200-year-old advertisement adds to history of New Philadelphia; presentation set for Saturday

BARRY, Ill. — The New Philadelphia Association (NPA) recently shared an addition to the documentation of New Philadelphia’s story.

Scholars Gerald and Kate McWorter have found an 1825 wanted ad documenting the freedom flight of Frank, Jr., son of town founders Frank and Lucy McWorter. Such ads were common in the South before the Civil War. This one was published in the Louisville Public Advertiser.

The public is invited to learn more by attending an in-person presentation at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 21, at Barry Health and Senior Living, 211 Pratt.

In a press release, Gerald McWorter said, “We knew my great granduncle Frank Jr. made it to Canada, but now we know when and how. It proves that history is never complete. There is always more to find.”

The ad documents that Frank Jr. left Pulaski County, Kentucky, on Oct. 1, 1825, riding a sorrel horse with a blaze on her face. Letters between him and his family in New Philadelphia support the oral history that the family helped others to freedom as well.

New Philadelphia was the first town platted and legally registered by an African American. It is now the New Philadelphia National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service. Residents opposed slavery and helped freedom seekers get north, as did others in Illinois.

The public is invited to learn more by attending an in-person presentation at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 21, at Barry Health and Senior Living, 211 Pratt St.

For information about this recent discovery, contact Gerald McWorter at 217-450-0637.

For general information about New Philadelphia and the NPA, contact Kaye Iftner, president, at 201-314-3624 or kiftner@gmail.com.