The Todd House is a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that is preserved as a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a variety of ...

that was the home to abolitionist and Congregationalist minister, John Todd. The house is located on Park Street in

Tabor, Iowa Tabor is a city in Fremont County and extends northward into Mills County in the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 1,014 at the time of the 2020 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of ...

. It was built in 1853 around the time when Todd moved to Tabor as a co-founder of Tabor College and the town of Tabor.

John Brown John Brown most often refers to: *John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859 John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to: Academia * John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...

visited the home around the time of his raids, and the house served as a stop on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...

prior to the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

. John Todd served as a model for the grandfather of the main character in the 2004

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

winning book, ''

Gilead Gilead or Gilad (, ; ''Gilʿāḏ'', , ''Jalʻād'') is the ancient, historic, biblical name of the mountainous northern part of the region of Transjordan.''Easton's Bible Dictionary'Galeed''/ref> The region is bounded in the west by the J ...

''. The house is a two-story frame

clapboard Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of those terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'', in modern Am ...

structure. Todd's House was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1975. It is currently maintained as a museum by the Tabor Historical Society.

References

External links

Museum website
Houses completed in 1853 National Register of Historic Places in Fremont County, Iowa Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Museums in Fremont County, Iowa Houses on the Underground Railroad Underground Railroad in Iowa Historic house museums in Iowa Houses in Fremont County, Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa {{Iowa-museum-stub