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This site has long served the religious, education, and public interests of the residents of Mechanicsburg. A local Methodist congregation built its first church here in 1820, and the townspeople also used the structure as its village school. The Methodists replaced their original structure in 1837, using brick as the main building material. As the Methodist congregation grew, however, it was determined that a larger, more permanent structure was needed. As a result, the Mechanicsburg First Methodist Church was built here in 1858, and it served the congregation until 1894 when an African American based Second Baptist congregation purchased the building at a cost of $2,850. Besides religion and education, the site was also used as Mechanicsburg’s first cemetery. That cemetery lasted until the Maple Grove Cemetery was established and burials at this site were relocated there. [continued on other side]
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Born in Alexandria in 1853, Willoughby Dayton Miller received his primary education in a nearby one-room schoolhouse. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1875 and then studied in Edinburgh, Scotland. Later, he traveled to Berlin, Germany where he met an expatriate American dentist, Dr. Frank Abbot, who encouraged him to study dentistry. Graduating from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in 1879, Miller returned to Berlin and joined Abbot’s practice. Two years later, he gained a research appointment at the University of Berlin where he embarked on a career that brought the science of bacteriology into dentistry. In 1889, he published his research findings of the study of oral bacteria and the process of dental caries (tooth decay) entitled The Micro-Organisms of the Human Mouth. For his work, Miller is credited as the first to accurately describe the process of tooth decay. (Continued on other side)
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The son of an enslaved father and free Black mother, Martin Delany became one of the most prominent Black leaders in 19th Century America. Called the “Father of Black Nationalism,” Delany promoted African American pride and self-determination. Delany was born May 6, 1812 in present-day Charles Town, West Virginia. Because education for Blacks was illegal there, his family moved to Pennsylvania. Delany studied medicine, founded a newspaper, the “Mystery,” and advocated rights for African Americans and women. He co-edited the “North Star” with abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Delany risked his life by demanding equality and by aiding Americans of African descent in their fight from slavery to freedom. (Continued on other side)
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The Village of Adamsville commemorates life in this area as it was during the early to mid-19th century. The original Adamsville settlement was located on the banks of Raccoon Creek, roughly one-half mile east of this site. Adam Rickabaugh (1761-1836), a veteran of the Revolutionary War from Virginia, brought his family to this valley around 1804. His patent for land along the creek was signed by President Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison. Soon after his arrival, Rickabaugh built a grist mill, which became a meeting place for the growing community. In 1805, Nehemiah Wood, one of the earliest settlers in Gallia County, bought the mill from Rickabaugh, later adding a sawmill and a fulling mill for cleaning and thickening woolen cloth. (Continued on other side)
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Born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1875, Mabel Hartzell moved to Alliance in 1883. She was adopted by Matthew and Mary Edwards Earley and then lived in this house until her death in 1954. A lifelong educator, she taught in the Alliance schools and served on the Board of Education. She also helped found the Alliance Historical Society, the Woman’s Club, Alliance Chapter of the American Red Cross, and the Alliance Area Retired Teachers Association. A dedicated public servant, she bestowed this house to the Alliance Historical Society.
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Wilberforce University, founded at Tawawa Springs in 1856 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, is the first private historically black college or university in America. The inspirations for Wilberforce were an unwavering faith in God, an acknowledgement of the contribution of the British abolitionist and Member of Parliament William Wilberforce, the leadership of AME Bishop Daniel Payne, and the belief in the potential of all women and men to learn and prosper. Wilberforce embraces the love of learning and the use of education as a tool of personal and community empowerment. Wilberforce seeks to cultivate and meet the historic hunger for freedom and liberty of all people. Today, Wilberforce is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church and educates diverse students from across the nation and around the world. Wilberforce continues to serve as a beacon for learning and research.
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The Black community of Gallipolis pooled their resources and expertise to open Gallipolis Union Colored School in 1868. Located on the northwest corner of Third Avenue and Olive Street, the public school offered primary education until, around 1877, a high school curriculum was added. In 1882, the first four students to graduate high school were W.H. Haskins, Minnie Battles, Idella Black, and Mary Nease. By 1890, the school had been renamed for President Abraham Lincoln. Valuing their public education, many Lincoln School graduates became teachers; of 33 high school graduates in the first 8 classes, 11 would become schoolteachers. Dr. Edward Alexander Bouchet (Principal 1908-1913) added an intellectual rigor to Lincoln’s curriculum. The nation’s first Black Ph.D., Bouchet earned a doctorate in physics from Yale University in 1876. (Continued on other side)
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Shortly after Oberlin Colony was established in 1833, a two-acre burying ground was set aside south of Plum Creek in the area bounded by Main, Morgan, and Professor streets. By 1861, however, with the town and Oberlin College growing and the Civil War escalating, the need for a larger cemetery became clear. After an extensive search, 27.5 acres of land belonging to Henry Safford were acquired one mile west of the center of Oberlin. H.B. Allen was hired to create a design in the style of the Rural Cemetery Movement, and in July 1864 Westwood Cemetery was formally dedicated. Burials in Westwood had actually begun in August 1863, and over the next few years hundreds of remains were reinterred from Oberlin’s “Old Cemetery” and from burying grounds in surrounding communities. In the mid-1860s the cemetery was enlarged to its present 47 acres, and in 2004 burials and memorials were estimated to number almost ten thousand. (Continued on other side)