The Quaker Heritage Center opened in 2005 and was a result of a bequest from a former college trustee, Meriam Hare. It is part of the Boyd Cultural Arts Center, and is made up of a Meeting House, an exhibition space, classrooms, offices and archival…

The new Meeting gathered its 178 members from Center, Dover, and Springfield Meetings. It grew to become a very large Meeting, and a new Meeting House was built and dedicated in 1896. This was an architectural style far removed from the traditional…

It is now called Prairie Oaks Village and is under the care of Episcopal Retirement Services of Cincinnati, who provide 219 units of senior citizen and special needs housing options in Wilmington.

Isaiah Peele (1840-1905) and Susanna Miller Peele (1838-1916) moved here from their farm in the Grassy Run neighborhood in about 1877. They were active Quakers, interested in education, and he was in charge of the endowment funds of Wilmington…

Thomas G. Rannels was born in Pennsylvania in 1810 and came to Clinton County Ohio with his parents in 1814. Around 1845 he married a Quaker, Massie J. Wiley and they lived in a log house. In time, probably about 1850, Thomas built this house, firing…

Deserted Camp Situated here on the high banks of Todd’s Fork stream, Deserted Camp received its name from the desertion of a French soldier. He abandoned U.S. General Benjamin Logan’s small military encampment to warn members of the Shawnee peoples…

The Hawes house was begun before the Civil War, and finished afterward. James Hawes was a founder of the Haws Chapel Methodist Church. His house is an example of the fine farmhouses built in the mid to late 1800s. As Quakers established their…

Four Quaker families moving from the south by way of Tennessee settled in this area and began worshipping in the home of Ezekiel Frazier before about 1805. As the Quaker population grew, land was purchased, and a log Meeting House was erected with a…

On the left side of the road is a brick house once owned by Josephus Hoskins (1841-1920), a Quaker minister recorded by Dover Friends Meeting in 1874. His wife as Emily Gallemore Hoskins (1846-1915). He became the principal minister about 1880 and…

On the right, back a lane, is a house built around 1828 according to the Quaker Plan, as recommended by William Penn for the Quakers who settled Philadelphia in the 1680s. It has three rooms per floor and an asymmetrical facade. The front door opens…

General Horatio Gates served with George Washington in the Revolutionary War and for his service received 12,500 acres of land in the Virginia Military District in what is now southwest Ohio. This land was sold to settlers, many of whom were Quakers…

Mapledale Farm house is an example of the “I” house of the mid- to late-1800s. The front porch is a later addition. An old schoolhouse is on the property, too. The most recent Quaker owners are the Peterson family.

The Samuel Miars house is another example of early 19th century Quaker architecture. The Quaker Plan was recommended by William Penn for the Quakers who settled Philadelphia in the 1680s and thereafter: it has three rooms per floor and an…

The village of Gurneyville was named by local Quaker David McMillan for Joseph John Gurney (1788-1847), a wealthy English Quaker who became an evangelical minister and visited America, where his preaching caused a schism in 1843. He, as well as his…

Jonathon McMillan and his twin brother David of York County Pennsylvania acquired land from the Horatio Gates grant, and brought their families to what is now Chester Township, Clinton County, about 1805. They traveled by wagon to Pittsburgh and to…

Beginning as an Indulged Meeting under Center Meeting in 1824, Chester Friends first met on the Thomas McMillan farm. In 1828 land was donated and a log Meeting House was built and a burial ground established. Many of the McMillan family are buried…

Esper was a son of Horace McMillan and great-grandson of settler David McMillan. This was one of the seven former McMillan farmsteads in the Chester community. A plain white frame farmhouse was remodeled into an attractive modern home. This was the…

In 1806, Mr. Preserved Fish Dakin (1749-1835) came from the borderlands of New York and Connecticut and purchased 2000 acres, about half of the J. Crain Survey #1994 for his “colony”. In addition to Preserved Dakin and three sons and one daughter,…

The Underwood Houses are three historic Quaker homes on the north side of Ohio Route 73. The “Tower House” built by Zephaniah Underwood is an excellent but rare example of 1880s stick style architecture. Zephaniah at age 51 married Matilda J.…

