By KAREN PARKER
County Line Publisher Emerita
Zachary Cooper was already an accomplished scholar when he made a major contribution to our local history. With a bachelor’s degree in European history and a master’s degree in American history from UW-Madison, along with a doctorate in curriculum and instruction, Cooper took time from his instructor’s job at the UW-Madison to research and write a pamphlet on black settlements in Wisconsin for the Wisconsin State Historical Society.
I dug out my copy of “Black Settlers in Rural Wisconsin” the other day. Although I never met Cooper, I have a remote acquaintance with him, as his brother and my sister became a couple some 50-plus years ago.
This was a final chance to capture this bit of history, as in 1976, only one person remained at Beetown, the black settlement near Lancaster, plus only a few remained who had settled in Cheyenne Valley, between Hillsboro and Ontario. In fact, in 1999, I attended the funeral of Cheyenne Valley resident Blanche Bass Arms, who died at 101 and is buried in the cemetery on Burr Ridge, overlooking the valley where she spent her life.
What little most people know about this local history (if they know anything at all) is that the round barns dotting the area were built by Algie Shivers, the son of an 1879 immigrant to the valley, Thomas Shivers. Those round barns are the subject of postcards and a picture book, and they play a prominent role in tourism promotion for Vernon County.
Cheyenne Valley was a community of blacks and Native American and many of mixed race. But what were they doing here? Why would anyone flee the warmth of the south for the freezing Wisconsin winters? The first arrival came in 1855. Walden Stewart had been born in North Carolina but moved to Illinois after his children had been born. It must have been a challenge in 1855. It was either walk or take a wagon.
But, alas, Illinois was not even safe for a Black person after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act. Under that controversial Supreme Court decision, any runaway slave could be captured and returned to his owner.
Although Stewart was a free Black, he was Black. And for the slave catchers, he was a target. Imagine, the poor fellow is out in his field and the next thing he knows he is in chains and on his way back to the South. Under the law he had no right to be heard in court.
And here was the court’s logic: According to the court, Congress had the authority to enforce slavery, as it was established under the U.S. Constitution. In his opinion, Justice Woodbury characterized the Fugitive Slave Clause as “one of [the] sacred compromises” of the country’s founding.” He went on conclude that the legitimacy of slavery was a “political question” for the states to resolve.
Yup, gotta love those “states’ rights” and that infallible Supreme Court.
But most of the northern states saw this as a quiet endorsement of a slavery system they did not allow. Wisconsin became the only state to tell the Supreme Court to stick it. That came about after an angry mob broke into a Milwaukee jail and freed Joshua Glover, a captured runaway slave, eventually aiding his escape to Canada.
Confident they could not be sold into slavery in Wisconsin, numerous black families came to settle in Cheyenne Valley. And why not?
Samuel Arms had been a slave in Georgia, and tiring of cruel treatment, he fled through the swamps only to be captured by the plantation overseer who threatened to sever his arm at the shoulder. He gave in and was subjected to 30 lashes on his bare back with a cat-o-nine tails.
When the Union army marched through, he joined them, serving as a drummer boy, and later was brought by officers to Wonewoc, where he trained horses and then bought land in Cheyenne Valley.
The Cheyenne Valley community was enormously prosperous, with African Americans building the largest and most successful operations. Most of their white immigrant neighbors came from European countries that had failed to teach them to hate and abuse people of color; consequently, the schools, churches and baseball teams were integrated, and over time, intermarriage of the races was common.
Oddly, it was the success of the community that contributed to its downfall. Just as today, young people left for the cities and job opportunities. Successful farmers sent their children to college, and they in turn found little to keep them in Cheyenne Valley.
Over time, the benevolent relationship between the black and white communities began to fade. From old newspapers, we find that the Ku Klux Klan had organized groups in Ontario and Kendall during the 1920s.
Zachary Cooper died in 2006. In the years between the writing of “Black Settlers” and his death, he spent enormous amounts of time on a staggering schedule of lectures around Wisconsin, attempting to share his amazing knowledge of the role played by African Americans in Wisconsin history.
Sadly, school history often does not include much local history. If it does, the spotlight may be put on the Europeans: German, Irish, Polish. The outsized role of Native Americans as well as the history of black and other people of color are largely overlooked.
I just thought you might like to know. Happy Black History Month!