During the Civil War, farmer John Schenck and his wife, Amelia, lived at Deer Park with their six children and a female house servant, and during Morgan's Raid they also sheltered escaped Kentucky slaves John Henry Thompson, his wife, and their five children. While many Ohioans hid their valuables and fled, the Schencks and the Thompsons chose to defend home and family. Around 5 am on July 14, 1863, part of Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan's advance guard came to the farm seeking horses and food. A Schenck woman, dressed as a nurse, met them and offered to feed them outside while warning that a child inside had smallpox and was quarantined in the parlor. The front door was covered with a sheet and the shutters were closed, and the raiders accepted the deception. Morgan later stopped at the farm to wait for troopers coming from Reading, and he and his staff ate breakfast outside served by the Schenck women. When the raiders left about thirty minutes later, they still did not know that the Thompson family and two prized horses had been hidden in the parlor. After the war, John Thompson and his wife, Clara Jane, remained at the farm, and despite the challenges African Americans faced during Reconstruction, four of their children became widely known: Garland Yancy as an award-winning wood carver, and Aaron Bedford, Priscilla Jane, and Clara Ann as renowned poets in the early 20th century.