Nance Legins-Costley

Nance Legins-Costley of Pekin and her three eldest children were the first enslaved persons Abraham Lincoln helped free. Nance was born in 1818 into indentured servitude in Kaskaskia, Illinois Territory. She was sold in 1827 in Springfield to Nathan Cromwell for $151, but she refused consent to the contract and was punished severely. When only 14 she challenged her servitude in court, but the Illinois Supreme Court ruled her the ward and servant of Cromwell, who brought her to Pekin in 1829. Cromwell later sold Nance to David Bailey of Pekin, who refused to pay the promissory note after Cromwell's death in 1836 since Nance said she was free. In the 184l Illinois Supreme Court case Bailey v. Cromwell, Bailey's attorney Abraham Lincoln argued successfully for the freedom of Nance and her children. Nance had married Benjamin Costley in- Pekin on Oct. 16, 1840. They lived at the southwest corner of Somerset and Amanda Streets, where they raised a family of five daughters and three sons: Amanda E. Eliza Jane, William Henry, Mary Jane, Leander B., Harriet E., Eliza Ann and James Willis. On July 19, 1849, Nance purchased the land their home occupied, becoming the first and only formerly enslaved woman to own land in Pekin. In his 1870 Pekin history, William H. Bates told Nance's story and wrote, “her presence and services have been indispensible on many a select occasion.” After 50 years in Pekin, she and her family moved to Peoria, where Nance died in 1892. Nance, her husband Ben and their son Leander were interred in the former Moffatt Cemetery in Peoria.