Freedom in Lake County

The wrongs of slavery were in the hearts and minds of many prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. 

"The Underground Railroad" by Charles T. Webber, 1893
Cincinnati Art Museum

Many citizens of Lake County were antislavery and some even abolitionists. In 1846, the Lake County Anti-Slavery Society was formed in Antioch. 

Abolitionists throughout the North organized to aid enslaved people and worked in small, independent groups to maintain secrecy in what was called the Underground Railroad. This informal network of secret routes and safe houses was like an “underground” resistance and used “railroad” terminology. 

There are a handful of stories of escaped enslaved people passing through Lake County, and also of freed people settling here after the Civil War (1861-1865). 

One of the few detailed stories of a fugitive enslaved man coming to Lake County was told in the History of Deerfield Illinois by Marie Ward Reichelt (1928). In the winter of 1858, a 28-year old Andrew Jackson arrived from Mississippi at the Deerfield "safe house" of Lyman Wilmot. Because it was winter and travel was difficult, Wilmot found a more permanent residence for Jackson at the Lorenz Ott home. Here, Jackson assisted with chores and built the family a fence around their log cabin home.

The Caspar Ott cabin (above), where runaway enslaved person Andrew Jackson
wintered in 1858-1859, is preserved by the Deerfield Area Historical Society 

When the roads became passable in the spring of 1859, Lorenz Ott, a tailor by trade, made the young man a suit of clothes as he was about to start a new life in Canada. Wilmot took Jackson to Chicago to board a ship to the north and paid his fare. 

Lorenz Ott's tailor sheers believed to have been used

to make a new set of clothes for Andrew Jackson, circa 1859.

Dunn Museum 64.24.1

It is estimated that at least 30,000 enslaved people escaped to Canada via Underground Railroad networks throughout the North.

During the Civil War—and before the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863—the arrival of Union troops in the South opened a path for enslaved people to find refuge and liberation.

This was the case for James Joice (1822-1872), who settled in Ivanhoe and was featured in a previous post; Henry McIntosh (1843-1915) of Kentucky, who enlisted with the 1st Michigan Colored Infantry 102nd U.S. Colored Troops and settled in Lake Forest in 1871, and worked as a coachman and gardener; and Samuel Dent (ca. 1835 - 1890), who became a surgeon's assistant with the 19th Illinois Infantry, and later settled in Lake Forest. 

Zouaves cadets in their distinct uniforms.

In April 1862, Samuel Dent, attached himself to the ranks of the 19th Illinois Infantry. This Zouave regiment had several officers and sergeants who had belonged to the original company of Ellsworth Zouaves. (See my post on Ellsworth's Zouaves Cadets).

The regiment had advanced on and captured Decatur and Tuscumbia, Alabama, April 11-14, 1862. Dent, who was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, would have approached the 19th Illinois at this time, seeking freedom and to be of service.

It was also at Tuscumbia that James Davis of Barrington was killed by a sniper. (See my post on the Ghost of the 19th Illinois).

According to a February 1890 article in the Lake Forest College newspaper, The Stentor, Samuel Dent assisted the 19th Illinois' surgeon, Dr. Roswell G. Bogue (1832 - 1893).

Samuel Dent and his livery at the

Chicago and North Western Railroad Depot, Lake Forest.

Courtesy of Lake Forest - Lake Bluff Historical Society.

In the 1870s, Samuel Dent settled in Lake Forest. His decision to come to Lake Forest may have been informed by his experiences with soldiers who were from northern Illinois. Also, Dent may have been aware of Lake Forest's strong abolitionist sentiment, and its growing African-American community, begun in the 1850s. 

Chicago and North Western Depot, Lake Forest, 

circa 1914. Dunn Museum M-86.1.525

Dent started his own livery business, picking up passengers at the Chicago and North Western Railroad depot and taking them to area hotels and homes. He also became a tour guide, pointing out historic sites and the homes of Lake Forest notables. His contemporaries found him to be a charming and generous man.

