Elijah Parish Lovejoy, Part II

(Part I of the Elijah P. Lovejoy story can be found here) Before I kick into the second half of Lovejoy’s story, I thought it’d be interesting to explain how this post came to be. A few weeks ago, a small package arrived on my porch. Inside, I found a copy of Edward Beecher’s book…

The Duel on Sunflower Island

This is a view of the city of Alton, Illinois from “Smallpox Island”. No longer an actual island, it’s now a recreation area on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River. It’s located about nine miles north of the city of St. Louis. Before the Civil War, it was called “Sunflower Island”. The name changed…