Article I:

SEARCHING FOR THE REAL HIRAM YOUNG

Contribution by Bill & Annette Curtis - Independence, MO

It is a major challenge that requires artistic talent and a very large amount of luck to recreate a picture of someone that you have never seen. If you have compared the police artists’ attempt to make a likeness of a wanted criminal or someone who is missing you undoubtedly have noticed that some are way off,  some are recognizable and some are pretty good.  This is my account and sources for that very attempt with an image of Hiram Young.

 Because of Hiram Young’s importance, there has been a constant desire to have a photograph to illustrate the numerous articles that have been written about Young. And now that Hiram Young is to be featured as a role model in the soon to be Lions Hiram Young Community Service Center, a picture seems almost necessary to create an acceptable focus. For many years a photograph of Hiram Young hung in the hail of the first Young School in independence, Missouri. When the old school was closed in 1934, the Young School principal Professor Nathaniel Busch took the photograph home. In 1936, Martha Bayse (a William Chrisman High School student who was working on a school writing project) interviewed Professor Busch at the recently completed Young School; He gave her a vivid description of Young from the photograph. The photograph of Young has now been lost.  Professor Busch had a significant collection of photographs connected with Young School.  We owe many of the images that have survived due to the help that he had them professionally copied and some of the studio files have been preserved. Unfortunately, no studio file has surfaced with an image of Young.

Besides Martha Bayse Ingram the other most significant source was Josephine Flanagan Randall. Her grandfather, Daniel Flanagan, frequently talked about Young when she was present. Young had taken Flanagan into his home to live and to train in his factory. Flanagan became very prosperous due to Young’s training. They remained close friends the rest of their lives.

The combined description we have from all the oral and written records give the following information. Young had long straight black hair showing he was part Native American Indian. The hair hung loosely trimmed almost to his shoulders. Young’s face was long and he had high cheek bones, further indicating Native American heritage. He had a wide nose showing a distinctive African heritage. Young was thin in build rather than stocky; muscular rather than massive. He had a medium complexion.  His lips were thinner than the common image of African Americans,  but still had African American characteristics.

Hiram Young
Commentary by: Donn Johnson

Aired September 14, 2006

Windows Media WMP (56 kbps)              MP3 MP3 (56 kbps) 

On a visit last year to the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, I was awestruck at the magnificent mural that graces the vestibule and arch of the grand building dedicated to the nation’s thirty-third president. Thomas Hart Benton, the local Missouri boy turned internationally renowned artist painted the mural at the behest of another Missouri boy made good, President Harry Truman. The artwork commissioned by President Truman depicts the history of the city of Independence, the city where Truman spent his formative years.
 

Standing beneath the mural and taking in its many images, I spotted to the right in the upper corner above the doorway the image of a black man. I wondered if this was a real person.

  Hiram Young, a Missouri slave, bought his freedom in 1847. By 1850, he’d established a shop with a staff of twenty supplying 600 wagons and 1000 yokes a year to western settlers at the head of the Santa Fe Trail with the mayor of Independence as a front. During the Civil War he crossed the border to Kansas and even sold wagons to the U.S. government and he later sued for war losses of $22,000. He died in 1882 but his lawsuit stayed in the courts until 1907 when the claim was denied. His story is just one more lost in the shadows but hidden in plain sight in the dark corners of the Truman Library and of American history.

Thomas Hart Benton reviewing layout of mural for Examiner press.	Hiram Young the wagon and oxen yolk maker forging materials for the western expansion.	Hiram Young closeup forging portion of oxen yolk.	Thomas Hart Benton rendering of Hiram Young.	Forging oxen yolks for western expansion.	Portrayal of oxen pulled wagon moving to the west.	Oxen being readied for the trails.	Movement of oxen wagons to the west.