Born in Virginia in 1806, and taken to Missouri in 1829, he worked as a carpenter and in the brickyards, building houses of stone and brick. He and his wife Louisa would raise a family of ten children, and Muhammad Ali became his great-great-great-grandson. Then in 1863, after overhearing a plot to destroy the most vital railroad bridge in Missouri, he risked his life to inform the Union Army. Forced to flee for his life, he and fifteen other freedom seekers crossed at the Halls Ferry crossing. For this, he became the last fugitive slave to be given his freedom by the Union on September 24, 1863. In 1876, the Western Sanitary Commission he became the slave seen rising with Abraham Lincoln on the only memorial in Washington, D.C., raised by the formerly enslaved to “their best friend”. He died in 1880 and was buried in an unmarked common lot grave. Today, the Archer Alexander Memorial Foundation has commissioned sculptor Abraham Mohler to create a beautiful memorial to Archer Alexander. The Foundation is raising funds to erect a monument that shares the courage, strength, and resilience of this American hero, who will rise and say

“They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them or plant and others eat, for as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune: for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them.”

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The memorial will be placed at the St. Peter’s United Church of Christ Cemetery located in Normandy (St. Louis County), Missouri, where he is buried. With this in mind, the Memorial will be a permanent visual reminder of this incredible history.

When historians revealed to the family in February of 2019, that St. Peter’s U.CC. Cemetery was the final resting place of Archer Alexander, the cemetery immediately offered a location for a memorial to this American hero. In February of 2023, the cemetery was listed, with the help of St. Peter’s Superintendent Bill Baumgartner, on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. As Archer Alexander’s gravesite is unmarked, the cemetery has graciously offered a beautiful, highly visible location for a memorial, near the cemetery entrance, a beautiful site that offers a peaceful location to share the story of Archer’s life.

In April of 2024, after several discussions with all of the known descendants, this design was chosen. Family members met with the sculptor, Abraham Mohler, whose studio is in St. Louis. Mohler has designed not only the monument of Archer, but the reflection plaza that surrounds it. His talent is nationally recognized, with beautiful works of art that can be seen in parks, cemeteries and plazas around the country. His talent is seen everywhere, and in April that year, fundraising for a memorial began in earnest. In July of 2026, the Archer Alexander Memorial Foundation was founded for the purpose of raising funds for the Memorial and preserving the history of Archer Alexander.