Last updated: April 12, 2023
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Family, Land, Legacy: The New Philadelphia Story
Atlas map of Pike County, 1872, Andreas, Lyter and Co. 1872 from the Illinois Historical Survey Collections, University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign
Meet New Philadelphia! While it looked like an average pioneer town, this was the first town planned and registered by an African American.
“Free” Frank McWorter bought his freedom in Kentucky in 1819, earning money from mining and processing gunpowder material. In 1830, Frank and free family members journeyed to what became New Philadelphia, Illinois. There Frank sold plots to black and white settlers, using the money to purchase freedom for sixteen family members.
New Philadelphia became a stop on the Underground Railroad for freedom seekers, and now is part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
Eventually bypassed by railroads, the town dwindled. Today only foundations remain, but archeology and oral histories help commemorate this community's legacy.
On December 29, 2022, New Philadelphia was established as a National Historic Site, recognizing it as an important site to the nation's history.
Read more:
"New Philadelphia National Historic Site," National Park Service, New Philadelphia National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov), 2022.
"New Philadelphia Townsite Provides Clues to the Past," National Park Service, New Philadelphia Townsite Provides Clues to the Past (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov), originally published 2009 via the NPS Midwest Regional Office Exceptional Places newsletter.
Juliet E. K. Walker, Free Frank: A Black Pioneer on the Antebellum Frontier, University Press of Kentucky, 1983.
"New Philadelphia: A Multiracial Town on the Illinois Frontier," Teaching with Historic Places, National Park Service, New Philadelphia: A Multiracial Town on the Illinois Frontier (Teaching with Historic Places) (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov), 2021.
NPS Photo