Dorris Keeven-Franke
December 28 at 9:10 PM
As a historian and writer in St. Charles County I was familiar with the story of the slave Archer Alexander, and his heroic deed during the Civil War. In 1863, the “uppish” slave had overheard a plot to destroy a Railroad bridge near his home. How many of us would be brave enough to run five miles in the dark to warn the Union troops – if we were a slave and knowing what would happen if we were caught?
In 1885, William Greenleaf Eliot, a Unitarian minister and founder of Washington University wrote Archer Alexander – From Slavery to Freedom – March 30, 1863 which was published in Boston by Cupples, Upham and Company, that shared the story of Archer. Eliot explains that this is what 75-year-old Archer shared with 69-year-old Eliot in his last days, five years earlier. Eliot says that he is writing this book for his family, who also want to see the story of Archer shared with everyone. Archer Alexander had been immortalized as the emancipated slave kneeling beneath Abraham Lincoln as his chains are broken, in the Emancipation Memorial, in Lincoln Park on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
Then a descendant contacted me and asked if I knew “where Archer Alexander is buried?” I replied “maybe” thinking that the information was in Eliot’s book. Keith Winstead, who is a descendant of Archer and an excellent family historian, has been researching his family history for well over 30 years. He has also recently connected with his cousins, linked by DNA, the family of Mohammed Ali who are also descendants of Archer. He had been unable to locate Archer’s gravesite. Sometimes being familiar with the local history does help.
Jim Guenzel, a fellow research volunteer at Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum and I theorized the possibilities, and looked closer at the Centenary Cemetery near the Clayton Courthouse, and scrutinized their records. Guenzel and I started searching every possible African American cemetery in St. Louis. We covered Washington Park, Greenwood, Father Dixon, and consulted with all the experts such as Friends of Greenwood’s Etta Daniels, with no success.
Then Guenzel said that he had a “hit” on Ancestry. I use the site but prefer original sources and must confess I didn’t follow up right away. I realized that it was Ancestry’s listing of the indexes made of the St. Louis area cemeteries INDEXED by the Genealogical Society. It took me to a church, that wasn’t near the Clayton Courthouse, or even one considered African American. I had also forgotten one of my own cardinal rules, when searching for those elusive relatives that seem to have just disappeared – look where their children are living or where their spouse was buried. I knew that Archer was a widower and had had a wife named Julia that had died the year before him.
Guenzel’s hit took me to the website of St. Peter’s United Church of Christ on Lucas and Hunt Road. The indexer had listed the burial of Olvehey Allexander on December 8, 1880. Knowing that Allexander and Alexander can easily be the same person, and that the death date is right, I began wondering, could this really be him?! Still skeptical, I searched further for other Alexanders and discovered his wife Julia had also been buried there on September 13, 1879, the year before. I am yet more determined than ever to see the original record. I visit the wonderful staff at the St. Peter’s U.C.C. Cemetery and kindly beg them to locate the musty old record book in their archives, explaining who Archer Alexander is.
Everyone is as ecstatic as me when the old handwriting reveals it to truly be our Archey! Buried in an early German Evangelical Church’s “common field” lot with absolutely no marker to reveal him for over 138 years! Unknowingly, the indexer had done their best, and only someone as “German” (aka stubborn) as I would say “show me” before being satisfied enough to really say “we found him!”. Thank YOU again for all the work you do indexing all those records!
P.S. I am doing a program on Archer on February 28, 2019 at the Maplewood Public library at 6:30 if you want to hear more about Archer! Feel free to share!
[[Outstanding research ! I searched in vain for the grave of Rev. John Berry Meacham in St. Louis' Bellefontaine Cemetery, where records say that it is, without success years ago. He moored his own ship in the middle of the Mississippi River (federal river) when Missouri outlawed black literacy in 1841 in which he taught black students legally away from harassment . One of Meacham's most successful scholars was James Milton Turner, who later established public education for blacks in Missouri after the Civil War. Meacham was a Baptist preacher who owned a barrel factory. He had bought his own freedom and he had bought other slaves to work in his barrel factory to buy their freedom from him and to acquire a valuable trade at the same time.]]
