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Augustus West, an African American, was born in Madison County, Virginia on March 20, 1814, and moved to Ohio in 1837. Legend has it that West was a runaway slave and worked as a farm laborer before designing a scheme to purchase his own farm. West, with abolitionist Alexander Beatty, traveled into slave territory no fewer than three times where the pair would sell West, help him escape, and split the profits. After splitting the profits, West used his portion of the money to purchase 177 acres of land in Fayette County where he built his “mansion.” To remain inconspicuous and secure, West built the “mansion” as far from the main road as possible. (continued on other side)
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At the turn of the twentieth century, increased enrollment in the Combined Normal and Industrial Department at Wilberforce University (which later became Central State University) spurred construction of new teaching and dormitory facilities. Galloway Hall, which included an auditorium and a tower with chimes and a clock, was completed in 1906. Many famous personalities performed in Galloway Hall’s auditorium, including the renown opera singer Leontyne Price; Robert McFerrin, the first African American male lead with the New York Metropolitan Opera; actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis; comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory; and composer and conductor Duke Ellington. Noted authors and intellectuals addressed audiences there, including historian John Hope Franklin; writer, poet, actor, and playwright Maya Angelou; Lerone Bennett, author, historian, and editor of EBONY Magazine; and writer and essayist James Baldwin. (continued on other side)
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James Birdseye McPherson was born in Hamer’s Corners (now Clyde) on November 14, 1828. He left this house at age 13 to work in nearby Green Springs. He attended Norwalk Academy and West Point, where he graduated first in the class of 1853. Early in the Civil War, he was appointed by General Ulysses S. Grant to command the Army of the Tennessee. He received the rank of Major General with the United States Volunteers in October 1862 and was promoted to Brigadier General in the Regular Army in August 1863. He was killed in action during the battle of Atlanta, Georgia on July 22, 1864. General McPherson was the youngest and highest ranking Union officer killed in the Civil War. He is buried in the local McPherson Cemetery. This McPherson home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Born in North Adams, Massachusetts on December 23, 1778, Caleb Atwater graduated from Williams College in 1804. He moved to Circleville in about 1814 where he organized the city’s first school board and served as postmaster and prosecuting attorney. His life and work as a teacher, minister, lawyer, legislator, and scholar greatly influenced early 19th-century Ohio. Upon arriving in Circleville, he became interested in local history and the nearby earthworks and in 1820 published his book Descriptions of the Antiquities Discovered in the State of Ohio and Other Western States, the first compilation of prehistoric remains in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. Elected to the Ohio State Legislature in 1821, Atwater fervently supported canal construction. He also chaired Ohio’s first board of school commissioners and was instrumental in passage of Ohio’s Public School Law. For this, he has been called the “Father of Ohio’s Common Schools.” (continued on other side)
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Macedonia Cemetery (circa 1840) belongs to Macedonia Church, Ohio’s first Black Church. Those buried include settlers of the Macedonia Free Black Settlement, built by free people who assisted freedom seekers along the Underground Railroad. Also interred are soldiers of the Civil War’s United States Colored Troops (USCT), most of whom served in the 5th Regiment, Ohio’s first Black Regiment (1863). The Polley family also rest here. Emancipated slaves, the family continued their freedom struggle when their children were kidnapped from Ohio and unlawfully sold into slavery. Macedonia’s extant burial grounds include this sacred site and another 1/2 mile north.
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The 53rd Ohio Volunteer Regiment was mustered into service at Camp Diamond, north of Jackson, during the first year of the Civil War. Men recruited from the counties of Athens, Gallia, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Pike, Ross, Scioto, Washington, and Hamilton, and Preble began arriving in camp for training in September 1861. On February 16, 1862, the army ordered the regiment to Paducah, Kentucky and there assigned it to General William Tecumseh Sherman’s command. From April 1862 to February 1865, the 53rd fought in 69 engagements, including the Battle of Shiloh (the unit’s first) and the Atlanta Campaign. After hostilities ended, the 53rd marched in the Grand Review in Washington D.C. on May 24, 1865 and was mustered out of service in Little Rock, Arkansas on August 11. The unit suffered 80 battlefield casualties; 196 men died of disease or accidents.
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Daniel Arthur Rudd was born into slavery on August 7, 1854, in Bardstown, Kentucky. He became a newspaperman, lecturer, publicist, and tireless advocate for the Roman Catholic Church. After the Civil War Rudd moved to Springfield. Baptized and raised in Catholicism, he joined St. Raphael Parish, where the philosophy of racial equality offered by the church solidified his vision of justice. By 1885 he had established his own weekly newspaper, The Ohio State Tribune. He rebranded it The American Catholic Tribune (ACT) after moving to Cincinnati. Rudd claimed ACT was the only Catholic newspaper owned by an African American. At the height of its popularity in 1892, the publication had a circulation of 10,000. In 1893 Rudd was asked to chair the Afro-American Press Association, representing more than 200 black-owned newspapers.
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The American Civil War was in its second year, and Confederate forces were advancing in the east and in the west. Confederates led by General Edward Kirby Smith had defeated a Union Force at Richmond, Kentucky on August 30, 1862. Word was received that they were advancing on Cincinnati. Ohio Governor David Tod issued a proclamation to all Ohioans: “Our Southern border is threatened with invasion. I therefore recommend that all the loyal men of your Counties at once form themselves into military companies. Gather up all the arms in the county and furnish yourselves with ammunition for the same. The service will be but for a few days. The soil of Ohio must not be invaded by the enemies of our glorious government.” (continued on other side)