Pioneer Families

Pioneer Families. Liberty African American Legacy Memorial. , John Jack Houston , (1858-1934) , John Jack Houston, pioneer patriarch of the Houston family, was born in North Carolina and migrated to Liberty during the 1870s. In 1878, he traveled to Sandusky, Ohio to marry Elvira “Ella” Savage, whose he had met in Kentucky prior to settling in Liberty. To this union were born four children, Anna, Ella, James and Charles. John was employed by the Withers family but also worked as a farmer and mastered the craft of making furniture. The family lived on the Withers’ farm prior to purchasing a home in the North End on Gallatin Street, and John and Ella occasionally provided lodging in their home to men who worked on the Pacific Railroad. People of faith, they were founding members of Mt. Zion First Baptist Church., One of their sons, Charles, and his wife, Flora Dorsey Houston, raised nine children in the family homestead. The second generation of children included: John, an artist, skilled craftsman and Renaissance man; Samuel, entrepreneur and Liberty city councilman and the first African American elected official in Clay County; James, a master of many trades whose motto was to have lived and never had an enemy; twins Howell and Harold, who served their country in world war two; Russel, supervisor at Henry Wurst Printing; Ella, and entrepreneur; Alice Mary a real estate owner; and Sylvia, a beautician and cook. A daughter, Sara, died at birth. Today the legacy lives on as generations of the Houston family continue to positively impact Liberty and society more than 150 years later., James Murray, Sr. , (1872-1961) , James Murray, pioneer patriarch of the Murray family, migrated to Liberty in 1915 from the White Oak community of North Kansas City. His father, Grundy Murray, has been enslaved on the Fountain Waller Plantation where he inherited over 15 acres of Waller’s land, property and money in 1885. After the Civil War, Waller, a wealthy landowner, left most of the estate to his enslaved African American and biracial companion, Parthena (Pemily) Murray and their son, Richard., When James and his wife, Lucinda, settled in Liberty, they purchased a home on South Missouri Street in New Libera, a subdivision for African American residents across the railroad tracks on the south end of town. His home was located on the same property as the Liberty Spring where the city of Liberty was founded. James was a gardener who planted fruit trees and vegetables for his family, a woodsman who sold and chopped wood from his woodshed and a vineyard owner who sold wine and spring water to Liberty residents from his homestead during world war one and the Great Depression years., He was an industrious man, working not only on his property, but also working 40 hours weekly as a plasterer and as a custodian in Ephriam Murray’s grocery store. James and Lucinda had five children who lived, worked and achieved in the Northland during segregation and the civil rights era: George Floyd, world war two and Korean War Veteran; James Jr. (deceased teen): Howard, refrigeration business owner, Mercedes, domestic worker and North Kansas City Hospital laundress; and Lovie, Liberty McBowl’s bowling center chef and North Kansas City Hospital housekeeper., Otis Bird , (1884-1986) , Liberty pioneer, centenarian and master chef Otis Bird was the son of Greenup and Mary Bird, enslaved African Americans once owned by Kentuckian Greenup Bird. Otis worked as a master chef at William Jewell College 46 years in Ely Hall and the Phi Gamma Delta and Kappa Alpha fraternity houses. He also worked at Liberty Ladies College and the Odd Fellows Home. His William Jewell job would begin at 5:00 a.m. and end at 7:00 p.m. During the Great Depression, Otis would walk to work each morning at 4:30 a.m. from his home on Main Street past the horses parked around the old courthouse square., In addition to supervising his staff, he prepared his own menus, cut his own meat and cooked the daily and weekend meals for Jewell students, making $15.00 weekly to feed his family of eight. Jewell students, especially first-year men, often sought his advice on cooking and life, and he was renowned for his steaks, pork, fried chicken and desserts. Otis was a community leader in the Liberty Prince Hall Masonic Lodge #37, established in 1877, and a Gold Star member honored in 1986 for 60 years of service. His wife, Mary, was also honored for 60 years of service in the Mt. Olive Chapter $8 Eastern Star Lodge for women., African American lodges date back to the 1700s when Prince Hall, an abolitionist and civil rights worker, petitioned the Grand Loge of England and received a charter to establish the first Prince Hall African American lodge in the United States in Boston, Massachusetts. A devoutly Christian man, Otis was one of the founders of Northwestern Colored Primitive Baptist Church, once located on Main Street. When that church disbanded, Otis joined First Baptist Church on Gallatin Street where he served as deacon over 70 years., Katherine “Katie” Prince Brooks , (1900-2000) , Katherine “Katie” Brooks, of Brooks Landing, was a pioneer, centenarian and Kansas City Passport Club travel ambassador. Born along the river bluffs between Liberty and Independence, she migrated by wagon from the Clay county Nebo Hills so the south end of Liberty with her family during the Missouri flood of 1903. She told friends that, despite only being age three at the time, she would never forget the image of her mother, Shobot, a mixed-race Osage Indian, finding her baby brother alive and wrapped in blankets beneath the wagon seat after they reached dry land. The family had believed the baby had drowned when water rushed into the bed of the wagon during the river crossing., That journey determined not only Katie’s destiny, but also her strength as a survivor. As a 10th grade graduate of the segregated African American Garrison School, Katie lived to cross not only the Missouri River, but also the Atlantic Ocean to visit England, France and Scotland. A devoted Christian woman, she was an active member of Frist Baptist Church in many ministries for over 70 years. While touring the Holy Land in the 1970’s, she stood in religious awe along the banks of the River Jordan., Katie was the first African American sales associate in the Lucille Davis Dress Shop in Liberty. Surrounded by a white picket fence, the frame home that she and her husband, Eugene Brooks, built was an icon of pride, beauty and the American dream with its red trim and blue shutters. In 1989, housing developer Tom Havens named his residential development Brooks Landing, the first and only subdivision in Clay County named in honor of African American pioneers. Katie died at the age of 100 in 2000, but her legacy in Brooks Landing still lives.