John Peter Altgeld Monument

John Peter Altgeld was born on December 30, 1847 in what is now Germany. When he was still an infant, his family immigrated to the United States, settling on a farm near the town of Mansfield in Richland County, Ohio. During the Civil War, Altgeld lie about his age to enlist in the Union Army. While serving in the 164th Ohio Infantry, he saw little to no action, but nearly died after catching malaria. After his time in the military, Altgeld studied law, passed the bar, and embarked on a legal career in Missouri. He then entered politics, serving first as city attorney of Savannah, Missouri and then later as prosecuting attorney of Andrew County. 

In the late 1870s, Altgeld resigned his position as prosecuting attorney of Andrew County and moved to Chicago. There, he continued to practice law and invested in real estate, the latter of which made him a small fortune. Endowed with significant wealth, Altgeld once again turned his attention to politics. After an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 1884, he won a seat on the Cook County Superior Court two years later. In 1892, Altgeld secured the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor of Illinois. That fall, running on a Progressive platform, he defeated incumbent Republican Governor Joseph E. Fifer. With the victory, Altgeld became the first Democrat elected governor of Illinois since the 1850s and the first ever foreign-born candidate elected to the office. 

During his time as governor, Altgeld followed through on his campaign promises by instituting Progressive reforms. He signed child labor and workplace safety laws, increased state funding for education, appointed women to important positions within state government, and created a state-run home for juvenile offenders. Despite these accomplishments, Altgeld’s tenure as governor is remembered primarily for pardons he issued during his first year in office. Shortly after Altgeld took office, prominent attorney Clarence Darrow, along with labor leaders and others, petitioned the governor to grant clemency to three anarchists convicted for their involvement in the 1886 Haymarket Riot. Arguing that the men had not received a fair trial, Altgeld pardoned them. While labor leaders and others applauded the governor’s actions, the pardons enraged business leaders and the conservative press, who accused him of being an ally of anarchists and radicals. Altgeld’s criticism of President Cleveland for sending federal troops to Chicago to end the Pullman Strike the following year only helped his political adversaries make their case. In 1896, Altgeld lost his reelection bid. 

After an unsuccessful bid to become mayor of Chicago in 1899, Altgeld retired from politics and return to law, entering into the practice of Clarence Darrow. Plagued by gradually declining health since his bout with malaria during the Civil War, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage on March 12, 1902 at the age of fifty-four. His remains were interred at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. 

Just over a decade after Altgeld’s death, the Illinois State Senate appointed a committee and allocated $25,000 for the creation of a monument in his honor. The committee then held a design contest, for which artists submitted dozens of proposals. After reviewing the proposals, the committee decided to reject all of them and instead hired sculptor Gutzon Borglum—who later became famous for Stone Mountain and Mount Rushmore—to complete the project. Dedicated in Chicago’s Lincoln Park on Labor Day 1915, the memorial consists of a bronze sculpture of Altgeld and three other individuals on a short cylindrical granite pedestal. The statue depicts the German-born, one-term governor of Illinois shielding a man, woman, and child, who cower behind him, from an unidentified danger.

"John Peter Altgeld." Encyclopædia Britannica. Web. 19 March 2021 <https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Peter-Altgeld>.

"John Peter Altgeld Monument." Chicago Park District. City of Chicago. Web. 19 March 2021 <https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks-facilities/john-peter-altgeld-monument>.