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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.
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The Snowden Family Band was an acclaimed African-American stringband who performed in and around Knox County for nearly seventy years, from the 1850s into the 1920s. Buried in Morris Chapel Cemetery are Thomas Snowden (1803-1856), his wife Ellen Cooper Snowden (1817-1894), and their nine children: Oliver, Sophia, Mary, Ben, Lew, Phebe, Martha, Elsie, and Annie. Born into slavery in Maryland, Thomas and Ellen separately relocated to Knox County and to freedom during the 1820s. They married in 1834. In the 1850s, the six surviving children formed a band under Ellen’s direction. Talented musicians, the Snowden Family performed banjo and fiddle music for public events and at their homestead near Mount Vernon. Many believe that the song “Dixie,” attributed to minstrel Daniel Decatur Emmett (1815-1904), originated with the Snowden Family Band.
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