Bagby, Sara Lucy
Former recaptured slave. Lived in Athens (ca. 1866/67). See John E. Vacha's "The Case
of Sara Lucy Bagby" Ohio History.
Bell, James Madison (1825-1902)
Born in Gallipolis, Ohio; first (?) Black poet in Ohio; author of The Day of the War
(1864), The Progress of Liberty (1866), and Triumph of Liberty (1870).
See Poetical Works of James Madison Bell.
Benson, James E.
Third Black Ohio University trustee (1892-1911); from
Cleveland; businessman, active in Republican politics ...
Berry, Edwin C. (1854-1931)
The "Black Horatio Algier" of Athens;
Owner and co-founder of the City Restaurant,
the Hotel
Berry "one of the finest and most elegant hotels
in the State of Ohio"; Member National
Negro Business League;
Trustee of Wilberforce University
Binga, Anthony (1843-1919)
Afro-Canadian born educator and Baptist minister.
Principal of the Albany Enterprise Academy (1869-1872).
Later in Richmond, Va.
Blackburn, John R. (1841-1937)
graduate of Dartmouth College (1862); educator and
Masonic leader. First Black Ohio University trustee
(1885-1892); from Cincinnati. Papers at Howard University's
Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.
Booker T. Washington Literary Club, 1907-1916?
Later B.T.W. Literary Society. President Rev. George Washington of Mt. Zion Baptist
Church. Town & gown entity catering to the Afro-Americans students at Ohio University.
Minie Bell is in the Annual Reception in Honor of the Summer School (O.U) photograph taken
July 27, 1909. View
the group photo of the B.T.W.L.C.
Bouchet, Edward A. (1852-1918)
First Black member of Phi Beta Kappa; First Black Ph.D. in the US
(Yale University, 1876 - in Physics).
Principal of Lincoln High School, Gallipolis, Ohio (1908-1918)
- a segregated facility !
Bryant, Isaac Vinton (1856-193-?)
Prominent religious leader of S.E.O. and West Virginia. B. in Lawrence County, Ohio,
pastored churches in the Providence Baptist Association (Athens, Gallipolis, etc).
Frequent speaker at Emancipation Celebrations. Papers in private hands.
Burrington, Violet (175?-1829)
First African American resident of Athens, Ohio -arrived in 1803 (from Marietta);
daughter of Peter (Pero) Burrington. Originally from Connecticut. Associated with the
Perkins Family.
Campbell,
James Edwin (1867-1896)
Poet, editor and short story writer of national prominence;
Educator - President of West Virginia Colored Institute
[now West Virginia State College]
Born, raised & died in Pomeroy, Ohio;
Precursor & friend of Paul
Laurence Dunbar;
Author of _Driftings and Gleanings_ (1887) and
Echoes from the Cabin and Elsewhere_ (1895).
Photo courtesy of West Viriginia State College Archives.
Carr, Arthur D. (1885-1966)
Athens High School Graduate (1902); 1905 Ohio University Graduate. Quarterback of
the 1903/4 Ohio U. football team. "Prominent colored physician of Washington, D.C.,
was owner of a portion of the land recently (1929) purchased as a site for the new Ohio
University (Peden) Stadium". Graduate of Howard University
Medical School (1912), later taught there for many years (45).
Clifford, Carrie Williams (1862-1934)
Chillicothe born author, activist of national repute, businesswoman. President, Ohio
Federation of Colored Women's Clubs. Author: The Widening Light (1922); Race
Rhymes (1911); Sowing for Others to Reap: a Collection of Papers
...O.F.C.W.C (1900) Collection reissued in 1971 (with bio) The Widening Light.
Corbin, Joseph Carter (1833-1911)
Third Black to graduate from Ohio University, with BA
in 1853. Honorary MA (twice !); editor of The Colored Citizen (Cincinnati, Ohio
1863-69); President of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (1873-1890);
Superintendent of Public Education/State of Arkansas. The University of Arkansas
recently commisioned
a portrait of Corbin, painted by John Newman.
