Less than 20 miles separated freedom from slavery for Blacks in the mid-1800s. For abolitionists, Nebraska City played a key role along the Underground Railroad. 

Enslaved people who escaped from Missouri sneaked through Kansas and north to Falls City, Nebraska, and then on to Nebraska City before making the final leg of their journey to Tabor, Iowa. 

Nebraska was the westernmost portion of the Underground Railroad. And Nebraska City's Mayhew Cabin is considered one of the most important historical places along the trail.

After having been closed for seven years because of flood-related damage, the one-room Mayhew Cabin reopens in conjunction with Juneteenth. The national holiday recognizes the day in June 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, were told slavery had been banned in the United States. Because of communication issues during the Civil War, they were the last to officially learn about the Emancipation Proclamation. 

Repairs to the cabin were covered by a $27,000 grant from the Paul, John, Anton and Doris Wirth Foundation, said Doug Kreifels, the Mayhew Cabin Foundation's treasurer. The Mayhew organization plans to pursue additional funding, he said. 

Representatives of the Mayhew Cabin Foundation are excited to again share the cabin's story with visitors, Kreifels said. 

The cabin's story is key to Nebraska history, he said. 

Sharing an accurate story is essential, said Foundation Vice President Robert Nelson. "Everyone's worked their butt off to get it right, to be as precise as we can be about what's true and what's legend," said Nelson, a former Omaha World-Herald columnist and editor. "Hopefully, we can have a fun, engaging experience." 

For decades, elementary school students visited Mayhew Cabin to learn about this part of Nebraska's history. Foundation members seek that again.

"That just was locked in kids' heads, this Underground Railroad story," Nelson said. 

"Doug and I feel that it has value and it's worth preserving." 

The cabin was the home of Allen and Barbara Mayhew. The Ohio transplants arrived in the Nebraska Territory during the early 1850s.

The Mayhews didn’t openly support the anti-slavery movement, as Nebraska City residents were divided on the subject, said Nelson, who has authored articles about the abolitionist movement in southeast Nebraska.

"They were just the kind of people that felt like it was not something that was right, and that they wanted to do something about it," Kreifels said.

John Kagy, Barbara's brother, was staunchly opposed to slavery, during a time when abolitionists and pro-slavery factions openly battled over the issue.

J. Sterling Morton, who published the Nebraska City News Press newspaper, supported slavery. Stephen Nuckolls, who co-founded Nebraska City and served in the territorial legislature, owned slaves, Nelson said. 

"Stephen Nuckolls is probably the rowdiest, nastiest Nebraska City slave owner, he owns the most slaves in Nebraska," he said. "A lot of slave owners made a point of crossing the (Missouri) river and setting up to make the point that 'We can take our slaves anywhere.' And that's what the Dred Scot decision ends up saying, that slavery is national, freedom is sectional, and that's all winding up to the Civil War." 

While the Mayhews quietly supported abolition, Kagy, along with noted abolitionist John Brown, openly challenged slavery supporters and slave owners, Nelson said. 

"Brown and Kagy had an intentional effort to destabilize slavery by pulling enslaved people out of Missouri," Nelson said. "So that's kind of a different vibe. They're trying to mess with slavery itself, rather than just helping people." 

Eventually, Kagy led groups of escaped slaves to Nebraska City, using the Mayhew cabin as a stop. It's believed several escaped slaves stopped in the area, but only 12 have been documented, because the Underground Railroad was a clandestine operation. 

Nelson has pored over documents attempting to confirm concrete figures, visiting several locations between Nebraska City and Topeka, Kansas, from where a lot of the traveling parties departed. 

"Dozens are known, hundreds claimed, and there could have been a lot of people finding their own way north," Nelson said. "So, just several dozen for sure were escorted along this line. Dozens, maybe 100 people, made it here. That's all I think we're ever going to find." 

While the Mayhews had a small dirt cellar, where escaped slaves could hide if posses came looking for them, the story behind John Brown's cave is fictional, Nelson said. 

Regardless, it's been a fun attraction over the years, he said. 

"We've got generations of young people, like Doug and I, and probably thousands of Nebraska kids and Iowa kids who first learned the Underground Railroad story because of that weird cave,” Nelson said. “It was interesting just to feel what it might have been like having to hide and learning it here, so we kind of believe that it was almost a 100-year-old history of Nebraska kitsch tourism. It's unusual from a national perspective." 

With the flood damage closing most of the cave, Foundation members managed to reopen a small portion, but with a different look. Acknowledging the cabin didn't have a cave, the new exhibit features scenes from what escaped slaves were known to have experienced while hiding from authorities and bounty hunters, Nelson said. 

"It's one of the most powerful devices around the country for introducing young people to this story of empathy and the story of people who were willing to go out of their way to fight and the brave story of those enslaved people, who could see the idea of getting away from slavery and absolutely risking their lives to do so," Kreifels said. 

While the cabin, with era-relevant artifacts, and cave exhibit will be available, Mayhew Cabin Foundation officials are evaluating plans for an interpretive center, he said. 

Current plans call for the Mayhew Cabin to be open on select weekends and holidays, such as Independence Day, Kreifels said. However, group and individual tours can be arranged by contacting Foundation representatives on their website, mayhewcabin.org.

Tim Trudell is a freelance writer and online content creator. His work has appeared in Flatwater Free Press, Next Avenue, Indian Country Today, Nebraska Life, Nebraska Magazine, Council Bluffs Daily Non-Pareil and Douglas County Post Gazette, among others. He is a citizen of the Santee Dakota Nation.