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View of High Street, looking north from Union Street
David Updergraff House
Photographs by Judith Kitchen. Courtesy of the Ohio Historic Preservation Office. |
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.
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