Davis, Christopher C. d. 1881
Victim of the Albany (Lee Township) / Athens, Ohio lynching mob on November 21, 1881. The
murder occurred on the "Old South Bridge" in Athens, Ohio. One of a series of
Southeastern Ohio lynchings...Reinforced the climate of insecurity of African Americans in
the area, with further intimidation of the Black community by the hooded gentry ...
Davis, James (1787-1862)
Claimed to be the First Afro-American born in the State of Ohio ! Born in Marietta, Ohio
March 6th, 1787. Died in Dayton, Ohio
Davis, Richard L. (1864-1900)
American labor leader (Knights
of Labor); one of the founders of the UMWA (United Mine Workers of
America) African-American Miners in the UMWA
Davison, Andrew Jackson (1847-1922)
Black Athens County, Ohio office seeker (Democratic candidate for Prosecuting Attorney in
1878. Orator on the stump for Black Democrats. Author.)
Davison, Eliza
Brown (1840?-1912)
Attendant/cook to the family of General
George A. Custer
and a valiant heroin in her own right. She was visited by
Mrs. Libbie B. Custer in Athens in 1899.
Spouse of A.J. Davison (above).
A monument was erected in her honor in the West State Street
(Athens, Ohio) Cemetery.
Elliott, Mary A.
Businesswoman, spouse of Dr. Noah A. Elliott, sister of Olivia Davidson unofficial advisor
to Booker T. Washington
(her brother-in-law), the founder of Tuskegee University
Elliott, Noah A. MD
Civil War Veteran in medical capacity; African Methodist Episcopal Church. minister
(Church was on Pratt St. in Athens); benefactor of the Colored YMCA branch in Columbus,
Ohio
Ferguson, R.W.E. (Ralph Waldo Emerson) (1861-1917)
Albany, Ohio born printer, editor, journalist; founder and editor of _Waldo's Diadem_ (a Monthly) published from 1883/4-1896. At the
time one of the two serials published in the State. Later published a Black newspaper in
Albany (1913/14).
Furguson, Thomas Jefferson (1830-1887)
Founder/Principal/President of the Albany Enterprise Academy (1863- 1886)
in Athens Co.; co-founder Ohio Colored Teachers' Association (1861-187?); author of
numerous pamphlets: Negro Education: The Hope of the Race (1866); president of
the Mass Convention of the Colored Voters of Athens County (1879); member of the Albany
City Council; 1st Black to serve on a jury in Athens County (1880).
Graham, Allan E. (18??-1852)
Baptist minister, columnist for the Palladium of Liberty (Columbus Ohio African
American newspaper, 1843/4). Author of A Looking Glass for the Family, Columbus,
Ohio: (1844). Served as pastor of the Union Baptist Church in Cincinnati, also in
Columbus, Ohio. Died Jan. 28, 1852 in Savannah (Guysville, Athens Co.)
Holland, Milton M. (1844-1910)
Albany resident, student at the Albany Manual Labor Academy;
Member of the Attucks Guard;
Recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor
for service at the Battle of Bull Run;
Graduate of Howard University Law School (1872);
Founder of the Alpha Insurance Company in D.C. (1892)
Jackson, A. J.
Educator, poet. Graduate of the Albany Enterprise Academy, 1868/9.
Author of A Vision of Life, and Other Poems Hillsborough, Ohio : Printed at the
Highland News Office, 1869. Taught in Pike County, Ohio
Jackson, Bessie J. (1898-197?)
Gallia County resident; wrote Born in Poverty (An Autobiography) Gallipolis,
Ohio: Simms Print., (1980) 30 pp. (Lambert Lands, etc.)
Johnson, Beulah A.
Premier African American historian of Gallia County. The late Mrs. Johnson taught in the
Lincoln School in Gallia County; later in the integrated school. Graduate of Rio Grande
College. Work taken up by her daughter Ms. Sara J. Davis Sow (Rio Grande College Staff)
and Mrs. Barbara Scott.
Jones, J. McHenry
President of West Virginia State College
Photo courtesy of West Virginia State College Archives
Keels, Russell E.
Community leader, minister, Pres. Emancipation Day Celebration in Gallia County, Ohio.;
Officer Southeastern Ohio Branch of the NAACP (1993)
McSimpson, Joshua AKA Simpson, J. Mc.
