Iowa Territorial Gazette 3-23-1839 Vol. 2 No.36

Burlington Iowa Territory

$200.00 Reward

Runaway or were stolen from the subscriber near Salem, in Henry Co. Iowa Ter. On Thurs night the 11^th inst. 2 Negro men whose names are Winston and Henry, but they having been run away since the 11th of Aug. last (Aug. 11, 1838) have called themselves Jack and Bill. They had found their way into the new purchase of Iowa & the subscriber found them there and was returning them home to Missouri stopped to stay at a home from which they escaped or were stolen.

Winston is 26 or 27 yrs. Of age, is Black, 5'8" or 9" high wore away a seal skin cap, blue jeans. Coat with the skirts cut off and dark casinet pantaloons.

Henry is a yellow boy 18 or 19 yrs. Old. 5'5" or 6" high wore a blue cotton frock coat, gingham round about. New fur hat & black skin pantaloons.

I will pay the above reward to any persons who may bring them to me in Boone Co. Mo. Or $100 or either of them or $100 for securing them or giving me such information as may enable me to get them. It is supposed that said runaways will be assisted to escape by some particular white men.

Thomas Flynt

Mar. 16, 1839

(This descriptive advertisement from the Iowa Territorial Gazette of Mar. 23, 1839 seems to be the first recorded instance of assistance to fugitives by Salem area Quakers which occurred in 1838. Note, that this would have been only about 18 months after some of the earlier Quaker families had arrived to settle in the newly formed Quaker town of Salem in the just recently surveyed Black Hawk purchase of the Iowa Territory. Quakers had been in the Black Hawk territory and the Salem area since 1835.

Boon County Missouri is about mid-state on the Missouri River. Word evidently had spread even by that time, that Iowa was a free state and that assistance could be obtained from the people with the 'broad-brimmed' hats who were settling there. Comments from the research notes of Lewis D. Savage.)