According to census records, Samuel Dent and his wife Eliza (ca. 1847-19??) had three children—Eliza's daughter, Emma McElroy (1858 - unknown); Charles (ca. September 1879 - May 1880), who died from "cerebral congestion;" and Eliza Jane (1884 - unknown).

When Dent passed away on June 8, 1890, the citizens of Lake Forest subscribed to and erected a monument at his grave to show their "esteem for a lovable Christian, devoted citizen and faithful friend."

Detail of Samuel Dent monument at the

Lake Forest Cemetery.

Special thanks to Laurie Stein, Curator, History Center of Lake Forest - Lake Bluff . 

Sources:

Hahn, Steven, Steven F. Miller, Susan E. O'Donovan, John C. Rodrigue, and Leslie S. Rowland, eds. Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867: Series 3, Volume 1: Land and Labor, 1865. University of North Carolina Press, 2008.

Reichelt, Marie Ward. History of Deerfield, Illinois. Glenview, Illinois: Glenview Press, 1928.

Teters, Kristopher A. Practical Liberators: Union Officers in the Western Theater during the Civil War. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2018. 

Joice Family of Ivanhoe - African-American Settlers

In 1862, James Joice (1822 - 1872), an enslaved African American from Kentucky, became the cook and valet for First Lieutenant Addison Partridge (1807 - 1888) of the 96th Illinois Regiment. 

Joice's service with the Union Army would lead him and his family to freedom in Lake County, Illinois.

Addison Partridge of Ivanhoe from the "History of the Ninety-Sixth Regiment Illinois Volunteers" 1887.

During the Civil War, it was common for enslaved men to approach Union troops "desiring to accompany the command." However, it was tricky business for the troops to accept these men into their camps since the Fugitive Slave Laws made it illegal.

The 96th Illinois's officers "nearly all were radically opposed to slavery, and the negro who sought refuge in the camp was protected, but in such a manner as not to involve any one in a legal way." They accomplished this in part by not allowing citizens into camp whenever it was suspected they were hunting for runaway slaves.

In late October 1862, in Crittenden, Kentucky, James Joice approached the men of the 96th Illinois to "be of service" to their command. 

Crittenden, Kentucky, the area believed to be where James Joice first encountered the 96th Illinois, located to the left and below Cincinnati, Ohio, at the top of the map. The map shows the lines of march of the 96th Illinois Regiment through Kentucky. "History of the Ninety-Sixth Regiment Illinois Volunteers," 1887.

On November 2, Joice assisted Lieutenant Montgomery and a dozen soldiers of Company D on a foraging expedition as its "pilot" or guide. He directed them to a plantation, where Lt. Montgomery knocked on the door and spoke to a man explaining that they were a "detachment from the command encamped on Eagle Creek, and that, being short of rations, they had come for a few bushels of potatoes... if he was a loyal citizen a receipt would be given so that he could collect pay."

The man pretended there were no potatoes on the plantation, but Joice had assured the Lieutenant that there were potatoes in the fields. The Lieutenant kept the man occupied by making him repeat a long oath, while the soldiers went in search of the potatoes, which they found.

After this incident, Joice remained with the 96th Illinois "until Nashville was reached" as First Lieutenant Addison Partridge's cook and valet. Partridge was a known abolitionist, and his influence on Company C was "excellent as he helped in making both its moral and military standing high."

In February 1863, Partridge resigned his commission when he was unable to sufficiently recover after contracting “camp disease.” Joice accompanied Partridge to his home in Ivanhoe, Lake County, Illinois, (then known as Dean's Corners), where Partridge owned 80 acres.

View of Ivanhoe, previously known as Dean's Corners, circa 1913. Courtesy of private collector. 

After the war's end in spring 1865, Joice returned to Kentucky to bring his wife, Jenna "Jemima" Scruggs (1834 - 1920) and their young children Asa (1860 - 1924) and Sarah (1863 - 1941), back with him to Lake County, Illinois.

