Historic Sites & Museums
Legend has it that Princeton, Illinois,
settled in 1831, was named by the draw
of a hat when three town trustees could
come to no mutual agreement on a name.
Princeton was the choice of Mr. John
Musgrove, a trustee from New Jersey who
was enamored with that state’s famed
university. A stop on the Underground
Railroad, Princeton’s Owen Lovejoy
Homestead still stands proudly today on
the eastern edge of town. Reverend
Lovejoy, a dynamic and passionate
abolitionist, occupied the Homestead from
1838 until he died in 1864. Lovejoy helped
many African Americans along their way
north to freedom in Canada.
