A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

principles rather than party and his strong advocacy of unpopular reforms.On 6 our first coming to Ohio, in 1846, the praises of a young Whig orator, then thirty-two yearsold, Gen. Samuel F. Cary, were in many mouths... In 1876 he was nominated by the Greenback partyfor Vice-President. He has been interested in the temperance and labor reform movements, and thereare few men living who have made so many speeches. Hon. Job E. Stevenson, in his paper onPolitical Reminiscences of Cincinnati, truly describes him as ‘a man of national reputation as atemperance and political orator, endowed with wonderful gifts of eloquence, highly developed bylong and varied practice in elocution, of the presence, and a voice of great power and compass.’ Tothis we may say, one may live a long life and not hear a public speaker so well adapted to please amultitude. In his case the enjoyment is heightened by seeing how strongly he enjoys it himself. In aspeech which we heard him deliver at the dedication of the Pioneer Monument, at Columbia, July 4,1889, we saw that at the age of seventy-five his power was not abated. We, however, missed themassive shock of black hair that in the days of yore he was wont to shake too and fro, as he strode upand down the platform, pouring forth, with tremendous volume of voice, torrents of indignation uponsome great public wrong, real or imaginary, with a power that reminded one of some huge lion on arampage, now and then relieving the tragic of his speech by sly bits of humor.”John Crawford: When John T. Crawford died in October 1881, he left his estate “for the sole uses ofan asylum and home for aged and worthy colored men, preference to be given to those who havesuffered from the injustice of American slavery.”Crawford was captured and held in Richmond Virginia’s notorious Libby Prison 7 during theCivil War. He escaped and it took several years for him to walk back to College Hill. He was helpedthroughout his journey by slaves and African-American laborers who guided, hid and fed him and hisgratitude was expressed in his will. Crawford expressed bitterness towards the government forforgetting those blacks that fought and died in the Civil War and for ignoring their plight after thewar. His house was used as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Refugees were hidden under thefloor via a trapdoor. 8In addition to being a farmer and a moulding plasterer, he was also a real estate speculator.Crawford owned not only 18 acres in College Hill but also property on West 6th Street, GeorgeStreet, Freeman Street, and lots in the Mill Creek bottom lands. To close his estate of indebtednessand litigation costs over the contested will, most of the property was sold. The family received about$20,000 from sale of the other properties but the court left intact Crawford’s wish concerning hisCollege Hill farm.In the beginning 9 , the home was led by court appointed African American trustees. Later, someof the most prominent African American men sat on this board, such as Dr. Francis Johnson, WilliamPage, Bill Copeland, Wendell P. Dabney, an editor, and Horace Sudduth, a businessman.The Crawford Home was established in 1888 to house 12 men. There was an admission fee of$150. The 10 Crawford Colored Old Men’s Home catalogue of 1889 contained the followingparagraphs:6 Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, Vol. 1, Henry Howe, 1888, pg. 838, 8397 Libby prison was a four story building, containing eight large rooms. It had been a warehouse for William Libby & Son, ShipChandlers. The prison operated from April 1861 to April 1865 and held mainly captured officers. In the four years it was open,approximately 125,000 men were held there. There was inadequate food, ventilation, heat, clothing and blankets. The men slept on thefloor, and there was a single privy per floor.8 Source: Mrs. Ruth J. Wells9 Cincinnati’s Colored Citizens, Wendell P. Dabney, 192610 Rare Book Room of the Hamilton County Public Library.93