Amasa Soule

Abolitionist from Bath, Maine. In 1854, his family became part of the newly formed New England Emigrant Aid Company, an organization whose goal was to help settle the Kansas Territory and bring it into the Union as a free state. He and is son arrived in Kansas, near Lawrence, in November 1854. His son Silas, his wife and two daughters came the following summer.

Shortly after the family's arrival at Coal Creek, a few miles south of Lawrence near present day Vinland, Amasa Soule established his household as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Amasa's daughter, Anne Julia Soule Prentiss, tells of her family's early experience in Maine, Massachusetts and Kansas in a 1929 interview. "Our house was on the 'Underground Railway'. John Brown was often there... My Brother, Silas, and Brown were close friends. Silas went out on many a foray with him. I recall well when Brown came to our cabin one night with thirteen slaves, men, women and children. He had run them away from Missouri. Brown left them with us. Father would always take in all the Negroes he could. Silas took the whole thirteen from our home eight miles to Mr. Grover's stone barn..."

During these pre-war years pro-slavery forces from Missouri and abolitionist forces from Kansas were engaged in open warfare. The fight was whether Kansas would be admitted to the Union as a slave or as a free state. This conflict, often called Bleeding Kansas, enhanced the reputation of his son Silas Soule as a brave and resourceful fighter.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silas_Soule

1860 United States Federal Census about A Soule

Name: A Soule [Amasa Soule] [A Silas]

Age in 1860: 56

Birth Year: abt 1804

Birthplace: Maine

Home in 1860: Lawrence, Douglas, Kansas Territory

Gender: Male

Post Office: Lawrence

Household Members:

Name Age

J Sullivan 26

Morgaaret Sullivan 24

Mary Sullivan 1

J Sugrow 29

Jane Bennett 26

A Soule 56

Sophia Soule 53

W M G Soule 26

Silas G Soule 22

Anna I Soule 17