Place:Stokes, Logan, Ohio, United States

source: Family History Library Catalog

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History of Logan County and Ohio: Containing a History of the State of Ohio, From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time ... a History of Logan ... Sketches, Portraits of Some of Th by William Henry Perrin, J H. Battle, et al. full text available through Google Books.

Some thirty years since, while the curse of human slavery hung like a pall over this goodly land of ours, and ere yet the mutterings of war were indistinguishable, John M. Warwick, of Amherst County, Virginia, an owner of slaves, conceived the humane idea of giving his colored people their freedom, and establishing them upon lands he should buy for them. Dr. David Patterson was employed to carry this project into effect. Coming to Logan County he purchased a large tract of land along the north and west sides of Indian Lake, a great proportion of which is now covered by the waters of the Reservoir. During the years 1851-52 the colony, numbering nearly three hundred, arrived and began settlement. Log cabins were built and the colony supplied with provisions and whatever was necessary for their support for one year. The selection was either by intent or otherwise an unfortunate one. The poisonous malaria of the swamp produced general sickness, from which fully one-sixth of the whole number died. The remainder, as Mingo Banks (one of the number who now lives in Huntsville) expressed it, "Begin to move out purty lively," disposing of their interest as best they might. Many of them still live in Logan County, but one only had the hardihood to remain in Stokes Township. This is Richard Thomas, who resides near the Reservoir.