Underground Railroad In McDonough County

The Illinois leg of the famous Underground Railroad  ran directly through McDonough County from it’s origin in Quincy, IL where slaves arriving clandestinely from the Southern Confederate States via the Mississippi River stopped seeking refuge in free Northern Union States and Canada.  The County’s two most prominent conductors on the “railroad” were the Allison and Blazer families.

As of Spring 2024, through the efforts of the offices of Visit Unforgettable Forgottonia the U.S. National Park Service officially recognized McDonough County, Illinois as a part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

Below you will find a photograph courtesy of WIU Professor of History Tim Roberts of the unmarked location of one of McDonough County’s former Underground Railroad (UGRR) “stations” near Macomb, Illinois, “operated” by Harmon Allison, who settled there with his wife Beulah around 1854.

Many of the Allison and Blazer families’ graves can found in Macomb‘s historic Oakwood Cemetery and the county’s Camp Creek Cemetery.

Read the full text of D.N. Blazer‘s “The History of the Underground Railroad of McDonough County, Illinois