The Van Buren News-Eagle, Van Buren, Indiana, Thursday, August 29, 1940,
Volume XLV, Number 35. pp. 1 and 4.
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Newpaper in the possession of Mrs. John A. Grissom (nee Jeanette Judith
Hays), 10138 Smithville Road, McMinnville, TN 37110
Slaveboy Chum of Joe Hays



Ancestor of Local Families Bought Ned As Small Lad

The following bit of history has been handed to us by Mrs. Frank
Boller, whose father, the late Wm. Hays, settled on a farm in Van Buren 
township in 1849, and will be read with interest by his descendants who 
so often heard him relate incidents of his boyhood and Old Uncle Ned. 
In fact, the Ned referred to, helped raise the Hays family. Tommie, for
whom the negro was purchased, was the father of Wm. Hays, mentioned 
above. Relatives include the families of John L Thompson, Captain. 
Jos. Lugar, David James, Wm. Doyle, Jesse Farr, Joseph W. Hays, Thomas 
Hays, John W. Hays, Samuel E. Hays, Arthur Hays, George O. Hays and 
C.H. Black.
The story:
On a shaded hillside in beautiful Hazelwood Cemetery in Grinnell, Iowa
is the last resting place of Edward Delaney. A tree growing from 
the foot of the grassy mound testifies to the age of the grave; for the 
tree is more than two feet in diameter. A head stone of the style of 
fifty years ago gives witness that some one cared when the prairie sod 
was cut on the treeless slope sixty-seven years ago -- cared enough to 
furnish a last resting place in his own family lot -- cared enough to 
ease the declining years, provide medical attention and give Christian 
burial to a black man and to mark his grave with a stone bearing the 
inscription: Edward Delaney, 1780-1861.
How came a negro Edward Delaney to be interred in a Grinnell cemetery?
It is difficult at this late date and this far north to appreciate the 
real condition of the colored man born in slavery.  Edward Delaney had 
no remembrance of father or mother.  His color and his features 
testified to his pure African blood. He was sold as a slave in a slave 
state at an early age and the man who sold him was a planter named 
Delaney, hence the name of the headstone in Hazelwood. Edward Delaney, 
a slave for seventy years, died a free man at seventy-five. The man who 
stood long ago by the open grave, who, no doubt, brushed away a tear as 
the clods fell above the still form of Uncle Ned,the man who gave 
his former slave a white man’s burial and who raised the stone in his 
memory, had in his possession a bill of sale testifying that Joseph 
Hays was the master and Edward Delaney his slave. But while legally 
the owner of a slave, Joseph Hays hated the institution of slavery, 
hated it to the extent that he cast the only vote cast in his county 
in Maryland for John P. Hale, the Free Soil candidate for President.  
It seems a long trail from Uncle Ned, the humble slave, who lies in 
Hazlewood cemetery to the immortal author of the Star Spangled 
Banner, Francis Scott Key. Human destinies are curiously interwoven 
and had it not been for the friendship of Francis Scott Key and the 
father of Joseph Hays, who bought Ned, Edward Delaney would lie in an 
unmarked grave on some southern plantation.
Here is the story:
We shall have to go back to the stirring days of the War of 1812.
Almost within hearing of the guns of the British fleet as they sought 
to force an entrance to Baltimore Harbor by reducing Fort McHenry. 
Here in Carroll County, Maryland was the 400 acre plantation of Joseph
Hays, the elder, grandfather of Daniel F. and Joseph T. Hays, still
lining in Grinnell. Adjoining the Hays plantation was that of Col. 
John Ross Key, father of Francis Scott Key, who during the bombardment 
of Fort McHenry penciled the words of the National Anthem on a scrap 
of paper Colonel Key commanded a regiment of militia called out by 
President Washington in 1794 to suppress the Whiskey insurrection 
in western Pennsylvania. It was in a company of Col. John Ross Key’s 
regiment, composed of Carroll county men, that Francis Scott Key and 
Joseph Hays, friends from boyhood, served side by side, as they had 
served in the War of the Revolution under Washington.  It was about 
the year 1790 that Joseph Hays, then a young man of about 25, decided 
to buy a little nigger boy as a playmate for his eldest son Tommie. 
It was with this in mind that he drove to Baltimore and thence 
presumably by boat to the eastern shore of Maryland. This was a long 
trip for those days before the advent of the railroad and steamboat. 
