ST PAUL, Minn. — A historian has discovered that one of the most influential Underground Railroad leaders in U.S. history, who was thought to be in hiding between the late 1840s and late 1850s, actually lived and worked in St. Paul at the time.
Now Karen Sieber is sharing her findings on Moses Dickson through an initiative called Finding Moses.
"Ultimately, it's very much like science," she said. "You're searching for evidence. You have a theory."
Sieber has spent about seven years researching Dickson's life, and says his story is usually centered around St. Louis. But after she moved to St. Paul a couple of years ago, she found documents showing the abolitionist, too, lived in St. Paul for about seven to nine years. This was while Dickson was running two secretive abolitionist organizations leading, former slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad, Sieber says.
"There's always been a gap in how we talk about his life," she said. "It was kind of thought that he was living under the radar."
She looked at territorial records from before Minnesota became a state and found a couple listed under the spelling "Dixon."
"I was able to find him through his wife," she said. "Once I was able to locate them there, it was like a Pandora's box of other things. There's court cases he's involved in, and letters to the editor, and numerous businesses."
Sieber found out Dickson ran two restaurants, Nonpareil and Dickson's Eating Saloon, approximately where the Xcel Energy Center stands now.
She also learned Dickson worked as a barber out of the Fuller House at the intersection of 7th and Jackson Streets downtown. She says fellow historians and community members are contributing to the research.
"He worked [as a barber] on steam ships up and down the Mississippi," Sieber said. "I'm looking into new material that shows that Dickson not only operated business and lived here kind of in the Uppertown neighborhood near downtown St. Paul but also potentially in St. Anthony, operating briefly as a barber out of Winslow House."
Sieber says Dickson crossed paths with Dred Scott, as well as Joseph Farr and William Taylor, when traveling from Galena, Illinois to St. Paul. She has identified 25-30 other people in Dickson's network and plans to feature them on the Finding Moses website.
"It's a chance to really kind of rethink how we think about the Black freedom network of the era and really breaking it out of the south and thinking about what was the Midwest's role," Sieber said. "I'm a white woman named Karen. I realize that it's odd that I do Black history for a living, but … I'm great at historical records. I can track down anything, and this is how I can best be an ally is to bring some of these stories to life."
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