Rastall John01

Waupaca newspaper 

December 31, 1925

Daughter of Escaped Slave Writes Inmate of Veterans' Home

The daughter of a runaway slave, who lives in Cleveland, Ohio, has written to John E. Rastall, a member of the Wisconsin Veterans' Home, that her mother was eighteen years of age when she escaped from slavery by the help of the "Underground Railroad", and thanking him for his services on that line in Kansas in the Old John Brown days.  Comrade Rastall helped slaves escape and was arrested by United States troops for that and other offenses committed in the work of making Kansas a free state.  He made his escape luckily, as the law at that time said that aiding or assisting in the escape of a slave was punishable with death "or imprisonment for not less than ten years".

Mr. Russell enlisted in the 5th Wis. Vol. Co. B, a Milwaukee company, and served altogether three years and six months during the Civil War.  He says he prizes this year's Christmas gift, the communication from the slave girl's daughter, more than he would if he had received a Congressional "Medal of Honor".