Lawrence Ferry Crossing – IKE GAINES UGRR Site

[Drive to the north side of the Kansas River and park in the lot east of N. 2nd St. off Elm Street near the levee. Imagine what a freedom seeker must have felt as he or she looked across the river to Lawrence which represented freedom to runaway slaves.] 

About 1860, a young but weary fugitive slave, Ike Gaines, from Platte City, Missouri appeared on the north side of the Kansas River near the Delaware Reserve and cautiously approached a white man, Jake Herd, who was working on a boat near the ferry. He whispered to Herd: 

“Excuse me, Sir. How do I get to Mr. Jim Lane’s house?” 

Herd sent him across the river on the ferry to a landing located at the base of New Hampshire Street. Mr. Gaines told two men on the other side that he wanted to see Mr. Jim Lane because he had heard that Lane was known to help freedom seekers. The men replied, 

“We’ll take you to Jim Lane’s house.  

Certainly, we will. Come along!” 

The men were William Clarke Quantrill [using the alias “Charlie Hart”] and Frank Baldwin, both “slave stealers.” Mr. Gaines conversed freely with them, told them his name, and that he had run away from the plantation of Joanna Gaines, a widow in Platte City, Missouri.

But Ike Gaines never got to the house of Jim Lane. Instead, he was bound by the two men, tied to a horse, and taken to Jake McGee’s house a couple of miles up the river. Later that night, Jake McGee, “Charlie Hart,” and Frank Baldwin took him to Westport, Missouri. After the trio negotiated with Mrs. Gaines, Ike Gaines was returned to her where he faced a lifetime of slavery after getting so close to freedom. He wasn’t the only victim, because these men also extorted $500 from Mrs. Gaines instead of the usual $200 normally paid for the reward.