PEKIN, Ill. – Among the local events celebrating Juneteenth this weekend: one in Tazewell County that will honor the first former slave to own land in the county.
Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman says Peter Logan was born into slavery in 1780, but in 1837, with $880, he purchased land in Elm Grove Township, at what is now Springfield Road and Franklin Street.
Ackerman says that site became important to the Underground Railroad, as conductors going past Logan’s property would receive assistance from him.
“It should be remembered that all conductors along the Underground Railroad did so while the act was illegal and did so at great personal and financial risk to them and their family,” said Ackerman, in a news release. “This danger would have been drastically increased for a former enslaved individual working the Underground Railroad.”
The Tazewell County Juneteenth Ceremony is at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Tazewell County Courthouse.
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