Home to thousands of settlements extending as far back as thirteen thousand years ago, Ohio has seen most of its architectural history fall to the wrecking ball. But there is still history all around if we know where to look. Authors David Meyers and Elise Meyers Walker reveal twenty-one communities where the Ohio story can still be seen.
After writing dozens of books of Ohio history both David and Elise realized most of the settings they described no longer existed. It was particularly true of Historic Black Settlements of Ohio. They had vanished. The two began a quest to find communities their readers could visit. The result is Original Ohio: Dreamsville, The Magic City & Other Historic Ohio Communities – the closest thing to a guidebook the authors have produced.
Both prolific writers, David and Elisa are always working on a half dozen titles at any given time. They write and research every day. While looking for one thing, they may happen on something else. “It is not unusual for a plan to change. I don’t know what I think about a particular topic until I write a book about it,” David Meyers said. “Sometimes we discover the real story is a mystery to be solved.”
Two books changed David’s perspective on local history. Samuel Harden Stille’s Ohio Builds a Nation captured his imagination at an early age. Cattle Kingdom in the Ohio Valley, 1783-1860 by Paul C. Henlein opened his eyes to the fact Ohio, Indiana and Illinois were once the wild west. “I quickly lost interest in television cowboys,” Meyers said.
The Buckeye Book Fair brings something different to the pair each year from meeting authors and new friends to book ideas. Elise was thrilled to meet one of her favorite childhood writers, James Alexander Thom, author of Follow the River. A Murder in Amish Ohio was the result of interaction at the book fair with the Amis and Mennonite communities.
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Tales of Ohio’s Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a macabre dance between good and evil, and in the upside-down world of pre-Civil War America, the law was firmly on the side of evil. In Ohio, communities of scofflaw abolitionists guided freedom seekers by the use of beacons and signals, constructing tunnels and secret rooms and creating the popular song “Darling Nelly Gray,” which was sung by both Union and Confederate troops. Ohioans also played a role in giving the Underground Railroad its name. Many heroes, both Black and white–from John Parker, William Mitchell and Sally Hudson to John Rankin, Levi Coffin and John Mahan–risked and sometimes sacrificed their lives for the cause. Join the father-and-daughter writing team of David Meyers and Elise Meyers Walker as they explore secret tunnels, hidden rooms, coded messages and other truths, half-truths and outright lies about the “Upperground Railroad,” as Frederick Douglass argued it should be rightfully called.
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