Thursday, September 26, 2019

Ohio Historic Marker Text

JONAH’S RUN BAPTIST CHURCH
The comingling of faiths in an area settled predominantly by Quakers helps explain the origins of Jonah’s Run Baptist Church.[1] Ministered to by a Baptist preacher, the children and neighbors of Daniel Collett (1752-1835),[2] an Episcopalian and private in the Revolutionary War[3], and his wife Mary Haines Collett (1753-1826), a Quaker[4] from Virginia, became Baptists and started the church in 1838.[5] Levi Lukens (1767-1860), a Quaker from Pennsylvania by way of Virginia,[6] purchased the land[7] where the church stands in 1812 and sold it in 1839 to a founder[8] of the congregation. Like local Quaker meetinghouses,[9] the church had separate entrances for men and women and a partition between the two that divided the sanctuary. The congregation’s sons and daughters lived their faith. Howard McCune (1852-1923)[10] was the Clinton Baptist Association’s moderator[11] and president of the Ohio Baptist Convention’s state board.[12] Anne Cossum (1894-1977)[13] was a missionary in China from 1920-1927.[14]

UNDERWOOD FARMS RURAL HISTORIC DISTRICT

The District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005, preserves 280 acres of landscapes and buildings depicting rural life in Clinton County from about 1838 to 1955.[15]  The District encompasses the Amos-Elihu-Daniel Underwood (“west brick”) and Zephaniah Underwood (“east brick”) farms, the Zephaniah and Matilda Underwood house (the “Tower House,” c. 1884) and Jonah’s Run Baptist Church (side 1).[16]  The Underwoods were famous for their commercial apple orchards, although like other farmers raised a variety of crops and livestock.[17] The Zephaniah and Matilda Underwood farm includes a c. 1900 brick fruit storage building, insulated by sawdust[18].  The Underwoods were leaders in other areas.  Matilda Downing Underwood (1851-1932)[19] was a Quaker minister and active in the temperance and women’s suffrage movements.[20]  Matilda’s sister, Maria Downing Romine (1848-1922), was a medical doctor, a pioneering career for women of her time.[21] 


