Ohio

OH Office complex shaped like a woven basket, Longaberger Basket Co.(25 miles of) Newark,OH

OH XB-70 Valkyrie ( worlds most exotic airplane )U S Air Force Museum, Dayton OH

OH The Bull Hall of Fame( largest artificial insemination enterprise in country!) Plain City, OH

OH, The Motorcycle Heritage Museum "Hell's Angels allowed." Westerville, OH 614-891-2425

OH The Allen County Museum is the home to the world's largest collection of albino animals, Lima OH

Serpent Mounds

When the first Europeans entered Ohio, they were puzzled over the strange mounds that dotted the countryside. Some were 50 feet high while others were in the shape of fantastic animals. The settlers could not believe that the Native Americans they saw on the land had anything to do with these incredible monuments. So they invented tales of a lost group of Aztecs making its way north from Mexico to build a new civilization here. One theory even attributed the mounds to the Egyptians.

A few 19th century historians guessed the truth; they were the work of prehistoric peoples, some of them dating back to 400 B.C. Adding to the confusion was the fact that two separate mound-building cultures were identified, the Adena and the Hopewell. One absorbed the other and was in turn absorbed by other Indian people who moved into the area by around 500 A.D.

Serpent Mound is thought to be the work of the earlier, Adena Culture. It twists and coils around its ridge for one-quarter of a mile, with seven loops and a base 20 feet wide. The serpent's mouth is open and appears to be swallowing a smaller, oval mound. Archeologists still do not know its significance, although it is evident religious rites were associated with it. Harvard University rescued the site in 1886 when it was put up for sale as farmland and turned it over to the Ohio Historical Society in 1900. It is now surrounded by a park, and an observation tower enables visitors to grasp the size of the enormous snake. A museum displays artifacts found during excavations at the site.

This house was once the residence of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), the influential antislavery author who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin. In 1832, Harriet Beecher moved from Litchfield, Connecticut, to Cincinnati with her sister and father, a Congregationalist minister who accepted an offer to teach at the Lane Seminary. Harriet and her sister lived with their father in this house, which was provided by the Seminary, and soon after settling in established the Western Female Institute. In 1833, while teaching at the Western Female Institute, the two sisters published Geography for Children. The following year Harriet Beecher won a prize for "New England Sketch," published in the Western Monthly Magazine. Marrying Calvin Ellis Stowe, a fellow teacher at the Western Female Institute, in 1835, Harriet Beecher Stowe moved out of her father's house and into a nearby home in the Walnut Hills area. In the following years, however, Stowe would be a frequent visitor to this house where she and her family would meet with like-minded antislavery activists.

Stowe witnessed the evils of slavery first-hand while touring the neighboring state of Kentucky and visited the home of abolitionist John Rankin in Ripley, Ohio. During her residency in Ohio, she interviewed several former slaves who had escaped to freedom along the Underground Railroad. Many of the characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin mirrored real-life individuals such as Josiah Henson, a fugitive slave who escaped from Kentucky to Canada via the Underground Railroad with his wife and two children. While living in Cincinnati, Stowe also befriended Dr. Gamaliel Bailey who helped run the magazine Philanthropy and who would later become editor of National Era, the antislavery weekly that first published Uncle Tom's Cabin in serial format. In 1850, Harriet Beecher Stowe moved from Ohio to Brunswick, Maine, after her husband accepted a teaching position at Bowdoin College. Writing Uncle Tom's Cabin after arriving in Maine, Stowe drew upon her Ohio experiences which inspired her to write the book that would expose the horrors of slavery on a national level.

The Harriet Beecher Stowe House is located at 2950 Gilbert Avenue in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is open to the public Tuesday through Thursday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Appointments should be made for group tours by calling 513/632-5120.
Visit Washington, Kentucky, home of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Slavery to Freedom Museum.

John Parker (1827-1900), a former slave, lived in this house, which has been designated a National Historic Landmark, from about 1853 until his death, and from this location planned many rescue attempts of slaves held captive in the "borderlands" of Kentucky. Born a slave in Norfolk, Virginia, Parker was sold at the age of eight to a doctor in Mobile, Alabama. The doctor's family taught Parker to read and write and allowed him to apprentice in an iron foundry where he was compensated and permitted to keep some of his earnings. Persuading an elderly female patient of the doctor's to purchase him, Parker, at the age of 18, bought his freedom from the woman with money earned from his apprenticeship. Parker moved to southern Ohio and around 1853 established a successful foundry behind his home in Ripley. Patenting a number of inventions from his foundry, Parker was one of only a few African Americans to obtain a U.S. patent in the 19th century. Though busy with his business, 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. Parker, who was well-known by regional slave-catchers, risked his own life when he secreted himself back into slave territory to lead fugitive slaves to safety in Ripley. Once the slaves were in Ripley, Parker would deliver them to Underground Railroad conductors in the town, such as John Rankin, who would harbor the fugitive slaves and help them to the next depot on the network. 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.

