Illinois: First US Town Founded by an African-American Designated National Historic Landmark

In Western Illinois, the New Philadelphia Town Site located near Barry in Pike County has been designated a Nationla Historic Landmark by the National Park Service.  Director Jan grimes of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency said, "The New Philadelphia Town Site joins such places as Lincoln Tomb, Hull House, Cahokia mounds, and the Ulysses S. Grant Home as one of the few places in Illinois deemed worthy of this high honor."

The town was founded by "Free Frank" McWhorter, born a slave in South Carolina in 1777.  He was taken to Kentucky when his owned moved there in 1795, married Lucy, a slave from a nearby farm in 1799.  McWhorter was allowed to hire himself out and worked in salpeter mining and production.  He paid $800 to buy his wife's freedom in 1817.  He bought his own freedom for $800 in 1819.

The couple and four of their children left for Illinois in 1830, boguth a farm in Pike County's Hadley Township, and in 1836 platted the town of New Philadelphia which became a racially integrated community many years prior to the Civil War.  It may have served as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Continuing to work and make money, Mcwhorter bought freedom of at least 16 family members, which earned him the nickname "Free Frank."  Ultimately, he raised and spent $14,00 to buy the freedom of slaves, the modern-day equivalent of $300,000. 

He died at New Philadelphia in 1854 at age 77.  Lucy, at 99, died in 1870.  The town, which peaked with a population of about 160, was bypassed by the railroad in 1869, and faded away.

Today, the site of the town is an open field. 

The New Philadelphia Assovciation seeks to preserve the town site in honor of "Free Frank" McWhorter. 

Pike County is located across the Mississippi River from Hannibal, Missouri, home of Mark Twain.

A book by a descendant of "Free Frank,"  Dr. Juliet E. K. Walker, Professor of History at the University of Texas, is available from booksellers, issued in 1985, and again in 1995 under the title, Free Frank: A Black Pioneer on the Antebellum Frontier, published by the University Press of Kentucky.