Side A: Pleasant Litchford was born into slavery in Virginia in 1789. He purchased his freedom and moved his family to Ohio by 1831. A master blacksmith, Litchford bought a small farm four miles north of Columbus in 1833. By the time of his death in 1879, he was the fourth largest landowner in Perry Township. Described as “a man of iron constitution,” Litchford served as a lay-preacher, founding member, and deacon at Second Baptist Church. The church and James Poindexter, its pastor in 1847, provided an important voice during the anti-slavery movement. In 1869, Litchford sold, for $1, a parcel of land to establish a school for African American children. He was married three times and was survived by seven living children, twenty-five grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Pleasant Litchford was buried in the Litchford Family Cemetery.
Side B: Pleasant Litchford purchased 227 acres in Perry Township between 1833 and 1849. His holdings were bordered by present-day Redding to North Star and bisected by Ridgeview (formerly Litchford Road). Northam Park, Tremont Elementary School, St. Agatha, and Upper Arlington High School stand on his property. Around 1835, Litchford set aside a half-acre at the northeast corner of Brandon and Ridgeview as a family cemetery and burial place for African Americans. The last known burial was in 1925. In 1955, the Upper Arlington Board of Education purchased and appropriated forty acres, including the Litchford Cemetery, to build a new high school. After a court settlement with known Litchford descendants, twenty-eight bodies were removed and reinterred at Green Lawn and Union cemeteries. During 2020 investigations, archaeologists found the remains of a child and three sets of partial remains.
