William D. Matthews and Leavenworth's Underground Railroad

This obituary ran in the Leavenworth Times in 1906. It is shared here with un-changed language for the benefit of historical record. It should be noted that the preferred term in modern Leavenworth marketing materials is "African American." Captain Matthews and many others are to be thanked for their contributions in making Leavenworth the racially diverse and harmonious community it has become today. It is our hope to provide the ability for Kansas school children, his forebears and visitors an example of what made Leavenworth the great "First City of Kansas."

Published with Permission from the Leavenworth Times.

"Champion of a Race.
Captain Matthews was Leavenworth's and perhaps Kansas' pioneer [sic] colored man, coming to this city in 1854 from Washington, D.C., where he was born in bondage eighty years ago last October. Captain Matthews spent his eighty years on earth in the interest and for the betterment of his people.
Captain Matthews came to Leavenworth poor and obscure. He started a little restaurant and eating house where many of Leavenworth's prominent old time abolitionists made their headquarters in times of stringency and danger. Soon the little restaurant came to be the head station of the underground railway system and Captain Matthews was the "general passenger traffic manager." Many of the most prominent men in Leavenworth were "stockholders" in the road. It was the time of rapine, murder and terrorism, but the pioneer colored man was constantly at work without fear and never without zeal and energy. Hundreds of negroes [sic] owed their freedom to his system by which they were brought across the river from Missouri, hidden in Leavenworth and sent out to states of safety -- even across the Canadian border -- by Matthews and his associates. 

"Touching incidents in Captain Matthews' death vigil were the frequent visits of old [sic] colored men and women whom he had taken from bondage before and during the Civil war and sent on their ways of freedom. Mrs. Alpha V. Minor of Kansas City, who nursed the aged [sic] colored man through a great part of his fatal illness, was the daughter of a [sic] colored who nursed the aged colored man freed by Matthews. The aged woman, mother of Mrs. Minor, also visited the captain in his final hours. There were others who had tasted his kindness and who turned to him instinctively in his last hours of trail.

"Dean of Colored Masons
"After the close of the Civil War, Captain Matthews took a leading part in the organization of the Masonic lodges in his race. For fifteen years he has been M.W.N. grand master of all York Rite Masons (colored) in the United States of North America and provinces. A large part of the venerable colored man's time was spent in making trips over the country attending the sessions of his Masonic lodges. A great deal of his time was spent in the south where his order wast he strongest. He was preparing for a long trip in the south when his final illness overtook him. His Masonic work was another long and consistent effort for the "uplifting of his race." Of what immense benefit wholesome organization will finally prove to the colored man remains still to be seen.
"Fought in the Civil War
"Early in the Civil war, Captain Matthews was commissioned to the command of a battery of a volunteer in artillery which he commanded in actual service with distinction. Pervious to this he was an officer of a colored infantry regiment. The captain was mustered out with his battery at the end of the war and returned to Leavenworth immediately. 
Many of the veterans of the Civil war knew the aged colored man intimately and many were his callers at the time of his last sickness. The funeral of the deceased will be decided upon at a meeting fo the subordinate lodge of Masons of this city today. It is probable the funeral will be Sunday. Previous to his death by several weeks, and again Thursday, the Captain Matthews expressed his desire to be buried in the cemetery at the Soldiers home and his wish will be conformed to."

Photo Credit: Captain Matthews' photos can be viewed on Kansas Memory, a division of the Kansas State Historical Society, here: https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/218162 

More information about Captain Matthews is online at the Trans-Missisippi Theater Virtual Museum: http://www.civilwarvirtualmuseum.org/1861-1862/african-americans-in-the-...

Captain Matthews is buried at the Leavenworth National Cemetery, 150 Muncie Road, Leavenworth, KS 66048 at Section 24, Row 6, Site 12.