Week 8: WSU's Archives - Champaign, Clark, and Logan County

This week I headed to the Champaign County Clerk of Court's office and Wright State University's Special Collections and Archives located in Dunbar Library. If you'll remember from last week, I had to check WSU's microfilm for Clark County Court of Common Pleas records as well as locate the Black and Mulatto Register for Logan County. I also had set up a meeting with the Champaign County Clerk of Courts to gain access to their storage location to look for original Manumission and Emancipation records. I will start the blog post for this week with where I started - Champaign County.

Champaign County Court House.

The Clerk of Court for Champaign County, Penny S. Underwood, was a great help during the records search for Champaign County. She set me up with her intern, Hannah, who let me look through all the records I wanted and even helped me with the locations of some of the journals I could not find. Due to a couple of fires, especially one that started in the records room and spread to the rest of the court house, there were not a lot of records to look through. However, I did find an original Manumission record for a Black man named Barry from 1809. While that was the only original paper Manumission record I found, I am pleased to say that the rest of the Clerk of Court journals had already been recorded on microfilm and can safely be viewed at a variety of locations.

Metal probate boxes charred from a court house fire.

Application for a certificate of freedom for Barry.

Next on my list was to return to Wright State University to search their archives for the Logan County Registry and to look at microfilm for Clark County. Sadly, I was unlucky in the microfilm search, but the Logan County Black and Mulatto Register was beautiful to see. The Logan County book lists 132 names with a date span of 1824 - 1857.

Manumission record for Eli Wilkins.

Manumission record for the Banks family.

There were two very interesting records included in the Logan County book. First, there was the record of all the enslaved people Emancipated from George C. Mendenhall of Guilford County, North Carolina. In all, 28 people were granted their freedom upon Mendenhall's death. There was even a tiny photograph of the Mendenhall home in the folder where the book is kept.

Home of George C. Mendenhall ca. 1810. Photo courtesy of Fred Hughes.

The second, and most fascinating record from the book was the Manumission record of a man named Everett Byrd. Collin W. Barnes, a Justice of the Peace in Northampton County, North Carolina, certified that Everett Byrd was a "free man of color" and that he had known Mr. Byrd's mother and grandmother. Mr. Barnes stated, "[A]s to his freedom this is, nor can be, no manner of doubt as he descended from a white woman who was his grandmother."

Excerpt from the Manumission record for Everett Byrd.

These 132 names are only the tip of the iceberg concerning Logan County, however. The County is certainly famous for having the shortest street in America and America's oldest concrete street, but there is another, far more important piece of history for which Logan County is famous - its ties to Abolitionists and to the Underground Railroad. If you ever head anywhere in Ohio that takes you through, or close to, Logan County, be sure to check out the Logan County History Museum and ask about Logan County's role in the Underground Railroad.

That's all I have for this week. I hope you all enjoyed and come back next week when I visit the Montgomery County Records Center and Archives.

Thanks, and be good!

Week 7: Logan County

This week, I traipsed around Bellefontaine in Logan County, Ohio, searching for Manumission records. Logan County was founded in 1818 and is named after Revolutionary War Colonel Benjamin Logan. Bellefontaine is the county seat as well as the largest city in Logan County.

Flags of Logan County, Ohio, and America.

Logan County Courthouse.

Pineapple fountain in front of the courthouse.

Bellefontaine is also home to America's shortest street, McKinley Street, and America's first concrete street, Court Avenue. Although cars are no longer driven down Court Avenue, it is still well-maintained by the City of Bellefontaine.

America's oldest concrete street, Court Avenue.

My first stop in Logan County was to the Recorder's office to search the deed records from any bills of sale or freedom papers.

Exterior of the Logan County Office Building which houses the Recorder and the Auditor's offices.

Interior of the Logan County Recorder's office.

I searched through a multitude of indexes from 1818 until 1863 and saw some interesting things. A man named Job Davis had sold land to "Nobody," Simon Kenton sold and acquired different lands, and I saw a man with the last name Starbuck buying and selling a lot of land. Unfortunately, there were no Manumission records to be found at the Recorder's office, so I made my way to the Logan County Library.
Libraries are always great sources of information no matter what you're looking for. Like most of the libraries that I have visited, the Logan County Library has a genealogy/local history research room. Anyone can do research in it, all you have to do is check in at the desk and they will unlock the door for you. Two employees set me up in the room and provided a lot of African American historical files for me to go through to help in my journey. An interesting item they had was a photocopied book titled, "Register of Black, Mulatto and Poor Persons in Four Ohio Counties 1791-1861." This book was great as it had a lot of names of freed Blacks in Logan County that I could use in my search.

Book cover from Logan County Library.