Dorris Keeven-Franke
December 28 at 9:10 PM
As a historian and writer in St. Charles County I was familiar with the story of the slave Archer Alexander, and his heroic deed during the Civil War. In 1863, the “uppish” slave had overheard a plot to destroy a Railroad bridge near his home. How many of us would be brave enough to run five miles in the dark to warn the Union troops – if we were a slave and knowing what would happen if we were caught?
In 1885, William Greenleaf Eliot, a Unitarian minister and founder of Washington University wrote Archer Alexander – From Slavery to Freedom – March 30, 1863 which was published in Boston by Cupples, Upham and Company, that shared the story of Archer. Eliot explains that this is what 75-year-old Archer shared with 69-year-old Eliot in his last days, five years earlier. Eliot says that he is writing this book for his family, who also want to see the story of Archer shared with everyone. Archer Alexander had been immortalized as the emancipated slave kneeling beneath Abraham Lincoln as his chains are broken, in the Emancipation Memorial, in Lincoln Park on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
Then a descendant contacted me and asked if I knew “where Archer Alexander is buried?” I replied “maybe” thinking that the information was in Eliot’s book. Keith Winstead, who is a descendant of Archer and an excellent family historian, has been researching his family history for well over 30 years. He has also recently connected with his cousins, linked by DNA, the family of Mohammed Ali who are also descendants of Archer. He had been unable to locate Archer’s gravesite. Sometimes being familiar with the local history does help.
Jim Guenzel, a fellow research volunteer at Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum and I theorized the possibilities, and looked closer at the Centenary Cemetery near the Clayton Courthouse, and scrutinized their records. Guenzel and I started searching every possible African American cemetery in St. Louis. We covered Washington Park, Greenwood, Father Dixon, and consulted with all the experts such as Friends of Greenwood’s Etta Daniels, with no success.
Then Guenzel said that he had a “hit” on Ancestry. I use the site but prefer original sources and must confess I didn’t follow up right away. I realized that it was Ancestry’s listing of the indexes made of the St. Louis area cemeteries INDEXED by the Genealogical Society. It took me to a church, that wasn’t near the Clayton Courthouse, or even one considered African American. I had also forgotten one of my own cardinal rules, when searching for those elusive relatives that seem to have just disappeared – look where their children are living or where their spouse was buried. I knew that Archer was a widower and had had a wife named Julia that had died the year before him.
Guenzel’s hit took me to the website of St. Peter’s United Church of Christ on Lucas and Hunt Road. The indexer had listed the burial of Olvehey Allexander on December 8, 1880. Knowing that Allexander and Alexander can easily be the same person, and that the death date is right, I began wondering, could this really be him?! Still skeptical, I searched further for other Alexanders and discovered his wife Julia had also been buried there on September 13, 1879, the year before. I am yet more determined than ever to see the original record. I visit the wonderful staff at the St. Peter’s U.C.C. Cemetery and kindly beg them to locate the musty old record book in their archives, explaining who Archer Alexander is.
Everyone is as ecstatic as me when the old handwriting reveals it to truly be our Archey! Buried in an early German Evangelical Church’s “common field” lot with absolutely no marker to reveal him for over 138 years! Unknowingly, the indexer had done their best, and only someone as “German” (aka stubborn) as I would say “show me” before being satisfied enough to really say “we found him!”. Thank YOU again for all the work you do indexing all those records!
P.S. I am doing a program on Archer on February 28, 2019 at the Maplewood Public library at 6:30 if you want to hear more about Archer! Feel free to share!
[[Outstanding research ! I searched in vain for the grave of Rev. John Berry Meacham in St. Louis' Bellefontaine Cemetery, where records say that it is, without success years ago. He moored his own ship in the middle of the Mississippi River (federal river) when Missouri outlawed black literacy in 1841 in which he taught black students legally away from harassment . One of Meacham's most successful scholars was James Milton Turner, who later established public education for blacks in Missouri after the Civil War. Meacham was a Baptist preacher who owned a barrel factory. He had bought his own freedom and he had bought other slaves to work in his barrel factory to buy their freedom from him and to acquire a valuable trade at the same time.]]