Owen Lovejoy Home
This two-story frame structure was the home of abolitionist Owen Lovejoy, who was born in Maine in 1811. Lovejoy moved into the house in 1838, when he became a Congregationalist minister. He was leader in the formation of the Republican Party in Illinois, and he served as a representative in the state legislature, 1855-1857, and in the United States Congress from 1857 until his death in 1864. His home was well known as a shelter for runaway slaves. Owen was a younger brother of Elijah Lovejoy, abolitionist editor, who was killed by a mob at Alton in 1837.
Marker is on East Peru Street (U.S. 6), on the right when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
