New this year at the Steam & Power Show

A Mitchell County Iowa Story of Heroism

 Wallace McKinney: A freed slave who brought a soldier home to Mitchell County 

 by Deb Nicklay

As our re-enactors will portray, the Civil War was a deadly time for anyone caught up in battle – and that reminds us of the story of Capt. Seymour McKinley who but for the grace of God and slave Wallace McKinney, would have died during that terrible struggle. 

Seymour McKinley, from the now-ghost town of Newburg, was one of four brothers to join the Union cause. Squire, Cornelius and Randolph were the others and together, had come to Mitchell County with their parents in the fall of 1855. Seymour and Squire were the oldest and they quickly joined in 1861. Cornelius and Randolph soon followed, according to a history written by Squire’s great-nephew, the late Keith McKinley of Osage. 

Seymour, with the 24th Iowa, was wounded seven times during his tenure and the last wounds were received at the Battle of Fisher’s Hill, part of Major Philip Sheridan’s drive to rob the Confederate of the Shenandoah Valley’s agricultural abundance. Seymour was left for dead among other corpses in an abandoned cabin, according to the family history. 

How exactly McKinney found Seymour is lost to history, but shortly after Seymour’s near-fatal injury, Wallace – he was only known by “Wallace” at that time – brought Seymour home to Newburg. 

Wallace McKinney came to the Union side after an escape from a plantation in Mississippi – reportedly owned by Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He was scheduled to be shot after he refused, at the age of 12, to join the Confederates, but an unidentified white woman helped him to escape and make his way to the Union lines. 

With Seymour in bad shape, Wallace – a black, illiterate slave – found the wherewithal to bring Seymour home, a trip of over 1,000 miles. If there was any question about what Wallace would do once he reached Newburg, Keith McKinley wrote that “my great-grandmother had answers” to any question regarding Wallace. He was given a job on the first day after his arrival, he added. 

Wallace McKinney went on to work for the railroad and then purchased a small farm just on the other side of the Mitchell County line, in Worth County. He married and gained the respect of all who knew him, history says. 

The Manly Signal said upon his death in 1927 that he was a highly-respected citizen who – the Signal erroneously reported – had been brought to Iowa by Seymour McKinley, not the other way around. 

Wallace McKinney was one of three noted black Civil War soldiers who found their way to North Iowa. William Wright, who served with a Union regiment from Kentucky, settled in Worth County; and Solomon Stratton of Virginia. Stratton during the war took care of the horse of Lt. 

Henry Verbeck, who owned land in Pottawattamie and Worth counties. Solomon, who married of William Wright’s daughters, eventually purchased land in Worth County, where he farmed.