Near this location stood a settlement of African American families known as The Lett Settlement, a self-sustaining community of mixed-race families including the Caliman, Guy, and Lett families. These families formed ties through marriage and common background during the mid-1700s in Virginia and Maryland, then came to Ohio as free people of color and began acquiring land in Meigs Township, Muskingum County, and surrounding townships in adjacent counties during the 1820s. They were soon joined by the Brown, Clifford, Earley, Simpson, Tate, and Pointer families. Before the Civil War, families in the settlement were landowners and taxpayers in Ohio and challenged the state for the right to vote and for access to education during the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s. Their descendants live throughout southeastern Ohio and many other places around the United States, and their history reflects a pursuit of freedom from the English Colonial Period in Maryland and Virginia to pioneer life in Ohio and other states. Their ancestry includes African American scientist Benjamin Banneker of Maryland and Ohio pioneer and Revolutionary War veteran Basil Norman. The settlement produced Underground Railroad operatives Joshua Simpson and Tom and Maria Pointer, abolitionist writers Lloyd Guy and David Lett, attorneys J.R. Clifford and James H. Guy, and many others, and numerous family names appear among Ohio Civil War veterans who served with the 5th and 27th United States Colored Troops Regiments.