Illinois College’s Beecher Hall has been added to a list of national landmarks linked to the Underground Railroad.

The campus landmark is the newest addition to a detailed list of historic sites maintained as part of the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program. The two-story structure, which was built in 1829, is now one of 10 sites in Illinois with ties to the clandestine system that helped freedom-seeking slaves find safe passage north during the first half of the 19th century.

National Park Service regional director Ernest Quintana said Illinois College “makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the Underground Railroad in American history,” and added that the designation underscores the role played by the college in advancing the abolitionist sentiment among early downstate leaders.

“We commend you on your dedication to this important aspect of our history and expect that you will join with us in continuing to exemplify the values expressed in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act," Quintana wrote in his letter to the college.

The late Paul Simon co-authored Senate legislation in 1990 that inspired creation of the Network to Freedom project. The act is designed to examine Underground Railroad routes through much of the Midwest and East Coast and support the preservation and educational uses of many known UGRR sites.

From its inception, Illinois College developed close ties to the abolitionist and Underground Railroad movements, according to information given to the National Park Service as part of the application process. The college was founded in 1829 by seven Yale graduates – all opposed to slavery; and its first president, Edward Beecher, and two college trustees helped organize the Illinois State Anti-slavery Society in 1837. The region’s southern roots, however, fueled strong pro-slavery feelings, and posed challenges to the College’s early survival.

Jonathan Baldwin Turner, one of Illinois College’s first professors, was an agent on the Underground Railroad and is credited with helping three Negro women negotiate their way through west-central Illinois en route to freedom in Canada. And Samuel Willard, an Illinois College student, was prosecuted and fined for attempting to aid an escaping slave, and other students were subject to protests by pro-slavery advocates outraged by their participation in Underground Railroad activities.

Beecher Hall was the site of the first college class in Illinois on January 4, 1830. The historic structure housed the state’s first medical school in 1843 and has served as the home for two of the college’s literary societies for more than a century. Beecher Hall is named for Edward Beecher, the first president of Illinois College and brother of famed author Harriett Beecher Stowe. Visitors to the hall have included Mark Twain, Horace Greeley, Frederick Douglass, Daniel Webster and Stephen A. Douglas. William Jennings Bryan and John Wesley Powell studied there, as well.

In addition to Beecher Hall in Jacksonville, the list of Network to Freedom sites in Illinois include locations in Byron, Godfrey, Quincy, Tamaroa, Junction, Princeton and Peoria. Jacksonville’s Congregational Church is also on the list.

Additional information on the Network to Freedom is available on its website, located at
http://209.10.16.21/TEMPLATE/FrontEnd/program.cfm