Carnegie Museum working on Underground Railroad exhibit

FAIRFIELD — The Carnegie Historical Museum in Fairfield plans to unveil a new exhibit this year dedicated to local involvement in the Underground Railroad.

The Underground Railroad refers to the secret network of abolitionists who helped slaves escape bondage before they were freed in April 1865. Carnegie Museum Director Mark Shafer said his exhibit will highlight a “heroic” couple involved in that network: James and Nancy Yancey, the first Black couple to settle in Fairfield in 1857.

Nancy opened a laundry, where she had five employees. James ran a barbershop. No photographs of Nancy have surfaced. She is being represented in the exhibit as a successful, middle-aged business woman by a Black mannequin dressed in vintage bonnet and dress. Fairfield artist Jenny Sammons has styled and donated a wig. The bonnet was donated several years ago by Martha Flinspach.

Nancy Huff is sewing a ruffed morning cap to peek out from under the bonnet. Cassie Schmidt has donated a pair of crocheted gloves, and the mannequin will be carrying a little drawstring bag from the Jean Wallace Collection.

In the museum’s winter newsletter, Shafer wrote that he needed a pair of Civil War-era spectacles to complete the exhibit. Luckily, Fairfield resident Emily Reneker had just what he needed, and donated the glasses to the museum.

Information about James and Nancy’s involvement in the Underground Railroad was included in Nancy’s obituary. A notice in the Fairfield Ledger from 1870 indicates that James was selling the Hitchcock Bible door-to-door, and canvassing Penn and Blackhawk townships. Shafer hopes someone is willing to donate a Hitchcock Bible to the museum.

Shafer said the museum has never had an exhibit on the Underground Railroad, and that this exhibit will include loads of new information. Shafer credits people such as Rory Goff, author of “Anti-Slavery and the Underground Railroad in Fairfield,” film producer and director Dick DeAngelis, and researcher Lawrence Eyre with doing important work in recent years to highlight Jefferson County residents and their contributions to the anti-slavery cause.

Shafer said the exhibit on the Yanceys is just one of many pieces of the Underground Railroad exhibit. He hopes to unveil the exhibit in its entirety on “Juneteenth,” June 19, a day marking the end of slavery in the United States. Other parts of the exhibit will include a section on Fairfield resident and U.S. Sen. James F. Wilson, who spearheaded the movement to remove “White” from the state’s constitution and who was an early proponent of equal rights.

One of the mysteries Shafer hopes to solve in his research involves a check for $23 that James F. Wilson wrote to James Yancey. He said that would be hundreds of dollars in today’s money, a strangely large amount to give to a barber.

Shafer said Iowa was ahead of its time in many respects, and was one of the first states outside New England to grant Black men the right to vote. However, he noted that early in the area’s history, before it was a state, Black people had to carry a certificate with them to prove they were free, and had to post a $500 bond for the right to live here (though that was rescinded by the time Iowa became a state).

Members of the public can view the evolution of the Underground Railroad exhibit as it is completed by visiting the museum from noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com