All along, one of the stated goals of the Amen Society was to raise enough funds to commission a statue dedicated to the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers. They were successful in their efforts and I was fortunate to be invited to participate in the ceremony that was attended by local, state and federal dignitaries.
The dedication of the statue on the lawn of the Bates County Courthouse was to be held on the weekend of October 10, 2008.
We pulled the kids out of school and drove back to our home of 10 years to participate in the historic event and to visit old friends and neighbors.
It was a beautiful fall weekend... My hat is off to the Amen Society. Unfortunately, Eleanora Burton had passed prior to the statue dedication - but her hard work was on full display. Reverend Coleman and the rest of the society did a wonderful job as did everyone who helped make the statue a reality.
The statue is a life-size bronze statue of a member of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers that was sculpted by
Joel Randell. To my knowledge it is but a handful of such monuments dedicated to African American soldiers of the Civil War.
(My sincere thanks to my good friend David Todd for taking such great pictures during that weekend.)
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| Workers placing the statue - First time that I got to see it. |
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| Arnold Schofield and author giving a tour of the Toothman farm. |
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| Group touring the battle site. |
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| Arnold Schofield and author on the battle site. |
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| Author and Col Robert Lull (descendent of JM Williams discussing our common interest.) Col. Lull has published an outstanding book on James M Williams available on Amazon.com |
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| Jimmy Johnson at the statue dedication |
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| Author speaking at dedication. |
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| The 1st KCV reenactor that modeled for the statue. |
The
Visit Missouri website has directions and additional info if you would like to see the statue.
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