ST. CHARLES COUNTY HISTORY

By Dorris Keeven-Franke

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about

History happens. All stories, especially the difficult ones, need to be heard. Award winning author, a public historian, professional genealogist, and International speaker. Member of the Missouri Speakers Bureau and the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

Tag: slavery

  • Smith Ball, a freedom seeker

    Smith Ball, a freedom seeker

    Freedom seeker Smith Ball had fought at Fort Blakely in Alabama, The Battle of Blakeley was the final major battle of the Civil War, with surrender just hours after Grant had accepted the surrender of Lee at Appomatox in the afternoon of April 9, 1865.

  • Freedom Seeker Martin Boyd

    Freedom Seeker Martin Boyd

    On October 31, 1864, freedom seeker Martin Boyd, born in 1826, left the 300-acre plantation of Alexander Boyd and tried to make his way to George Senden’s store on Main Street in St. Charles, only to make it as far as Peruque Creek Fort at the Missouri Railroad Bridge. There Capt. L.D. Jay would enlist…

  • Elijah Lovejoy in St. Charles

    Elijah Lovejoy in St. Charles

    It would only be a few weeks later though when Lovejoy was revisited by another angry mob on November 7, 1837, in Gilman’s Warehouse in Alton. There Elijah Lovejoy was shot and murdered while trying to save his press.