The Dakin-Underwood East Brick House was built by James Dakin around 1848. James was a descendant of Preserved Fish Dakin from New York state, where he had served in the American Revolution before coming to Ohio. This house and farm were acquired by…

Lewis Dakin bought this property from James Haines in 1850, and built this house soon afterward. Amos Underwood (1786-1867) from York County, PA, first settled in Liberty Township and then purchased this property in Chester Township, Clinton County,…

The Lukens were among the earliest Quaker settlers on the Harveysburg and Waynesville areas. This home is one of several still-standing houses of the Quaker Lukens families. In 1812 Levi Lukens purchased the 1000 acre survey of Revolutionary War…

Elizabeth Burgess Harvey (1801-1888), wife of Dr. Jesse Harvey, opened this school for free black children in 1831. The students were from local free black families, plus some children sent here by their plantation owner fathers. Some of the students…

Harveysburg, established in 1829, was once a thriving Quaker village with two Meeting Houses, schools, and an academy, several businesses and a pork packing industry. It was an important location on the Underground Railroad. Several black families…

Harveysburg Friends Meeting began as Grove Preparative Meeting about 1.5 miles south of the town. Once the village was established, the Meetings moved into town—the Orthodox on the west side of town and the Hicksites on the east side. Both Meetings…

William Harvey (1797-1866), son of settlers of the Springfield Meeting community, Isaac and Lydia Dicks Harvey, recorded the plat for Harveysburg in early 1829, opened the first store, and soon established a large pork packing business. His cousin…

In 1866 the Miami Cemetery Association was formed with several prominent Quakers as Trustees. It was dedicated in 1867 “as a burial place forever”. Leopold Weltz of Wilmington landscaped the grounds, making it into a beautiful park-like setting, one…

There are two historic structures in Waynesville associated with the Accommodation Stage Coach Line: the John Satterthwaite House and the Halloway Inn.

In the spring of 1827, William Werden, a well-known innkeeper from Springfield, and John Satterthwaite (1786-1837), a prominent Quaker farmer and businessman from Waynesville, established a stage line from Springfield to Cincinnati. They named their…

The 1905 Friends Boarding Home was opened by local Quakers to provide care for elderly Friends and “those in sympathy with them,” and operated into the 1990s. It was the predecessor of Quaker Heights Care Community, a ministry of Ohio Valley Yearly…

Quakers arrived here by the thousands, beginning in 1799 from North and South Carolina and Virginia, leaving behind the slave economy and society. Friends also came from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Miami Meeting was founded in 1803, a log meetinghouse…

Built by David Halloway around 1805, this was the first tavern on the route of the Accommodation Line. By 1814 Quaker Joel Wright purchased the structure. Henry Clay stayed here in 1825, and Charles Dickens in 1842. Other prominent owners were…

After the 1828 schism, called the Hicksite-Orthodox Division, the Hicksites retained the Meetinghouse, and the Orthodox group returned to the log meetinghouse and the property was divided. They built the Red Brick Meeting House in 1836, and the two…

The Burial Ground was established in 1804 and contains the graves of many of the earliest Quaker pioneers in the area. In the early days Quakers did not use gravestones, so there are many unmarked graves. After 1828, due to the Orthodox-Hicksite…

When the State of Ohio established a public school system in 1855, in most cases the Quakers gave over their schools to the public system.

In 1972 Quaker Heights Nursing Home was opened by local Quakers as the first nursing home in Warren County. It has since been enlarged. An Assisted Living facility, Memory Care, a Rehab Unit, and other specialty areas have been added. It is…

Waynesville retains many of its 19th century buildings and its small-town flavor. Main Street is lined with antique shops, specialty shops, restaurants and cafes. This is a great place to stop for lunch, tea, or a snack.

