Historic tour coming to Mount Pleasant
Mount Pleasant Historical Society President Tom Haynes will open his home to guests during the annual “Celebrate America’s History” tour, scheduled for Aug. 3-4. Haynes’ residence is one of the village’s most beautiful homes, completed in 1884, organizers stated. Known as the J.H. Mercer/Bracken House, many of his antique furniture pieces originated in Mount Pleasant and Dillonvale. -- Contributed
Dr. Wayne Butler and his wife, Annette, will be opening their doors for those taking the tour, as well. The Butlers will allow access to their 1930 cottage and picturesque gardens. -- Contributed
Mount Pleasant Historical Society President Tom Haynes will open his home to guests during the annual “Celebrate America’s History” tour, scheduled for Aug. 3-4. Haynes’ residence is one of the village’s most beautiful homes, completed in 1884, organizers stated. Known as the J.H. Mercer/Bracken House, many of his antique furniture pieces originated in Mount Pleasant and Dillonvale. -- Contributed
Dr. Wayne Butler and his wife, Annette, will be opening their doors for those taking the tour, as well. The Butlers will allow access to their 1930 cottage and picturesque gardens. -- Contributed
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MOUNT PLEASANT -- The Historical Society of Mount Pleasant will hold its annual "Celebrate America's History" event on Aug. 3-4. This year's tour will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 3 and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 4. Visitors should allow approximately three hours to complete the tour of properties which are associated with the 19th century anti-slavery movement.
Featured on the tour are 11 historic sites which guests will have the opportunity to visit, including an 1814 Quaker yearly-meeting house state memorial; the 1804 Harris-Bone log cabin; the 1830 Butler cottage and gardens, (a private home); and the 1835 Elizabeth House Mansion Museum.
The tour also will feature the 1840 tin shop; the 1846 Samuel Gill house; the 1856 historical center; the 1856 Mount Pleasant Friends Church; the 1850 and 1884 John H. Mercer and Bracken house, (a private home); the 1895 Burriss Fairlawn General Store; and the 1800s Irish Ridge Farm.
Irish Ridge Farm is a must-see on the tour, exclaimed historical society officials. The farm is situated half a mile south of Mount Pleasant, and located at 621 township Road 100. Tourists will go back in time to the 1800s. The time when it was once the farm of Isaac Thomas. Today, Irish Ridge Farm is the home of Bruce and Beverly Riddle, and their herd of 100 registered, black Angus cattle. One will experience firsthand what life is like on a working Ohio beef farm.
Guests will stroll through the 1849 post-and-pin bank barn, flower beds, rain gardens, barns and a collection of more than 50 antique tractors. Another of the farm's historic preservation sites is a small, 1835 sugar house with a stone-built, maple, sugar arch.
"Visitors can easily imagine the sugar house being filled with steam and the smell of maple syrup," officials commented. Guests also can visit on site the drovers' encampment some of the early drovers traveled through the area. In addition, visitors will have the opportunity to taste some of the flavors being cooked on the site by Plain Jane's Foods and Ohio Valley Chuck Wagon.
In the center of town lies the Burriss Fairlawn General Store. It is here that the Historical Society's American patriotic uniform collection has been set up for guests to view.
Tourists are encouraged to stop by the gift shop in the Elizabeth House Mansion Museum for souvenirs and one-of-a-kind pottery pieces. Color and artwork are displayed at Paige's Pieces, where handmade, quilted and fabric items are displayed and sold inside the 1830-40 living quarters of the Harris-Bone store.
Homemade lunches, including desserts and beverages, will be served both days in the comfort of the Samuel Gill House Tea Room.
This home is claimed to be the site of the Union Humane Society, an anti-slavery association first organized in 1815 by Benjamin Lundy in St. Clairsville. The lunch and Gill House tour are provided by the Women's Missionary Fellowship of the Mount Pleasant Friends Church, officials said. Mount Pleasant has been designated as a national historic landmark district due to its ancestors' contributions and involvement in the Underground Railroad.
Quakers denounced the evils of slavery very early on. The Friends Church, along with the Presbyterian, Methodist and African-Methodist Episcopal churches, established Mount Pleasant as a center for anti-slavery activity even before the Civil War.
As early as 1817, freedom seekers struck out for Mount Pleasant, where they were kindly received and aided on their way north to Canada. Still standing on Union Street are four Underground Railroad stations. America's first anti-slavery newspaper, the Philanthropist, was written here. One of its writers was Benjamin Lundy who is referred to as the Father of Abolitionism.
A more unusual activity was the establishment of the Free Labor Store, where nothing raised or made by slave labor was bought or sold. The Mount Pleasant Free Labor Store is the only one left in existence. It is owned by Ohio History Connection and currently under renovation. The activities of Mount Pleasant citizens and others like them formed an interesting and significant chapter in the history of America and the righteousness for freedom.
Tour tickets will be sold at three locations, including the Elizabeth House Mansion Museum, located at 438 Union St.; the Burriss Fairlawn Store, located at 311 Union St.; and the Irish Ridge Farm, located at 621 township Road 100. Tickets will be $15 for adults. Children 12 and under will get in free with a paid adult ticket. All proceeds will benefit the Historical Society of Mount Pleasant. The society is a volunteer, nonprofit group established in 1948. Tour updates can be found on the FaceBook page Friends of Historic Mount Pleasant, Ohio."