Ode to Salem: Lewelling-Gibbs House tells story of Quaker Abolitionists

SALEM - Dave and Kathy Helman preside over the Lewelling-Gibbs House, the oldest building in Salem (and much of Iowa), and a confirmed stop on the underground railroad.

The house, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is a volunteer run museum, dedicated to the history of two great families: the Lewellings and the Gibbs, and the fight against the atrocities of the peculiar institution of American slavery. Both families sheltered escaping slaves, moving north on the underground railroad from Missouri.

They have a personal connection, too. Kathy Helman is related to a Salem stationmaster of the underground railroad, Joel Garrison. Many a night, he’d lead Freedom Seekers on a twelve-mile route. Family legend holds that Garrison was never caught, only because he had a fast horse.

Henderson Lewelling was born in 1809, the same year as Abraham Lincoln. His family, once Welsh, settled first in Pennsylvania, in or around the lands of William Penn. They were expert tree grafters; wherever they went, they raised apple orchards.

The Lewellings, like Penn, were members of the Society of Friends, a radical religious faith which preached pacifism and abolitionism in a time when such things were unpopular, and often illegal.

Enter The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. In the north, you couldn’t buy or sell slaves, but if a southern slave was stolen or escaped, they were deemed "Contraband." A system of Bounties was instituted: Slave catchers could claim bounties for their work, and those found aiding and abetting escapees would be punished under the law.

In a time when African people were viewed as working animals, the friends, nicknamed Quakers, believed that all were born with God’s inner light. Skin tone and hair texture was irrelevant.

After a stint in Randolph County, North Carolina, the Lewellings moved west. Their proximity to slavery saddened and enraged them.

The Black Hawk Purchase of 1832 opened up new lands, west of the Mississippi River. With the Native Sauk, Meskwaki (Fox), and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) peoples forced west, the area was ripe for cultivation.

In 1835, the Henderson Lewelling and his wife Elizabeth moved to what would become Iowa. They joined fellow Quakers, such as Aaron Street, Isaac Pidgeon and Peter Boyer, in what would become the village of Salem. This name, derived from the Hebrew Shalom- ‘place of peace’- is one of the Quakers’ mark on the United States.

Iowa never legally recognized slavery; this was thanks, in part, to the Missouri Compromise of 1820. However, slavery was perfectly legal in Missouri. Frontier farmers bought slaves to work their land. As resistance to slavery built back East, the same was true in Iowa. Thus began the “Underground Railroad,” and the Lewellings’ direct involvement in the struggle.

Kathy Helman said, “A stationmaster on the railroad should only trust two people: the last stationmaster, and the next one.”

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In a time of wood shacks with dirt floors, the Lewellings built a fine house of quarried stone. With walls 18 inches thick, this was a sturdy place indeed, well equipped for Iowan winter. Building their fine farmhouse in Salem, the Lewellings prepared for the struggle. They built a secret crawlspace under the kitchen- the busiest place in the house, with Elizabeth cooking and half a dozen children running around, any sound made by the hiding freedom seekers would be masked. Furthermore, they built a large basement nearby, where they stored their preserves and started their saplings in the winter. This was also an act of misdirection. Any bounty hunter would search the cellar, find nothing, and move on. After all they were busy men, with dozens more towns to search.

As the Quakers of Salem became better-known, they became known to freedom seekers as “Broad Brims,” for the big sunhats the men often wear. Word passed through the plantations, of a place further north, where the broad-brims dwelt. They could trust these people. If they were to escape, they would be concealed and protected.

Conversely, many radical Quakers were found “Out of Unity” with the church. Many of the orthodox quakers thought that, although they were to oppose slavery, to take direct action was too risky, perhaps uncouth. These schisms are seen even in Salem, where Quaker representatives from London, England came to attempt and persuade their western Friends not to continue concealing the escapees. These Londoners were ignored, but the schism remained. When “Out-of-unity” Quakers were expelled from the meeting houses, they formed their own. It is even said that a local cemetery was bisected, with the orthodox on one side, and the Abolitionists on the other.

Eventually, the Lewellings left for Oregon, carrying saplings in wagons. They would found the town of Salem, Oregon, and become rich in the west coast commercial fruit trade. However, they did not sell their house for some time. Instead, they leased it, to a fellow Quaker. A young law student, Nelson Gibbs, took up residence there. He became the town Magistrate. While there, he continued to aid the Freedom Seekers. When, in 1848, two freedom seekers were caught by bounty hunters, Gibbs came to their legal defense, in a landmark case well reported on at the museum. With insufficient paperwork, the slavers were forced to let them go.

In the last years before the end of slavery, less is known about Salem’s role in the freedom network. It is thought that, with such notoriety from the case, it would be too obvious of a hiding spot. John Brown’s bloody exploits in Kansas, as well as the Civil War, seem to have drawn attention away from it. Nevertheless, the Quakers remained friends of the freedom seekers.

The Lewelling-Gibbs house, threatened with demolition in the late 1950’s, became a museum. It is recognized as one of the most intact stations of the Underground Railroad in the region. In 2014, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Museum, open from May to September, sees at least a thousand people a year come through its doors. It is absolutely free, with donations accepted only after the house’s history has been told. It relies entirely on volunteers, and help is always accepted. The Helmans, themselves retired, are the youngest people on the Museum’s board.

What has been presented here is only a fraction of the stories the Lewelling-Gibbs House has to offer. If you are at all interested in these topics, call the museum at 319-258-2000, or visit lewelling.org.

Call Marilyn Higgins at 319-368-8895 or email her at marilyn.higgins@southeastiowaunion.com