Roofers union helped Peoria’s project remember the forgotten

History’s overlooked people – usually those marginalized by race, class, faith or gender – need not stay forgotten.

In greater Peoria, individuals and organizations – including the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers Local 69 – in the last seven-plus years came together to restore the memory and dignity of hundreds of forgotten people laid to rest at a small plot of land at 3917 SW Adams St., at the corner of Adams and Griswold.

Their project was realized last month with the dedication of Freedom & Remembrance Memorial Park, where historians and volunteers mingled with dignitaries and elected officials to celebrate the work.

All the work needed the land, of course, and the Roofers were glad to oblige.

“We thought that donating this ground for the memorial was a great gesture in solidarity,” said Steve Peterson, Business Manager of the Roofers, “– and to make sure that none of the Civil War vets or civilians buried there would be forgotten.”

The City of Peoria told the union they couldn’t just donate the adjacent land, so the Roofers sold the property for $10 after a unanimous membership vote on the transfer of title.

The parcel dates to 1836, when it was part of land granted to Aquilla Moffatt, and it became known as Moffatt Cemetery, where between the 1850s and 1905, more than 2,700 people were buried there. Some 100 graves were moved to other cemeteries between the 1880s and 1930, so about 2,600 unmarked graves remain.

The City’s Board of Health ordered Moffatt Cemetery closed in 1905, and over several decades the abandoned site became neglected and overgrown until it was redeveloped for commercial use in the 1950s.

Besides dozens of people tied to the American Revolution and the Civil War, the property has the grave of Nance Legins-Costley, the first slave Abraham Lincoln helped free when the young lawyer argued her case before the Illinois Supreme Court in 1841.

The Roofers bought the land 17 years ago, Peterson said.

“We started looking for property in 2005 and I found this property in early 2006, so we moved forward to purchase and took over in July 2006,” he said. “The reason was to consolidate our Apprenticeship and our Local all in one location. By doing this, it has made our Local and Apprenticeship program much stronger. Uniting everything together was the answer for moving our Local forward into the 21st century.

“Just for the record, there were no burial sites on our property.”

Cat retiree Bob Hoffer, a history enthusiast, helped assemble a group of volunteers to research the parcel and to organize a reclamation project to create a “fitting tribute to these forgotten citizens of Peoria,” as the City said.

Partners in the endeavor also included American Legion Post 2, the City of Peoria, NAACP Peoria, the Peoria Historical Society, the Peoria Park District, the Peoria Riverfront Museum, and genealogical societies from Peoria and Tazewell counties.

Whether disenfranchised people or folks whose identities were just lost to time, the people buried there were Peoria’s ancestors, said David Pittman, from the executive board of the Peoria Chapter of the NAACP.

“When the Peoria NAACP first endorsed this project four years ago, it was not so much because of ethnic or military solidarity as the simple fact of shared physical space,” he said. “Most of the buried citizens lived and died in Peoria, walking the same streets as we do. They deserve respect not so much for what they did but because they were human beings.

“From the perspective of a blue-collar worker raised in a low-income, middle class home where paycheck-to-paycheck was understood by everyone, this project was an effort to make 2,600 forgotten names come back alive,” Pittman continued. “These mostly Illinois-born folks probably had little wealth or travel experience. Their notion of shared experience was nearly 100% within the Midwest.”

Another often forgotten piece of history is the relationship between organized labor and the Civil Rights struggle. Unions involved with the Movement in general and the Rev. Martin Luther King in particular included the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car [Pullman] Porters, the United Packinghouse Workers of America, AFSCME, and the United Auto Workers (UAW). In fact, UAW President Walter Reuther is credited for arranging for bail for countless protestors who’d been jailed, and he marched with King in the Motor City and also Washington, D.C. – now recalled as the “March on Washington” but actually the “March for Jobs and Freedom,” backed by labor unions.

The new park’s illuminated flagpole was erected with financial support from the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, the Peoria Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Capt. Zeally Moss Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Its three historical markers were underwritten in part by the Illinois State Historical Society, the Abraham Lincoln Association, and the William G. Pomeroy Foundation.

“The disgraceful destruction of the cemetery should not have been forgotten, and, hopefully, no Peoria citizens’ graves will ever be bulldozed again,” Pittman said.

Hoffer thinks of the collective achievement optimistically.

“I like to use the word commemoration,” Hoffer said. “Commemoration implies coming together, doing to together, and remembering these people from the past.”