2023
Illinois State Historical Society
Best of Illinois
Superior Achievement Award
Underground Railroad Conductor Project
John Ackerman, Tazewell County Clerk;
Susan Rynerson. President
Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society;
and John Hallwas, President,
Illinois State Historical Society
Freedom Train Conductor
Grave Marker
In December 2020, Tazewell County Clerk John C. Ackerman, Susan Ryerson, and Rev. Marvin Hightower began organizing a planned series of public recognition events to raise awareness and honor individuals associated with the Underground Railroad who lived and are buried in the county.
Beginning in March 2021, the group hosted six events and placed commemorative grave markers at each site. This remarkable initiative involved several towns--Pekin, South Pekin, Tremont, Morton, Washington, Delavan—and expanded to two more counties—Woodford, and Peoria.
Presentations are on the project are still ongoing, and several Illinois state legislators have begun a conversation to have the project develop throughout Illinois. “An illuminating and lasting project that is a model for other counties, encouraging us to dig deeper into our history—not to hide it but to better explain it.”
—Illinois State Historical Society, April 29, 2023
Text & Photo
courtesy of the
Illinois State Historical Society
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