ARCHER ALEXANDER

Grave Spaces

“Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.” ― Phaedrus

In the fall of 2017, I received a cryptic text message that asked, “do you know where Archer Alexander is buried?” from a descendant who was the family historian. I’ve been a professional genealogist for years, specializing in locating descendants for Probate attorneys. Our first conversation revealed that they had relied upon the well-known biography by the abolitionist Rev. William Greenleaf Eliot,[i] a Unitarian minister and a founder of Washington University. Eliot’s Archer Alexander: From Slavery to Freedom[ii]was a small biography published in 1885, shortly after Alexander’s death.  When I discovered that this reference which has been used for over 100 years by historians as an accurate biography, wasn’t, I began a deep dive into the life of Archer Alexander. I discovered that as Mark Twain said, “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.” I also learned that there was no possibility of Archer Alexander being buried at Centenary Cemetery as Eliot had stated.

African American burials, both enslaved and free, in 19th Century St. Louis were seldom marked, and sometimes their location was even hidden. There could be several possible reasons for this. One being the more common occurrence of the desecration or destruction of graves at that time. Burial records are sometimes, but not always available.  Sometimes graveyards and cemeteries have been moved due to the City’s changing laws and development.[iii] In the early 1800s the City’s Ordinances governing established and newly established burying grounds insisted that graveyards and cemeteries had to be a suitable distance from cities because of the belief at that time that the fumes permeating from the graves were contagious and filled with disease. Few blacks had an obituary, and usually, the notice of their death was only the result of a particularly hideous or gruesome disaster. Then there was the cost of headstones being out of reach for many, which often resulted in the use of fieldstones or wooden markers that have decayed or become lost over time.  The result of all of this is, no matter what cemetery, the lack of a marker often leads to obscurity and misunderstandings. Researchers wanting to document their ancestors’ gravesites must persevere, as records do exist. Here are three well-known African American couples in St. Louis, Missouri, whose perseverance and lives as freedom seekers are well-documented, yet the history of their burials has become obscured or tangled. Sadly, none of these couples are buried with their spouses, and only by carefully examining each story are we even able to begin to understand how that happened.

John Berry Meachum

On February 21, 1854, the records of Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum[iv] in St. Louis, Missouri show that the beloved well-known African American Baptist minister named John Berry Meachum was interred in Lot Number 410 in Block number 116, in the Crow Section.[v] His death on the 19th of February had been reported in newspapers as far away as New York. Fortunately, in 1846, Meachum, pastor of the African Baptist Church, in St. Louis, had already published his own autobiography in An Address to all the Colored Citizens of the United States:

 “born a slave, in Goochland county, Virginia, May 3d, 1789. I belonged to a man by the name of Paul Meachum, who moved to North Carolina, and lived there nine years. He then moved to Hardin county, Kentucky, where I still remained a slave with him. He was a good man and I loved him, but could not feel myself satisfied, for he was very old, and looked as if death was drawing near to him. So I proposed to him to hire my time, and he granted it. By working in a saltpetre cave I earned enough to purchase my freedom…I commenced preaching in 1821, and was ordained as a minister of the gospel in 1825. From that time to this, I have been the pastor of the African Baptist Church in St. Louis, which has now more than five hundred members. The Sunday school has an attendance from one hundred and fifty to three hundred.”[vi]

John Berry Meachum

After John Berry Meachum suffered a heart attack while addressing his church from his pulpit in the First African Baptist Church located on Almond Street[vii]  he was buried in the Baptist Minister’s lot, with eleven other Baptist ministers.  It is unknown who placed a beautiful obelisk to mark his grave, perhaps it may have been his wife, Mary. On the reverse is a cenotaph[viii] because none of them, Mary, or sons John and William are buried there.  

