Benjamin Godfrey and his business partner, Winthrop Gilman, formed Godfrey, Gilman & Company in 1832. Located on Alton’s riverfront, the business operated out of a newly constructed stone warehouse at the foot of William Street. The firm shipped furs, livestock and agricultural products directly to New Orleans, bypassing St. Louis. Godfrey and Gilman allowed the Reverend Elijah P. Lovejoy, a young Presbyterian minister and abolitionist newspaper editor,to house his (fourth) printing press there for safekeeping. Tragically, Lovejoy was killed by a pro-slavery mob while guarding his press in the warehouse on Nov. 7, 1837. News of his death stirred the abolitionist movement throughout the country.

Benjamin Godfrey built the first church in Alton in 1834 on the northeast corner of 3rd and Markets Streets. The building, a large limestone structure, cost over $5,000 to complete. Godfreyretained ownership of the building but offered it for use by both Baptist and Presbyterian congregations. The building also served as a public meeting hall. It was purchased by the congregation of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in 1846. Around 1850, the church was razed and rebuilt. A tornado badly damaged the building in 1860, but the church was soon repaired and is still used by that congregation to this day.Benjamin Godfrey built his first Alton home across the street from the church. He and Winthrop Gilman built stately mansions next to one another on the present site of the Stratford Hotel. A description of the homes at the time of construction stated that they “would have been an ornament to any street in New York.”

The first railroad built in Madison County was the Alton & Sangamon which was chartered in 1847 under the leadership of Captain Benjamin Godfrey. The project received assistance from Abraham Lincoln who wrote letters in support of the initial stock subscription. Godfrey was so enthusiastic about the project that he advertised much of his property for sale to raise additional funding. The initial construction included building a 7-block long stone arch over Little Piasa Creek in Lower Alton and extensive grade work to reach the summit on the prairie. The first phase very nearly bankrupted the company. The railroad was completed to Springfield in September of 1852, the same year that Godfrey’s freight house opened in downtown Alton.

In 1836, as construction on Monticello Female Seminary began, Benjamin Godfrey saw a need to build a road connecting the school to the local quarry and Lower Alton. Using oak timbers from his own land, Godfrey’s “Plank Road” assisted in the transportation of materials to the building sites from the sawmill, brickyard and carpenters’ shops. The toll road began at 4th and Belle in downtown Alton and led north to the tollhouse at “Five Points” near 16th and Belle. The road continued northwest to what is now Highway 67/Godfrey Road and then north to Godfrey’s mansion. There was another tollhouse on the grounds of the Seminary. Plank Road quickly became one of the most popular routes from Alton to Jacksonville. This route still exists today.

Welcome to Benjamin Godfrey’s greatest legacy! Inspired by his daughters and built on the belief that women should be entitled to a formal education, Godfrey opened Monticello Female Seminary in April 1838, with the Reverend Theron Baldwin as its first principal.Godfrey’s vision for the school was for young ladies of the day to receive a comprehensive education. He is known to have made the statement, “If you educate a man, you educate an individual, if you educate a woman, you educate a family.” The original building for the Seminary was modeled after Nassau Hall at Princeton.The students took a rigorous course of study patterned after that of Yale University which included geometry, rhetoric, ancient and modern history, physiology, philosophy, chemistry, astronomy, geology and music.On Nov. 4, 1888, the original structure burned down as the result of a laundry room fire. Construction began on the current limestone edifice the following spring. Designed by St. Louis Union Station architect Theodore Link, and thanks to beloved principal Harriet Haskell’s successful fundraising efforts, the new school was completed in the summer of 1890.Other buildings would be added over the course of several years providing classrooms and housing for its residents. Declining enrollment in the 1960s led to the eventual closing of Monticello College (its last official name) in 1971. The state of Illinois purchased the property in1970, and Lewis & Clark Community College was established the next year. Godfrey’s legacy lives on through the grants for female education made by the Monticello College Foundation, themoney for which came from the sale of the campus to the state.(Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of contress) Joseph T. Golabowski - Photographer- April 4, 1934. View from the Southwest -- Godfrey Congregational Church, State Route 111, Godfrey, Madison County, IL)

Completed in 1854, this structure served, at times, as a chapel for both Monticello Female Seminary and as the local congregational church. Benjamin Godfrey designed the building to resemble a church he recalled from his New England childhood. Built in the Greek-revival style, and seating 500, it originally sat across the street from the College until it was moved to its present on-campus location in 1991. It is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

Completed in 1854, this structure served, at times, as a chapel for both Monticello Female Seminary and as the local congregational church. Benjamin Godfrey designed the building to resemble a church he recalled from his New England childhood. Built in the Greek-revival style, and seating 500, it originally sat across the street from the College until it was moved to its present on-campus location in 1991. It is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.Site 8:Godfrey Cemetery732 Mulberry St., Godfrey(Godfrey surname represented in lots 41, 50, 51 and 128)

A little more than a mile north of Lewis & Clark Community College on Godfrey Road is the site of the home where Captain Godfrey and his family lived. The home, located on the west sideof Scarritt’s Prairie, was originally owned and built by Captain Calvin Riley cica 1831 and purchased by Godfrey in 1834. Godfrey remodeled the two-room house into a two-story limestone mansion with 14 rooms, seven fireplaces, hand carved limestone sinks and spacious pillared porches. The style is Greek Revival with a southern influence. The house is on file at theLibrary of Congress.