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Cultural Center Needs Matching Funds For Grant

Tax deductible
Help celebrate Women's History Month by making a donation to honor Elizabeth Harvey, a woman of vision for the early 1800's, who founded the First Free Black School located in (Warren County) Harveysburg, Ohio in 1831.  

We need your help to raise matching funds in the amount $161,250 for an Ohio Facilities Grant.

We, the members of the Harveysburg Community Historical Society, are reaching out for help to continue Elizabeth Harvey's vision by building an Educational/Cultural Center on the property.  This building would house: restrooms (currently there are no restrooms or running water), a meeting room for museum and community use, a kitchen and climate controlled storage for artifacts.   Please donate to help make this dream come true as we build through outreach a community that cherishes this treasured piece of history.

The First Free Black (African American) School Building in Ohio specifically built and devoted to the education of indigenous and African Americans (who were being denied the opportunity of a public education at this time) was opened in Harveysburg in 1831, over thirty years before the Emancipation Proclamation.  Elizabeth Harvey, founder, believed that freedom comes through education and devoted her life to the advancement and education of non- white students. She, with other (Quaker) Friends, did much to modify the feeling of prejudice against the Black people in the village of Harveysburg. 

Donations can be made to our Go Fund Me Account or The Warren County Foundation Make your check payable to the Warren County Foundation, with Harveysburg Community Historical Society designated on the memo line.  Donations should be mailed to the Warren County Foundation at P.O. Box 495 Lebanon, OH 45036.  Donors will receive written acknowledgement of their donations for tax purposes.) 


“Elizabeth Harvey's name should be entered on the roll of Honor of those noble people who gave their Lives to a great cause.”

 
 The History:  The following Information is referenced from the Harveysburg Community Historical Society Brochure and the Ohio History Connection – Ohio History Central web-site

https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Elizabeth_B._Harvey

http://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Harveysburg_Free_Black_School


In 1829 the Ohio School law refused to allow freed African-Americans into the newly developing public school system.  Because of this unjust law, Quaker Elizabeth Burgess Harvey, and her husband Dr. Jesse Harvey, built the one-room brick School Building for non-whites on the north edge of Harveysburg.

Elizabeth Harvey knew there was freedom through education and one of the students educated at the school was Orindatus Simon Bolivar Wall, who became the first regular commissioned African American Captain in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His education empowered him to become a Hero of African American History.

Please like on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/HarveysburgCommunityHistoricalSociety

 

Donate

Donations 

  • Roger Insprucker
    • $100 
    • 3 mos
  • Mystee Turner
    • $20 
    • 2 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $100 
    • 3 yrs
  • Barbara Deppner
    • $100 
    • 3 yrs
  • Angela Feenerty
    • $25 
    • 3 yrs
Donate

Organizer

Lucy McCarren
Organizer
Harveysburg, OH
Warren County Foundation
 
Registered nonprofit
Donations are typically 100% tax deductible in the US.

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