Dred Scott

A freedom seeker,

“Born in Southampton, Virginia, in his youth, Dred Scott was known as “Sam.” He later changed his name to Dred Scott. He moved with his master to Huntsville, Alabama and later to St. Louis, Missouri. In 1831 his owner, Peter Blow, died and John Emerson, a surgeon in the U.S. Army, bought him. He accompanied his new master to Illinois (a free state) and Wisconsin (a territory). While in what is now Minnesota, around 1836 he met and married Harriett Robinson. In 1843 Emerson died and left his estate to his widow Irene Emerson, who refused Scott’s demand for his freedom. He then obtained the assistance of two attorneys who helped him to sue for his freedom in court. On March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the majority opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case. Seven of the nine justices agreed that Dred Scott should remain a slave. “[ix]

Dred Scott Heritage Foundation

Peter Blow’s son, Taylor Blow was a childhood friend of Scott and had helped pay Scott’s legal fees through the years. After the Supreme Court’s decision, the former masters’ sons and his wife purchased Scott and his wife Harriet to set them free. Dred Scott died on September 17, 1858, and was buried in St. Louis’ Wesleyan Cemetery,[x] established by Centenary Methodist Church in 1847 as an African American Cemetery.[xi] Due to 19th Century laws regarding burials, cemeteries were closed as St. Louis grew larger, and had to be re-established further from the new city limits. Dred Scott was removed to Calvary Cemetery in 1867 to a gravesite (with adjoining sites on each side) purchased by Taylor Blow. During the 1950s a researcher named Father Edward Dowling discovered the records which gave the location of the grave, and the family placed a headstone at the grave. In 2023, an impressive memorial monument was placed by his family and the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation.[xii]

Louisa Alexander

Born enslaved after 1807[xiii] in Rockbridge County, Virginia in the household of Dr. Robert McCluer, Louisa was inherited by his daughter Nancy, the wife of James Alexander.  There Louisa met and customarily wed Archer Alexander, with whom she was brought to Dardenne Township in St. Charles County in 1829. Their enslaver James Alexander and his wife would die during the cholera epidemic in 1835, leaving instructions that their enslaved were not to be sold. By the mid-1840s, the property was divided amongst the heirs, and she was sold to James Naylor, the postmaster and owner of a large mercantile in Dardenne. In late 1863, Louisa sought freedom and made her way to St Louis to be reunited with her husband, using the Underground Railroad. She made her way to St. Louis with her youngest daughter, hidden in the back of a hay wagon driven by a German abolitionist.

According to author William G. Eliot, who later wrote:

His wife, Louisa, had died nearly a year before, under somewhat peculiar circumstances. She became anxious to visit her old home “to get her things;” that is, her bed and clothes, and little matters of furniture, that “Mr. Jim” sent word she could get if she would come for them. We advised her not to go, as they were not worth much, and there might be some risk involved; but she “honed” for them, and went. Two days after getting there, she was suddenly taken sick and died. The particulars could not be learned, but “the things” were sent down by the family. Archer mourned for her..” [xiv]

William Greenleaf Eliot

Whether Louisa actually died in Dardenne or St. Louis may never be known, and without that, the location of her burial can never be found. There has been speculation that foul play was involved in Louisa’s death as well. As there was no investigation and no records regarding her death, it is impossible to know.  She and Archer Alexander were the parents of ten children.[xv]

Mary Meachum

Born enslaved in Kentucky in 1805 [xvi], to a woman named Lucy, whose enslaver was named McAdams,[xvii] John Berry Meachum’s widow would pass away at her home on Tenth Street[xviii] on 8 August 1869.[xix]Her husband’s autobiography documents their marriage:

I married a slave in Kentucky, whose master soon took her to St. Louis, in Missouri. I followed her, arriving there in 1815, with three dollars in my pocket. Being a carpenter and cooper I soon obtained business, and purchased my wife and children.[xx]

John Berry Meachum

Her activities and work on the Underground Railroad,[xxi] are well documented. Years after her death, her entire estate, including her large two-story home on Tenth Street, which she and her husband John Barry Meachum had purchased was sold.[xxii] The estate was dispersed to her nieces and nephews. All were the children, and one grandchild, of her only sister Margaret McAdams, wife of Charles Pitman. John and Mary Meachum’s daughter Mary, and their two sons John and William Meachum had all preceded their mother in death. The location of her grave has not been found, and her husband’s monument marking his gravesite in Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum also serves as a cenotaph for Mary and her sons, as neither she nor the two son named are buried there.   

