Archer Alexander and the Underground Railroad

Historian and writer Dorris Keeven-Franke shares the story of Archer Alexander, a freedom seeker enslaved in St. Charles County who 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 once again 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 and 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. Alexander was buried in an unmarked grave in St. Peters United Church of Christ Cemetery in 1880 which is listed on the National Park Services National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

The Boone’s Lick Road

With the Louisiana Purchase and westward expansion in 1804, Americans would flood the new frontier by using early trails that the Buffalo and Osage Nation had used for years. By the time Missouri became a State in 1821, the residents were clamoring for surveyors to lay out better roadways for stagecoaches and caravans. The “Big Road” as it was called by early travelers soon became the route used to reach the Boone’s Lick region, the Sante Fe Trail, and points further west. Originally used by the Boone and Morrison families, to reach their all-important Salt Lick in Howard County, this program explains the reliance by early settlers on salt and how it was made. Soon Missouri was filled with thousands of families from the East and immigrants from Europe, flooding its’ valleys. The stories of the people who settled the towns and cities along it, sharing the difficulties our ancestors faced in establishing Missouri. As the State grew, so did the history. Dorris Keeven-Franke will share the important history of Boone’s Lick Road, its’ towns, the people who lived along it, and what makes it so fascinating today. As she shares stories of its earliest residents, those who traveled it, and those who built towns along it, we learn about all of the culture and heritage that made Missouri home. Explaining its earliest route, and how it changed according to society’s needs, she will explain what remains today of our State’s first major roadway. This program is filled with maps, photos, and traces of the places and cultures that still share the stories of the road today.