Emma Adair
Kevin Gray
As third graders filed into Kerri Springer’s classroom at Trojan Elementary on Friday, they were met by a familiar, yet not so familiar face. The lady looked like Foster Grandparent Julane Williams, but she said her name was Emma Adair, not Grandma Julane.
My parents came to Osawatomie, Adair told the students, because they believed in peaceful solutions to problems. “My parents thought it an abomination, that means a terrible thing, for people to own other people. But my uncle John, that’s John Brown, believed in Civil War,” Adair said.
Adair said her parents were the Rev. Samuel and Florella Brown, and that they came to Kansas from Ohio, where she had been born. “It was a hard trip to Kansas. When we arrived, we lived in Westport. Do you know where that is? It’s in what is now Kansas City. And we all became sick, and it was several months before we could continue on to Osawatomie,” Adair said.
My father was anxious to begin his missionary work in Osawatomie, Adair said, but we still had to set up housekeeping in our cabin. “Father wanted to try to educate the pro-slavers that this was wrong. But after walking along with the wagon train to Osawatomie, mother wasn’t happy when she first saw the cabin, which had also been a general store. It was one room, with the chinking missing, and just one door. One half had a wood floor and the other was dirt,” Adair said.
Osawatomie, when they arrived, Adair said was populated by Indians, Free-Staters looking for new lands, Pro-Slavers and Bushwhackers. “Bushwhackers were dangerous men, because they would attack you if they thought you were against slavery,” Adair said. “Both mother and father wished our cabin had a loft, which would have made it safer for the children at night, in case we were attacked, so they eventually built one,” she said.
After Adair finished describing the cabin, one little girl raised her hand and asked, “Is this the cabin in the park?” Adair smiled, and said, “Why yes, that was where we lived.”
“And did you sleep upstairs?” the girl asked. “Why, yes, I did,” Adair said.
Adair continued to tell Trojan students about her childhood and life in Osawatomie, particularly about the Battle of Osawatomie. “Imagine my mother opening the door to see a cannon aimed at our cabin. My parents were just as brave as John Brown was but in a different way,” she said. “They also provided a place for slaves to stay, who had escaped and needed a place to hide and rest,” she said.
In those days, Adair explained how courageous it was to keep slaves in our home. “But without pressuring the slave owners, the slaves could never be free. Uncle John’s trial did help to wake up the United States to the need to free slaves,” Adair said.
Having dropped the Emma Adair persona, Williams said she did not come to the Osawatomie Time Machine group right away. “When I was originally forced into retirement because of a disability, I knew things could get worse for me, unless I had a hobby or something to keep me active. This is why I looked for volunteer work,” Williams said.
Although Williams admitted to not always being able to work a consistent day-to-day schedule, she knew she could still help out. “This is why I got active with the historical society. When Grady Atwater took over, he requested a volunteer to help out down at the cabin. I didn’t know much about Osawatomie history, but I volunteered anyway,” she said.
One day at the cabin, Williams said, Grady had gotten busy and had to leave. “I had listened to what he said when giving tours because I was down there almost every day, and I was there on the weekdays, so I volunteered to lead the tour that day,” she said.
When Williams turned 60, she gave up the cabin and joined the Foster Grandparent program. “When I was introduced to Professors Ann Birney and Joyce Thierer from Emporia State University last summer, I knew I had to take part in the Osawatomie Time Machine,” she said. Professors Birney and Thierer worked with children and adults last summer with organizing the Time Machine historical performance group in Osawatomie and Young Historians in La Cygne.
By participating in the Time Machine, Williams said, she is able to help people better understand the local history. “When you stop learning, I figured, you might as well lay down and die. And these kids have also taught me so much, but I’ve learned that so many just need love and hugs,” she said.
Her time spent at Trojan as a foster grandparent and performing with the Osawatomie Time Machine, she said, has been fulfilling. “I have the time, and this is more than just a job,” Williams said.
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Posted by admin
on Feb 2 2011. Filed under News and Updates.
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