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Family Field Trip

The Ozarks Afro-American Heritage Museum in Ash Grove is a fascinating and solemn learning experience for the whole family.

Photo Edward Biamonte

The Afro-American Heritage Museum in Ash Grove is run by Father Moses Barry.

Since 2002, Father Moses Berry, a native of Ash Grove and a priest of the Eastern Orthodox Church, has been the curator of a small museum in Ash Grove: The Ozarks Afro-American Heritage Museum. Although filled with memorabilia inherited from his family and artifacts donated to him, it is not just the history of his family, but also the history of African-Americans in the Ozarks and the history of slavery. “I used the term Afro-American because it is the proper, functional definition of black people in America,” says Father Moses.

During the museum tour, he explains that until the 1930s there was a thriving African-American community in the Ozarks. “Around the turn of the century, the population could have been as much as 40 percent Afro-American,” he explains. “The lime quarries brought a lot of people and their slaves to Ash Grove, and before the Atlantic-Pacific railway came to Springfield, it would have been a toss up as to which would be the dominant city,” he adds.

The ancestors of Father Moses arrived here when Nathan Boone (yes, Daniel’s son) moved to Ash Grove along with his family and slaves. Family tradition says that Father Moses’s great-grandmother, Caroline Boone (born in 1848), was the child of a relationship between Nathan Boone and one of his slaves, Marie. Since birth records of slaves were not kept, there is no proof that Caroline was Nathan’s daughter. However, oral tradition and authentication by respected community elders over the past century have served to preserve this story. Within the Ash Grove community, it seems common knowledge that there are two branches on Nathan Boone’s family tree.

“Most people aren’t aware that there is a black side of the Boone family,” says Father Moses. “But Marie was a famed quilt-maker and was known for her unique patterns.” People in the Ozarks knew Marie and Caroline and would visit the Boone homestead to see their handiwork.

New generations of patchwork-lovers are now coming to the Afro-American Heritage Museum to see these heirloom treasures. Many of the quilts that Marie and Caroline Boone made, both before and after emancipation, are on display. There are others that are very rare and, according to oral history, date back to the Underground Railroad. There is a quilt top, in the double wedding ring pattern, that Caroline refused to finish because she didn’t want to complete something in freedom that was started in slavery.

Photos line the walls of the tiny museum, telling the story of Father Moses’ ancestry. Caroline Boone’s husband, William Berry, was a free black man who built the farm where Father Moses and his family currently live. It is adjacent to the Berry Cemetery, originally called the Slave, Indian and Pauper Cemetery, listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

The faces of Father Moses’s family remind visitors that black men served in the military alongside white men from this part of the state and were a vital part of our nation’s history. His great grandfather served in the Missouri Sixth Calvary and was the only black man in his unit. He was also the only man in the unit not to receive a pension for his service.

In addition to his photos and family artifacts, Father Moses is the keeper of many other items that help preserve the history of African-American people. He’s been given photos of black people who once lived in the Ozarks but whose identities have been lost over time.

A visit to the Afro-American Heritage Museum is an opportunity to see our history from another perspective. It is the chance to see a world-class collection in a small space run by one man who is dedicated to seeing that his personal history serves as a point of reconciliation between the races.