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In November 1843 former slave Frank Lambert, along with 29 other former slaves, purchased 265.5 acres of land in Morgan Township. These African American settlers had once belonged to Charles Lambert Jr. of Bedford County, Virginia, but had been freed upon his death in 1839. His last will and testament also stipulated that the freed slaves be given horses, oxen, wagons, clothing, and financial support to help them relocate to a state chosen upon advise of the will’s executors. They chose Ohio and specifically Gallia County. Shortly after the former slaves established their settlement in Section 32, they began using their authentic surnames, which included the Burks, Jones, Leftwiches, Millers, Randolphs, Reeds, Sales, Minnis, and Wingfields. By 1845 several of this group helped to establish the Morgan Bethel Church where a memorial was dedicated in 2002. (continued on other side)
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A direct descendent of original settlers in Jackson Township, Winter Zellar (Zero) Swartsel was born in 1876. Throughout his life he was a natural born showman, teacher, eccentric, anarchist, and “possibly the grandfather of American Pop Culture.” At a young age and tired of the routines of Farmersville, he declared that, “He would live by his wits while his brothers lived by the sweat of their brows.” He and a friend bicycled first to New York City and then turned around to head west and eventually the world. Later his home would overflow with items collected while traveling the world. Outside was a similar story. While chiding the American people for their wastefulness and abusing their environment, his 22 acres of farmland became his artist’s canvas filled with the thousands of items he collected from the “wasteful.” [continued on other side]
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Following the American surrender of Fort Detroit in August 1812, panic spread along the Ohio frontier in fear of possible Indian attacks. The boundary of the Indian territory lay approximately 14 miles to the north at the Greenville Treaty line. Ohio Governor Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr. called out the Ohio Militia to defend the frontier and to construct blockhouses to guard against Indian attacks. A local militia company of 70 men was raised in present Union and Madison Counties to protect the settlements along Big Darby Creek. David Watson served as captain with Frederick Lloyd as first lieutenant.
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Reverend Lorenzo Langstroth, renowned as “The Father of American Beekeeping,” lived in this simple two-story, eight-room house with his wife, Anne, and their three children from 1858 to 1887. Unchanged externally, the Greek Revival cottage features brick pilasters and pediments and a fan-shaped front window. In his garden workshop, Langstroth made experimental beehives, established an apiary, and on the ten acres that surrounded his home, grew buckwheat, clover, an apple orchard, and a “honey garden” of flowers. He imported Italian queen bees in efforts to improve native bees and shipped his queens to keepers across the United States and around the world. The Langstroth Cottage was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982. (Continued from other side)
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Born in Cincinnati in 1850, Dan Beard was a nationally known illustrator and artist. Early years and summers spent here strongly influenced his career. Beard’s American Boy’s Handy-Book (1882), a manual of woodcraft and nature lore, was one of his twenty youth-oriented outdoors books. He founded the Sons of Daniel Boone circa 1906, a boys’ organization that he promoted as editor of Recreation magazine. After Robert Baden-Powell founded the Boy Scouts in England in 1908-based partly upon Beard’s writings-“Uncle Dan” helped establish the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) in 1910. Since then, Scouting has promoted the development of character, citizenship, physical fitness, and environmental awareness for millions of boys. Beard served as the BSA’s first commissioner and participated actively until his death in 1941. The uniform design and the BSA emblem are among his many contributions to Scouting.
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After embracing the cause of women’s suffrage, Harriet Taylor Upton (1854-1945) devoted her life to the movement. Born in Ravenna, she moved to Warren as a child and lived in this house beginning in 1873. Upton was treasurer of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1895 to 1910 and brought its headquarters to Warren in 1903, where it remained until 1910. She served as president of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association for 18 years. As the first woman vice chair of the National Republican Executive Committee, Upton was instrumental in the passage of child labor laws and securing governmental appointments for women. Her devotion to women’s causes and skills as a public speaker earned her nationwide respect.
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Established in 1873, Lakeside is a pioneer of the American Chautauqua Movement, one of the greatest revival movements in United States history which flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Founded by the Methodist Church, Lakeside is one of the few existing Chautauqua communities that remain and thrive today. Each summer, the late-Victorian community provides spiritual, cultural, intellectual, and recreational programs designed to nurture the mind, body, and spirit. It draws visitors from across the country and around the world for its Chautauqua program. Lakeside is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.
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As he traveled the National Road on August 20, 1835, the last diary entry by Christopher C. Baldwin, librarian for the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts, was, “Start by stage on the Cumberland Road for Zanesville.” Baldwin never reached Zanesville or his ultimate destination, which was to investigate prehistoric mounds in southern Ohio on behalf of the Antiquarian Society. On that day, near this site, he was killed in what is considered to be the first traffic fatality recorded in Ohio. While passing a drove of hogs on the road, the horses pulling the stage became unmanageable and when the driver tried to check their speed on a decline, the stage turned over. Baldwin was riding with the driver and was killed when the stage rolled over on him. Due to the lateness of the season and the distance from his home, his remains were interred in Norwich.
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