The next meeting of the Tazewell County Genealogical and Historical Society will be Tuesday, March 11th at 7 PM. Author Rick Klinedinst of Canton will present “Camp Ellis: Once a City – Not Forgotten.” This will be a great program so don’t miss it. Meetings are open to the public.

TCGHS is also hosting a FamilySearch class on March 29th that requires pre-registration. See website for details.

All history is local until it is woven together with other stories to become part of the National fabric and there is no aspect of National history that doesn’t touch Tazewell County. Since this edition will be released at the start of Women’s History Month, it seemed appropriate to include a story about the Female Anti-Slavery Society in this month’s column.

Ladies Take Action in 1844
The story of the organizational meeting ran in the Western Citizen on 20 June 1844. The meeting took place at the Main St. Presbyterian church on 23 May 1844 and the entire column is long but the local attendees mentioned were as follows: Mrs. Codding-Chair, Mrs. Davis-Secretary, Committee: Mrs. Neeley, Mrs. Losey, and Mrs. Pettengill. These ladies ran the meeting then the Society proceeded to the election of officers for the coming year, when the following were duly chosen:

Mrs. Lydia Lewis, Putnam Co.; Mrs. Mary Kellogg, Galesburg; Mrs. Irene Allan, Peoria; Mrs. A. Hurlburt, Lowell; Mrs. Lovejoy and Mrs. Crittenden, Princeton; Mrs. Losey and Mrs. Kellogg, Galesburg; Mrs. Chapman and Mrs. Walker, Canton; Mrs. M. B. Davis and Mrs. L Pettengill, Peoria; Mrs. W. Willard and Mrs. John Roberts, Pleasant Grove, Tazewell Co.; Mrs. Willard and Mrs. A B Lewis, Washington, Tazewell Co.; Mrs. Ranney and Mrs. Hurlburt, Mossville, Tazewell [Morseville, Woodford]; Mrs. L. L. Whipple Mount Hope; Mrs. Erastus Wright, Mrs. L Kegwin and Mrs. F Francis, Springfield. [This is not a complete list but only those close to Tazewell Co.]

The Male Anti-Slavery Society celebrated their 7th anniversary in 1844. The first meeting had taken place in Alton just a week before Lovejoy’s murder.

The 26 July 1842 Western Citizen listed among its agents the Rev. R. Barnes of Washington and R. Grosvenor of Pekin. The first named was Rev. Romulus Barnes. He was born in Bristol, Connecticut in 1800 and died in Newark, Illinois in 1846. He came to Illinois as a Missionary in 1831 where he spent three years at Canton, nine years at Washington, a year at DuPage and the last two at Newark. He was an anti-slavery activist and he is mentioned frequently in local works of the era.

The other man, Roswell Grosvenor, was born in Ashford, Connecticut in 1789 and was married first to Harriet L Chipman with whom he had at least 4 children. Harriet died at her home in Sand Prairie, Tazewell county, in 1841 after falling from a carriage. Grosvenor then married a widow, Nancy Gordon Walker, who was born in New Hampshire in 1799. She had married Robert Walker (1788-1839) in New Hampshire in 1925 and the couple had not been in Tazewell very long when Robert died, leaving her to raise four children.

Lady Is the Landowner in 1850
Grosvenor and Walker were married at Pleasant Grove, Tazewell county in 1841 by Reverend Hurlburt. Grosvenor had purchased property in both Dillon and Sand Prairie townships but at the time of his death in 1866, did not own any land. Evidently, when he married Nancy, he moved into her home as she is listed as the individual owning real estate in the 1850 census. No burial record can be found for Roswell and Harriet. However, he’s listed frequently in two publications of the day: Genius of Liberty and Western Citizen.

In the 14 October 1842 Western Citizen there is a published letter from Grosvenor describing events that had taken place at a Washington church. Again, the column is long but concludes with “taking advantage of darkness not to be recognized, [they] prepared themselves with stones or brick bats to give me a salute when I mounted my horse to return home. Several of their missiles took effect—one rather severely in my side; but as no bones were broken, I escaped … Yours for freedom of thought, word and action, in the cause of mercy.”

R. Grosvenor
Grosvenor’s name appears in nearly every issue of the newspapers since he was their local agent as well as Secretary of the Society. Among the ads were meeting notices such as:

THE QUARTERLY MEETING OF THE TAZEWELL CO. ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY WILL BE ATTENDED AT WOODROW’S SCHOOL HOUSE IN SAND PRAIRIE, ON THE SEVENTH DAY OF MAY NEXT, AT 11 O’CLOCK, A.M. WM T ALLAN, THE STATE SOCIETY’S AGENT, AND THE FRIENDS OF THE CAUSE GENERALLY, ARE INVITED AND EXPECTED TO ATTEND.

R. GROSVENOR, SECRETARY

It was later reported that the meeting at Woodrow’s school house was opened by prayer with the President, Luther Waters, in the chair. The meeting was well attended by the friends of Liberty, and many from different parts of the county.

Luther Waters and His Daughters
Two of Luther’s daughters were married to men that formed the heart of the UGRR in Tazewell county. Mary was Mrs. Josiah Matthews and Ann was Mrs. John M Roberts. Both men had their graves marked as Underground Railroad conductors. Daughter Harriet was Mrs. Enoch Emerson and Sarah was Mrs. Joel Clark. 

Other issues of the newspapers listed Sam Woodroe, Dr. Stockwell and the Reverends Barnes and Babbit as agents.

Finally, you should know one more thing about Mrs. Nancy Grosvenor: Her oldest daughter, Sarah Walker (1829-1902), was married to Dr. Daniel Cheever 4 November 1852 in Tazewell county by S. S. Martin, a Baptist Minister. Cheever’s name should be familiar to all as he was active in the local Underground Railroad, had an office in Pekin, was a founding member of the Union League and was one of three local men that served as secret bodyguards for President Lincoln. The Walker and Cheever families are all buried in Mt. Hope cemetery in Urbana which happens to be on the University of Illinois campus.

Four years ago, TCGHS began researching and documenting all the families involved in local anti-slavery work. A different group was featured in each issue of the TCGHS Monthly newsletter for two or three years. At the same time, events were being held in local cemeteries to mark the graves of the folks who were believed to be conductors and station agents. It would not be surprising to learn that the Grosvenors and Walkers helped fugitives along the journey. We’re out of column space but any questions about the local abolitionists may be directed to TCGHS. 

Many of the families that were thought to be abolitionists are listed in the pages of the Genius of Liberty and Western Citizen, both Illinois anti-slavery newspapers.

The Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society is an award-winning 501c3, all volunteer organization that has been in continuous service to our members and the public for 47 years. TCGHS operates an archive, library, and research facility at 719 N. 11th St., Pekin. Visit our website at www.tcghs.org to learn more about us. If you have any point of interest that you would like to know more about, stop in at TCGHS or drop us a line.