The Pickard family had frequent family reunions. These were the relatives of Henry Pickard and his wife, Eleanor Woody, a Quaker family that had moved from North Carolina to Indiana and finally to Henry County, Iowa. While most reunions were unremarkable, the 1935 Pickard family reunion was a bit different because of a special guest.
The Quakers of Iowa, while opposed to slavery, were divided on what they should do about it. Many felt they should help the fugitive enslaved, while others were against that. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 impacted Henry and Lee Counties as they were in southern Iowa, near the border with Missouri, which remained a slave state until the Civil War. The Act required that enslaved people be returned to their owners, even if caught in a free state. [1] The enslaved knew that the many Quakers in the area would help them as they escaped. This caused friction between enslavers seeking runaway enslaved people and the Quaker families.
Salem, twenty-five miles from the state line, became a station on the Underground Railroad. The Henderson Llewelling house, the largest house in the area, hid the runaway enslaved via a hidden door in the kitchen. [2] A famous runaway slave case--the Ruel Daggs case, happened around Salem and involved many of the Quaker men. [3]
While it is unclear which side Henry Pickard took in the Quaker discussion regarding slavery, he became personally involved. There are several stories about how this involvement came about. But the most likely is that a father knocked on the door of the Pickard house and asked for help. As he was escaping to Canada, the father felt he could not take care of his sickly six-month-old daughter and asked the Pickards to take her in until he settled in Canada. They did, but the father never returned. [4]
The child was named Mary. She was born about 1857, so her father would have left her with the Pickards about that same year. She stayed with them until early adulthood. At around twenty years of age, Mary started attending the Methodist Church, which included singing. Quakers did not sing in church then, and Henry Pickard disapproved of this. So Mary decided to leave the Pickard home.
No proof of the incident has come to light. A black child named Mary did not show up in the 1860, 1870, or 1880 census, living with Henry and Mary Pickard (Henry's second wife). Understandably, they may have kept her hidden in 1860, but there would have been no reason to do so after emancipation. Mary is not mentioned in Henry's will. But the story continues to be told.
So, what does this have to do with a family gathering? In 1935, the Pickard family held a reunion, information about which was published in the newspaper. At this reunion, Mary, now Mrs. Mills, attended and "could not speak highly enough" of Henry Pickard and his family. She was described as "a bright, refined nice-looking old-lady, stylishly dressed." Mrs. Mills was "so proud of her connection with the Pickards." [5]
While the newspaper article doesn't prove the story, Mary would have no reason to attend and lie about her association with the Pickards. This goes to show that you never know what will happen at these annual family reunions.
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[1] 9 Stat.462, https://govtrackus.s3.amazonaws.com/legislink/pdf/stat/9/STATUTE-9-Pg162.pdf.
[2] Llewellyn Quaker Museum, Website (http://sites.rootsweb.com/~ialqm/index.htm; accessed 5 July 2022).
[3] Jones, Quakers of Iowa, 189. For the court case, see Daggs, Ruel, Elihu Frazier, George Frazee, and United States District Court. District Court of the United States for the Southern Division of Iowa. Burlington, June term, Ruel Daggs vs. Elihu Frazier, et als., trespass on the case. (Burlington: Printed by Morgan & McKenny, 1850); digital image at https://www.loc.gov/item/54051811/.
[4] Savage, "Fugitive Slaves and Henry Pickard in the Iowa New Garden Meeting," Also see "Quakers helped Slaves fell," Washington (Iowa) Evening Journal, 17 May 2004, p.1 & 9; digital image, Southeast Iowa Digital Archive (seiowa.advantage-preservation.com: accessed 26 May 2022).
[5] "Reunion Held at Donnellson," Fort Madison (Iowa) Evening Democrat, 30 August 1935, p.7, cols. 2-5; digital image, NewspaperArchive (https://www.newspaperarchive.com: accessed 22 May 2022).
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