[1] Karen Campbell, QUAKER GENEALOGY IN SOUTHWEST OHIO, The Underwood Farms Rural Historical District ~ National Register of Historic Places at http://qugenswohio.blogspot.com/2005/08/underwood-farms-rural-historical.html, accessed 12May2016
[2] Daniel Collett, the elder, at Find a Grave, at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59190253/daniel-collett (accessed 5/8/2019)
[3] See Daniel Collett the elder’s tombstone at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59190253/daniel-collett (accessed 6/10/2019).
[4] Mary Harries Collett’s name is from the inscription on her son’s grave, Daniel Collett, at Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43159395/daniel-collett (accessed 5/7/2019). According to John W. Haines, Richard Haines and His Descendants: A Quaker Family of Burlington County, New Jersey since 1682 (Boyce, VA: Carr Publishing Co., Inc. 1961), the correct spelling is HAINES and pp. 181-183 #43 notes relationships between Mary and husband Daniel the elder and son Daniel: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89062876875;view=1up;seq=197 (accessed 5/13/2019)
[5] Rev. B. Bedell, “A History of the Jonas [sic] Run Baptist Church,” [1866] typescript transcription received from Howard Doster, 3/22/2019 and in the marker file. Rev. Bedell was the congregation’s minister from October 1860-September 1868 (per Howard Collett’s History of Jonah’s Run, p. 6, cited below).; Nathalie Wright and Judy Williams, Underwood Farms Rural Historic District, National Register of Historical Places Registration Form, May/June 2005, NR reference #05001519, Section 8, Page 5
[6] The History of Warren County, Ohio (Chicago: W.H. Beers & Company, 1882) p. 651 https://archive.org/details/oh-warren-1882-beers/page/n657 and p. 1006 https://archive.org/details/oh-warren-1882-beers/page/n1011. Levi Lukens, The Pencocks of Primitive Hall / Rash’s Surname Index, at http://www.pennock.ws/surnames/fam/fam23370.html (all accessed 5/14/2019).
[8] Copy of indenture in marker file, dated 1/21/1839, from in Deed Book M, pp. 381-382 in Clinton County Recorder’s Office.
[9] See list provide by Howard Doster in marker file. Cites Miami meeting house, c. 1803; Caesar Creek c. 1805; Grove, c. 1837, and Dover (19th century, year unknown).
[10] Howard McCune Biography, at http://www.robertmackayclan.com/rmc/rmcmem/mackay/214312/clinton_county_1915.html (accessed 6/6/2019) and Howard McCune, Find a Grave, at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/83352951/howard-mccune (accessed 6/6/2019)
[11] “Baptists Honor Howard M’Cune,” Dayton Daily News, 8/27/1921, p. 9, at https://newscomoh.newspapers.com/image/397693941/?terms=howard%2Bm%27cune&pqsid=yOZ40Yf4CqwZGEK7wei2Nw%3A2881000%3A383473669 (accessed 6/10/2019)
[12] Howard McCune Biography, at http://www.robertmackayclan.com/rmc/rmcmem/mackay/214312/clinton_county_1915.html (accessed 6/6/2019); “Hold Service in Memory of Howard M’Cune,” Wilmington News-Journal, March 26, 1923, p. 6, at  https://newscomoh.newspapers.com/image/62619281/?terms=howard%2Bm%27cune&pqsid=yOZ40Yf4CqwZGEK7wei2Nw%3A2301000%3A26839890; J.H. Hollingsworth, “Howard McCune: An Appreciation” Wilmington News-Journal, March 24, 1923, p. 8, at  https://newscomoh.newspapers.com/image/62619269/?terms=howard%2Bmccune&pqsid=Mhkr6M6oX5_BnbtKDB__Kg%3A76000%3A502444061
[13] Letter from Howard Doster to Andy Verhoff, 6/2/2019 (in marker file) and Anne Doster Cossum, Find a Grave, at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/search?firstname=anne&middlename=&lastname=cossum&birthyear=&birthyearfilter=&deathyear=&deathyearfilter=&location=&locationId=&memorialid=&datefilter=&orderby= (accessed 6/6/2019)
[14] Anne D. Cossum, “Dear Mother,” a collection of 300 letters from Mrs. Cossum to her mother, private printed, December 1954, table of contents documents date span of 1920-1927. In marker file. “Mr. Doster Better, Mrs. Cossum Home,” Wilmington News-Journal, April 16, 1927, p. 8.  Baptists Invited to Jonah’s Run, Wilmington News-Journal, August 16, 1927, p. 5.
[15] Wright and Williams, Underwood Farms Rural Historic District, NRHP Registration Form
[16] Wright and Williams, Underwood Farms Rural Historic District, NRHP Registration Form, Sec. 7, p. 7
[17] Karen Campbell, QUAKER GENEALOGY IN SOUTHWEST OHIO, The Underwood Farms Rural Historical District ~ National Register of Historic Places at http://qugenswohio.blogspot.com/2005/08/underwood-farms-rural-historical.html, accessed 12May2016
[18] Wright and Williams, Underwood Farms Rural Historic District, NRHP Registration Form, Sec. 7, p. 5
[19] Matilda Downing Underwood (1851-1932) at http://sites.rootsmagic.com/robbhaas2/individual.php?p=5547
[20] Wright and Williams, Underwood Farms Rural Historic District, NRHP Registration Form, Sec. 8, p. 2
[21] Karen Campbell, “Dr. Marie Romine ~ Quaker Physician,” accessed 31May2016 http://harveysburg.blogspot.com/2005/08/marie-jesse-romine-homedr.html.  Romine’s death date from record if Stubbs-Corner Funeral Home in Waynesville, researched by Howard Doster and Dr. Maria M Downing Romine at Find a Grave, at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17639700/maria-m-romine (accessed 6/11/2019)  Myra K. Merrick is credited as being the first female doctor in Ohio, see http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Myra_K._Merrick (accessed 31May2016).  According to the Changing Face of Medicine online exhibit of the U.S. National Library of Medicine at https://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_35.html “When she graduated from New York's Geneva Medical College, in 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to earn the M.D. degree.”  Ruth J. Abram, Send Us a Lady Physician: Women Doctors in America, 1835-1920 (New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 1985)p. 77ff. makes no mention of Maria Romine, but does describe Quakers’ enlightened attitudes toward female doctors in the 19th century. 
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