Harriet Robinson Scott

Harriet Robinson was born enslaved around 1820 in Virginia. Her enslaver Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro had taken her with him, when ordered to Fort Snelling, in Minnesota, a free territory in 1836. There she would meet Etheldred “Dred” Scott and marry him. The next year they were taken to Missouri by their enslaver Dr. John Emerson. After his death, they attempted to purchase freedom from his widow, Irene Sanford Emerson. When she refused, Harriet would file her own lawsuit for freedom, because by law, “as goes the mother, so goes the child.” She wanted her daughters to be free more than anything and knew it would improve the chance of that happening by filing her own suit. This was the beginning the most famous “freedom suit” that would ultimately change America’s history with its’ decision in 1857. She and her husband would ultimately be given their freedom by the Blow family. She would bear at least four children, but two sons would die young. Her daughters would know freedom, due to their mother’s efforts. They would bury their mother at Greenwood Cemetery, which had begun in 1874, when she died June 17, 1876.[xxiii]

A few months after Harriet’s passing, her grave was re-opened for a grandson named Edward Madison, to be laid to rest with her. There was no stone placed upon the grave. Unfortunately, Greenwood suffered many years of neglect, physically and in administration in the late 20th Century.  It wouldn’t be until over 100 years later that researcher Etta Daniels, founder of the Friends of Greenwood, determined through records found at that time, that Harriet Robinson Scott was interred at Greenwood. Then armed with that information, when it was learned that Edward Madison had been laid to rest with his grandmother, the location of the grave was identified. A headstone now marks her gravesite.[xxiv]

Archer Alexander

Born in 1806[xxv] near Lexington, Virginia, Archer Alexander was a freedom seeker enslaved in St. Charles, Missouri, who was first captured in February 1863 when sixteen men made their attempt for freedom at Howell’s Ferry on the Missouri River. He was running for his life, as he had overheard his enslaver Richard H. Pitman, and other area men, plotting to destroy a vital railroad bridge nearby and had informed the Union Troops of what he’d heard. The Slave Patrol was after him, and if caught he most probably would have been lynched. Escaping, he made his way to St. Louis and the home of William Greenleaf Eliot, where his enslaver attempted to recapture him. As Missouri was under martial law, following a military investigation he was granted freedom, by September 24, 1863, through the provisions of Lincoln’s Second Confiscation Act.  In 1876, William G. Eliot and the Western Sanitary Commission would help the formerly enslaved people erect a monument to President Abraham Lincoln, and would see that the sculptor used Archer Alexander to portray the enslaved man rising.

Archer would live in St. Louis on Morgan Street until his death, on December 8, 1880. As a member of an African Methodist Church on Morgan, which was called Washington Chapel at that time, his funeral was held there before his interment at St. Peters Evangelical United Church of Christ Cemetery on Lucas and Hunt in Normandy, Missouri. There he would join his second wife Julia, whom had died the year before, in a Common Lot grave. This is a one-acre section of the cemetery, where hundreds are buried, sometimes with earlier interments, and there are no markers.  The Cemetery is providing a location for a memorial to this freedom seeker, which will soon be announced.

National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom

Dred Scott and Mary Meachum were freedom seekers who have received national recognition through the National Park Services’ National Uunderground Railroad Network to Freedom. In September of 2023, the burial location for Archer Alexander, St. Peters United Church of Christ, and Greenwood Cemetery, as the location of Harriet’s Scott’s grave have also been recognized. The program is a catalyst for innovation, partnerships, and scholarship connecting the diverse legacy of the Underground Railroad across boundaries and generations. The program consists of sites, programs, and facilities with a verifiable connection to the Underground Railroad. There are currently over 700 Network to Freedom locations in 39 states, plus Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands.[xxvi] Another new listing in St. Louis is the Tower Grove House at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

REFERENCES

Historians often work for years to discern the truths so carefully hidden and share their discoveries. Family historians love sharing the stories that Grandma told with the admonition, “We don’t talk about that” and expose the real story. Authors who “tell all” are often assured of being an instant best seller, but should one always be assured of the information’s accuracy just because it exists in print? Anyone who has ever used Social Media, or designed a website knows how easy it is to put their words out there. Monuments have been established to share the lives of those once idolized, but their stories have become muddled with the changing of society’s mores. Original and primary documents are necessary to tell the history accurately. And for that reason, I have chosen to add the references below to this post.

[i] URL https://archeralexander.blog/2023/01/23/william-greenleaf-eliot/ 10-16-22

[ii] William Greenleaf Eliot, THE STORY OF ARCHER ALEXANDERFROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM, Boston, Cupples and Upham & Co. 1885

[iii] City Ordinances for the City of St. Louis for the years 1843 #1250, 1850 #2393, 1859 #4389, 1878 #10990, 1882 #11868, and 1903 #21128 were consulted.

