PEORIA MAGAZINE February 2023

O N E M O R E T H I N G

FINAL RESPECTS CAN WAIT NO MORE The first slave that Abraham Lincoln helped free rests in an unmarked, asphalted-over grave in South Peoria, but no longer forgotten

BY PHIL LUCIANO PHOTO BY RON JOHNSON

S oon, Nance Legins-Costley’s name will finally rise above her final resting place. It’s about time. Legins-Costley – the first slave helped to freedom by Abraham Lincoln, two decades before the Civil War — has gone forgotten far too long, and now rests in an unmarked grave covered by asphalt in South Peoria. She isn’t the only one. More than 2,600 others, including 52 veterans, lie at the former Moffatt Cemetery This spring, three markers will go up on a small, new park — The Freedom & Remembrance Memorial — adjacent to the former cemetery. One honors Legins-Costley, one lists the names of the veterans, and another explains the history of Moffatt Cemetery. The memorial will culminate years of hard work by local historians, spearheaded by Robert Hoffer of Peoria. “The story of South Peoria’s Moffatt Cemetery is truly one of the forgotten mysteries of Peoria history,” Hoffer said. “Those buried there deserve to be forgotten no more.” None deserves to be remembered more than Legins-Costley, who put up a

Springfield. Though the teenage Nance challenged the transaction in court, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled her the servant of Cromwell. In 1829, Cromwell and his wife, Ann Eliza, moved to Tazewell County to help found Pekin, bringing along Nance. In 1836, then-widower Cromwell decided to move to Texas. Not wanting to take Nance – he feared sparking scandal by traveling with an unmarried Black woman – he left Nance in the care of a former business partner in Pekin, David Bailey. Bailey, an abolitionist, promptly let Nance live as a free woman. In 1840, she wed a free Black man, Benjamin Costley of Pekin, thus becoming Nance Legins-Costley. But the next year, she again faced a legal fight. After Cromwell died, a relative acting on behalf of his trust sued Bailey for a purported debt of $400. With Bailey destitute, a judge decided to square the debt by ruling Nance to still be an indentured servant, and forthwith the property of the Cromwell relative. Bailey took the matter to the Illinois Supreme Court, enlisting the help of an old friend, Abe Lincoln, then

remarkable and brave fight for freedom, starting in her youth. Nance was born in Kaskaskia in 1813, five years before Illinois gained statehood. She was the daughter of Randall and Anachy Legins, who had been bought as indentured servants by Col. Tom Cox. At the time, indentured servitude was essentially slavery by another name, yet legal in Illinois. Cox sold her to Nathan Cromwell of Remembrance Memorial will be just south of the former cemetery, at the intersection of South Griswold and Southwest Adams streets (Image provided by Robert Hoffer) An 1896 Peoria County plat map shows Moffatt Cemetery. The Freedom &

96 FEBRUARY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE