, OH
Side A: Jane Payne, M.D. (1825-1882). Dr. Jane Payne’s family migrated from Bristol, England in 1825. Her father Henry served as an Episcopal priest in Ohio, finally settling in Mount Vernon. Although her sight was impaired and she was challenged by infirmities left by childhood diseases and injuries, Payne resolved to be a physician. She began her studies with Dr. John W. Russell (1804-1887) in Mount Vernon. In 1861, she graduated first in what was the ninth class of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Overcoming prejudices against female physicians, Dr. Payne practiced from 1861 to 1882. She showed special concern for municipal sanitation and care for the poor. Her office was located at northwest corner of South Main and West Gambier streets. Dr. Payne succumbed to cancer and is buried in Mound View Cemetery.
, OH
Stone Arch at Howard, Ohio. The arch at Howard, built in 1874, is a bridge for U.S. Route 36 over the old Cleveland, Mt. Vernon, and Delaware Railroad bed, a part of the Kokosing Gap Trail. Samuel Israel, Sr. (1810-1889) sold the right to quarry nearby stone for the arch to Robert S. McKay (1813-1885) and his son William (1845-1892). R.S. McKay & Son employed local stone masons, shown here, to build the arch according to the contract with the railroad. (Continued on other side)
, OH
Ellamae Simmons, born and raised in Mount Vernon, became the first African American woman physician to specialize in asthma, allergy, and immunology in the country. Graduating in the top of her high school class, she dreamed of attending Ohio State University to become a nurse but was rejected as that program “did not have the facilities for training” the young black girl. Whenever Simmons encountered a barrier in life she refused to accept rejection, tenaciously steered the course of her own life, and blazed new trails for others. She ultimately earned degrees in nursing (Hampton, 1940), pre-med biological sciences (OSU, 1948), social work (OSU, 1950), and medicine (Howard University, 1959). Dr. Simmons again broke gender and racial barriers when hired by Kaiser Permanente in 1965. She practiced there until retiring in 1989. Simmons died aged 101.
, OH
Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, the lone religious property within the Mt. Vernon Downtown Historic District, served what became only the second African American congregation in the city. The cornerstone for 13 South Mulberry Street was laid October 17, 1915, and a dedication service was celebrated in March 1916. Mt. Calvary grew out of the Black Baptist traditions brought by Southern refugees during the Great Migration. Although dwindling membership and resources closed the building, it provided Mt. Vernon’s African American community with a vital space of worship, communion, mutual assistance, asylum, social support, and community celebration for almost a century.
, OH
Wayman Chapel was dedicated in 1874 as part of Ohio’s Third District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The first Black church in Knox County, it began in 1870 under the guidance of Rev. James A. Ralls. The congregation met in local homes and church basements until completing their red brick church at 102 West Ohio Avenue in 1876. Additions made 1947-1948 included an upgraded facade. For more than a century, Wayman Chapel provided an educational, cultural, and spiritual hub for its members as well as the wider Black community of Mt. Vernon.
, OH
In 1804 a group of neighbors in Granville, Massachusetts and Granby, Connecticut formed The Licking Company for the purpose of moving to “Newlands” in Ohio. Inspired and informed by the settlement of Worthington in 1803, the Company purchased 29,040 acres in the U.S. Military District. Advance parties surveyed and mapped a site, established a mill, and planted grain. The Company planned a public square, a school, library, quarry, burying ground, and property for the support of churches. In November and December 1805, some 150 emigrants in ox-drawn wagons arrived in their new home and built temporary shelters on the designated public square. On December 9 through 12 1805, Company members selected their Granville lots in an auction that was described as peaceable and honest.
, OH
On May 1, 1950, the Akron Community Service Center and Urban League building opened to the public. The Center was a gathering place for African Americans of the community, where they addressed workplace, education, and other issues dividing the city. Directors included the late George W. Thompson, Raymond Brown and Vernon L. Odom. The Center provided space for meetings, classes and receptions and had a swimming pool and gymnasium. The Center also hosted talent shows, which included the musicians who became Ruby and the Romantics. The group scored a #1 hit in 1963 with “Our Day Will Come.”
, OH
Frances Payne Bolton (1885-1977) was the first woman from Ohio to serve in the United States Congress. Elected in 1940 to complete the term of her late husband, Chester C. Bolton, Mrs. Bolton represented the 22nd District for 28 years. Her life long advocacy of nursing education is reflected in both her philanthropy and the legislation she supported. Her gift to Western Reserve University in 1923 enabled the school to set up one of the first college-based nursing programs in the country. The school was renamed the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing in her honor in 1935. The Bolton Bill she supported in Congress created the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps to address the critical shortage of nurses during World War II.
614.297.2300
Contact Us
