The Alexis Phelps House is a historic home located on the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

Oquawka Oquawka is a village in Henderson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,371 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Henderson County. Oquawka is part of the Burlington, IA–IL Micropolitan Statistical Area. Geograph ...

in Henderson County,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The New England style house was built in 1832-1833 by Alexis Phelps, a fur trader and one of the first settlers of the region. Phelps, who was born in

Palmyra Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early secon ...

, New York, settled on a piece of land known as Yellow Banks, which his brother Stephen had purchased in 1828. Alexis and Stephen Phelps founded Oquawka, which they named for the Native American name for Yellow Banks, in 1836.

Stephen A. Douglas Stephen Arnold Douglas (April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. A senator, he was one of two nominees of the badly split Democratic Party for president in the 1860 presidential election, which wa ...

, who frequently presided over the Henderson County Circuit Court, stayed in the house during his visits to Oquawka. The house was also rumored to be a stop on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

. The house was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on April 28, 1982. The Henderson County Historical Society rehabilitated the house in the 1980s, saving it from demolition. The historical society now leases the house for events.

References

External links

Henderson County Economic Development Corporation - Historic Sites & Landmarks
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Houses completed in 1833 Houses in Henderson County, Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Henderson County, Illinois {{HendersonCountyIL-NRHP-stub