Latest local news, weather and high school sports for Tri-State area

QUINCY, ILL. -- Tri-States visitors crossed the Mississippi River and back to the Gem City in the name of sainthood Thursday.

Representatives of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Springfield and Jefferson City, Missouri continued their pilgrimage to further the sainthood cause for Father Augustus Tolton.You'll recall he was the nation's first black Catholic priest.

Thursday morning, bishops and the area's cardinal traveled to Brush Creek, Missouri where Tolton was born to slave parents.

They visited the Mississippi River at Hannibal, where the Tolton family crossed the river to escape slavery in the 19th Century.

The group then visited the Dr. Robert Eels home this afternoon, which was a part of the underground railroad.

Dr. C. Vanessa White is a professor of spirituality at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. She said, "One thing I want to ask is that what's needed now is prayer, to pray for the cause of Father Augustus Tolton."

It could take several years before we know whether Father Tolton will officially become a saint.