T h e   f a t e   o f   J e r e m i a h   B o y d
A tale of kidnapping and murder in old Galena

By H. Scott Wolfe

The Galena riverfront circa 1860. Illustration courtesy of the Illinois State Historical Library.

The stranger drove a wagon drawn by two bay horses. It was a late September day in 1860, when he halted before the Union House on Galena's bustling steamboat levee. Signing the name Jo Wilder in the hotel register, he promptly made inquiries concerning the availability of black laborers.

There was a pressing demand for workers at Fort Des Moines, in Iowa, Wilder claimed. Positions for hostlers, stewards, barbers, and chambermaids were begging to be filled. In addition, Wilder said that his brother owned a large farm, "well stocked with horses, cattle, (and) hogs," in need of a practical farmer to take charge as caretaker. Free transportation would be provided, Wilder claimed, along with a cash advance to settle any outstanding financial obligations in Galena.

The visitor painted an enticing picture of economic opportunity. Word passed quickly through Galena's colored community, where many citizens struggled to support their households through menial employment. Three black men responded to Wilder's enducements: Joseph "Jo" Jacobs and James Drayden, both scratching a living as steamboat stewards; and Jeremiah "Jerry" Boyd, a miner and day laborer.

Boyd was born a slave in Kentucky. As a young man he ran away to Cincinnati, where a well-to-do brother posted sufficient bond to secure his freedom. He then removed to Galena, where through hard work and the generosity of his newly adopted townsmen, Boyd was able to purchase the freedom of his wife, Mary. In 1860, they shared a rented house with two young girls: thirteen-year-old Charlotte Alexander, a mulatto house servant; and two-year-old Josephine Goodlough, a white child and daughter of a servant residing with Galena attorney Wellington Weigley.

The rivermen Jacobs and Drayden received train fare from Galena to Independence, Iowa, from whence they would be transported to Des Moines. Jerry Boyd received a twenty-dollar advance to satisfy his house rent. Upon the eve of their departure, a letter from three colored citizens of Dubuque arrived in Galena:

"Sept. 27, 1860

We wish you to watch those men who are in your city under pretense of getting men to go to Fort Des Moines as cooks, stewards, and hostlers. They have been trying to get men, and have told so many different tales that it has excited much suspicion. Please notify those persons that may have engaged, not to go. They have a wagon covered with black oil cloth, in which are handcuffs."

The three enlistees were informed of the warning but their hopes of opportunity and financial security outweighed any fears of treachery by their benefactor. Jacobs and Drayden left on the cars for Independence. (They failed to meet their contact and returned subsequently to Galena.)

On September 28, 1860, Jerry Boyd, with the three members of his household, left Galena in the wagon driven by Jo Wilder—a wagon "covered with black oilcloth." Disregarding the suspicions of his friends, who feared the visitor contemplated kidnapping, Boyd boldly replied that if his liberty were ever threatened, he would "sell his life dearly."

The party crossed the Mississippi River at Gear's Ferry. Upon reaching the Iowa shore, they encountered another stranger, who requested permission to join the party. As they continued their journey, Boyd began to observe whispered conversations between the two white men—a

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A NORTHERN FREEMAN ENSLAVED BY NORTHERN HANDS Kidnapping of Free blacks occurred often enough in the North to spark this illustration in the "Anti-Slavery Almanac."

troubling indication that a prior familiarity existed between them. This, coupled with an apparent southerly direction of travel toward the slave state of Missouri, convinced Boyd they were the victims of professional kidnappers.

They descended the Iowa River, sleeping in the wagon or in abandoned buildings. Three days out from Galena, they camped in a wooded area near the village of Solon, in Johnson County, Iowa. That evening, his suspicions totally aroused, Boyd loaded his six-shot revolver in the presence of Wilder. As the family huddled in the straw-filled wagon, Boyd whispered to his wife a plan of action for the morrow.

He would slip away at dawn. When his absence was discovered, Mary was to feign sickness and tell their "conductors" that Boyd had gone to the nearby town in search of a physician. In reality, Boyd would give the alarm and obtain assistance to apprehend their captors.

The kidnappers considered their perilous situation. Should they calmly seek to allay Boyd's fears or take more drastic measures?

At sunrise, Wilder's accomplice approached Boyd as he was sitting near the wagon. "Jerry, I'm afraid for you,'' he shouted, and fired a revolver, striking his victim in the chest. A second shot passed into his head. Jeremiah Boyd, free man of color, was dead.

