Ahead of its time
1833 Experimental Community fuels Anti-Slavery Movement
By Marilyn Loeser
 Oberlin seems quiet as my husband and I drive along Main Street this warm autumn
day. We’re here out of curiosity, to seek Ohio and American history about a
community ahead of its time — way ahead of its time.
Located in Lorain County, southwest of Cleveland, Oberlin has a population of
just under 10,000 and is home to Oberlin College, a liberal arts college and
music conservatory with approximately 3,000 students.
Our first stop is the Monroe House where the Oberlin Heritage Center is housed.
Greeted by Elizabeth Schultz, the Museum Education and Tour Coordinator, we’re
quickly taken back to the beginning of Oberlin as she introduces us to the
history of the community and its rich — and unusual — history.
 First she tells us about the Monroe House, a brick Italianate-style house built
in 1866. Originally the home of Civil War General Giles W. Shurtleff, the leader
of the first African-American regiment from Ohio to serve in the Civil War, the
house was subsequently the home of James Monroe and his wife, Julia Finney
Monroe.
Monroe was an important abolitionist, advocate of voting rights for African
Americans and friend of Frederick Douglass. Monroe taught at Oberlin College,
served as the U.S. Consul to Brazil and was a five-term US congressman.
In the beginning
Elizabeth weaves the one-time house occupants’ lives and the town together,
painting a clear portrait of Oberlin.
It was founded in 1833 by two Presbyterian ministers, John Shipherd and Philo P.
Stewart, she tells us. Dissatisfaction with what they saw as the lack of strong
Christian morals among the settlers of the American West, the men decided to
establish a religious community and school for training American frontier
missionaries.
 Finding what they felt was the perfect location about eight miles south of
Elyria, Shipherd convinced the owner of the land to donate 500 acres and sell an
additional 5,000 acres. He also persuaded some of his friends to join in his
adventure and others to contribute money towards the construction of the
community.
The town was conceived as an integrated community and blacks attended Oberlin
College from its early years. Towards the middle of the 19th century, Oberlin
became a major focus of the abolitionist movement in the United States. Many
Oberlin College graduates were dedicated abolitionists who traveled throughout
the South working to help slaves escape to the north.
 Room
to room, Elizabeth points out significant antiques, explains life in
19th-century Oberlin and America, and the town’s involvement in the Underground
Railroad.
“By the mid 1800s, thousands of fugitive slaves had already passed through
Oberlin on their way to Canada,” she said. “At the time, Ohio law allowed
fugitive slaves to apply for a writ of habeas corpus which protected them from
being taken back to the southern states.”
In 1858, however, a newly-elected Democratic state legislature repealed this
law, leaving the fugitives around Oberlin vulnerable to enforcement of the
Federal Fugitive Slave Law which allowed southern slave-catchers to target and
extradite them back to the South.
Pointing to a photograph in one of the rooms, Elizabeth says the repeal of this
law led to the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue. “This is a photograph of the men
involved,” she says as she begins to tell us about the pivotal pre-Civil War
event.
On September 13, 1858, a fugitive named John Price was captured and jailed in
neighboring Wellington. A large group of Oberlin residents consisting of
townspeople, students and faculty, set out for the Wellington jail to release
Price from captivity.
Price was freed and eventually smuggled out of the country, but the authorities
weren’t content to let the matter rest. President James Buchanan personally
requested that the group be prosecuted and 37 of them were eventually tried and
convicted. Major protests resulted which helped the anti-slavery Republican
party in the 1860 State elections.
 Next,
as part of our tour, Elizabeth takes us next door to The Little Red Schoolhouse.
Built in 1836, it was the first public school in town and interracial from its
inception.
Elizabeth points to a small etching of a little girl. “Sarah Margru Kinson was
onboard the infamous Amistad slave-trading ship,” she says. “She was later
returned to America and became one of the first African Americans to attend the
school.”
Next we walked to nearby Jewett House.
The house was built in 1884 for Oberlin College chemistry professor Frank
Fanning Jewett, and his wife Frances Gulick Jewett, author of books on public
health and hygiene. The Jewetts rented rooms to male Oberlin College students,
who slept in the attic and studied on
 the
second floor.
One exhibit here portrays "Aluminum: The Oberlin Connection" that includes a
recreation of Charles Martin Hall's 1886 wood shed experiment where he
discovered the cost-effective process for commercially manufactured aluminum.
After our informative tour, we thank Elizabeth and head for Martin Luther King
Park where monuments are dedicated to the Civil Rights leader, the
Oberlin-Wellington Rescue and the three Oberlin men killed as a result of John
Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry.
If you go:
Here, you’ll also find the Allen Memorial Art Museum, one of the finest college
or university collections in the United States. Comprising more than 12,000
works of art from virtually every culture and spanning the history of art. It’s
located at 87 North Main Street.
Also of interest is Oberlin College's Weltzheimer/Johnson House, a late example
of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian houses. Begun in 1948, and completed in 1950, it
is the first Usonian house in Ohio and is open to the public on the first and
third Sunday of each month from noon to 4 p.m.
For more information
Oberlin Heritage Center: ohioweb@oberlinheritage.org
Oberlin and Lorain County: www.visitloraincounty.com.
 Accommodations
Fairfield Inn & Suites, Avon:
https://www.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-photos/
cleav-fairfield-inn-and-suites-cleveland-avon/
Interstate 90/State Route 2 slices through Loraine County. Fairfield Inn &
Suites is located just off I-90/US 2 at Exit 151.
We found this hotel to be the perfect base for exploring Oberlin and other sites
in the area. Friendly service and spacious rooms made it the perfect home away
from home.
 Dining out
Nemo Grille: http://www.nemogrille.com/
Nemo Grille, an Italian/American restaurant is located at 36976 Detroit Rd. in
Avon's historic French Creek District — only minutes from Fairfield Inn &
Suites.
The restaurant building dates back to 1850 when Clemens Alten moved his family
to the lands of the Western Reserve and the house was built.
The menu includes lasagna made with homemade pasta, seafood linguini, spaghetti
parmigiana, filet mignon, salmon filet, veal porterhouse and grilled lamb loin.
Appetizers include grilled shrimp, mussels, roasted portabella and seared bacon
wrapped sea scallops — delicious!
And the dessert menu includes homemade crème brulee, carrot cake and cheesecake.
Destination: United States, Ohio
Special Interests: Heritage Travel, Museums, Road Trip, Weekend Getaways
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