Augustus Tolton

Augustine Tolton was bor the son of slaves Peter Paul Tolton and Martha Jane Tolton and was baptised in St. Peter Church in Brush Creek, Missouri. When his father ran away to help the Union Army at the beginning of the Civil War, his mother took their three children, Charles age 10, Augustine ("Gus") age 9, and Anne age 1 1/2 and ran away from their owners. When they arrived in Quincy, Illinois, the boys found work at the Herris Tobacco Company making cigars. Charlie died within a year. At the age of 14, Father Peter McGirr, pastor of St. Peter's Church in Quincy, Illinois, offered Gus the opportunity to attend St. Peter School during the winter months when the factory was closed. Eventually, Gus worked at the Flynn Bottling Company. Gus was a devout Catholic who would serve Daily Mass before going to work. When he announced that he wanted to go to the seminary some years later, no seminary in the United States would accept him because they were not "ready for a Negro Priest".

Local Franciscans and diocesan clergy tutored Gus until he was accepted to the seminary in Rome, Italy. After six years of study there, anticipating missionary work in Africa, he found out on the night before his ordination that he would be sent back to his home diocese.

The Bishop of Alton (now the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois) assigned him back in Quincy where he pastored St. Joseph Negro Church at 7th and Jersey streets from 1886 to 1889. As more white people started attending Mass at his church the dean of the Quincy deanery complained to the bishop. The hassle was too much for Fr. Tolton, so he requested to leave the diocese. He went to Chicago in 1889 and worked successfully there until he suffered a heat stroke on the street on July 9, 1897. He lingered in Mercy Hosptial for the rest of the day before dying.

Because of his love for Quincy and for what had been done for him at St. Peter Church, he had requested to be burried in Quincy in St. Peter's Cemetery.

A statue of Fr. Tolton stands in front of St. Peter School. Even though he suffered racial prejudice and turmoil through most of his life, he once referred to St. Peter School in a speech in Baltimore saying, "as long as I was in that school, I was safe. Everyone was kind to me. I learned the alphabet, spelling, reading, arithmetic, and how to interpret the commandments."

On July 13, 1997, the centennial of his burial, a celebration was held in Quincy commemorating his life.