Mural to mark McDonough County’s role in the Underground Railroad
A mural depicting local stops on the Underground Railroad will soon grace the Thomas C. Carper Amtrak station in downtown Macomb.
The mural will be painted by artist Michael Mahoney, who’s said he’s honored to be called upon for the project.
“Anybody’s liberty or freedom is mine as well. We all share in the benefits of that,” Mahoney said.
“And I’m also greatly impressed by the courage of the people who fled slavery and the people who took the risk of aiding them.”
A triptych mural
The mural will be painted on what was once a taxi cab office inside the depot. It’s now used as a storage area.
Mahoney, who also created the mural of the civil rights leader the Rev. Dr. C.T. Vivian in downtown Macomb, said the structure in the depot has three walls, so the Underground Railroad painting will be a triptych mural – it will have three different but related panels:
- One will show the Underground Railroad paths through the region
- One will depict scenes from the Blazer farm, which was a stop on the Underground Railroad
- One will depict scenes from the Allison farm, which was also a stop on the Underground Railroad
He said the mural will also include symbols of freedom seekers.
Mahoney considers the Underground Railroad to be a terrific story.
“It reminds me of something like The Exodus or Jesus on the Sea of Galilee. Any of those situations where people are freed from slavery, from fear, from all that’s not good,” he said.
Mahoney thinks the mural will help expose a part of local history that is not as well-known as it should be.
‘An extremely moving project’
Jock Hedblade, Executive Director of the Macomb Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, aka Visit Unforgettable Forgottonia, considers the mural an important project. He said it will remind the community and visitors of the role McDonough County played in helping freedom seekers.
“I think that this is going to be an extremely moving project,” Hedblade said.
“We wanted a public space, and something inside that could be enjoyed year-round. This seemed like the right place to put it. It just made sense to put it in the train depot.”
His organization is helping pay for the mural, which will cost an estimated $9,600. Funding is also coming from a $4,800 matching grant from the Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition.
The coalition must sign off on the final design. That approval is expected soon.
Hedblade also said the area has received recognition from the National Park Service as a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom location.
He said researcher and grant writer Elisha Szyika did “the lion’s share” of work in writing the grant.
The grant application was based on research provided by Western Illinois University graduate student Abby Troxell-Skaggs of the Department of History and Tim Roberts, the department’s chairperson.
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