Information about Buxton, Iowa by Rachelle Chase
In 2022, I was honored to be included in the following documentaries, talking about Buxton. The African American Midwest: A 500 Year Fight for Freedom As stated in “The 1539 Project: Why Black Midwest and Iowa history matters,” producers of “The African American Midwest” hope to show that the Midwest is not only America’s geographic […]
Leroy Wright, an African American resident of Buxton, Iowa in the early 1900s stated that Jack Brookins, also African American, invented a railroad signal. “He made a patent on the railroad trap out of a mouse trap and they tried to get people to take out shares but they wouldn’t do it but it […]
In 1906, Robert Gilbert Wells, an African American author and publisher in Buxton, Iowa ran ads soliciting agents to sell his new book, “Anthropology Applied to the American White Man and Negro.” The ad placed in the March 3, 1906 issue of the Richmond Planet provided a summary of the book: AGENTS WANTED. To […]
Buxton, Iowa—a 1900s coal mining town of 5,000 in which blacks and whites lived and worked side by side and blacks received equal pay and thrived—is an amazing story of inclusion and equality. I’m doing my part to make sure it is not forgotten. A HUGE “thank you” to everyone I have — and have […]
In 1907, The Iowa State Bystander announced that Hattie Hutchison was the first African American woman to obtain a pharmacy degree in Iowa. A large photo of Hutchison accompanied the article. But despite this announcement—and her accomplishment—the details of her life remain a mystery. Early Years Hattie Hutchison was born in 1878 in Lancaster, MO. […]
John Jacobs, an avid collector of Iowa history memorabilia, shared an article from an unidentified newspaper that lists the twelve things that no other town in Iowa – and in some instances, “the world” – had. While I have not been able to verify that these items existed only in Buxton, here’s what I know: […]
My first glimpse of what remained of Buxton, Iowa came in 2008. Standing in the middle of farmland, gazing at the crumbling ruins of a stone warehouse, I closed my eyes and tried to picture the amazing town that once was – a thriving coal mining town established in 1900 that was integrated, its 5,000 […]
On December 28, 1900, a little over a month after first 100 employees of the Consolidation Coal Company moved from Muchakinock to Buxton, plans were underway for the Twentieth Century Club banquet. Part of those plans were to invite well known people, such as Buxton Superintendent Ben Buxton, Iowa Governor Leslie Shaw, and President McKinley. […]