ARCHER ALEXANDER

On September 24, 1863…

Archer Alexander had overheard area Confederates plotting to destroy a local wooden railroad bridge over the Peruque Creek in St. Charles County that was a vital link for the Union Army. He risked his life to inform them of the impending danger, and saved hundreds of lives.

When it was discovered he was the informant , he and sixteen other freedom seekers would cross the Missouri River at Howell’s Ferry, part of the Underground Railroad.

He found refuge in St. Louis in the home of abolitionist and Unitarian Minister, Rev. William Greenleaf Eliot, a founder of Washington University. On September 24, 1863 Archer would be give his freedom, by the Second Confiscation Act, for his services to the Military.

In 1876, Archer Alexander would become the National icon for Emancipation, on the Memorial to Lincoln erected by the formerly enslaved, in Washington, D.C. in Lincoln Park.

When Archer Alexander died in 1880, he would be hidden in an unmarked grave in the public common lots in St. Peter’s U.C.C. Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.

In 1885, Eliot authored a small slave narrative of the life of this heroic freedom seeker, however certain details of his life were left out.

In 2022, City of St. Louis Mayor Tishara Jones, City of St. Charles Mayor Dan Borgmeyer, and St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann all declared September 24^th to be Archer Alexander’s Day of Freedom.

SEPTEMBER 24 IS HEREBY PROCLAIMED ARCHER ALEXANDER DAY

In 2023 his burial site was listed on the National Underground Railroad to Freedom Network to Freedom and in 2025 the Program Archer Alexander and the Underground Railroad was added to its list of programs.

A drive has begun to place a beautiful Memorial at St. Peter’s UCC Cemetery by the incredibly talented sculptor Abraham Mohler. For more about the life of Archer Alexander, or to donate to the Archer Alexander Memorial see https://archeralexander.blog/ for those links.

September is NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD MONTH