SAVOY, IL (Chambana Today) – The Champaign County African American Heritage Trail and the Experience Champaign-Urbana Foundation debuted a sign yesterday at Burwash Park in Savoy recognizing the Underground Railroad depot owner.
The Underground Railroad depot was owned by Mathias Lane Dunlap, an elected state representative in Chicago who relocated his family in 1856 to what is now known as Savoy. Around 1857, he developed an Underground Railroad depot at his home and ran it through the end of the Civil War. He later helped create the “Industrial Institution” in Urbana which became the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Dunlap served as one of the University’s first trustees.
This sign is sponsored by the Village of Savoy.