Office of the Mayor

Proclamation

Lawrence, Kansas

WHEREAS:   January 24-28^th 2009 marks the 150^th Anniversary of the last trip of John Brown to Lawrence, Kansas, and

WHEREAS:   John Brown arrived in Lawrence, Kansas on January 24^th with eleven formerly enslaved African-American freedom-seekers whom he and his fellow abolitionists had rescued from slave-owners in Missouri in December of 1858 as well as a free-born baby, John Brown Daniels, born near Garnett, Kansas, and

WHEREAS:   The twelve “passengers” on the Underground Railroad found refuge from January 24^th through January 28^th, 1859 at the Emily and Joel Grover barn, then located in Wakarusa Township, Douglas County, Kansas Territory [now at 2819 Stonebarn Terrace, Lawrence, Kansas], and

WHEREAS:   John Brown and his fellow abolitionists conducted these “passengers” more than 1,000 miles in the dead of winter through Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan to Detroit, Michigan, where the passengers crossed safely into Canada and found freedom,

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Michael Dever, Mayor of the City of Lawrence, Kansas, do hereby proclaim January 24 – 28, 2009 as the 150^th Anniversary of John Brown’s last trip to Lawrence, Kansas and the sheltering of 12 African-American Freedom-seekers at the Emily and Joel Grover barn, then an Underground Railroad station in Lawrence, Kansas.

                                                     Michael Dever, Mayor

January 20, 2009