The Nebraska House

The Nebraska House. Network to Freedom - Sites Associate With Escape. , The site of the Nebraska House, a former hotel completed in 1857 and located in Brownville, Nebraska, was associated with an escape of three runaway slaves (freedom seekers) from Missouri who engaged in a bloody shootout with slave catchers., During the fall of 1857, three freedom seekers escaped their enslavement in Missouri. While traveling from Kansas and into the Territory of Nebraska, the freedom seekers were sighted in the willows a few miles south of Brownville. Hoping to make some money catching runaway slaves, four men, J.R. Davis, Thomas Williams, Archie Handley and William Myers pursued the three freedom seekers. According to the Nebraska Advertiser dated September 10, 1857: , ,

"They had proceeded but a short distance when they came upon the negroes, who springing from their hiding places, well-armed, commenced firing upon the white men, and Wm. Myers was shot down by two of the negroes."

, In result, Myers died of his wounds and an unnamed freedom seeker was shot in the arm. The other two freedom seekers escaped, while the injured one was held at the Nebraska House, and put into the hands of deputy sheriff, Ben Thompson. The injured arm of the freedom seeker was amputated in order to save his life. While recovering from his injuries at the hotel and awaiting trial for murder, the mob laid siege to the Nebraska House and demanded that the freedom seeker be hanged. Thompson stood strong and protected the freedom seeker from the mob, turning them away., While in custody, the injured freedom seeker was interviewed by the Nebraska Advertiser and revealed that he was previously owned by a "widow Todd," of Platte County, Missouri. He further explained that all three of the freedom seekers had escaped slavery the previous fall and made,their way to Lawrence, Kansas. From Kansas, the three men traveled north to the Territory of Nebraska on their way to freedom. , Charges against the injured freedom seeker were eventually dropped because it was determined that it was not he, but one of the other two freedom seekers who had shot Myers. After his release from the Nemaha County Jail, the freedom seeker was claimed by his owner and returned to slavery in Missouri., The Nebraska House continued to operate as a hotel and in 1860 passed into the hands of Peter G. Hendgen, who changed its name to that of the American House. In 1903, the hotel was destroyed by a fire, and eventually a flood washed away the remains of the building.