Arlington teacher will walk from Nebraska City to Chicago, retracing path of former slaves — or 'freedom seekers'

They fled slavery in Nebraska on Thanksgiving night in 1858, running for their lives.

The two women crossed the Missouri River on a skiff piloted by a sympathizer. Once in Iowa, they relied on the goodwill of strangers who hid them inside covered wagons and safe houses along their fraught journey to Chicago. Behind them hurried a prominent Nebraska City man, their owner, in hot pursuit.

Now, a century and a half later, a teacher from this Washington County town just northwest of Omaha wants to follow their path.

Arlington High history teacher Barry Jurgensen is planning to trace the escape of the two ex-slaves — he calls them freedom seekers — whose names were Celia and Eliza. He has plotted a 500-mile, monthlong journey that he will take mostly by foot from Nebraska City to Chicago. Where he can, Mr. Jurgensen will camp outside the places used by the women on the Underground Railroad.

Right now, he’s raising money and training for the trek, which means strapping on a pack and hiking around Arlington or west Omaha, where he lives with his wife and two small children.

The 32-year-old is embarking upon this journey for a few reasons.

First, it’s another way that he can take a subject that may seem dead and buried and bring it to life for his students.

Second, by taking the arduous journey himself, he can get a sense of what the women went through.

Third, he can raise awareness and money to help a modern-day abolitionist group, the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives. The Atlanta-based nonprofit is focused on preventing and eradicating a form of slavery that exists today — sex trafficking. ...