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Augustine Tolton

CITY:

Quincy

COUNTY:

Adams

DEDICATED BY:

Historical Society of Quincy and The Illinois State Historical Society

DEDICATION DATE:

January 1, 1974 at 6:00:00 AM

The marker is located in Quincy on the southeast corner of 30th & Maine Streets, at Baldwin Elementary School.

Father Tolton, the first Negro priest in the United States, was born of slave parents in Bush Creek, Missouri, in 1854. Educated at Quincy schools, he returned to this city after his ordination in Rome, Italy, in 1886. He celebrated his first public mass at St. Boniface Church in Quincy and later established St. Monica’s Church for Negroes in Chicago. He died in Chicago in 1897, and is buried at St. Peter’s Cemetery, Quincy.

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