the plantation of a Mr. Gordon, near 
Bardstown, Kentucky. In such marriages, a child’s sta­
tus was determined by that of the mother, so all 12 
of their children were also slaves.
When Gordon died in 1853, he willed Char­
lotta and her children to his daughter w ith the 
understanding that, consistent w ith the principles 
of their Wesleyan Methodist faith, she would set
them free. But her two brothers, who did not 
share their sister’s religious views o r antislavery 
convictions and were jealous of her inheritance, 
kidnapped Charlotta ’s son Benjamin and sold him 
to  a slave trader.
This treachery convinced Gordon’s daughter that 
Charlotta and her other children would be safe only 
if they were taken from Kentucky to a free state.
W ith the aid of a white clergyman from Ohio, 
a Rev. Claycome, Gordon set out in the early fall of 
1853 in an old covered wagon drawn by six horses. 
The party also included, besides Charlotta and Har­
ry Pyles, their 11 remaining childrens small daughter 
and son belonging to their eldest daughter, Julia; and 
three small sons of another daughter, Emily. Julia’s 
and Emily’s husbands were slaves on other planta­
tions so had to be left behind.
Gordon’s party rode to Louisville and then 
boarded a steamboat for St. Louis. There a white 
man named Stone offered to guide them north to 
freedom for $100. No sooner were they on their 
way than Stone demanded an additional $50, threat-
John Ross Miller by Galin Berrier
Dozens of runaway slaves from Missouri came through Iowa, 
lived among us only briefly, and 
then moved on, leaving behind 
no evidence they had ever been 
here. Only occasionally do we 
know that their first names were 
John and Archie, or Aunt Polka. 
Names of couples, like John and 
Mary Walker or Sam and Dorcas 
Fulcher, are even less likely to be 
known. So you can imagine my 
excitement when I came upon
the story of one fugitive slave in 
Iowa with no fewer than three 
different names.
John Ross Miller was born a 
slave in Kentucky and known as 
“John Graves’’ in Missouri, where 
his master, a Mr. Graves, had 
moved from Kentucky in 1854. In 
1861 John and three other young 
men— Aleck Nichols, Andy Hayes, 
and Henderson Hays “ borrowed” 
two horses and two mules 
from the Graves plantation near
Maryville, Missouri, and headed 
north to Iowa. They traveled at 
night and hid in the daytime; two 
days’ riding brought them to 
W interset in Madison County at 
about one o ’clock on a Saturday 
afternoon in late October. When 
some men in town tried to ap­
prehend them, a crowd of sym­
pathizers freed them, gave them 
something to eat, and sent them 
off the next evening to Indianola.
John and his companions even-
82 Iowa Heritage Illustrated


Charlotta Pyles

Rogers, Leah D

George Hitchcock

Swaim, Ginalie

Blessed be the  interurban
Now and then, most college students yearn 
for a world beyond the confines of campus.
A century ago, electric interurban railways were 
one way to reach that world.
A poem written in the style of the 23rd 
Psalm and published in the 1915 Cornell Col­
lege yearbook lauds the interurban that served 
Mount Vernon and the surrounding area.
Running several times a day, the interurban 
would drop Cornell students off at “ bright 
woods and green pastures” for a picnic, deliver 
them to Cedar Rapids for a moving picture or 
play, or connect them to major railways for 
longer trips.
And the price of a ticket on the inter­
urban was just right for students who, as this 
poet notes, walked “ in the valley of the shadow 
of bankruptcy.”
— The Editor
98 Iowa Heritage Illustrated
SHSI (IOWA CITY)
(  O  Y A  L - .^ A irv ic t» : P U RPLE
Mxmwzjmimmunwinw immnninnimmumMEann. jejii» *
1. The intcrurban is my friend and my helper, I shall not want.
2. It. taketh inc to bright woods and given pastures, yea also it leadetli m e  by 
the still waters of the Cedar. It taketh me to Bertram. It leadetli me to (Ireene’s 
and the Majestic and I walk the streets of Cedar Kapids b e c a u s e  of th righteous 
im'Sh of its works.
• I. Yea though I walk in the valley ol the shadow of bankruptcy and have not 
kale, yet I fear no evil. For it is with me. It gives me joy, even its rails and 
tics do coinfort me.
4. It. props rest time tables for me in the presence of my enemy the North 
Western. It runneth to suit my convenience; though the North WVstern he hours 
late, yet do I m a k e  my connections at Marion. Yea every odd hour may I travel.
•>. Surely wealth and honor shall conic to it all the days of its life. It shall 
bring students unto Cornell and profit unto its coffers
6. And it shall be called blessed and its manager, Isaac I. Smith will dwell in 
the Jap of luxury forever.
i» it. l .


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Politics Be Hanged

Charlotta Pyles

George Hitchcock

Blessed be the Interurban

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