Lowell is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in LaSalle County,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, United States. Lowell is located on

Illinois Route 178 Illinois Route 178 is a minor north–south state highway in north central Illinois. It runs north from the unincorporated area of Lowell to Interstate 80 about north of North Utica, which is better known as simply Utica. This is a dista ...

, southeast of Oglesby. The town was laid out around 1830 by William Seeley. It once thrived due its location on the Peoria-Chicago Stagecoach Route, the waterpower of the Vermilion River and the coal outcroppings along the river bluffs. It developed several stores and taverns, a mill and a brick factory and a railroad spur that connected to the Burlington Railroad. Its most famous resident was

Benjamin Lundy Benjamin Lundy (January 4, 1789August 22, 1839) was an American Quaker abolitionist from New Jersey of the United States who established several anti-slavery newspapers and traveled widely. He lectured and published seeking to limit slavery's expa ...

, a fiery Quaker abolitionist who came to Illinois to be the successor of

Elijah Lovejoy Elijah Parish Lovejoy (November 9, 1802 – November 7, 1837) was an American Presbyterian minister, journalist, newspaper editor, and abolitionist. After his murder by a mob, he became a martyr to the abolitionist cause opposing slavery in th ...

, recently murdered for his anti-slavery beliefs. Lundy published the paper, Genius of Universal Emancipation from Lowell. The town declined and today offers river rafting.

References

Unincorporated communities in Illinois Unincorporated communities in LaSalle County, Illinois Ottawa, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area {{LaSalleCountyIL-geo-stub