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 Home of Seth Millington - St. Charles, MO Posted by:  YoSam.
N 38° 46.773 W 090° 28.929
15S E 718715 N 4295324
Elijah Lovejoy, martyred in Alton Ill. for free press issues, operated an early paper from the first floor of this building.
Waymark Code: WM3NHK
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 04/25/2008
Views: 9
Marker Erected by St. Charles Historical Society
County of Marker: Saint Charles County
Location of Marker: 301 S. Main St., St. Charles
Marker Text [expanded from actual]:
Built by Seth Millington between 1799 & 1808. Celia Ann French, Dr. Millington's niece married Elijah Lovejoy, first martyr of the free press in the United States. On October 1, 1837, Elijah Lovejoy, a Presbyterian minister and editor, was mobbed and almost lynched here; following his anti-slavery sermon at the local Presbyterian Church. He managed to escape to Alton, Illinois where five weeks later he was murdered because of his opinions expressed in his newspaper.
Web link: [Web Link]
History of Mark:
"Seth and Jeremiah had a sister Sarah”Sally” who had married Thomas French but she had become widowed in 1835 and she had gone to stay at Seth’s former home in 1837. Sally and Thomas’s daughter Celia had married the former St. Louis editor Elijah P. Lovejoy, who was a well-known abolitionist in addition to being a Presbyterian minister. On October 3, 1837, Elijah Lovejoy had just finished giving a “talk” at the Second Street Presbyterian Church and was visiting the home of his mother-in-law with his wife and baby.
"When Lovejoy had left the church a few minutes before, he had been passed a note of warning by William Campbell, telling him that he was in danger and should leave St. Charles immediately. Campbell himself was also a slave owner, and executor of the estate that included Archer Alexander and his wife Louisa, and their children. A large group of angry men soon arrived at Sally French’s home in the former Millington house, and were about to attack Lovejoy, when his wife fainted and the men decided to retreat.
"Lovejoy’s close friend George Sibley, whose wife and he had founded a girls school they called Linden Wood, lent him a horse. Late that night Lovejoy and his wife would make it to their home in Alton, Illinois where Lovejoy was the editor of the Alton Observer. It would only be a few weeks later when Lovejoy was revisited by the angry mob on November 7, 1837 in Gilman’s Warehouse in Alton. There Elijah Lovejoy was shot and murdered while trying to save his press." ~ St. Charles County History
Additional point: Not Listed
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