The ISU Retirees Association monthly social and program event took place Thursday at the Iowa State Alumni Association Center, with a focus on black history month and the underground railroad.

Skip Walter, a retired Iowa State faculty member, is the head chair of this year’s Retirees Association and plans out several programs to take place during the school year.

“We try to make seven to eight programs during the school year as well as some social events, generally on the Thursday afternoon sessions we make them educational but that doesn’t mean they can’t be entertaining,” Walter said.

Given February’s importance as black history month, the Retirees Association committee decided upon a speech detailing Iowa State’s involvement with the underground railroad and abolitionist movements.

“One of our members was familiar with work done on the railroad in Iowa and she was familiar with Doug Jones and we thought that it’s black history month and that should be all the logic needed to make this happen,” Walter said.

The speech, titled “The Underground Railroad in Iowa”, was presented by Doug Jones, an archaeologist for the State Historical Society of Iowa.

“I wear different hats at the State Historical Society of Iowa, and today my hat is project leader for the Iowa Freedom Trail Project,” Jones said.

The Iowa Freedom Trail Project began in 2002 as a grant project with the intent of creating a way to document the people, places and events associated with the Underground Railroad history. However the program has lost some steam in the past few years.

“As of 2013 the project officially came to a close, however we’ve been continuing the project. We just don’t have nearly as much funding as we had with the grant,” Jones said.

Despite the lower funding, Jones speech did not focus on the goal of obtaining more money, but rather educating the public on role many of Iowa State’s founding fathers played with the early abolitionist movement.

Jones began his presentation by defining a new term for runaway slaves as well as breaking misconceptions about slavery in Iowa.

“Many people may not realize that there were slaves in Iowa up until the 1860’s despite it being a free state. These slaves who were runaways are now under a new term called “freedom seeker”, they were enslaved and then became fugitives in an attempt to escape slavery and gain freedom,” Jones said.

A large talking point for Jones and his project was the discovery of new information and artifacts not previously seen or spoken of since the late 1800’s.

“Research wise, we’ve taken what we can from county reports but we are now supplementing that information with genealogy reports that give us information not available for some time. We are also working with descendants of folks who are reaching out to use to give us new info on slaves and abolitionists,” Jones said.

This new information was preceded by a history lesson on the many anti-slavery figures and railroad stations located in Iowa and near Iowa State.

These included Winnie and Edward Warren, a couple who escaped slavery in Missouri to become freedom seekers in a quaker community located at Marshall County. As well as John Brown, a prolific national level abolitionist and equal rights advocate, who led 12 men, women and child slaves across Iowa towards freedom in 1859.

Alexander Clark Sr. was also an important African American figure in Iowa, as he was marked as the second black man to graduate from the School of Law at Iowa (His son being the first). He became heavily involved and was an active member of the Republican party in its early stages.

To wrap up his speech, Jones switched attention towards the founding members of Iowa State and their involvement with the Underground Railroad.

Suel Foster, whose plaque hangs in the Department of Anthropology building, was Iowa State’s first president of the Board of Trustees.

“Suel Foster arrives in Iowa around 1836 and gets married in Muscatine and became heavily involved in agriculture. Though he never admitted to railroad association, Josiah Grinnell who was a statewide leader in the railroad actually acknowledged that Suel was involved and he just covered his tracks well,” Jones said.

Oliver Mills, director at Iowa State, ran a successful Underground Railroad station in his Iowa Farm from 1856 through 1864. He was joined by Coker Clarkson, a man involved with journalism across the state and was a printer for the Iowa State Register eventually purchasing the publication, was a strong abolitionist and supported anti-slavery measures across Iowa.

One of the most important men associated with the founding of Iowa State was Benjamin Gue, often referred to as the founding father of ISU.

“Gue was probably the man who most widely made ISU the way it is today. Born in Iowa, from 1839 to 1850 he was going to anti-slavery speeches hosted by Frederick Douglas in New York. He was a very stanch abolitionist who eventually moved to Stoch County, Iowa and became the lieutenant governor in 1866,”Jones said.

Much like Suel Foster, Benjamin Gue never fully admitted to being involved with the Underground Railroad.

“Gue’s sister in law Selina Gotten, was doing many railroad activities and it’s hard to tell because we have all of the Gotten’s diaries with the exception of one that was around the time they ran a farm near a river crossing. It’s a bit suspicious because we’ve found everything but that,”Jones said.

Jones ended his presentation by highlighting several books being created on the subject as well as a summary of the numerous connections found between Iowa,Iowa State and the anti-slavery movement.

Walter, though nervous about the original turnout for the event, was pleased in the end by the result.

“If we can get about 40 people I’ll be happy, it’s just about getting seats in the seats … we ended up having over 130 people attend,” Walter said.