Jefferson City, MO: 1868.
Price:
$2,250.00
About the item
2pp., printed recto and verso on a single quarto sheet. Old folds.
Item #377927
Unrecorded handbill issued as a circular letter to the former Civil War officers of the 62nd U.S. Colored Infantry, giving updates on each of their lives since the close of the war, with some information on the founding of HBCU Lincoln University. Founded in 1866, the school had come about through the initiative of veterans of the 62nd and 65th United States Colored Infantries, many of whom, having learned to read and write while in the army, recognized the importance of creating educational opportunities for newly emancipated African Americans after the war. Founding secretary of the Lincoln Institute, Richard Baxter Foster (1826-1901), who has signed this circular in print, was a White abolitionist and former first lieutenant in the 62nd Infantry who would go on to serve as the Institute’s first principal as well as its only instructor for the first two years.
Foster notes under his own update that he was teaching at the Lincoln Institute: "The school still flourishes as well as possible with its present poor accomodations. I think we chall build a school house next season. We have invested a part of our funds in 365 acres of land, mostly timbered, three miles south from Jefferson City ... Sergeant Major Jefferys is still attending my school. He taught three months in the summer. Many other soldiers of different regiments are in the school."
Formerly enslaved, John O. Jefferys (d. 1922) was the highest ranking non-commissioned African American in the 62nd U.S.C.I.
One of approximately 35 copies printed, assuming that copies were printed for the 35 named officers in the circular and not many more.