Another interesting item they had was a newspaper clipping reporting that freed Blacks living near the Indian Lake area had been stricken with malaria. It seems that one John W. Warwick of Amherst County, Virginia, freed 300 of his slaves in 1850, bought land for them near Indian Lake, and gave them enough supplies for a year. The land that Warwick purchased, however, turned out to be infested swamp land. The article states that one-sixth of the population at the Indian Lake settlement contracted malaria and "died within a short time."

Newspaper article from the Logan County Library.

While the article gave me the name of an emancipator, John W. Warwick, I still had no actual Manumission or Emancipation records. I decided to head to the Logan County Historical Center.

Logan County Historical Center, Bellefontaine, Ohio.

The Logan County Historical Center is a museum, archive, and genealogy center all rolled into one. While waiting for the archivist to take me to the archives, I walked around the museum and found a room dedicated to the Underground Railroad and the Logan County Abolitionists who helped Blacks escape slavery in the south. The docents were all incredibly friendly and knowledgeable, I highly recommend going!
The archives are located on the second floor, with the genealogy room across the hall. I was able to search through a township journal and a common pleas docket, but names continued to elude me. I did learn that Logan County had a Free Black and Mulatto Registry that was microfilmed and the original stored at Wright State University's Special Collections and Archives, so I will be going back there shortly to view the original document.
So that's all I have for this week. I hope you all enjoyed and tuned for next week when I revisit the Champaign County Clerk of Courts office and Wright State University for the Free Black and Mulatto Register of Logan County.
Thanks, and be good!

Week 6: Clark County

I continued my search in Clark County this week, visiting the county offices in Springfield. The first place I went was to the Clark County Heritage Center. The Heritage Center is located in Springfield's old City Hall and Marketplace building on South Fountain Ave. The building itself is 13,000 sq. ft. and features a museum, Un Mundo Café, meeting rooms and rental spaces, the Huenke Family Farm Store, the Fisher Family Library and Archives, the Springfield Arts Council, and office spaces for United Way of Clark County and Clark County Veteran's Support Services.

Clark County Heritage Center

The Fisher Family Library and Archives is located on the second floor. The library was actually closed on the Tuesday I went, but their lovely archivist, Natalie Fritz, allowed me to come up and search their probate records for manumission, emancipation, and freedom paper records. 

Fisher Family Library and Archives

Fisher Family Library and Archives

The archives had a wide variety of Clark County, and Ohio, history including books, microfilm, and other reference material. They have the original probate court indexes, but also have them typed out so patrons can better read the names and cases. The typed indexes are also less awkward to handle and peruse as the original books are oversized and very heavy. While looking through the indexes, I made a discovery. There was an entry for a man named William H. Williams who was emancipating his slaves in 1860. 

Index entry for William H. Williams.

Not only did the Heritage Center have the entry in their original index book, but they also had both documents from probate court in their archival storage.

William H. Williams emancipation documents.

Williams set free five enslaved people from Kenton County, Kentucky on the 29th of November, 1860: Morris, Nancy, Mary, Alexander, and Robert Wilson.

While I was scanning the indexes for more records, Mrs. Fritz was searching the storage room for another court record she had remembered seeing. It was a deed of emancipation that had been donated to the Heritage Center whose donor and donation information had been lost over the years. The record was from one Polly Bell of Augusta County, Virginia, who emancipated 22 enslaved people in October of 1849. 

Deed of Emancipation from Polly Bell to 22 enslaved people.

All though these records were all the Fisher Family Library and Archives had, they were phenomenal finds. Done for the day, I packed up and headed to the Clark County Clerk of Courts office to check for records at the Court of Common Pleas.

Clark County Court of Common Pleas.

The employees of the Clark County Clerk of Courts office were exceptionally friendly. I had called the day before to let them know who I was and what I was looking for so they wouldn't be surprised. They were very helpful and let me look through whatever books I wanted. I was a little disheartened to note that they were missing a lot of physical records from before the 1900s, however there are microfilmed copies at Wright State University's Special Collections and Archives, so I will be making a trip back there soon.

Luckily the Clerk of Courts office did have a complete index to common pleas cases from 1819 to 1852. While scouring the index, I found an emancipation entry.

Deed of emancipation for "Ralph."

The entry was a deed of emancipation from A. Givens to a man named Ralph. I asked one of the employees if I could see the book the complete record was in, but it unfortunately was not found in their storage room. Hopefully I will be able to find the complete record on microfilm at Wright State - we will see!

That's all I have for Clark County until I can get to Wright State and hit up their microfilm collection. I hope you all enjoyed and stay tuned for next week when I travel up to Logan County.

Thanks, and be good!