From slavery in Missouri to freedom in Chariton

Susan and George Scott family, 1870 census of Chariton.

A couple of weeks ago, I happened upon the obituary of Susan Joplin Scott, published in the Grant County (Wisconsin) Herald at Lancaster on Oct. 20, 1920. Susan, 88 when she died, had spent most of her life in Chariton before moving to Lancaster in old age to live with her only surviving daughter, Mary (Mrs. Hardy) Grimes.

Susan's husband, George Scott (died 1881), and son, Walter Scott (died 1903), are buried in unmarked graves in the Chariton Cemetery, but Susan's remains were interred in Pleasant Ridge Cemetery, near Lancaster, as are those of her daughter and son-in-law.

The Scotts form another piece in the puzzle that is Lucas County's once sizable black population, now vanished. 

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According to Susan's obituary, the Scotts arrived in Iowa from Missouri, a slave state, as the Civil War was winding down. Early editions of The Chariton Democrat show that they had located in Chariton prior to December of 1868 when George received eight write-in votes for mayor among 97 cast during city elections. Anderson Mason, a barber, was among the 97 voters --- the first time a black person had voted in any election in Lucas County.

A link between Chariton, Iowa, and Lancaster, Wisconsin, is provided by Susan's son-in-law, Hardy Grimes, who was a brother of Lillie (Green) Richmond. Lillie and her husband, Romulus Richmond, and their older children moved from Wisconsin to Chariton during 1887 after he had been called to preach here.

It seems likely that Lillie introduced her brother to Mary Scott. They married in Wisconsin during 1905 and settled on a farm near Lancaster where they were joined, eventually, by Susan.

Here's the text of Susan's obituary:

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Susan Joplin, eldest daughter of Kathryn and Hampton Joplin, was born in Rockcastle County, Kentucky, August 11, 1832, and died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Mollie Grimes, of Lancaster, Sept. 21, 1920, being 88 years, one month and 10 days old.

Mrs. Scott had been in poor health for the last seven years, becoming very deaf although being able to be about the home and always maintaining an uncomplaining spirit.

She was married to Joseph D. Nailan in 1847 and came to Cameron, Mo., to live. To this union was born one son, Napoleon B., who died Aug. 30,  1920. His mother was in such poor health that she was never told of his death.

Jos. D. Nailan died one year after their marriage and on July 25th, 1864, she was married to Geo. Scott. To this union was born four children,  one dying in infancy. The father died in 1881, the oldest son, Walter, died Feb. 14, 1903, and Anna died Feb. 10, 1912, thus leaving Mrs. Grimes of this city as the only survivor of the family.

Besides her own immediate family she leaves one sister, Mrs. Elizabeth True, of Chicago, who was present at the time of her sister's death; also one granddaughter, Mrs. Cleo Bryant,  and one grandson, Roy Leighton, also two great-grandsons, Melvin and Donavan Leighton.

Mrs. Scott began the Christian life at the age of 12 years and was a charter member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Chariton, Lucas County, Iowa. She was born a slave and with her family she left Missouri and came to Iowa during the closing days of the Civil War and came all the way by night.

Besides her own family,  she raised to womanhood Mrs. Bernice Richmond of Des Moines, Iowa. Thus has a good woman converted at a Methodist camp meeting away back there in the days of slavery lived a useful  life and come to a triumphant end. And we believe that a "Kindly Light" has not only lead her from the enthraldom of human slavery, but also from the spiritual bondage to the immortal day of the eternal life.

The funeral services were held from the home, Rev. Campbell officiating. Burial was made at the Pleasant View Cemetery.

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I wrote a little last week in a post headlined "The Life and Times of Elizabeth Clark Stokesbury" about Susan's son by her first marriage, Napoleon Bonaparte Nailen. Born Feb. 23, 1853, in Caldwell County, Missouri. He accompanied his mother and stepfather to Chariton and went to work as a young man at the Bates House hotel.

He met Elizabeth Stokesbury, reportedly working as a chamber maid there, and they married in Chariton on the 7th of April 1881. She was 20 at the time. He was 29 and the hotel's night clerk.

A mixed-race marriage faced many challenges at the time, but theirs endured for 40 years and produced three children. The Nailens moved from Chariton to Cedar Rapids, where he began a long career as a carpenter, and still were living when he died of cancer at an Iowa City hospital on Aug. 30, 1920. Elizabeth then relocated to California where she died in Pasadena during 1946.

Susan's daughter, Anna, reportedly born Aug. 2, 1862, was married twice. Both husbands, Henry Leighton and Newton Cary, were coal miners. She died, according to an online family database, in Des Moines on Feb. 10, 1913, and was buried in the cemetery at the legendary mining town of Buxton.

Son Walter, born about 1865, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Chariton on Feb. 27, 1903. He had never married.

Daughter Mary Grimes died in Grant County, Wisconsin, during 1933, age 69; and her husband, Hardy, passed on July 14, 1936, after a heat stroke sustained while putting up hay. They had no children.