The final program of the season, presented by MCH President Peter Cultice, includes stories about UGRR and abolitionist activity across the Muskingum River from Putnam, including stories about Joshua McCarter Simpson.

 A leader of Zanesville’s large and very active African American community, Simpson was born in Morgan county and educated at Oberlin. He worked as a businessman, herbalist, teacher, Baptist Elder, anti-slavery activist, UGRR operative, poet, and songwriter.

Cutltice noted that, “Simpson, often referred to at the time as J McSimpson, was also involved in a fugitive slave case tried in the Muskingum County Courthouse in Zanesville in 1859.” That court case, according to Cultice, “also involved the antislavery congregation of the Market Street Baptist Church.”

Prior Forum programs have featured stories about Putnam prior to the Civil War. But Cultice concludes the series with a more recent Zanesville story related to a significant chapter in America’s Civil Rights Movement, the story of Jackie Robinson.  

 Cultice also shared, “the MCH Board is very thankful for the generous financial support from the J.W. & M.H. Straker Charitable Foundation. We have worked many times with the Straker Foundation, and we appreciate their involvement in the Putnam district.”

PETER N. CULTICE