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Black History Month: How Freedom township got its name

James Andrew Jackson's Underground Railroad journey inspired the town
Posted at 9:22 PM, Feb 07, 2022
and last updated 2022-02-07 22:25:43-05

FREEDOM, Wis. (NBC 26) — According to experts, the rumored tale of Freedom's name origin is true, although it isn't what early municipal organizers had in mind.

The first recorded settler in Freedom was James Andrew Jackson, a Black man who escaped slavery in Virginia through the Underground Railroad.

"He self-styled himself to be General James Andrew Jackson later in life," Kenneth Vandenberg, executive director of the Freedom Area Historical Society said. "He came up through the underground railroad. At first, he settled in Madison with the Winnebago Indians. Then he made his way to Oshkosh, then to Neenah, and then in Stockbridge. While in Stockbridge, he took a Native American as a bride, and then he left there to move to Freedom."

Jackson's time in Freedom began at the intersection of County Highway E and Van Asten Road.

"They talk about the first White settlers in a lot of the history books, but he was here before the White settlers were here," Vandenberg said. "He cleared nine acres of land on what is now known as Colonial House Supper Club on County Road E. He sold that track later on, and then he cleared another 40 which is where Irish Aces is now."

Census records, property purchase statements and newspaper articles archived at the History Museum at The Castle have confirmed many points of Jackson's life in Northeast Wisconsin as well as travels from Virginia through Tennessee before getting to Wisconsin. Historical experts have been unable to confirm any photographs of Jackson to date.

"It's amazing that we have this many documents on a man that lived that long ago, particularly a man of color in Wisconsin, in the mid-1850s," Dustin Mack, chief curator at the History Museum at The Castle said.

Mack has taken a special interest in Jackson's records.

"What makes Jackson so unique is that we have documentation – his own words – about what his life was like," Mack said. "He was at the meeting, the original meeting, of the Outagamie County Pioneer Association in 1872."

Jackson was the only person noted as "colored" in the meeting minutes, but did get the designation of "oldest settler."

"And by all accounts, he was a respected member of the community. He was welcomed to that party," Mack said. "He was given the opportunity to stand up and tell his story in his own words. It was recorded in the Crescent the next day: it talked about his life as an early pioneer and what it meant for him to come and to find Freedom."

It is said that town leaders wanted to name the town Jackson in their oldest settler's honor, but Jackson put the name Freedom forth to recognize his journey from slavery to their new town.