Hiram Young

American entrepreneur
the wagon manufacturer
After the first of two devastating fires that ruined his uninsured business, he raised money by selling his wife and daughter back into slavery to a kind former master, Judge Sawyer, according to the Kansas City Stars recollection in 1890. It is not clarified, however, if this means advanced pay for future labor, or completely enslaving them again. As his influence in the community grew, he and Matilda became founding members of the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal church in 1866 in Independence. In 1877 the church was moved to a new location, where it still operates today. Young contributed greatly to the building of the new church. He helped the fundraising and opening of what was, for decades, the only school for African American children in Independence. Originally it was named after activist Frederick Douglass. The US Census of 1860 reports he was completing thousands of ox yokes and 800 to 900 wagons a year. He employed approximately 50 to 60 men between his shop on Liberty Street and his 480 acre farm east of Independence in the Little Blue Valley. Employing around 20 men, Young's shop utilized a four horsepower steam engine, nearly unheard of at the time, along with seven forges running non stop. Census officials also noted 300 completed wagons worth $48,000 and 6,000 yokes worth $13,500. The business's inventory alone was appraised at more than His plight was embraced by a community campaign to purchase an engine to "assist in the speedy re establishment of his factory". The St. Joseph Daily Gazette lauded this solidarity as "only right", admonishing the Independence city government to echo other cities' past donations of untaxed land for the benefit of other "factories not so beneficial to a community as Young's". In 1877, he was heralded by the Kansas City Journal of Commerce as the "only colored man in the manufacturing business".

While attempting to rebuild his business to its pre war lucrative levels, Young died January 22, 1882, cash poor, though the estate was worth His grave is at Woodlawn Cemetery in Independence, Missouri.

In 1908, the Kansas City Star extensively eulogized Young 26 years after his death, saying "This negro fought valiantly for freedom and respectability" and that his gravestone "perpetuates the memory of the most widely and favorably known negro of that cityone who filled a responsible position in business life for many years, and died highly respected by whites and blacks alike his monument stands not in the portion of the cemetery commonly used by colored people, but in a conspicuous lot among white peoplea very remarkable thing for Independence". Upon Young's death in 1882, the school that he'd helped found in Independence was renamed from Frederick Douglass school to Hiram Young school. In 2004 it fundraised for renovations to become a new community center providing services including "vision, hearing, diabetes, and cancer". In December 1987, the city council of Independence passed a resolution to change the name of Lexington Park to Hiram Young Park, commemorating Young as "one of the wealthiest men in Jackson County in the 1800s". The park includes a 50 foot wooden wagon wheel recessed into the ground surrounded by flower boxes and benches, and a large stone with a plaque dedicated to Young. The park is bordered by Hiram Young Lane, a renamed portion of Lexington Avenue. McCoy Park in Independence celebrates Young in one of three painted panels by artist Cheryl Harness, with a storybook portrayal of Oregon Trail history. Minor Park of Kansas City, Missouri bears Young's portrait on a large decorative mural upon the Red Bridge. In 2016, The Telegraph commemorated Black History Month with an article titled "Hiram Young: Kansas City's First 'Colored Man of Means'". The Santa Fe Trail Association said, "His life and career testify to the rich and vital ethnic diversity that made the American West a place of particularly new and exciting possibilities in the 19th century."