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Built in 1886 by direct descendants of slaves, the Black and White schoolhouse provided education for local youth until 1928. Denied admission to white schools in the area, local African-American families first built a log schoolhouse across the road in 1883 in which to educated their children. Three years later, this brick building was constructed. The black families allowed white children to attend and, as a result, the school became known as the Black and White school. It is an early integrated school in Ohio.
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The Plymouth Meeting of Smithfield is considered one of the earliest Society of Friends (Quaker) congregations in Ohio. Jesse Carr, William and Sarah Carr’s first born son, is noted in the Plymouth Meeting records as being born the “10th of 5th mo.” in 1792. All seven children of William and Sarah were born before the name changed from Plymouth Meeting to Smithfield Meeting in 1818. Opposed to slavery, many Quakers were “conductors” on the Underground Railroad. Joseph and Rebecca Cope kept a “station” for runaway slaves on their farm, which was located northwest of Smithfield, adjacent to Northern Cemetery (St. Rt. 151).
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First known as the Webster House, later as the New England House, and finally as the Old Tavern, this inn has served travelers on the old Cleveland-Buffalo Road (now State Route 84) since before Ohio became a state. As traffic on the old Indian trail increased and it became a post and stage road, the two original log cabins, built in 1798 and later, were converted to this two-and-a-half story inn between 1815 and 1820. While the tavern was the scene of Civil War-era parties and dances in the second-floor ballroom, local tradition suggests it offered much more clandestine hospitality to escaping slaves as a station on the Underground Railroad. The Unionville Tavern was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1973.
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Unserheim, meaning “Our Home” in German, is the name of this ante-bellum Queen Anne style home, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. From 1857-1878, it was home to Daniel Howell Hise, a Quaker and ardent abolitionist. On April 8, 1849, Hise wrote, “Welcome! Welcome to the protection I can give, with or without the law.” A major stop on the Underground Railroad, Unserheim’s secret rooms and tunnel provided shelter to slaves on their flight to freedom. Hise’s belief in abolitionism was so strong that following John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry, he was instrumental in erecting the Edwin Coppock Monument at Hope Cemetery. Coppock had been executed for his participation in the raid. Hise also supported the Women’s Rights Movement and opened Unserheim to such notable guests as famed suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth.
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Despite the fugitive slave laws that prohibited harboring runaway slaves, fugitives found refuge in the Quaker village of Chesterfield, now Chesterhill. Legend tells that no runaway slaves were ever captured here, although many were hidden and helped on their way to freedom in Canada. A well-organized branch of the Underground Railroad ran through Morgan County with Elias Bundy as a principal conductor. Bundy sometimes concealed fugitive slaves in the woods east of Chester Hill. Historian W.H. Siebert says Bundy, Jesse Hiatt, Nathan Morris, Abel W. Bye, Joseph Doudna, Arnold Patterson, and Thomas Smith “belonged to the inner circle of old and reliable Friends [Quakers] upon whom dependence could always be placed.” The first Monthly Meeting was held on October 21, 1839 at the location of the present Meeting House, which was built in 1834.
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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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Maryland Park was opened in 1921. It served as the site of the annual Emancipation Day Celebration until 1933. The first Columbus public pool was constructed here in 1929 as the Center of Eastside Social and Recreation Activities. It was home to many black athletes who brought pride and distinction to themselves and to the city.
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In June 1815, Captain Jabez Burrell settled this land after coming from Sheffield, Massachusetts. Five years later the brick homestead was constructed. Five generations of the Burrell family occupied the homestead continuously from 1820 to January 2001 when Eleanor B. Burrell passed away. In 1836, the racially integrated Sheffield Manual Labor Institute, a branch of Oberlin College, was established at the Burrell Homestead, but the Institute closed the next year because the Ohio Legislature refused to grant its charter unless it excluded black students. From 1837 until the start of the Civil War, the homestead was a major stop on the Underground Railroad. Runaway slaves were hidden in the grain barn until Robbins Burrell could arrange for captains in Lorain, such as Aaron Root, to hide them on vessels for the trip across Lake Erie to freedom in Canada.
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