Mayhew Cabin 1852
Posted by: NevaP
N 40° 40.391 W 095° 52.195
15T E 257431 N 4506439
The Mayhew Cabin is the only site in Nebraska that is part of the National Park Service's Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
Waymark Code: WM1PH1
Location: Nebraska, United States
Date Posted: 06/16/2007
Views: 62
The marker is located by The Mayhew Cabin and Historic Village on Business Rt.2 in Nebraska City. The area, which was renovated in 2005, was formerly known as John Brown's Cave. It's believed that there was a dugout cave under the original cabin , which connected to a tunnel leading to a hidden entrance in a nearby ravine. The location provided a refuge for slaves who had crossed from Missouri, a slave state into Nebraska a free state.
The text of the marker reads:
The Allen Mayhew Cabin built near here in 1852, is one of the oldest Nebraska structures at the original historic scene. It was a station on the "Underground Railroad, " a secret system by which slaves were aided northward to freedom. John Henri Kagi was killed in 1859, in the raid on the Federal Arsenal at harper's Ferry led by John Brown, militant advocate of slave freedom. Kagi lived in the cabin when it was the home of his sister, Barbara Kagi Mayhew and her husband Allen Mayhew. Kagi, trusted assistant of Brown, was active in conducting escaping slaves.
It is reported that he was once surrounded in the cabin loft, but escaped while a larger posse was being raised. The cabin, linked with those stirring times, has been known for more than a century as John Brown's cabin. Brown is recorded as having passed through Nebraska City five times, but it is only by inference and legend that he visited the cabin area. The cabin remains today as a symbol of our historic past,
The marker, #24 was placed by the Otoe County Historical Society and the Nebraska State Historical Society
Information on visiting the site si avaiable here.Link