Moffatt Cemetery and Nance Legins-Costley Illinois Marker Dedications
Dedication Ceremonies for new Illinois State markers commemorating Moffatt Cemetery and Nance Legins Costley will be held in Peoria, IL. The unveilings will begin at 1:00 p.m on November 15, 2022 at Peoria Riverfront Museum.
NANCE LEGINS-COSTLEY
NANCE LEGINS-COSTLEY IS KNOWN TO HISTORY AS THE FIRST ENSLAVED PERSON ABRAHAM LINCOLN HELPED FREE. SHE WAS BORN IN _1813 INTO INDENTURED SERVITUDE IN KASKASKIA, ILLINOIS TERRITORY, TO SLAVES RANDOL AND ANNACHY LEGINS. IN 1827 IN SPRINGFIELD, NANCE, A SLAVE OF COL. THOMAS COX, WAS AUCTIONED AND BOUGHT BY NATHAN CROMWELL FOR $151, BUT SHE REFUSED CONSENT TO THE CONTRACT AND WAS PUNISHED SEVERELY. SHE CHALLENGED HER SERVITUDE IN COURT, BUT IN THE ILLINOIS SUPREME COURT CASE NANCE V HOWARD (1828) SHE WAS RULED THE WARD AND SERVANT OF CROMWELL, WHO BROUGHT HER TO PEKIN IN 1829. CROMWELL SOLD NANCE TO DAVID BAILEY OF PEKIN, BUT WHEN NANCE SAID SHE HAD NEVER CONSENTED TO INDENTURED SERVITUDE, BAILEY ALLOWED HER TO LIVE NEARBY AS A FREE WOMAN. HE DECLINED TO PAY THE PROMISSORY NOTE AFTER CROMWELL’S DEATH IN 1836 SINCE NANCE SAID SHE WAS FREE. BAILEY WAS SUED IN CROMWELL VS. BAILEY (1838) AND LOST, BUT HE APPEALED TO THE ILLINOIS SUPREME COURT IN THE LANDMARK CASE BAILEY V. CROMWELL (1841), IN WHICH HIS ATTORNEY ABRAHAM LINCOLN ARGUED SUCCESSFULLY FOR THE FREEDOM OF NANCE AND HER FIRST THREE CHILDREN. JUSTICE SIDNEY BREESE AFFIRMED LINCOLN’S LEGAL REASONING RELYING ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE NORTHWEST ORDINANCE AND THE ILLINOIS CONSTITUTION, THAT “NEITHER SLAVERY NOR INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE” MAY EXIST IN ILLINOIS. THIS AFFIRMED ILLINOIS’ STANDING AS A FREE STATE AND HELPED CLOSE THE INDENTURE LOOPHOLE BY WHICH SLAVERY HAD ENDURED. NANCE MARRIED BENJAMIN COSTLEY IN PEKIN AND RAISED EIGHT CHILDREN. THEIR ELDEST SON, WILLIAM, WAS A UNION CIVIL WAR SOLDIER PRESENT AT JUNETEENTH. IN THE 1870s, THE COSTLEYS MOVED TO PEORIA, WHERE BEN DIED IN 1883 AND NANCE IN 1892. THEY AND THEIR SON LEANDER ARE AMONG THE MANY BURIED IN MOFFATT CEMETERY.
SPONSORED BY
THE WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION, AND THE ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
PEORIA’S MOFFATT CEMETERY
AQUILLA MOFFATT ARRIVED HERE IN 1822 AND BEGAN MINING AND MILLING VENTURES. ON RETURN FROM THE BLACK HAWK WAR, HE BUILT HIS HOME ON SOUTH ADAMS STREET AND SET ASIDE A SMALL BURYING GROUND FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS. AFTER THE CIVIL WAR HE NAMED AN ADJACENT PARCEL “UNION CEMETERY” FOR THOSE VETERANS. IN THE 1870s HE SOLD THESE PARCELS ALONG WITH THE LAND BORDERING ADAMS AND GRISWOLD STREETS TO INVESTORS WHO FORMED THE MOFFATT CEMETERY ASSOCIATION. BURIALS INCREASED RAPIDLY UNTIL IT WAS ORDERED CLOSED IN 1905. THE CEMETERY WAS ABANDONED AND EFFORTS TO SAVE IT OVER FIVE DECADES WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. COURT ACTIONS IN THE 1950s GATHERED SHARE RIGHTS, THE PROPERTY WAS REZONED, GRAVESTONES AND TREES WERE CLEARED, AND PARCELS WERE SOLD TO BUSINESSES. CEMETERY RECORDS WERE THOUGHT LOST AND THOSE BURIED THERE RELOCATED, BUT ONLY ABOUT 100 TRANSFERS ARE KNOWN. UNDERTAKER REPORTS STORED FOR A CENTURY WERE FOUND, WHICH DOCUMENT BURIALS OF ABOUT 2,500 INDIVIDUALS. RECENT RESEARCH HAS FOUND MORE THAN 200 ADDITIONAL BURIALS. TODAY, 2,600 INDIVIDUALS KNOWN BY NAME STILL LIE BURIED THERE. ONE IS NANCE LEGINS-COSTLEY, THE FIRST ENSLAVED PERSON ABRAHAM LINCOLN HELPED FREE IN AN 1841 ILLINOIS SUPREME COURT CAST. FIFTY-TWO VETERANS WERE INTERRED: 49 UNION CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS, INCLUDING AN AFRICAN AMERICAN WHO WAS AT JUNETEENTH IN GALVESTON TEXAS, AND ONE EACH FROM THE 1792 VIRGINIA MILITIA, THE WAR OF 1812, AND THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. ALSO INTERRED ARE UNBURIED UNKNOWNS IN MASS GRAVES THAT WERE REMOVED IN 46 CRATES FROM PEORIA’S FIRST PUBLIC CEMETERY DURING WORK ALONG LINCOLN AVENUE. THOSE BURIED AT MOFFATT CEMETERY ARE A CROSS SECTION OF OUR COMMUNITY. MANY ARE INFANTS AND CHILDREN, MOST ARE HARD-WORKING IMMIGRANTS, AFRICAN AMERICANS AND OTHERS, WHO DESERVED TO BE “FORGOTTEN NO MORE.”
SPONSORED BY
THE CITY OF PEORIA, PEORIA PARK DISTRICT, THE WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION,
ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.