Veterans from Liberty included David Drake Blue, Merrit Withers, Alonzo “Lon” William Monroe, Sr., and James Allen Brooks. Born in Kentucky in 1818, David Drake Blue was moved to Liberty in the 1850s as part of Miles C. Drake’s enslaved estate and was recorded in census records as “mulatto.” On the 1850 Slave Schedule, he was listed as a “freedom seeker,” and in 1864 his enslaver enlisted him in the Union Army and received compensation as David’s lawful owner. David served for the next 19 months, and his Certificate of Disability for Discharge recorded the loss of his left index finger before enlistment. At age 54, he changed his surname to Blue, and his enlisted name, David Drake, appears on the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C., with fellow soldiers of the 67th Regiment of United States Colored Infantry; he was buried by his family in an unmarked grave. Merrit Withers, born in 1808, came from Kentucky to Liberty with his enslaver, Abijah Withers, and helped build a log house and cabins for enslaved African Americans on the family farm. In 1864, he joined the Union’s Missouri Colored Recruits at the Liberty recruiting office and served for the rest of the Civil War as a private in Company C, 67th Missouri Infantry Regiment. Remembered as proud of his Kentucky roots and importance in the Withers family, he was also a pillar of Mt. Zion First Baptist Church, known for overseeing large barbecues and political gatherings, and remained a staunch Republican although the Withers family sympathized with the Confederacy. Merrit Lane was named for him, the only street in Clay County honoring an African American pioneer, and descendants of the enslaved community on the Withers farm, including the Houstons and Birds, remained an integral part of Liberty for almost 200 years. Alonzo “Lon” William Monroe, Sr., born in Liberty in 1890 to Gable and Annie Monroe, attended Garrison School and belonged to First Baptist Church. He enlisted in the Army in 1918 as a private in Company G of the 805th Pioneer Infantry, a regiment of 916 African American men mainly from Kansas, Missouri, Louisiana, and Mississippi. In France he served in the “Bear Cats Unit,” performing road and light railroad construction, consolidating captured positions, tunneling, mining, wiring, dugout work, laying out buildings, and trench repair, and his unit took part in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and spent 39 consecutive days in action and other combat engineering activities. In 1930 he was listed in Liberty as a homeowner working as a lineman for an electric company, and he died in 1938 in Excelsior Springs, leaving his wife Amie Monroe and two surviving children. James Allen Brooks, born in 1923 to Eugene and Kathrine Brooks, served in the United States Army from April 22, 1943, until his honorable discharge on December 12, 1945. As a World War II cargo technician, he received the Asiatic Pacific Theater Campaign Ribbon, four Overseas Bars, a Victory Ribbon, and a Good Conduct Medal; Clay County veterans also took part in major D-Day operations including the Red Ball Express and the Utah Beach landings. Brooks later received the Liberty Martin Luther King Jr. Service Award in 2002 and the State of Missouri Older Workers award in 2007. A founding member of the Liberty Fellowship of the Concerned, he devoted more than 45 years to its social justice and charitable work, served First Baptist Church of Liberty for decades, and worked for more than 50 years at Commerce Bank of Liberty before retiring in 2010 at age 86.