The corpse was hastily covered with leaves. Mary Boyd, having witnessed the assault, screamed in agony. The men threw her roughly to the ground and, with cocked pistols to her head, forced a pledge of silence. They then hurriedly broke camp and, with the three terrified females, continued their southward journey.

On October 3, a young boy spotted the prostrate body of a man, but, thinking him to be a drunken derelict, did not approach. Five days later, another youth discovered the body. Johnson County, Iowa, authorities held a formal inquest on October 10, 1860. The unidentified black man wore a pair of corduroy pants; a bearskin coat with a velvet collar lined with silk; and, in his pockets were found $1.75, a six-shooter, a spring lancet, a pair of cotton gloves, and a paper of pins. Two items found with the body provided clues to the deceased's origins: a $20 receipt, dated Galena, September 27, 1860; and a high-crowned hat with crape containing the name of Mr. Noble of Galena.

On the same day as the inquest, Mr. Warren Spurrier, a juror, penned a letter to Galena Postmaster Bushrod Howard, seeking information as to the identity of the black victim. "Permit me to make enquiries concerning a strange circumstance that happened near here," the letter began, confirming Galenians worst fears as to the fate of Jerry Boyd.

Shocked citizens quickly offered a $500 reward for the apprehension of the murderers. Both the city's newspapers carried accounts of the tragic events. The Daily Advertiser proclaimed: "There is no doubt here that the white men were kidnappers, and that the colored people as well as the white girl may be sold into slavery." The Daily Courier simply sputtered: "Coldblooded wretches!"

More importantly, a communication from Reuben Middleton, the Mayor of St. Joseph, Missouri, arrived in Galena with encouraging news. A man by the name of Gooden, "who has with him some two or three Negroes and a white child," had been arrested near that place. One of the black women had conveyed some startling revelations of kidnapping and murder—a woman calling herself Mary Boyd. "She says they had traveled for three days after leaving Galena," Middleton wrote, "and the kidnappers attempted to put her husband in irons or to tie him, but he resisted (and) one of them shot him." The citizens of St. Joseph had also apprehended the other suspected kidnapper, a man by the name of Boulton. The Mayor

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Galenian Samuel Hughlett, who traveled to St. Joseph, Missouri, to reclaim the kidnapped blacks.

continued: "The murderers will be held a reasonable time for evidence, as we have none but Negro evidence, which is not legal in this State." The white testimony was forthcoming, for two Galena gentlemen were aboard a westbound train.

Wellington Weigley, an attorney, and Samuel Hughlett, a smelter, arrived in St. Joseph on the evening of October 19th—a day prior to the publication of word that the suspected kidnappers were in custody. The Galenians had actually embarked in response to a letter penned by a Mr. Baker, of Buchanan County, Missouri. Apparently Mr. Baker's son-in-law, a man named Peter Boulton, had left in his care a black woman named Mary Boyd.

The family of Peter Boulton had resided in the slave state of Kentucky, near the Ohio frontier. A large segment of their Negro property had been induced to escape northward and were believed to be dwelling in Canada. In an alleged attempt to recover these family servants, Boulton, along with his own son-in-law John Gooden, convinced Baker to finance a Canadian expedition. Baker agreed, supplying the pair with $400.

Instead of pursuing their professed scheme, Boulton and Gooden had lured several free blacks in Illinois and Iowa with false promises of economic security at Fort Des Moines. Gooden, alias Jo Wilder, had himself conducted the family of Jerry Boyd from their Galena home. Enroute to Iowa, the intractable Boyd had been sent to his "long home" by the kidnappers. The surviving members of the Boyd household were transported to the vicinity of St. Joseph, where they were passed off as the escaped Boulton slaves and offered for sale.

As a result of the disclosures provided by Mary Boyd, Peter Boulton and John Gooden had been taken into custody. Their legal arrest awaited the arrival of Weigley and Hughlett, who were required to formally identify the kidnapped blacks. And with the sworn declarations of the Galenians, Boulton was committed to the St. Joseph jail and officially charged with kidnapping, under the Missouri statutes. He was to be held there, unless extradited to the State of Iowa to answer murder charges, or until bail of $2,000 was provided. Gooden was placed in irons and transferred to the custody of Weigley and Hughlett—to return with them to Galena and face similar charges of kidnapping and murder.

The Galenians had met with admirable cooperation from the Missourians. In fact, the arrest of the kidnapper was in no small part due to the exertions of their own kinsman, Mr. Baker. Yet, before they could leave with their prisoner and the liberated members of the Boyd family (now joined by a Dubuque woman, earlier kidnapped), a bond of $4000 was required to guarantee the release of the blacks. Two citizens of St. Joseph promptly stepped forward to sign this pledge as security.

