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Thirteen African American families migrated to Pebble Township in Pike County in the early 1820s from Virginia. Some of the families were former slaves while others were freeborn people of color. Their farm knowledge and skill helped to make them prosperous, angering some of their white neighbors who began a campaign of harassment. Ten of the original African American settlers eventually moved away, but despite the difficulties with the white population, other African Americans continued to arrive to the settlement. They founded a church, later known as the Eden Baptist Church, built a meeting hall, and organized a school. Several of the families were also involved in the activity of the Underground Railroad. The PP Settlement thrived until the 1950s when, for economic reasons, residents moved to other communities.
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The Hopewell Associate Reformed Church and Cemetery, now known as Historic Hopewell, was founded in 1808 in a log building that was replaced in 1826 with the present building. It was built by the area’s first settlers, mainly Scotch-Irish who left Kentucky and South Carolina because of their opposition to slavery. The church encouraged worship by African Americans and played an important role in the Underground Railroad. It became the parent church for four “Daughter” Presbyterian congregations: Fairhaven in 1835, Oxford in 1837, College Corner in 1849, and Morning Sun in 1876. Reverend Alexander Porter, the first pastor, was committed to education and constructed a school near the Hopewell Spring that still produces clear water. “Old Hopewell” was completely refurbished in 1880, but by 1915 the membership declined and regular services discontinued. Today Hopewell holds Sunday services in the summer and is maintained by a generous and devoted group of volunteers.
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Oliver and Rosetta Snow, who built this home in 1815, immigrated to Mantua from Becket, Massachusetts, in 1805 with two daughters and raised five more children here. Oliver prospered as a farmer, served Portage County in a variety of civic capacities, and converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after meeting the church’s founder, Joseph Smith, in the early 1830s. In 1838, the Snows left Ohio and eventually settled in Illinois. Two of their children later moved to Utah and became prominent leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Lorenzo, who was born on this property in 1814, became the fifth president of the Church, serving from 1898-1901. Eliza Roxcy Snow, an acclaimed Portage County poet, became second general president of the Relief Society, a Latter-day Saint women’s organization.
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St. Boniface Catholic Church began in 1834 as a mission of several area churches and in 1836, the parish built its first church. In 1844 Bishop John Purcell commissioned Swiss born, Father Francis de Sales Brunner, a Missionary of the Precious Blood, to take pastoral charge of St. Boniface. Under the leadership of Father Brunner, the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, established in Italy in 1815, and the Sisters of the Precious Blood, founded in Switzerland in 1834, began ministry here in New Riegel (Wolfscreek) in 1844. Over two hundred acres of land were purchased for the priests, brothers, and sisters. The Missionaries brought spiritual support, farm labor, and education to the German immigrants of New Riegel. The sisters began their ministry of prayer in the convent, Mary at the Crib, on December 22, 1844. (Continued on other side)
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Fowlers Mill (originally Fowler’s Mills) developed around a group of mills built in the 1830s on the Chagrin River. Opportunities from these mills led to Fowlers Mill becoming the commercial center of Munson Township. From the 1830s into the twentieth century, the community expanded with construction of churches, a post office, township hall, stores, hotel, blacksmith shop, schools, and houses built in such styles as Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne. This type of community center was common in rural, nineteenth century America, but rarely survives with so much original fabric intact. On Mayfield Road, the Disciple Church was built in 1842. East of the church, the brick central school built in 1913 replaced earlier one-room schoolhouses. The gristmill is the only mill standing in Geauga County. The cemetery contains burials dating from the 1830s. The Fowler’s Mills Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
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On this site are re-interred 118 exhumed remains from Lot 17, Friends Burying Grounds, adjacent to Damascus Friends Church on Walnut Street. Among those re-interred here are: Catlit Jones, a scout with Quaker Daniel Boone in Kentucky, a captain in the Revolutionary War, and a recorded Friends minister; and Samuel Coppock Jr., father of Edwin Coppock, who was hanged in 1859 for his part in abolitionist John Brown’s raid on the United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. The exhumation (2001-2002) was directed by Prof. Dr. John White of Youngstown State University, assisted by staff, students, and volunteers.
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In the summer of 1819 settlers from Sonnenberg in the Jura Mountains of Canton Bern, Switzerland arrived in Wayne County, Ohio. They fled the religious persecution they endured because of their Anabaptist-Mennonite beliefs, including adult baptism and the separation of church and state. Ulrich Lehman, Johannes Amstutz, and the families of Peter and Barbara (Bogli) Lehman, David and Barbara (Thuller) Kirchhofer, Isaac and Katharina (Lehman) Sommer purchased 320 acres about two miles northeast of Kidron, centered near the intersection of Zuercher and Hackett roads, and began new lives. Their families and their faith continue to flourish in the Kidron-Sonnenberg area.
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This brick home was built in 1856 by John McDannald, son of Samuel and Bell (Craig) McDannald who came from Virginia in 1813. The McDannalds were prominent in the development of Blendon Township, The Central College of Ohio, and The Central College Presbyterian Church. This house served as one station on the Ohio Underground Railroad.
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