At the plantation of one Delaney where pickaninnies were plentiful 
Hays purchased Neddie then four years old and took him home to Tommie 
as one would take a dog or a pony. It will be remembered that Maryland 
was a slave state and that Joseph Hays assumed obligations other than 
simple ownership when he bought and paid for Ned Delaney. While he 
assumed ownership he also assumed responsibility for his slave’s 
maintenance. He had no right to free him without giving bond for his 
maintenance. This was a just provision as it prevented heartless owners 
from freeing their slaves and permitting them to die without care when 
their usefulness was past, or to become public charges.
Then came the War of 1812, the burning of Washington, the defense of
Baltimore and finally peace.  His story repeats itself and the average 
man fails to read the warnings. An incident in the life of Ned and 
indicative of the conditions following the second war with England is 
illuminating.  There were no railroads, few factories, and consequently 
little except local traffic. This was the era of canal construction and 
movement of goods was slow and expensive. Each community had its own 
flour mill where the wheat of the neighborhood was milled. The finished 
flour was hauled to the cities by teams, stored in warehouses and 
distributed by the slow methods then in vogue. It was Ned’s job to haul 
his master’s flour from the local mill to Baltimore, some forty miles 
distant. Ned was at this time in him prime, a man of about thirty-five 
years of age.  Shortly before peace was declared he went to Baltimore 
with a load of flour to be stored in the warehouse for future sale. 
We’ll tell the rest in Ned’s own report of the transaction on his 
return.  Said Ned, The merchant said ‘Tell your master he’d better 
sell his flour because it going to go down.’ I said, "you say flour’s 
going down? Then sell it.’ He did and here’s your money.  The sale 
was made at $14.00 per barrel. The next flour Ned hauled to Baltimore 
brought $4.00 per barrel. This will sound familiar to Iowa farmers, 
who held $3.00 corn in the expectation of getting $3.50 after the last 
war. A resident of Carroll county at this time was one Geier, later 
generally spoken of by the Hays clan as old Greier. Evidently a 
man of prominence in his community, he was appointed paymaster in the 
army during the war with England. Inasmuch as this position called for 
the handling of considerable Government funds, it was necessary that 
Geier secure bondsmen.  Bonding companies were then unknown and what 
more natural than that Geier looked to his brother Mason for assistance. 
Joseph Hays and three neighbors, all prominent Masons and well to do 
planters in Carroll county signed Geier’s bond. Final settlement of war 
claims is always somewhat slow. The temptation to mishandle Government 
funds is not new under the sun.  Whatever the reason for Geier’s 
betrayal of his trust, we have no record. Hays and his fellow bondsmen 
awake one day to find that Geier had decamped with Government funds and 
they as honorable bondsmen they would have to reimburse the Government.  
We can only imagine the feelings of these wealthy planters to find 
themselves beggared in late life through no fault of their own. When it 
appeared that his entire estate would go under the hammer to satisfy 
the claim of the government, Hay’s first impulse was to protect Ned, 
then a healthy man, valuable as a servant, and as property, subject to 
sale for debt. When it seemed sure that everything must go Hays sold Ned 
to his son, also named Joseph, at the nominal price of $5.00. A bill of 
sale was drawn up and Edward Delaney became the property of Joseph 
Hays, Jr.  Frances Scott Key now appears in the picture. He is living 
in Washington and holding a prominent official position. Stirred by 
the plight of his boyhood friends he used his influence with Congress 
and secured the passing of a special act granting the bondsmen life 
leases on their plantations. In his presentation of their cases to 
Congress, Key argued that the obligation to the Government was 
through no fault of the bondsmen, that the men were old and would be 
thrown on charity in their declining years and that the granting of 
this respite would only keep the government out of the property for 
a few years at most. In the latter part of his prophecy Key was 
three-fourths correct. Three of the plantations soon passed into 
Government hands by the death of their owners and were sold to 
satisfy the claim. Joseph Hays, thanks to the intervention of Francis 
Scott Key and a good constitution lived to enjoy the use of his 
property for about thirty-five years. Faithful to his master, who had 
prevented him from being Sold South Ned served the old master 
while the nominal property of his son. The old plantation served as a 
home for the elder Joseph and his four sons and three daughters as well 
as for the orphaned children of his son Abram. 
These three, later, Abram, Samuel and Catherine, with a relative Darius 
Thomas were among the early settler in Poweshick and Jasper counties.  
Then came the death of the elder Joseph in 1852 at the ripe old age 
of 90, having reared a large family, established them for themselves 
in spite of his earlier misfortune, he passed on. The death of Joseph 
Hays terminated the life lease and after the necessary legal 
formalities occupying several months, the Hays plantation went on the 
block, was sub-divided into three farms and sold by the government.
