17. Nathan Cromwell Lot
Site Coordinates: N 40˚34'05.5" W 89˚38'40.3"
This is one of 10 caches (a hidden container) placed around historic sites in Pekin. These sites along with 10 other sites will provide letters or numbers you'll need to ultimately unscramble a prominent name and year in Pekin's history. Once you've obtained all 20 letters and numbers and unscrambled the name and year, submit your answer to be entered into a drawing for a locally 3-D printed "flat" Everett, $50 in Chamber Checks and other Pekin swag!
Please be courteous and aware of your surroundings (do not disrupt landscaping or destroy anything during your search) and place each cache back how you found it to ensure it remains hidden. All caches are on public property, placed with permission where necessary. Permission for this cache placement granted by Pekin First Savings Bank. Please be stealthy & courteous!
Practice CITO (cache-in-trash-out: a way to help keep our environment clean) & happy caching! We hope you enjoy this historic tour of Pekin & participate in other events throughout 2024 to celebrate this milestone.
A special thank you to the United Way of Pekin for sponsoring the cache containers.
If you have any questions, please email us at pekinhistoricadventurequest@gmail.com.
A Bit of History...
Nathan Cromwell lot
This lot was part of the estate of Pekin co-founder Nathan Cromwell (1784-1836), and Abraham Lincoln was retained as an attorney in the settlement of Cromwell's estate. Pioneer traditions dating from no later than the 1850s relate that Cromwell's wife Ann Eliza (after whom Ann Eliza Street is named) was the one who selected "Pekin" as the name of the new town site in January of 1830, and that Ann Eliza also was behind the decision to name many of the streets in the Original Town of Pekin after the wives and daughters of Pekin's pioneer settlers.
Nathan Cromwell was a land speculator who owned many lots in early Pekin. He died in St. Louis, Missouri, while on his way to Texas to start another land speculation scheme there. Cromwell is also known to history as the (purported) owner of an African-American indentured servant named Nance Legins-Costley (1813-1892). Cromwell purchased Nance in Springfield and brought her to Pekin in 1829. Nance, however, insisted that she was free because she had never given her consent to become an indentured servant as Illinois law required of all contracts of indentured servitude.