The John P. Parker House is located in Ripley, Ohio at 300 Front Street. The house is currently vacant and is not open to the public.

A National Historic Landmark, this was the home of Presbyterian minister John Rankin who is reputed to have been one of Ohio's first and most active "conductors" on the Underground Railroad. In addition, he wrote Letters on American Slavery, first published in book form in 1826, and among the first clearly articulated antislavery views printed west of the Appalachians. Letters on American Slavery became standard reading for abolitionists all over the United States by the 1830s. From 1822 to 1865, Rankin, along with his wife and children, assisted hundreds of escaped slaves in their trek to freedom. Located on the Ohio River, John Rankin's home (and Ripley, Ohio in general) were considered one of the first stations on this route of the Underground Railroad. It was here that Harriet Beecher Stowe heard the escaping slave's story which became the basis for part of her famous work, Uncle Tom's Cabin. John Parker, a Ripley abolitionist and former slave who was active in the Underground Railroad, wrote of Rankin, "At times attacked on all sides by masters seeking their slaves, [John Rankin and his sons] beat back their assailant, and held its threshold unsullied. A lighted candle stood as a beacon which could be seen from across the river, and like the north star was the guide to the fleeing slave."

The John Rankin House is located in Ripley, Ohio at 6152 Rankin Road. It is open to the public.

The historic village of Mount Pleasant was established in 1803 by Robert Carothers, an Irishman from Virginia, and Jesse Thomas, a Quaker from North Carolina, and is important for the role it played in the antislavery movement and the Underground Railroad. Incorporated in 1814, the town became a center for pork packing and shipping and was especially successful in the milling industry. The strong Quaker population in Mt. Pleasant preached and practiced its abolitionist views and published antislavery literature, such as Benjamin Lundy's Genius of Universal Emancipation. A station on the Underground Railroad, the town was a refuge for fugitive slaves and a welcome home for free blacks. Local residents built and administered a school for free black children, and in 1848 established a Free Labor Store which sold no products that were produced by slave labor. Rice, for instance, was made by Quakers and cotton was made by German immigrants, but nothing sold in the store was produced from the efforts of slavery. The store remained open until 1857. As an important station on the Underground Railroad and a distinct voice in the abolitionist sentiment, the village of Mount Pleasant played a vital role in the antislavery movement.

The Village of Mt. Pleasant Historic District is located in Mt. Pleasant, Ohio and is roughly bounded by Third, North, High, and South Streets. While most of the buildings are private, the Mt. Pleasant Historical Society offers Underground Railroad walking tours which include tours of several houses within the district. Call 1-800-752-2631 for further information.

A National Historic Landmark, this house was the home of Wilson Bruce Evans (1824-1898), a leading black abolitionist and successful member of Oberlin's commercial and educational communities. Wilson Bruce Evans and his brother Henry Evans were participants in the well-known 1858 Oberlin-Wellington Rescue. This rescue of an escaped slave, who had been captured and was to be taken back to his master in Kentucky, was one of several open and well-publicized confrontations over the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and was significant in fueling the sectional differences in the United States prior to the Civil War. Wilson Bruce and Henry Evans were born into freedom in Fayetteville, North Carolina and learned the trade of cabinetmaking and carpentry as young men. In 1854, they moved with their respective families to Oberlin, a college community known for its support of free blacks, and established a cabinetmaking and carpentry business. The two brothers were not outspoken abolitionists like Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, or Frederick Douglass, however they risked imprisonment to fight slavery and the Fugitive Slave Act. The desire of the Evans' to help their brothers and sisters held in slavery was put above their own personal safety.

The Wilson Bruce Evans House is located in Oberlin, Ohio at 33 East Vine Street. The property is a private residence and is not open to the public.

