ARCHER ALEXANDER

Over five years ago Bill Baumgartner, Superintendent of the St. Peter’s U.C.C. Cemetery located at 2101 Lucas and Hunt Avenue, in Normandy (St. Louis County) located the record that established that Archer Alexander is buried at St. Peters U.C.C. Cemetery in an unmarked gravesite. It was he who then, established that there should be another location at St. Peter’s U.C.C. Cemetery for a memorial for Archer Alexander. No one requested it, it was a very generous donation from the cemetery. A short while later, on February 28, 2019, award-winning author Dorris Keeven-Franke shared this information with Keith Winstead, a descendant of Archer Alexander by his son Wesley, and shared a notarized death certificate from the City of St. Louis proving that Archer Alexander was buried in St. Peter’s U.C.C. Cemetery. Members of the family were visiting St. Louis, Missouri for the first time and meeting with Keeven-Franke who was sharing sites at that time associated with Archer Alexander’s life. Chad Davis with St. Louis Public Radio shared the story which you can listen to at https://archeralexander.blog/louisville-family-learns-about-their-ties/

More than four years passed, when in April of 2023, Bill Baumgartner and Dorris Keeven-Franke, were discussing Archer Alexander with the Midwest Regional Director Barry Jurgensen, of the National Park Services, National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, and they agreed that a Memorial at St. Peter’s U.C.C. Cemetery was needed. This was shared with Keith Winstead at that time. Then that September of 2023 Archer Alexander’s Burial site was listed on the NPS National Under Railroad Network to Freedom!

Discussions with the nationally recognized Abraham Mohler of St. Louis began and a design began to take shape! The St. Louis Arts Chamber of Commerce, and Sandy Brooks, the Executive Director of this recognized 501C3 took on being the fundraising arm of this project so that all donations are tax deductible. Members of the family were kept informed. On April 14,2024, after 148 years had passed since the Emancipation Memorial was first unveiled in Washington, D.C. by President U.S. Grant with Archer Alexander, a new Archer Alexander Memorial was unveiled at the National Park Service Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site in St. Louis. The memorial to Archer Alexander shares the inspiring story of an enslaved man who has become an American Icon! The new memorial, designed by Abraham Mohler will be placed at St. Peter’s U.C.C. Cemetery in St. Louis, where the Archer Alexander Burial site is already listed on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

The  National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program honors, preserves and promotes the history of resistance to enslavement through escape and flight, which continues to inspire people worldwide. Through its mission, the Network to Freedom helps to advance the idea that all human beings embrace the right to self-determination and freedom from oppression. 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., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada.

The Network to Freedom shares the story of Archer Alexander’s burial site of St. Peter’s U.C.C. Cemetery:

Archer Alexander, a freedom seeker enslaved in St. Charles, Missouri, was first captured in February 1863 when sixteen men made their attempt for freedom at Howell’s Ferry on the Missouri River. Running for his life, as he had overheard his enslaver Richard Pitman, and other area men, plotting to destroy a vital railroad bridge nearby he had informed the Union Troops. Escaping, he made his way to St. Louis and the home of an abolitionist named 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 1865, when President Lincoln was assassinated, a fund for a memorial to Lincoln was initiated by Charlotte Scott. The Western Sanitary Commission assisted the formerly enslaved with this and requested the image of the enslaved man be that of Archer Alexander. The Emancipation Memorial was dedicated on April 14, 1876, in Washington, DC’s Lincoln Park. December 8, 1880, seventy-four-year-old Archer Alexander passed away, and following a funeral at Washington Metropolitan AME Zion Church was buried in an unmarked grave in St. Peters United Church of Christ Cemetery. 

If you want to be part of this wonderful project please visit https://stlouisartschamberofcommerce.org/ today to show your support and donate now!