On October 22, Mrs. Mary Weigley received a message from her husband: "We leave St. Joseph today with prisoner, Negroes, and baby." The group departed on the cars of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad for the return eastward. A number of citizens boarded the train—a rowdy set, seemingly intent upon lynching the prisoner. Their wrath was directed at Gooden, not so much for his involvement in kidnapping the free blacks but because he and his partner also enjoyed an unsavory reputation as horse thieves.

When the train halted at Cameron Station, east of St. Joseph in Caldwell County, another group of ruffians boarded the cars. These armed men intended to free Gooden, a resident near that place. While these distractions were transpiring, the prisoner set about loosening his irons. At 4 a.m. on October 23, near Shelbina, Missouri, Gooden visited the privy in the saloon car, slipped his chains, and leaped from the window of the moving train. A search was mounted, but John Gooden, alias Jo Wilder, vanished in the darkness.

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Headline from Galena Daily Advertiser, October 25, I860

In Galena, excitement reigned. During the evenings of October 22 and 23, large crowds gathered at the depot platform in anticipation of viewing the murderer of Jerry Boyd. Shouts of "hang them" and "string them up" were heard. But the citizens were twice disappointed— the Advertiser noting that "nary kidnapper .. .nary nigger" were on board the eastbound trains.

Finally, on the morning of October 24, Weigley and Hughlett stepped from the cars with their liberated companions. The escape, or "leg bail," of Gooden brought even keener disappointment—a vexation dramatically expressed in a Galena newspaper war.

The journalistic strife was a result of the highly charged political atmosphere in which the Boyd affair occurred. It was the eve of the most momentous presidential election in the nation's history—the preservation of the Union hinging upon its outcome. And Galena's two principal newspapers fired salvos across this partisan abyss.

The Advertiser was Republican, pro-Lincoln, and antislavery. The Courier was Democratic, pro-Douglas, and willing to accommodate the South.

The rival sheets commenced hostilities on October 23, when the Courier printed a letter, and object lesson, written by Missourian M. Jeff Thompson. Of the Boyd affair he wrote: "We would show our brethren of the North that, although we might burst asunder the golden chains that bind our glorious country together to return a fugitive slave, yet we will mete our punishment to its fullest extent upon one of our citizens, who would... kidnap a Negro once free, and on the ground of a sister State. We will show the Republicans their duty by example."

Crowed the Courier's editor: "It will be seen that the citizens of a

"It will be seen that the citizens of a Slave State have been zealous and active in arresting the kidnappers."

Slave State have been zealous and active in arresting the kidnappers." Their "prompt and honorable action. . . should. . . teach by example Northern people their duty with regard to the return of fugitive slaves."

The editor of the Advertiser sneered at the "prompt and honorable action" of the Missourians. In bold italics he declared: "The parties were not arrested until Weigley and Hughlett arrived in St. Jo and did the business." Untrue, cried the Courier! Their opponents were attempting to make "political capital out of the recent kidnapping case."

"We are not surprised," snarled the Advertiser, "that the Courier would try to make the matter as smooth for the Missourians as possible." To which came the response that we simply "desire to do them justice," and would not utilize "petty meanness" and misrepresentations "for the purpose of exciting prejudice."

The combat was interrupted on November 1, when word arrived from St. Joseph that Peter Boulton had been released from jail—his bail of $2,000 paid. In a parting shot the Courier, anticipating an attack upon the Missourians for supplying the bail, blamed a "Black Republican" for the release of the accused.

Neither Boulton nor John Gooden were tried or punished for the kidnapping and murder of Jerry Boyd. The pair was soon submerged in the maelstrom of the Civil War.

On January 15, 1879, Mary Boyd died at the Galena residence of Mr. Clayborne Gross. The following day her passing rekindled memories of her husband, Jeremiah, in the Galena Daily Gazette:

"Mrs. Mary Boyd, a colored woman well known in this city, died yesterday. Deceased was the widow of Jerry Boyd, who it will be remembered by many of our older citizens, was cruelly shot and killed in 1860, while resisting a couple of scoundrels who were attempting to kidnap both himself and wife into slavery."

H. Scott Wolfe is the historical librarian for the Galena Public Library System and a frequent contributor to "The Miners' Journal," the newsletter of the Galena/Jo Daviess County Historical Society.

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