Caesar Creek State Park offers a large lake with beaches and boat docks, plus trails, campsites, picnic grounds and playgrounds. The Visitors Center offers an interesting museum — spend some time to learn about the natural history of the area. Take a…

The Caesars Creek Spillway offers a good opportunity to enjoy the interesting geology of the region, and to look for fossils (please follow the rules and obtain a permit first at the Visitors Center). The largest trilobite (Isotelus) on display at…

Many of the preserved or relocated log buildings were built by early Quaker settlers in the Waynesville area. Caesars Creek Friends Meeting was established in 1805. This Meeting House was built in 1849 on a bluff on the west bank of the Caesar's…

The extended Harlan family was among the earliest Quaker settlers in this region and they were among the founders of Springfield Meeting and Lytle Creek Meeting. They came with their widowed mother Edith Carter Harlan (1749-1830) from Rowan County…

The Wilmington-Lebanon Pike was laid out in 1810 when Clinton County was formed from parts of Warren and Highland Counties, in order to connect the new Clinton County seat of Wilmington to the old Warren County seat of Lebanon. While the earliest…

In 1871 James Hadley (1846-1917) built a new house on Lebanon Road for his wife Isabelle Moore Hadley and their young family. It was white with tall green shutters and scrollwork on the porches and under the eaves. Inside was a parlor and a music…

Eli Harvey (1803-1872) came as a child with his family and the six other Harvey families from North Carolina in 1806-1807. He married Sarah Fallis in 1824, bought part of his father's land, and established his household on the newly laid out…

As you continue on Lebanon Road, at the top of a glacial moraine hill that sits above Little Creek, there is a closed driveway back a long lane where you can barely see a house. This is 1848 house built by settler Caleb Harvey for his family, and it…

The Bullskin Trace was an ancient buffalo trail through Ohio to the salt licks in Kentucky. It began at the mouth of the Bullskin Creek at the Ohio River in SE Clermont County and went all the way to Detroit. It was used by animals, by the Indians,…

Along Todds Fork is an organic farm run by a Quaker family. They sell to the local market, and have (in season) organic produce and flowers in a small, cooled market house. There are fields and high hoops on both sides of the river. Stop and shop!

The Meetinghouse: Springfield Friends arrived in 1806-10 in large family and Meeting groups, mostly from North Carolina, with others from Virginia and Pennsylvania, and a few came from New York. The extended Harvey/Hale/Hadley family, of five…

Jacob and Martha Harvey Hale were two of the original Quaker settlers in this area.

William Hale (1835-1920) was a grandson of original Quaker settlers Jacob and Martha Harvey Hale, and had a large farm and livestock business. He was the grandfather of Dr. Kelley Hale, who founded the first hospital in Wilmington. The house now has…

The Maden (or Madden) family was among the earliest settlers in the Springfield Meeting community, purchasing over 400 acres of Survey #2371 just east of the Harvey settlement. George Maden (1759-1823) was born near Philadelphia and lived in North…

Alice Hale (1865-1945) was the daughter of Alfred and Rachel Hadley Hale and the great-granddaughter of pioneer Quaker settlers Jacob and Martha Harvey Hale. In 1890 she married E. Marshall Renner from Clermont County and had two sons. The 1915…

A typical “I” house of the late 19th Century, this farm has been owned by Quaker families Moore, McMillan, Linn, and now Speaight. There is a farm equipment sales center adjacent which markets fresh eggs. The frame of the old Lytle Creek Meeting…

Lytle’s Creek meeting was established in 1817. Three acres were donated by Richard Fallis for a meetinghouse, burial ground, and school. The first Monthly Meetings of Springfield Meeting were held jointly with Lytle’s Creek, alternating monthly. In…

Dr. Kelley Hale (1884-1959) opened the first hospital in a large house in Wilmington in 1914, and in 1923 he built this first modern hospital building. It was replaced by the Clinton Memorial Hospital. His son, Dr. Nathan Hale (1917-2002), continued…

The Wilmington Commercial Historic District is centered at Main and South Streets, and is bounded roughly by Columbus, Walnut, Sugartree, and Mulberry Streets.

The Clinton County History Center building was a home purchased by German immigrant and businessman Matthew and Catherine K. Rombach in 1855. It had been built in 1835 by Robert Wickersham. Their only daughter Louise in 1856 married Gen. James W.…