Monday, June 18, 2012

Lilah Morton Pengra Visits Sarah "Aunt Sally" Campbell Grave Marker#4

Picture Credit Erika Jordan
At the 8th Annual Galena Ghost Town Fund Raiser, Lilah Morton Pengra took the opportunity to visit the Sarah “Aunt Sally” Campbell grave site.  It is located in “Vinegar Hill” Galena SD Cemetery. 


Lilah shares the following as an update to my July 2009 article.

Picture Credit Kathy Aplan
"My picture was taken at the Sarah Campbell fourth marker by Kathy Aplan.  The date of death is now correct.  The headstone and carving was donated by the owner of Rausch Memorial. They plan to attach a plaque to the back of the monument to explain the historical context for the use of “Aunt Sally” and “colored.”

There was wonderful weather that day at the Galena Cemetery. The steady stream of people visiting the cemetery seemed willing to listen for a few minutes to my story about Sarah Campbell. It was gratifying to see so many young people interested in history. The connection I felt was not to the site but to Campbell. I wondered if she would find humor or vindication in all these white people wanting to know more about her and her adventuresome life.

I’m currently working on a short article for the journal Greasy Grass. The Lakota who were in the 1941 movie They Died With Their Boots On were never given credit. Even the repositories where the film and still photographs are archived do not know their identities.  I hope to rectify that and give proper credit. And, my other project is to finish my book about Isaiah Dorman, tentatively titled Isaiah Dorman: Issues, Answers and More Questions. That project will get started again when I am up to another long research trip."


Note:  Isaiah Dorman was an African American who perished with General Custer.  I hope to add more information about Isaiah that does not distract from Lilah article. Check back!


>>> June 25, 2012:  General Custer and Isaiah Dorman died June 25, 1876 so this is a fitting day to add Lilah's explanination of Isaiah research and book in work.


"I started researching Isaiah when two bits of information collided. First, it is widely believed that Dorman was a runaway slave who hid with the Lakota before the Civil War. This belief, when I first read it, seemed to be based on rather flimsy evidence, none of which could be verified. I reacted to that because it is a myth and stereotype that all people of African-descent were slaves. The second bit of information I ran across by accident. I found Isaiah Dorman, with his name misspelled, on the 1860 federal census. He was living at Fort Kearney, NE where he worked as a servant to Capt. Alfred Sully and reported his birthplace as Pennsylvania. Other domestic workers on the same census page were noted as slaves. There was no such indication for Dorman. That would seem to challenge the story about him running away from slavery. It has taken 12 years but I have amassed a pile of evidence, some circumstantial, some documented, that he was born free in Pennsylvania. However, there are many holes in the documentation, long periods of his life that are undocumented and some mysteries surrounding his family relationships. Hence, I am approaching the book as an open-ended investigation with some of the puzzle pieces assembled and some still in a pile to be sorted. However, a picture is beginning to emerge that will, I hope, put an end to the myth of a slave background."
~~~ Dick,thanks for posting up-to-date articles about interesting Hills history. I should add that when Custer split his forces, Dorman was with the troops led by Reno. He was killed between the woods and the river in Reno's rush (retreat?) to the high ground. Dorman's wife was Dakota so her relatives were not happy that he was with the campaign. Lilah ~~~


Picture Credit Chuck James







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1 comments:

Lilah said...

Thank you, Dick, for posting up-to-date articles about interesting Hills history. I should add that when Custer split his forces, Dorman was with the troops who were led by Reno. He was killed between the woods and the river in Reno's rush (retreat?) to the high ground. Dorman's wife was Dakota so her relatives were not happy that he was with the campaign. Lilah

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