This house, built in the early 1850s, was the home of Rush R. Sloane (1828-1908), a Sandusky, Ohio, lawyer, abolitionist, and Underground Railroad participant. The son of a local jeweler who arrived in Ohio around 1815, Sloane started studying law at the age of 17 and was admitted to the bar in 1849. Purchasing this house in 1854 from its first owner and builder, Samuel Torrey, Sloane practiced law in Sandusky and became involved in local abolitionist activities. His antislavery sentiments were most probably cultivated while studying law with lawyer F.D. Parish, a leading Sandusky abolitionist whose home was a known Underground Railroad station. One of Sloane's more well-known antislavery protests occured in 1852 when seven runaway slaves arrived in Sandusky on the Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad. The slaves were later captured aboard a steamer by three men from Kentucky claiming to be their owners. On behalf of the fugitive slaves, Sloane petitioned the mayor to investigate the evidence and questioned if the runaways were properly arrested and legally detained. Finding no legal authority for the arrest, local officials ordered that the slaves be released immediately. Shortly afterwards, one of the Kentucky men displayed legal papers of ownership and filed charges against Sloane under the Fugitive Slave Act. He was tried in the U.S. District Court in Columbus and fined $3,000 plus $1,330.30 in court and attorney fees. The local African American community, in appreciation of Sloane's efforts, presented him with a silver-headed cane that today is on display at the Follett House Museum at 404 Wayne Street in Sandusky. Three years after his trial, Sloane became a probate judge in Erie County and in 1861 was appointed as an agent to the U.S. Post Office in Chicago. While in Chicago, Sloane made a fortune in real estate. He became president of the Sandusky, Dayton, and Cincinnati Railroad in 1867 and was elected mayor of Sandusky in 1879. An influential and successful member of the Sandusky community, Rush Sloane sacrificed his money and reputation by participating in the Underground Railroad.

The Rush R. Sloane House is located at 403 East Adams Street in Sandusky, Ohio. Currently vacant, the house is not open to the public.

The Daniel Howell Hise House was an important stop on the Underground Railroad as escaping slaves passed though Salem, Ohio, an industrial Quaker community. It was also the home of noted local abolitionist Daniel Howell Hise and his wife Margaret. The Hises were members of the Society of Friends and through Daniel's activism hosted nationally renowned abolitionists including Henry C. Wright, Oliver Johnson, Parker Pillsbury, and Charles C. Burleigh when they visited Salem. Daniel Hise was the son of Aaron Hise a blacksmith and tavern owner, and early Salem settler. Born in 1813, Daniel inherited his father's blacksmithing and entertaining skills. In the 1840s, he became active in the abolition movement. Although witness to the injustices endured by slaves while he was a steamboat engineer in Alabama, it was radical reformer Amos Gilbert who, in Hise's words, "first awakened my thoughts, and gave them a direction." Both Daniel and Margaret were active in the Western Anti-Slavery Society (Daniel served as a member of the Executive Committee), located in Salem. Salem was a prime location for this organization because of the town's high percentage of Quakers and proximity to large concentrations of abolitionists in the surrounding area. Daniel also helped organize Salem's annual Anti-Slavery Fair, and aided various abolition efforts financially.

The Hise family purchased this one and a half story Gothic Revival farmhouse in the late 1850's. after which they began renovations which included hidden rooms under the house and in an accompanying barn. The Hise House was used as a temporary stop on the Underground Railroad, where fugitive slaves could eat and rest until nightfall, when they could travel to another station. The house and family sheltered numerous runaway slaves, and Daniel was also involved in rescuing slaves that passed through Salem with their owners. The Hise family also used their home to host numerous anti-slavery meetings and provided lodging to visiting abolitionists.

The Daniel Howell Hise House is located at 1100 Franklin Ave., in Salem, Ohio. It is a private residence, and is not open to the public.

William Hubbard (1787-1863) moved to Ashtabula, Ohio, from Holland Patent, New York, in 1834 to join relatives who owned and operated a successful lumber yard and warehouse in the town. Before moving to Ashtabula, Hubbard served in the War of 1812 as a captain in a New York regiment, and after the war served as a colonel of miltia. Upon his arrival, Hubbard constructed this house and became involved in the local antislavery society and town politics. A strategic location for an Underground Railroad station, the house is in close proximity to Lake Erie and was often the last stop for fugitive slaves before they crossed the lake to Canada. Noted Underground Railroad scholar, Wilbur H. Siebert, wrote in The Mysteries of Ohio's Underground Railroads, "Night after night conductors landed passengers in his [Hubbard's] cellar or hayloft..."

The William Hubbard House is located at the corner of Lake Avenue and Walnut Boulevard in Ashtabula, Ohio. It is open to the public Friday, Saturday and Sunday from noon until 6:00 pm between Memorial Day and Labor Day. During the fall and winter, please call ahead for scheduled tours at 440/964-8168.