REPRINT: New York Times, Oct 24, 1860
Murder and supposed kidnapping
A white man, who gave his name as Jo Wilder, came here about 26th or 27th of September, called on several of the free colored people here, and wished to hire them to go to Des Moines City, where he and his brother had a hotel and farm - some to work on the farm and the others in the hotel. On the 27th he engaged Jerry Boyd and wife, two men, Jacobs and Dryden, who had been running on the river, to go. Jerry had a colored girl about 14 years old, and a white child two years old, living with him. The white man had a covered wagon, in which Jerry, his wife, and the two girls started off on the 28th. The two men were to meet them at Dyersville, on the D. & P. R. R., but waited a day or two without seeing them, and returned. We heard no more of jerry and family, till the 13th of October, when Mr. Howard, our Postmaster, received a letter from Warren Spurrier, of the town of Solon, Johnson County, Iowa, saying that on the 30th of September a wagon answering to the description of the
one in which Jerry was, passed there, going up the Iowa River, with two white men, a colored man, and woman and girl, about 16 years of age, and a small girl; that they had stayed over night in an untenanted building near there; that on the 3d a boy saw a man lying on the side of the road where the wagon passed, and supposed he was drunk. On the 8th, another boy saw the same man, and found he was dead. An inquest was held on the 10th of October, and found that he had been murdered by a blow on the head; clothed as Jerry Boyd generally was; had several articles in his pocket which he was known to have, and a receipt signed by Jas. W. Bailey, of this place, to Jerry Boyd, for $20 - showing plainly that there could be no mistake about the identity. Jerry, his wife and colored girl were all free, and have lived in Galena a number of years, (the two former 15 or 20 years,) and bore irreproachable characters. There is no doubt here that the white men were kidnappers, and that the colored people, as well as the white girl, may be sold into Slavery. - St. Louis News