[iv] Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretuum is located at 4947 W. Florissant Road in St. Louis, MO  Their website is https://bellefontainecemetery.org/

[v] Burial records, Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum 4947 West Florissant Ave, St. Louis, MO 63115

[vi] An Address to all the Colored Citizens of the United States. By John B. Meachuum, Pastor of the African Baptist Church, St. Louis, MO, Philadelphia, King and Baird, 1846

[vii] St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, Missouri) · Tue, Feb 21, 1854 · Page 3

[viii] A tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of persons whose remains are elsewhere. Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

[ix] Dred Scott, Dred Scott Lives Website of the Dred Scott Foundation URL https://dredscottlives.org/dred-scott/ captured on 10-16-2023.

[x] The original cemetery for Centenary United Methodist Church was located at 19th and Franklin (now Dr. Martin Luther King Drive) in St. Louis City and called Wesleyan Cemetery. When that cemetery closed in the mid-nineteenth century, the graves were moved westward to Wesleyan Cemetery 2, located in midtown. A third move occurred about 1878 and Wesleyan Cemetery 3 opened in University City at Hanley and Olive. Information from the St. Louis Genealogical Society.

[xi] Founded in 1839 as part of the Fourth Street Methodist Episcopal Church, the congregation became known as First Methodist Episcopal Church South in 1844 because of a division in the Methodist church over slavery. They rented a chapel at 5th and Pine before building a church in the same location. The building they are using now dates from 1869 and is at the intersection of 16th and Pine (now called Plaza Square).In 1968, they merged with the Church of the United Brethren to become the Centenary United Methodist Church. Information from the St. Louis Genealogical Society.

[xii] See the website https://dredscottlives.org/ and information from an interview with Lynne Madison Jackson, founder of the Dred Scott Foundation.

[xiii] United States Federal Census, 1830; Census Place: St Charles, Missouri; Series: M19; Roll: 72; Page: 272; Family History Library Film: 0014853. She is one of five females aged 10-23 living with James Harvey Alexander in Dardenne Township.

[xiv] William Greenleaf Eliot, THE STORY OF ARCHER ALEXANDERFROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM, Boston, Cupples and Upham & Co. 1885

[xv] William Greenleaf Eliot, THE STORY OF ARCHER ALEXANDERFROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM, Boston, Cupples and Upham & Co. 1885

[xvi] 1850 U.S. Federal Census, National Archives, Washington D.C. Record Group Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group Num 29, Series Number M432; St. Louis Ward 4, St. Louis, Missouri; Roll 417; Page 49A

[xvii] St. Louis Missouri Probate Court, St. Louis, Missouri, Case File No. 8900, Filed 18th of August 1869 and recorded in Book No. 7, Page 265.

[xviii] St. Louis Missouri Probate Court, St. Louis, Missouri, Case File No. 8900, Filed 18th of August 1869 and recorded in Book No. 7, Page 265.

[xix] City of St. Louis Burial Permits, Vol.3, Page 102

[xx] An Address to all the Colored Citizens of the United States. By John B. Meachuum, Pastor of the African Baptist Church, St. Louis, MO, Philadelphia, King and Baird, 1846

[xxi] Daily Missouri Republican (St. Louis, Missouri) · Tue, May 22, 1855 · Page 3

[xxii] St. Louis Missouri Probate Court, St. Louis, Missouri, Case File No. 8900, Filed 18th of August 1869 and recorded in Book No. 7, Page 265.

[xxiii] This information is from the Greenwood Cemetery Preservation Association. 6571 Saint Louis Avenue Halladale MO researchers Etta Daniels and Shelley Morris.

[xxiv] This information is from the Greenwood Cemetery Preservation Association. 6571 Saint Louis Avenue Halladale MO researchers Etta Daniels and Shelley Morris.

[xxv] City Burial Records state that in Archer Alexander was age 74 when he died on December 8, 1880.

[xxvi] https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1205/index.htm

In addition to the above, the author wishes to thank Shelley Morris, Etta Daniels, Lynne Madison Jackson, Daniel Fuller, and Adele Heagney.

Dorris Keeven-Franke
, , , , ,

Leave a comment

Facebook /

Designed with WordPress