Laura Haviland’s statue is a Michigan city’s landmark

Raisin Township and all of Lenawee County in Michigan continue to embrace pioneer woman Laura Smith Haviland for her contributions to the Underground Railroad, before and after the Civil War.

She aided more than a thousand enslaved people to escape bondage…and then assisted countless more to establish their lives as freedmen after emancipation. 

In the Lenawee County seat of Adrian, a statue memorializes Laura Haviland, who was affectionately called “Aunt Laura.”

 

An Adrian city government spokesperson said: “Laura Haviland is probably the best-known and most-admired person who has ever lived in Lenawee County.” 

“Mrs. Haviland’s life was dedicated to helping others. She was a teacher, a nurse, a missionary, an abolitionist, a humanitarian, a suffragette, a social reformer and a mother.”

 

Laura Haviland died in 1898 at age 89. A Haviland Memorial Association formed to advance the idea of erecting a monument to preserve the legacy of Laura Haviland. 

Laura’s statue was unveiled in 1909 on the lawn of city hall. Chiseled from 10 tons of white granite, the monument stands 9 feet, 3 inches tall. The sculpture depicts Aunt Laura seated on a chair, holding her autobiography, “A Woman’s Life-Work: Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Haviland.” 

She is dressed in traditional Quaker garb including a bonnet with a bow and ribbon. On the pedestal is the inscription: “A Tribute to a Life Consecrated to the Betterment of Humanity.”

 

Below Laura, a drinking fountain was designed into the statue base, with the biblical verse from Matthew: “I was thirsty and ye gave me drink.”

 

Originally, there was a manhole near the statue where blocks of ice could be put on the water pipes in summer to cool the water. Kids who rode their bikes to the library, located adjacent to city hall, would often pause, hop off and drink from the fountain. We would talk to Aunt Laura. She would give us a wink…or so it seemed. 

Dan Cherry, a local historian, said the Laura Haviland statue remains hallowed ground, “a reminder of her life works both local and afar.”

 

In 2018, Laura Haviland was enshrined in the National Abolition Hall of Fame in Peterboro, N.Y. The museum showcases efforts and actions by Americans who fought against slavery. 

Located near Syracuse, the museum is contained within a historic Presbyterian church that hosted the inaugural meeting of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society in 1835.

 

Laura Haviland is one of just 28 abolitionists who have been honored as inductees. Dr. Milton C. Sernett, a history professor at Syracuse University, said: “Laura Haviland’s rich history needs to be illuminated.” 

“Everywhere that Laura Smith Haviland traveled, she was exposed to danger,” he wrote. “So many people recognized her…her brave deeds…her genius in securing safety for fleeing slaves when she was confronted and thwarted by irate slave hunters and slave owners.”

 

Dr. Sernett said Laura Haviland’s “status and prominence in the abolition movement” resulted in a $3,000 bounty placed on her head by a Tennessee tavern owner who was enraged by Laura Haviland’s “insolence” and attempts to “steal his slaves.” 

Laura Haviland made her position clear: “I would not…become instrumental in returning one escaped slave to bondage. I firmly believe…all men are created free and equal, and that no human being has a right to make merchandise of others born in humbler stations and place them on a level with horses, cattle and sheep, knocking them off the auction-block to the highest bidder, sundering family ties and outraging the purest and tenderest feelings of human nature.” 

She was a feisty one, that Aunt Laura.