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ALTON

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 764 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALTON , a See also:

city of See also:Madison See also:county, See also:Illinois, U.S.A., in the W. See also:part of the See also:state, on the See also:Mississippi See also:river, about 10 m. above the mouth of the See also:Missouri, and about 25 M. N. of St See also:Louis, Missouri. Pop. (1890) 10,294; (1900) 14,210, of whom 1638 were See also:foreign-See also:born; (1910) 17,528. Alton is served by the See also:Chicago & Alton, the Chicago, See also:Peoria & St Louis, the Cleve-See also:land, See also:Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, and the Illinois Terminal See also:railways. The river is here spanned by a See also:bridge. The residential portion of the city lies on the river bluffs, some of which rise to a height of 250 ft. above the See also:water level, and the business streets are on the bottom lands of the river. Alton has a public library and a public See also:park. Upper Alton (pop. 2918 in 1910), about r1 m. N.E. of Alton, is the seat of the Western Military See also:Academy (founded in 1879 as Wyman See also:Institute; chartered in 1892), and of Shurtleff See also:College (Baptist, founded in 1827 at See also:Rock See also:Spring, removed to Upper Alton in 1831, and chartered in 1833), which has a college of liberal arts, a divinity school, an academy and a school of See also:music; and the See also:village of See also:Godfrey, 5, M. N. of Alton, is the seat of the Monticello Ladies' See also:Seminary, founded by See also:Benjamin Godfrey, opened in 1838, and chartered in 1841.

Among the manufactures of Alton are See also:

iron and See also:glass See also:ware, miners' tools, shovels, See also:coal-mine cars, See also:flour, and agricultural implements; and there are a large oil refinery and a large See also:lead smelter. The value of the city's factory products increased from $4,250,389 in 1900 to $8,696,814 in 1905, or 104.6 %: The first See also:settlement on the site of Alton was made in 1807, when a trading See also:post was established by the See also:French. The See also:town was laid out in 1817, was first incorporated in 1821, and in 1827 was made the seat of a state See also:penitentiary, which was later removed to See also:Joliet, the last prisoners being transferred in 186o. Alton was first chartered as a city in 1837. In 1836 the Rev. See also:Elijah P. Lovejoy (1802-1837), a native of See also:Albion, See also:Maine, removed the Observer, a religious (Presbyterian) periodical of which he was the editor, from St Louis to Alton. He had attracted considerable See also:attention in St Louis by his criticisms of See also:slavery, but though he believed in emancipation, he was not a See also:radical abolitionist. After coming to Alton his See also:anti-slavery views soon became more radical, and in a few months he was an avowed abolitionist. His views were shared by his See also:brother, See also:Owen Lovejoy (181r-1864), a Congregational See also:minister, who also at that See also:time lived in Alton, and who from 1857 until his See also:death was an able anti-slavery member of See also:Congress. Most of the See also:people of See also:southern Illinois were in sympathy with slavery, and consequently the Lovejoys became very unpopular. The See also:press of the Observer was three time destroyed, and on the 7th of.

See also:

November 1837 E. P. Lovejoy was killed while attempting to defend against a See also:mob a See also:fourth press which he had recently obtained and which was stored in a warehouse in Alton. His death caused intense excitement throughout the See also:country, and he was everywhere regarded by abolitionists as a See also:martyr to their cause. In 1897 a See also:monument, a See also:granite See also:column surmounted by a See also:bronze statue of Victory, was erected in his See also:honour by the citizens of Alton and by the state. See See also:Henry See also:Tanner, The Martyrdom of Lovejoy (Chicago, 1.881), and " The Alton Tragedy " in S. J. May's Some Recollections of Our Anti-Slavery Conflict (See also:Boston, 1869).

End of Article: ALTON

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