The Sharp family homes on N. State Street and Africa Road marked an important route through Westerville on the Underground Railroad. Garrit Sharp, an original settler of Sharp's Settlement, now Westerville, donated land for and helped organize the first Methodist church and was also associated with the founding of Blendon Young Men's Seminary, later acquired by Otterbein College, an institution whose enrollment was open to African Americans and women from its inception in 1847. He and his sons were noted abolitionists who, with Bishop William Hanby and Otterbein president Lewis Davis, assisted southern slaves on their road to freedom. From the Sharp homes, slaves would have proceeded north to the house of Samuel Patterson on Africa Road and along Alum Creek to the Quaker settlement near Marengo in Morrow County. Garrit Sharp's home at 259 N. State Street, built in 1849, served as a Westerville meeting place. His son Stephen, a teacher and justice of the peace, lived at 8025 Africa Road in a stately home built in 1857-58 that represents mid-nineteenth century rural architecture in Delaware County and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Another son, Joseph, lived at 8216 Africa Road, also known as Yarnell's Farm, dating to about 1843. Son Garry built a house about 1857 on the current property of St. Paul's Catholic Church on N. State Street, but that house was demolished in 2001.
