Hanktown, settled in 1846, was home to eighty-nine of the three hundred and eighty-three slaves owned by John Randolph (1773-1833), a wealthy Virginian landowner and cousin to President Thomas Jefferson. Randolph had decided to free the slaves and indicated that decision in his will, but his family found three different wills and protested, and thirteen years passed before the slaves left the plantation. In 1846, Judge William Leigh arranged for the slaves to travel to Mercer County and purchased two thousand acres. After reaching Mercer County, the freed slaves were attacked, forced to turn back, and lost their land. They traveled south toward Miami County, with some stopping in Sidney, Piqua, and Troy, while the remaining former slaves purchased two hundred acres in Union Township. On this spot stood the Hanktown Baptist Church and nearby stood the Hanktown School. Hanktown produced seven Grand Army of the Republic Civil War soldiers: Hillary White, Julius Young, Silas White, Harrison Gillard, James Gillard, Israel White, and Spencer White.