Alton in Madison County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)
Elijah Parish Lovejoy
Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), April 24, 2019
Born in Albion, Maine, Lovejoy graduated from Waterville (now Colby) College in 1826. He moved the following year to St. Louis, where he taught school and began his career as a journalist, in 1832. Lovejoy decided to be come a minister and returned to the East to study at Princeton Theological Seminary.
In November, 1833, Lovejoy began editing a religious newspaper, the St. Louis Observer. Lovejoy's antislavery views so enraged proslavery Missourians that he fled with his newspaper to Illinois. Three presses were thrown into the Mississippi River. Yet Lovejoy persisted in publishing the Alton Observer. He was shot dead while defending the warehouse in which a fourth press had been stored. His body buried on his thirty-fifth birthday in an unmarked grave at Alton Cemetery was later exhumed and reinterred at its present location on a hillside north of the Lovejoy Monument.
Two others were wounded. Allies were William Harned, Edward Breath, George H. Whitney, Enoch Long, H. D. Davis, Thaddeus B. Hurlbut, Amos B. Roll, James Morse Jr., George H. Walworth, Reuben Gerry, George T. Brown, D.F. Randall, W.G. Atwood, Royal Weller, John S. Noble, D. Burt Loomis, Henry Tanner. Traditions add Owen Lovejoy, Elijah's brother, Rueben D. Earley, L. Norman Brown, John P. Anderson, a free black man and a Baptist Minister.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Abolition & Underground RR • Cemeteries & Burial Sites • Churches & Religion • Communications. A significant historical month for this entry is November 1833.
Location. 38° 53.402′ N, 90° 9.959′ W. Marker is in Alton, Illinois, in Madison County. Marker can be reached from the intersection of East 5th Street and Monument Avenue, on the left when traveling east. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1301 East 5th Street, Alton IL 62002, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Freedom's Martyr (here, next to this marker); a different marker also named Elijah Parish Lovejoy (a few steps from this marker); The Cost of Freedom (about 800 feet away, measured in a direct line); A National Cemetery System (approx. 0.2 miles away); Alton National Cemetery (approx. 0.2 miles away); Scott Bibb and the Alton School Desegregation Case (approx. 0.2 miles away); Lyman Trumbull House (approx. 0.8 miles away); Haskell Playhouse (approx. 0.8 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Alton.
Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), April 24, 2019
Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), April 24, 2019
Credits. This page was last revised on November 16, 2020. It was originally submitted on May 2, 2019, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. This page has been viewed 295 times since then and 27 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on May 2, 2019, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. 4, 5. submitted on November 14, 2020, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland.