HARVEYSBURG, OHIO — Two upcoming events in Harveysburg are set to celebrate the community’s history of education and abolitionist past. The ninth-annual Harveysburg Historic Fall Fest and the Elizabeth Harvey First Free Black School in Ohio Open House are set to take place at the historic Elizabeth Harvey First Free Black School on 23 North St.

The Elizabeth Harvey First Free Black School in Ohio Open House, which takes place on Sept. 15 from 2 to 4 p.m., is an open house of the first Free Black School in Ohio. The ninth-annual Harveysburg Historic Fall Fest, which takes place on Saturday, Sept. 21 from noon to 4 p.m., serves as a celebration of Harveysburg’s history and heritage.

Both events are set to take place at 23 North St. in Harveysburg, the site of the Harveysburg Free Black School, which also serves as the Harveysburg Community Historical Society’s headquarters.

The Harveysburg Free Black School was built in 1831, over 30 years before the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and served as a school for Black and Native Americans at a time when public education wasn’t available to them. The school remained in session every year until about 1909 when non-white students were integrated into the Massie Township School system.

Elizabeth Harvey, an educator and her husband, Dr. Jesse Harvey, himself a physician and educator, established the school as the first school in Ohio to educate non-white children in Ohio and the Northwest Territory–a chunk of land that included present-day Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota. It was the first school in Ohio and the Northwest Territory to provide education to non-white students.

At the time of the school’s formation, freed Black slaves weren’t allowed to attend public schools, the result of a law passed in 1829 that restricted attendance of non-white citizens in all tax-supported schools. Over that time, the school educated countless individuals who otherwise wouldn’t have had access to education.

The two events celebrate Harveysburg’s rich history. Originally platted by Quaker William Harvey, from North Carolina, in 1929 along the Caesar Creek Lake, the town has a history of ardent abolitionism, and housed a stop on the Underground Railroad in a house on Maple Street now known as “The Ashley House.”

Elizabeth Harvey believed that freedom came through education, and her school went a long way in providing advancement for freed slaves before and after the Civil War. One of the school’s earliest students, Orindatus Simon Bolívar Wall, who is entombed at the Arlington National Cemetery, was born a slave in North Carolina before he received his education at Harvey’s school. From there he became the First Black Captain in the U.S. Army and recipient of the Medal of Honor, a conductor on the Underground Railroad, graduate of Howard University among other accomplishments.

The open house, happening Sept. 15, will feature “The Freedom Through Education Display” and preview video, plus a chance to “meet” Abraham Lincoln. The event is a chance to celebrate the history of the school, which is an important landmark in Ohio’s history, and a symbol of progress of freedom through education.

The Fall Festival, which is happening Sept. 21, will feature a day’s worth of fun and attractions, and a chance to learn about the important history of the community. The event will feature a tour of the Harveysburg Free Black School, as well as raffle drawings every hour.

Starting at noon, the event will begin with a raising of the flag by Boy Scout Troop #999, Reveille with George Schlub, chief of the Harveysburg Police, a performance of the National Anthem by the Clinton-Massie High School Band, and a moment of silence in memory of HCHS Trustees and lifetime members Leroy Sanders & Urcelle Carter Willis.

Urcelle Carter Willis’s grandmother, Mattie Simpson, was an attendee of the Harveysburg school, and she credited this as a reason to attend college upon her graduation from Kingman High School. Willis received degrees from Wilmington College, Ohio State University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, and the University of Dayton, taught at schools throughout Ohio and North Carolina, and was the acting dean of Central State University from January 1981 to June 1982.

She also served in the College of Business Advisory Council, was awarded the O’Neill Swanson Teaching Award in 1983, served as the chair of business education from 1974 to 1990, and after 30 years at Central State was honored as Professor Emeritus.

For more information on the events, and information on the Harveysburg Community Historical Society, check out its Facebook page at facebook.com/HarveysburgCommunityHistoricalSociety.