ARCHER ALEXANDER

September is National Underground Railroad Month. Archer Alexander, the Last Fugitive Slave in Missouri, was an enslaved hero of the Civil War who was given his freedom by the Union Army for his services. In 1863, he overheard the Confederates plan to destroy a local North Missouri Railroad bridge, which would have killed hundreds of troops, and destroyed one of the Union Army’s vital links for supplies and funds. He risked his life to inform Lt. Col Arnold Krekel’s Home Guard at the Union Fort over Peruque Creek in St. Charles County. When the local secesh began to search for the informant, he and sixteen other enslaved men used the local underground railroad route to cross the frozen river in the dead of winter at Howell’s Ferry. Archer Alexander would manage to reach the safety of the home of an abolitionist named Rev. William Greenleaf Eliot, a founder of Washington University. It was there that he was given his freedom on September 24, 1863, for his bravery.  Then on April 14, 1876, he became the slave that would represent Emancipation on the Freedom Memorial to Lincoln that was dedicated by the formerly enslaved people in Washington D.C. Archer Alexander is the Great-great-great grandfather of Muhammad Ali.

Join us as we commemorate his Annual day of Freedom, on Sunday, September 20, 2026, at 1:00 pm at the St. Peter’s U.C.C. Cemetery at 2101 Lucas and Hunt Drive. Archer Alexander is buried in an unmarked grave at St. Peter’s UCC Cemetery. A drive has begun by the Archer Alexander Memorial Foundation to erect a memorial by the famous sculptor from St. Louis, Abraham Mohler. Archer Alexander’s burial site is one of over 800 listings on the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, with fourteen listings in the St. Louis region.  The event is free and the entire public is invited to join us for this beautiful program for all ages and is asked to please bring blankets and lawn chairs.