[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Page Header” _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Exhibit Title” _builder_version=”4.17.6″ _dynamic_attributes=”content” _module_preset=”default” border_width_bottom=”1px” border_color_bottom=”#E09900″ global_module=”6078″ global_colors_info=”{}”]@ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50Ijoic2l0ZV90aXRsZSIsInNldHRpbmdzIjp7ImJlZm9yZSI6IjxoMj4iLCJhZnRlciI6IjwvaDI+In19@[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Section Title” module_id=”section-title” module_class=”page-header” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_margin=”||5px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Page Title” module_id=”page-title” module_class=”page-header” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_margin=”0px||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/oldsite.coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2021\/11\/CCP_010_HOWagoner-1.jpg” title_text=”CCP_010_HOWagoner-1″ show_in_lightbox=”on” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”13px” text_line_height=”1.3em” header_font_size=”13px” custom_margin=”-11px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Henry O. Wagoner [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u2014 Henry O. Wagoner, “Letter from H. O. Wagoner,”\u00a0Frederick Douglass’ Paper<\/em>, March 8, 1853.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Henry Oscar Wagoner was one of the most prominent Black men of his generation. He began life in Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1816. His father was a German immigrant, probably a slaveowner, and his mother was African American. His paternal grandmother taught him to read and write, and in his early twenties he moved to Baltimore, where was part of networks that helped people escape slavery. In 1839 he settled in Galena, Illinois, and learned the typesetting and printing trade.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 1843 Wagoner was on the move again, this time heading north to Chatham, Ontario, where he worked in typesetting and also taught in a primary school for Black children. He married Susan M. Lyons<\/a> in 1844, and two years later, the couple moved to Chicago with their baby daughter, Marcellena.[1]<\/span><\/p>\n Wagoner soon became prominent in Chicago\u2019s Black activist community. He initially found work as a typesetter for the antislavery newspaper, the <\/span>Western Citizen, <\/span><\/i>a job that put him in close contact with the city\u2019s white abolitionists. He participated in various activist and abolitionist meetings and helped found a Literary and Debating Society at Quinn Chapel in 1852 to foster literacy and discussion among the city\u2019s African American population<\/span>.[2]<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/oldsite.coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2021\/11\/CCP_011_HenryOWagoner-2.jpg” title_text=”CCP_011_HenryOWagoner-2″ show_in_lightbox=”on” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”13px” text_line_height=”1.3em” header_font_size=”13px” min_height=”51.7px” custom_margin=”-8px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n An Older Henry O. Wagoner [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Wagoner represented Chicago at the 1853 national Colored Convention in Rochester, New York, and served as secretary at the October 1853 Illinois convention<\/a>.<\/span> Wagoner prospered in Chicago. By 1857 he and Susan had eight children and owned and operated a produce depot and grist mill located on the corner of Harrison and Griswold streets, worth about $7,000.[3]<\/span><\/p>\n Wagoner had a lasting friendship with Frederick Douglass, who frequently published Wagoner\u2019s letters in his newspapers. In his dispatches, Wagoner vehemently opposed emigration, denounced the Illinois “Slave Law<\/a>” of 1853, and urged Black Illinoisans to fight back. \u201cI believe the time is hastening when Freedom and Slavery in this country will boldly advance, and look each other sternly in the face,\u201d he wrote in 1854. \u201cNow, we all know,\u201d he continued, \u201cthat nothing is so terrifying to slaveholders as the presence of colored Freemen.\u201d Wagoner reportedly hung a \u201cClosed for Repairs\u201d sign when he and his family were using their home to shelter fugitives from slavery.[4]<\/span><\/p>\n In 1860, Wagoner relocated to Colorado, drawn there by the discovery of gold near Denver in 1858. With the outbreak of the Civil War, however, he returned to his family in Chicago and worked to recruit African American soldiers for Illinois\u2019 29th United States Colored Infantry. After the war, the family moved permanently to Colorado. Henry Wagoner worked as a clerk for the State Legislature in 1876 and as a deputy sheriff of Arapahoe County in 1880. He became involved in real estate speculation and kept a hand in political organizing as well. Though he lost his wife and all but two of his children, Wagoner lived to be 84, passing away in 1901.[5]<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” admin_label=”Sources” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n 1. Richard Junger, \u201c\u2018Thinking Men and Women, Who Desire to Improve Our Condition\u2019: Henry O. Wagoner, Civil Rights, and Black Economic Opportunity in Frontier Chicago and Denver, 1846-1887,\u201d in Voices from within the Veil: African Americans and the Experience of Democracy, <\/i>eds. William H. Alexander, Cassandra L. Newby-Alexander, and Charles H. Ford (Newcastle upon Tyne, Eng.: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008), 142-143.<\/p>\n 2. Junger, \u201cThinking Men and Women,\u201d 144-145.<\/p>\n 3. Junger, \u201cThinking Men and Women,\u201d 147, 154; State Convention of Colored Citizens of the State of Illinois (1856: Alton, IL), \u201cProceedings of the State Convention of Colored Citizens of the State of Illinois, held in the city of Alton, Nov. 13th, 14th and 15th, 1856.,\u201d Colored Conventions Project Digital Records<\/i>, accessed Sep. 18, 2021, https:\/\/omeka.coloredconventions.org\/items\/show\/262<\/a>.<\/p>\n 4. \u201cLetter From H. O. Wagoner,\u201d Frederick Douglass\u2019 Paper, <\/i>Sep. 29, 1854; \u201cLife Romance: Adventures of the Late Henry O. Wagoner of Denver Were Many,\u201d Rocky Mountain News, <\/i>Feb. 3, 1902.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>(Source: Henry O. Wagoner, 1870-1890. History Colorado. Object ID 89.451.3861, CHS Scan #10026946.)<\/p>\n“Let us… show to future generations, that here a body of men once met, and took a solemn oath that they would never<\/em>, as a body, peaceably leave the country, and especially as long as a single brother remained in chains and slavery.”<\/h2>\n
<\/strong>An older Henry O. Wagoner, most likely when he was living in Colorado, sometime between 1870 and 1890. (Source: Henry O. Wagoner, 1870-1890. History Colorado. Object ID 89.451.1765, CHS Scan # 10038638.)<\/p>\nSources<\/h4>\n