(Abolitionist & author /Morgan County/Zanesville) Bio/bibliographic data Emancipation
Car Songster; J. McSimpson; 1854 A 1969 reprint of Simpson's work - yes, another form
of his name - was issued. It is a reprint of the 1874 edition with a different title. A
digitized version of the 1874 work is part of the Chadwick-Healey database on CD ROM which
is accessible from some libraries. J. McSimpson is one of the most prominent Afro-American
abolitionists. Born in Morgan County, Ohio, he died in Zanesville, Ohio.
Miller, Armistead (1830-1865)
NC born Athenian who migrated to Liberia in 1852. Graduate of Ashmun Institute (Now Lincoln University, Pa.). Author of Liberia
Described ..._ Voluminous correspondence. in ACS Collections at Library of Congress
's Manuscript Div.
Moreland, John Frederic (Rev.)
2nd. Ohio University (AA) trustee (1892-96); Methodist Episcopalian minister from
Cincinnati.
NAACP (Southeastern Ohio Branch) 1993 Officers: President: Bruce Rogers, Lawrence County, Ohio VP Russell E. Keels Gallia County VP James Crump Jackson County VP Michael C. Pride Lawrence Co., Ohio
Newspapers (African-American/Southeastern Ohio)
Albany, Ohio Waldo's Diadem (1884-1894) R.W.E. Ferguson Albany,
Ohio Our Message (1913-1914) R.W.E. Ferguson (both monthlies) Ironton,Ohio The
Spokesman (1886) Chas. A. Johnson Portsmouth, Ohio Pilot (1924-1926?) ?????
Portsmouth, Ohio The Colored News (1924-??) ????? Zanesville, Ohio Advocate
(1909-1916?) Ed. Buhn Zanesville, Ohio Christian Intelligencer(185?) A. R. Green
Parker, John P.
(1827-1900)
Parker was one of only a few African Americans to obtain a U.S. patent in the
19th century. Parker was also active in the Underground Railroad and is believed to have
assisted many slaves to escape from the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. In the 1880s,
Parker recounted his life as an Underground Railroad conductor in a series of interviews
with journalist Frank M. Gregg. These interviews have recently been edited by Stuart Seely
Sprague and published as His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker Former
Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad. (from National Park Service, see
link above)
Roye, Edward Jenkins (1815-1872)
Roye was born in Newark, Ohio and attended Ohio University
from 1832 to 1835, later graduating from Oberlin College.
Roye became the
fifth president of Liberia in 1870, the only
Ohioan to become president of a foreign country.
Templeton, John N. (1804?-1851)
John Newton Templeton was born a slave in South Carolina around 1805 and was
emancipated by his owner's will in 1813,
whereupon Rev. William Williamson, son of the owner and a staunch Presbyterian
abolitionist, took Templeton and
his family to Adams County, Ohio, where he received his early education. With the aid of
Rev. Robert Wilson,
president of Ohio University during this period, Templeton entered Ohio University in
1824, resided at Wilson's
home as a family servant, and received a B.A. degree on September 17, 1828. (from "A Black History of Athens County and Ohio
University"). Read Templeton's speech regarding Ohio's
laws requiring African Americans to post a $500 bond in order to live in the state.
Washington, Olivia A. Davidson (
-1889)
Educator and nurse, Olivia Davidson married Booker T.
Washington,
in Athens, Ohio in August, 1886. Washington writes about his wife, Olivia,
in chapters 8, 9, 10, 12, and 13 of his autobiography, Up from Slavery.
According to Mr. Washington, "no single individual did more toward laying
the foundations of the Tuskegee Institute as to insure the successful work
that has been done here than Olivia Davidson."
Ohio African American newspapers were distributed throughout the area. The Indiana
Freeman also had correspondents, ditto for the Plain Dealer (Detroit), The
Pittsburgh Courier, etc. Some (white) papers in the area had ""colored
news" sections written by African American contributors (e.g.. Nelsonville
Tribune). African American editors were frequent speakers at religious meetings,
emancipation celebrations, political rallies, etc.
RETURN TO AFROAM Southeastern Ohio
Want to read more bios. or suggest someone to add? -
contact me!
(c) 1998 Michel S. Perdreau Baechler
