, OH
The Temple of Rumley Church is of one of two remaining buildings in what once was Rumley, a thriving African American community in Shelby County. On May 19, 1837, the village was surveyed for Amos Evans, who built his hewed log dwelling and store. Brothers Joel and George Goings (aka. Goens), freed black men from Monongalia County, Virginia, purchased 80 acres of land that same year. They settled with their families near Rumley in Van Buren Township along with other free men and women of color, including former slaves. Joel Goings erected the first brick house in 1841, using bricks from his own brickyard. By 1846, the Rumley community stretched over 7,000 acres and included the Collins, Redman, Williams, Davis, Lett, and Brown families. (Continued on other side)
, OH
Charles Warren Fairbanks was born in a log cabin near this location in Darby Township on May 11, 1852 to Loriston and Mary Adelaide Fairbanks. The cabin was replaced by a two-story framed house where he was raised to adulthood. Fairbanks married Cornelia Cole in Marysville in 1874 and they moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he pursued legal and political careers. Cornelia died on October 24, 1913 followed by Charles on June 4, 1918. Both were laid to rest at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.
, OH
Lutheran congregations formed in Perry County beginning in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century. The Mother Synod, the Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania, sent missionary pastors to Ohio to preach to the growing number of Lutherans moving into the state. St. Paul congregation was formed in 1812 under the leadership of William Forester. On September 14, 1818, the Joint Synod of Ohio, the first synodical organization of Lutherans west of the Appalachian Mountains and one of the earliest predecessors of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was founded in Somerset at the original log church on this site. St. Paul’s current church on W. Main was constructed in 1844.
, OH
Samuel Patterson arrived in East Orange in 1824 and, within a few years, began to hide runaway slaves in his home. He also invited anti-slavery speakers to the pulpit of the East Orange Methodist Church, which brought Patterson and his neighbors into conflict with the bishop. Following their consciences, they became Wesleyan Methodists and built a new church. A pro-slavery neighbor mocked them by calling their community Africa, and so East Orange was renamed. The village has disappeared, but several homes owned by Patterson and his neighbors still stand in this vicinity.
, OH
The oldest known structure standing in Franklin, the Old Log Post Office is a reminder of the links the community’s earliest members maintained to the rest of the young state of Ohio and to the United States during the early nineteenth century. John Noble Cumming Schenck, older brother of one of the founders of Franklin, William C. Schenck, established a store here in 1802. In 1805 President Thomas Jefferson appointed John Schenck postmaster of Franklin, a position he held until 1829. Schenck’s store is considered Franklin’s first post office and was one of the first four in Warren County. This building first stood at 310 South River Street and over the years was completely covered by additions and clapboards. They were removed in October 1974 and the house was moved to this location on December 6 of that year. In 1976 the structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
, OH
In 1839, Bishop John Baptist Purcell recruited European priests to minister to his Ohio flock. Father Louis Navarron, a young French missionary, was appointed to the French Catholic population of Darke and Shelby Counties in the area now marked by the villages of Russia, Versailles, and Frenchtown. St. Valbert, a centrally-located log church, was dedicated in December 1840 by Bishop Purcell to serve the region. In Russia, a log chapel was dedicated on Jean Jacques DeBrosse’s farm in 1846. Parish boundary lines were established in 1850, Precious Blood priests arrived, and a new church was dedicated to Saint Remigius in August 1852. As the congregation grew, so did the church buildings. The current Saint Remy Catholic Church, built between 1891-1892, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
, OH
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.
, OH
Cyprian Lee (1792-1854) settled in the Union County wilderness in 1820 and purchased the 118 West Sixth Street lot in 1828 for $6. County treasurer, coroner, shoemaker, and anti-slavery activist, Lee lived here in a log cabin until 1832 when this Greek Revival two-story brick house was completed. Other notable citizens to have resided in this oldest brick house in Marysville were showman Noah Orr (1836-1882), also known as the “Union County Giant,” and Josiah Jacob Morelock (1833-1899), a member of the Marysville City Council and the first Fire Department in Marysville. The Morelock family tannery business and stables were located behind this house.
614.297.2300
Contact Us
