Randolph Settlement / Jackson Cemetery (African)

In 1833, John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia, died leaving three wills that requested the freedom of all his slaves and the purchase of land for them. After thirteen years of contest by his family, the slaves were freed, and the executor of the wills, Randolph's cousin Judge William Leigh, bought about 2,000 acres of farmland in Mercer County, Ohio. In 1846, 383 freed people traveled by wagon train to that destination, but earlier white settlers forced them to turn back. They settled instead north of Piqua, where they bought land and developed the Village of Rossville, and later some moved elsewhere in Miami County as well as Shelby County. In Rossville, they established an African Baptist Church in 1869, a cemetery in 1866, and a public black school in 1872. Jackson Cemetery contains members of many families associated with this community, and Civil War veterans buried there include Peer M. Bray, John Cain, Henry Clay, Johnson Crowder, William Kendall, H. Parsley, John Taylor, Sidney Vicks, and Phillip White.

Ohio · United States