Local author John L. Hoh Jr. will present the Sterling-Rock Falls Historical Society’s April program “The Man With the Branded Hand”.

Hoh Jr. will present his program 2 p.m. Sunday, April 12, at the Lincoln Learning Center, 611 E. Third St., Sterling. The public is invited and refreshments will be served afterward.

People being branded is not widely known. In the old West, cows were branded but usually not people, at least by the government. In 1844 one man was branded by the Territory of Florida. At the base of the thumb on his right hand was branded an “SS.” This signified that the branded person was a “slave stealer.”

Meet Capt. Jonathan Walker, seaman by trade, who entered the history books when his hand was thus branded. Afterward he was known as “The Man With the Branded Hand”. John Greenleaf Whittier would immortalize him in a poem titled “The Branded Hand”. Whittier would describe the hand: “Its branded palm shall prophesy, ‘Salvation to the Slave!’”

Hoh Jr. is a Rock Falls resident and distant descendant of Captain Walker. This presentation contains family lore balanced with historical research. This presentation in Sterling is based on his presentation of Captain Walker at the National Abolitionist Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro, New York, when Walker was inducted into the museum.

Hoh Jr. is a published author with about 30 published titles, some dealing with the Underground Railroad. He is currently working on two books about the Underground Railroad along the Rock River – one focusing on Wisconsin and the other focusing on Illinois.