There is a sequel to the story, Old Geier took his stealings 
with him to Missouri, interested in cheap lands and grew wealthy. He 
became a man of prominence in his new community and had the effrontery 
to get himself elected to Congress.  Frances Scott Key remembered the 
case of his former friends. It was too late to help them; but tradition 
has it that he went to Geier and compelled him to make restitution for 
at least part of the stolen funds under threat of prosecution.  Upon 
the death of the elder Joseph, the Hays clan, numbering now about 
seventeen, found themselves without a home. This was a contingency 
naturally foreseen, and like prudent people they had been laying aside 
funds against the death of the aged head of the family. Also like 
prudent people they cast their eyes to the West.  A council was called 
and the question arose as to what would be done with Ned.  Legally, he 
was the property of Jos. Hays, the younger, although he had always 
lived and worked for the elder Joseph. Ned was an old man now, able to 
do but little work and crippled with rheumatism.  The owner was 
responsible for the slave and he must be provided for. It was decided 
to consult Ned himself. His verdict was, I’ll stick to Debbie. 
Debbie with Mary, her sister, and both unmarried, had kept the house 
for their father and his family and had practically become the head of 
the family at his death.  With no definite goal in view the long 
journey toward the west commenced. 
Three wagons with seventeen people made up the party. Three months were
required for the trip.  Uncle Ned, still legally a slave, was with the 
party. Still a slave he came to the Ohio river in Wheeling. When they 
reached the Ohio shore two of the boys in the party lifted Uncle Ned so 
he could crack his rheumatic heels together, free at last on 
Ohio soil, but dependent on his white friends for care in his declining 
years.  Across the Ohio, then fairly settled; on through Indiana, on 
through Illinois where a stop was made with relatives at Rushville. 
Uncle Ned enjoyed every mile of the trip. A negro was a curiosity in 
the north at that time. When the caravan passed through a settlement 
Ned was given a seat high on the top of the highest wagon. Here he rode 
in state, grinning delightedly on the small boys who scampered beside 
the wagons thinking a circus was coming to town.  After looking over 
Illinois lands and stopping several places in eastern Iowa, the three 
land seekers arrived in Grinnell.  At this pre-war time the country was 
divided into two sections, the division being the Mason and Dixon Line. 
Who Mason and Dixon were and why the line is a long story which it is 
not necessary to enter into here. It suffices to state that prejudices 
established in the east emigrated with the new settlers to the west. 
Those from points above the Mason and Dixon line were know by those 
farther south as blue nose Yankees, nigger stealers, etc., 
while the Yanks retaliated by calling their southern brethern, 
nigger drivers, slave holders, etc. Now J.B. Grinnell and 
those of his associates who settled Grinnell and vicinity were among 
the blue noses. Old settlers will recall that these down easters
 preferred settlers from their own section. It happened therefore 
that Thomas and the Hays boys were not received in Grinnell with open 
arms in spite of their well-filled purses. Land men steered them out 
to the more undesirable lands on Bear Creek telling them the more 
desirable tracts were all taken.  Disheartened at the prospect of 
finding what they wanted near Grinnell, the three men prepared to go 
on to land of which they had heard near Des Moines. They had provided 
themselves with horses and were breaking camp from their camping place 
near where the Spaulding Mfg. Co. building now stands, when Henry 
Lawrence, one of the founders of Grinnell came by. He stopped and 
asked, are you men really looking for land to move on as Settlers? 
Upon being assured that such was the case he said, come with me, I’ll 
show you plenty of good land. He took them north of Grinnell into 
Chester Township where tracts were chosen for all members of the 
Joseph Hays family who desired to emigrate. It is of interest to note 
that this land was entered at a price of $1.25 per acre.
Having found the land the three scouts returned to Illinois and prepared 
for the long journey.  So came Edward Delaney to Grinnell. Old time 
residents will recall the double frame house on Main street across from 
where the Buick garage now stands. This was the home of Aunt Debbie Hays 
until her death in the late eighties. Here Uncle Ned lived and here he 
died.  Faithful to the last, he stuck to Debbie and Mary. In the 
Hays lot in Hazelwood cemetery stands a simple stone bearing the bronze 
emblem of the D.A.R., the last resting place of Aunt Debbie Hays, a real 
daughter of the Revolution. A few feet away under the tree, with a 
similar stone at the head lies all that is mortal of Edward Delaney. 
He has stuck to Debbie even in death.

The Van Buren News-Eagle, Van Buren, Indiana, Thursday, August 29, 1940,
Volume XLV, Number 35. pp. 1 and 4.
-------------------------
Newpaper in the possession of Mrs. John A. Grissom (nee Jeanette Judith
Hays), 10138 Smithville Road, McMinnville, TN 37110