James Joice's wife and daughter, Jenna and Sarah, pictured at a picnic in Ivanhoe, 1897. Dunn Museum 76.30

Census records list Jenna and Sarah's occupations as "servant" and "housekeeper." 

In 1897, the Lake County Independent noted that Miss Sarah Joice "is taking orders for carpet stretchers." 

James Joice worked as a farm laborer, and over the years his family lived in rented homes along Route 176 near Lincoln School in Mundelein and further west near Ivanhoe. They eventually settled on a 10-acre farm on Route 60, one-quarter mile south of Hawley Street.

Fremont Township plat map (1907) with Asa Joice's property highlighted in green. 

Asa and Sarah attended Mechanics Grove School where they took piano and singing lessons. They were small children when they came to Lake County, and by all rights, this was the only home they knew. According to census records, the entire Joice family could read and write. 

On Joice's death in 1872, the Waukegan Gazette ran a short column: "Death to Colored Citizen - On Tuesday last occurred the death of James Joyce of Fremont in this County. 'Darky Jim' as he was familiarly known was with the Ninety Sixth Ill. Regt. during a part of their term of service and has most of the time since the war lived in the vicinity of Diamond Lake. He leaves a wife in rather destitute circumstances."

The Joices were members of the Ivanhoe Congregational Church, and attended prayer meetings. Asa served as church clerk and Sunday school treasurer.

Ivanhoe Congregational Church, circa 1913. Before and during the Civil War, this congregation was outspoken against slavery. Image courtesy of private collector. 

Jenna, Asa, and Sarah Joice were members of the Christian Endeavor Society, which was founded in 1881  in Maine. The CE became a national organization and took up many causes, including the temperance movement. In June 1897, Asa was elected as the local CE Society's president.

Christian Endeavor Society picnic on the grounds of the Ivanhoe Congregational Church, 1897. Asa Joice is seated in the middle to the right of center, and his mother and sister are standing to the far right. Dunn Museum 76.30

In addition to being a farm laborer, the civic-minded Asa became the first African-American elected to public office in Lake County. In 1889, he was elected as town constable and re-elected to the post for nine years.

Asa Joice photographed at a church picnic in 1897. Dunn Museum 76.30

On June 24, 1898, the Lake County Independent reported, "Constable Asa Joice of Ivanhoe arrested Charles Ray, a character who some years ago was employed in the Gilmer creamery..." In Lake Mills, Wisconsin, Ray had allegedly stolen a horse and a rig from a doctor and was traced to Diamond Lake (where the Ray clan lived).

Constable Joice took Ray before Justice Berghorn of Rockefeller (Mundelein) for a hearing, where Ray pleaded guilty. Joice then took him to the Waukegan jail "where he was lodged in default of bail to await the action of [the Grand Jury]." Shockingly, the next morning, Ray was found dead, supposedly of apoplexy.

Sarah and Jenna Joice were photographed on their farm in 1917. 

Photo courtesy of the Mundelein Heritage Museum.

In 1920, Jenna Scruggs Joice died after becoming ill while tending to influenza patients. She likely contracted the flu from being close to the sick. The flu pandemic lasted from June 1918 to December 1920, mainly striking healthy young adults and killing at least 3% of the world's population.

Asa Joice passed away in 1924 in Elgin, and Sarah Joice lived on her own near Ivanhoe until her death in 1941.

Ivanhoe Cemetery, circa 1918. Dunn Museum 2003.0.26

All members of the Joice family are buried at the Ivanhoe Church Cemetery on Route 176. 

For more on the 96th Illinois Infantry and their role as an "Abolition Regiment," read The Bonds of War: A Story of Immigrants and Esprit de Corps in Company C, 96th Illinois Volunteer Infantry by Diana Dretske. Available from SIUPress.com. 

- Diana Dretske, Curator ddretske@lcfpd.org