Wikipedia

Civil Bend, Iowa

For other places named Civil Bend, see Civil Bend (disambiguation).

Civil Bend, Iowa was a village established in 1850 located in the western part of Benton Township in Fremont County, near the present-day town of Percival on the Missouri River in the U.S. State of Iowa.[1] It was a noted station on the Underground Railroad, and a stop along the Lane Trail.[2]

History

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The first settler in the area was a ferryman named John Boulware. Another was a man surnamed Hickson. Hickson sold whiskey to the natives and settlers and the wild times that ensued were the origin of the place's name, Devil's Bend. The bend upriver from this was settled by abolitionist graduates of Oberlin College and the contrast between their lifestyle and that of Hickson's customers led to their settlement being called Civil Bend.[3] They came, determined to establish a safe haven for freedom seekers from the neighboring slave-friendly states of Missouri to the south, Nebraska to the west, Kansas to the southwest, and the rest of the southern United States. Lester Platt and his wife Elvira were among the first settlers, arriving in 1847, and Lester began helping trafficked Black people escape their enslavers.[4] Ira Blanchard and George Gaston also settled nearby and shared Platt's sentiment and commitments about freedom seekers. Formerly enslaved people, such as Henry and Maria Garner and their family also settled in Civil Bend.[5] By 1850, the settlement had a Congregational Church when John Todd arrived to serve as minister.[6][7] Sitting in the Missouri River bottoms, the village's proximity to the river became an issue because of repeated flooding.[8][9]

In the mid-1850s white settlers established a new town on the tablelands to the east of Civil Bend called Tabor. A good number remained in Civil Bend and it became an Abolitionist haven and the western terminus of the Underground Railroad that ran east across Iowa until the end of the United States Civil War in 1865.[10][11][12] By 1857, it was indirectly referred to as such in a Michigan newspaper.[13] Another account mentioned 75 slave-catchers hunting the 35 armed men protecting and escorting freedom seekers fleeing their enslaver, Stephen F. Nuckolls, as they moved from Civil Bend to Tabor.[14] By January 1859 it was open knowledge that Civil Bend was part of the Underground Railroad.[15] At the end of that year, Nuckolls sued residents of Civil Bend for stealing the two freedom seekers from him.[16] The following year, one of the men whose home he illegally ransacked in a vain search for the seekers was awarded $8000 (the equivalent of nearly $300,000 in 2024) in punitive damages from Nuckolls.[17] A few months after this, in October, two free Black residents of Civil Bend and their free relative were kidnapped and carried off to the South. The relative, from Council Bluffs, escaped to tell the story, but he had no idea what happened to them.[18]

The African Americans who lived in the town stayed there though, along with a few white people.[8]

With the coming of the Civil War men from Civil Bend formed a company, first under Colonel Craynor,[19] then under Captain William H. Folmsbee.[20] The community continued to grow after the war and collection was taken for a Methodist Episcopal church in 1868.[21]

Notable residents

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  • Elmer Ellsworth Beach (1861—1950), American football player and lawyer
  • Elvira Gaston Platt, teacher and abolitionist[4][22]
  • Ira Blanchard, Underground Railroad conductor[23]

Present

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Today, the site of Civil Bend is owned by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and is open to the public for outdoor activities.[24]

References

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  1. ^ Handy, Robert (2000). "Civil Bend : legend of reality". search.worldcat.org. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  2. ^ "Underground Railroad". State Historical Society of Iowa. Archived from the original on December 23, 2023. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  3. ^ "Fremont County Iowa, township history". iagenweb.org. Archived from the original on February 9, 2024. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  4. ^ a b "Elvira Gaston Platt papers," (Reference identifier: IWA0181) University of Iowa.
  5. ^ ""Fremont County Iowa, Underground Railroad"". iagenweb.org. Archived from the original on February 9, 2024. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  6. ^ "Civil Bend, Iowa, described in 1850". The Burlington Hawk-Eye. September 11, 1851. p. 2. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  7. ^ "Todd, John". The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa, The University of Iowa Libraries. Archived from the original on February 9, 2024. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  8. ^ a b State Historical Society of Iowa; Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs; The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. "Civil Bend, Fremont County, Iowa: Spoiling slavery on the Missouri slope". Find A Grave. Archived from the original on February 8, 2024. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  9. ^ Todd, John (1906). Early settlement and growth of western Iowa; or, Reminiscences. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Des Moines, The Historical department of Iowa.
  10. ^ "Iowa Freedom Trail Project: Individuals by County" (PDF). State Historic Society of Iowa. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 8, 2024. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  11. ^ Miller, Diane (May 2008). "To Make Kansas Free: The Underground Railroad in Bleeding Kansas" (PDF). National Park Service. Archived from the original on February 8, 2024. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  12. ^ "The Underground Railroad in Iowa: Linn County's role in helping escaped slaves continues to evolve". www.thegazette.com. Archived from the original on February 9, 2024. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  13. ^ "Civil Bend called one of Lane's "horse and negro stations."". The Niles Democrat. October 3, 1857. p. 2. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  14. ^ "Excitement on the Iowa Borders". Wisconsin Tribune. December 28, 1858. p. 2. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  15. ^ "Nebraska Negro Catchers in Iowa". The Weekly Hawk Eye. January 25, 1859. p. 2. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  16. ^ "Slavery in Nebraska". Wisconsin State Journal. December 16, 1859. p. 2. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  17. ^ "Heavy Damages". Muscatine Evening Journal. June 9, 1860. p. 2. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  18. ^ "Three Negroes Kidnapped Near Council Bluffs and Run into Missouri -- Great Excitement". Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye. October 6, 1860. p. 1. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  19. ^ Leopard, John C.; Hillman, Mary McCammon; McCammon, Robert McMillen (1922). History of Daviess and Gentry counties, Missouri. The Internet Archive. Topeka : Historical Pub. Co. p. 103.
  20. ^ "Captain Folmsbee in Command of the Civil Bend company". The North Missourian. October 27, 1864. p. 2. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  21. ^ "New Church". The North Missourian. February 6, 1868. p. 4. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  22. ^ Jensen, Richard E. (2004). "1,000 Miles From Home on the Wild Prairie‟: Charles B Darwin‟s 1849 Nebraska Diary" (PDF). Nebraska History. 85: 58–114. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 8, 2024 – via Nebraska State Historical Society.
  23. ^ "The Underground Railroad" by Diane Miller for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia on 19 October 2022. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.974. Retrieved February 3, 2023.
  24. ^ "Civil Bend (IA)". United States Army Corps of Engineers, Missouri River Recovery Program. Archived from the original on February 8, 2024. Retrieved February 8, 2024.

40°48′12″N 95°50′08″W / 40.8032°N 95.8356°W / 40.8032; -95.8356

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