Milton Cook and Dolly McKeehan stand outside the Museum at the Friends Home in Waynesville. Cook, a Quaker, farms land in Wayne Township. McKeehan is curator of the museum, which could be a stop on the proposed scenic byway. / Tony Jones
Paul McKibben reports:
Warren and Clinton counties could be home to a scenic byway that would highlight Quaker heritage in the two counties.
The approximately 50-mile Quaker Heritage Scenic Byway would stretch from Wilmington in Clinton County to the Warren County communities of Harveysburg, Corwin and Waynesville. Officials are seeking approval from the Ohio Department of Transportation for the designation.
Ruth Dobyns, curator of the Quaker Heritage Center at Wilmington College, said that about two years ago the college received a $10,000 gift from an anonymous donor specifically designated for the development of a Quaker scenic byway through ODOT’s scenic byway program.
“The donor had some previous experience with being involved in a byway program,” she said. “(And the donor) thought that it would be a good thing not only for the college but as a way for the college to work with the community on some economic development through tourism dollars as a way to kind of give a little boost to the local economy after DHL pulled out.”
DHL once had a domestic package hub in Wilmington.
The first Quakers in Southwestern Ohio came from the Carolinas around 1805, seeking good farm land and wanting to establish communities that were anti-slave, Dobyns said. The flood of Quakers that came to Clinton and Warren counties happened in the 1830s. Some Quaker families in Southwestern Ohio participated in the Underground Railroad.
Dobyns said the gift covers the initial expenses and allows officials to sustain it. She said the next step would be to create a brochure that would be available online through Wilmington College’s website and in paper form at locations along the byway. Signs will mark the byway. At some point officials would like to have their own, stand-alone website about the byway.
A list of proposed sites for the byway features at least 40 locations, including the Quaker Heritage Center at Wilmington College and the Museum at the Friends Home in Waynesville.
The Museum at the Friends Home in Waynesville is in a 1905 Quaker boarding home, curator Dolly McKeehan said. She said the Religious Society of Friends built it as a retirement home for Quakers and it stayed that way until around 1988. The building was considered a modern marvel because it had indoor plumbing – the only place in the county to have it in 1905. The building also had electricity.
McKeehan said the museum, which opened in 2000, has 25 exhibit rooms that highlight the history of Waynesville and its small surrounding communities. For example, there is a room for Oregonia.
She said the museum also houses the history of the migration of the Quakers from South Carolina to escape slavery. She said Quakers settled in Springboro, Waynesville, Harveysburg and Wilmington.
Dobyns said this part of Southwestern Ohio was a major settlement area for Quakers coming up from the Carolinas in the years leading up to the Civil War. Wilmington College was founded by Quakers in 1870.
Ohio has at least 27 scenic byways, including ones that are part of the America’s Byways program, according to ODOT. Dobyns said the proposed byway in Clinton and Warren counties would be the only Quaker heritage scenic byway in the state.
Southwest Ohio byways include:
• The Presidential Pathways Scenic Byway in Butler and Hamilton counties, which is about presidents William Henry Harrison and his grandson Benjamin Harrison.
• The Ohio River Scenic Byway follows the entire length of the Ohio River.
• The Accommodation Line Scenic Byway follows part of the original route that Accommodation Line stagecoach used. The stagecoach went from Cincinnati to Springfield in the 1820s and 1830s. The route traveled through Sharonville, Palmira (now called Mason), Lebanon and Waynesville.
The Quaker heritage byway could help with tourism. Dobyns said a number of people spend their vacation visiting byways in Ohio. McKeehan said the byway could attract coached tours from out-of-state.
Milton Cook, a Quaker farmer who lives in Warren County’s Wayne Township, said he thinks the byway would be fantastic.
“There’s a lot of history here in this area and it’s all very interesting too,” he said.
Dobyns said officials are hoping to get the application filed this month.
Proposed byway sites
• Quaker Heritage Center, Wilmington College, Wilmington
• Peace Resource Center, Wilmington College, Wilmington
• Quaker Apartments on Prairie Avenue, Wilmington
• Isaac Peelle House at 640 Prairie Ave., Wilmington
• Ohio Historical Marker: Deserted Camp on Prairie Avenue, Wilmington
• Dover Friends Meeting House and Union Township School House No. 10 on Dover Road, Wilmington
• Josephus Hoskins House on Hoskins Road, Wilmington
• “Quaker Architectural Plan” House on Hoskins Road, Wilmington
• Peterson House, Mapledale Farm, and old school house on Gurneyville Road, Wilmington
• Samuel Miars/Cammack House, Gurneyville Road, Wilmington
• School house and village at intersection of Gurneyville and Mount Pleasant roads, Wilmington
• Ruins of historic house Underground Railroad Station on Gurneyville Road, Wilmington
• Chester Friends Meetinghouse on Gurneyville Road, Wilmington
• Elizabeth McKay and Robert Bond Hackney House on Hackney Road, Wilmington
• The Bullskin Trace along Ohio 380
• Sharon United Methodist Church on Ohio 380, Wilmington
• Underwood Houses and National Register Historic District on Ohio 73, Waynesville
• Jonah’s Run Baptist Church on Ohio 73, Waynesville
• Lukens House on Old State Route 73, Harveysburg,
• Hicksite Quaker Meeting House on Old State Route 73, Harveysburg
• Harveysburg Free Black School on North Street, Harveysburg
• Orthodox Quaker Meeting House on Maple Street, Harveysburg
• William and Mary Crew Harvey House on Maple Street, Harveysburg
• Quaker Historic District and National Register Historic District at Fourth and High streets, Waynesville
• Museum at the Friends Home on High Street, Waynesville
• White Brick Meetinghouse, Red Brick Meetinghouse, Miami Monthly Meeting Cemetery and School at the intersection of Fourth and High streets, Waynesville
• Quaker Heights Care Community on High Street, Waynesville
• Quaker Settler Log Houses and Caesar Creek Meetinghouse in Caesar Creek State Park, Waynesville
• Harlan House on Harlan-Carroll Road, Clarksville
• Deborah Hadley House, James Hadley House, and Eli Harvey House on Lebanon Road, Clarksville
• Springfield Friends Meetinghouse and Cemetery on Todds Fork Road, Clarksville
• That Guys Family Farm and Honor Market on Ohio 380, Clarksville
• William Hale House on U.S. 22 and Ohio 3, Wilmington
• Madden House on U.S. 22 and Ohio 3, Wilmington
• Lindale Farm on U.S. 22 and Ohio 3, Wilmington
• Hale Hospital on West Main Street, Wilmington
• South South Street Historic District, Wilmington
• Ada Chapel Friends Meeting on Grant Street, Wilmington
• Wilmington Commercial District (National Register of Historic Places listing) along Main, South, and Mulberry streets, containing Clinton County Courthouse and Convention & Visitors Bureau and Wilmington Friends Meetinghouse, Wilmington.
• Clinton County Historical Society at Rombach Place (National Register of Historic Places listing) on Locust Street, Wilmington
For information, contact the Clinton County Regional Planning Commission at 937-382-3582 or the Quaker Heritage Center at Wilmington College at 937-382-6661.
About Quakers
The Religious Society of Friends is a Christian denomination that began in England in the 1600s. The religion does not have a creed, according to the Orange County Friends Meeting in Santa Ana, Calif. They believe in the possibility of direct unmediated communion with the divine, according to the group’s website, www.quakerinfo.org. There are four branches of Quakers in the United States. In 2007, there were an estimated 87,000 Quakers in the United States, according to the Friends World Committee for Consultation.
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