Historian and author Carl Adams of Maryland, known for his research on the story of Nance Legins-Costley of Pekin, paid a visit on Tuesday this week to the downtown Pekin park named in her memory, also paying his respects at related memorials in downtown Pekin and Peoria’s southside that commemorate Nance’s struggle for freedom and the brave African-American men of Tazewell County who fought for the Union and to end slavery during the Civil War.
During his visit, Adams spoke to fellow park visitors of the significance of Nance’s life and the influence that her efforts to secure recognition of her freedom had on a prairie lawyer named Abraham Lincoln. Also on hand for Adams’ visit were Pekin Mayor Mary Burress, Tazewell County Clerk & Recorder of Deeds John C. Ackerman (who had spearheaded the creation of Legins-Costley Park), Susan Rynerson, president of the Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society, along with members of the core team of volunteers on the Freedom & Remembrance Memorial Park Project that created a memorial to those buried at Peoria’s former Moffatt Cemetery (among whom was Nance Legins-Costley).
The day after his Pekin visit, Adams visited the site of Freedom & Remembrance Memorial Park before returning to his home in Maryland.
As we have related here at “From the History Room” more than once, Nance Legins-Costley (1813-1892) is known to history as the first African-American slave to secure her freedom with the help of Abraham Lincoln through the 1841 Illinois Supreme Court Bailey v. Cromwell. Apart from Pekin’s local historical narratives, prior to Adams’ research Nance’s story has been mostly relegated to relatively brief notices or passages in Lincoln biographies and studies. Adams himself has contributed two significant articles on the subject of Nance’s life to the Abraham Lincoln Association’s newsletter, “For the People” – first, in the Autumn 1999 issue (vol. 1, no. 3), “The First Slave Freed by Abraham Lincoln: A Biographical Sketch of Nance Legins (Cox-Cromwell) Costley, circa 1813-1873,” and second, in the Fall 2015 issue (vol. 17, no. 3), “Countdown to Nance’s Emancipation.” Adams is also the author of the paper, “Lincoln’s First Freed Slave: A Review of Bailey v. Cromwell, 1841,” in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (vol. 101, nos. 3/4 – Fall-Winter 2008, pp.235-259). Finally, Adams has treated this subject in story form in his 2016 book, “NANCE: Trials of the First Slave Freed by Abraham Lincoln: A True Story of Mrs. Nance Legins-Costley.”
Adams’ years of research has borne fruit in the “rediscovery” of Nance’s story both locally, statewide, and nationally. That in turn led to the creation of Legins-Costley Park in downtown Pekin, which was dedicated in a special Juneteenth celebration in 2023 that was presided over by Mayor Burress. The park, on the north side of the 500 block of Court Street, features a stone monument and two Illinois State Historical Society markers telling the life stories of Nance and her eldest son, Pvt. William Henry Costley of the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry, Co. B, an eyewitness to the first Juneteenth in 1865. Last year, Tazewell County and the City of Pekin dedicated a new monument and historical marker on the Tazewell County Courthouse lawn in honor of all 12 African-American men of Tazewell County who served in the Union Army’s Colored Troops during the Civil War.
A few days before the dedication of Legins-Costley Park in June 2023, the City of Peoria held a formal naming ceremony for Freedom & Remembrance Memorial Park at the intersection of Griswold and Adams streets in Peoria. The memorial park commemorates the approximately 2,600 Peorians who were buried in the defunct Moffatt Cemetery that was located adjacent to the park. Nance Legins-Costley, her husband Benjamin Costley, and their son Leander were among those buried at Moffatt Cemetery, along with 52 military veterans, one of the whom was Pvt. Nathan Ashby of Pekin, also a Juneteenth eyewitness.
Adams was one of the above mentioned core team of volunteers, led by Robert Hoffer of the Peoria Historical Society, who worked to create the Moffatt Cemetery memorial park. The City of Peoria is currently at work on improvements at the memorial park, which features a storyboard and three Illinois State Historical Society markers. One of those markers tells the story of Nance Legins-Costley. Contractors have already made great progress on the park improvement project, which is expected to be complete by September. The storyboard was reinstalled at the park on Wednesday this week, and the three historical markers should be reinstalled before Memorial Day.
