Two families, one history
Descendants celebrate and honor Athens' early abolitionists

Ohio University's third president, Robert G. Wilson, and abolitionist William Williamson both worked to liberate Ohio's first African-American graduate, John Newton Templeton. Two hundred years later, descendants of both men visit campus to celebrate their past.                           

By Anita Martin

This year's family reunion season, as the majority of us headed to park pavilions to sample potato salads and toss horseshoes, the Williamsons gathered in Ohio to honor a legacy of liberation. The Aug. 28, 2005, reunion, which began in Athens, commemorated their ancestors' role as abolitionists, Presbyterian ministers and purveyors of the Underground Railroad.

The Williamson family tree branches back to William Williamson and former Ohio University President Robert G. Wilson, both of whom helped to emancipate and educate the university’s first African-American graduate, John Newton Templeton.

Jeff, official family historian and a descendant of both Williamson and Wilson, last visited Athens in 1999 when the campus auditorium was renamed for John Newton Templeton (who graduated in 1828) and the university's first female African-American graduate, Martha Jane Hunley Blackburn (who earned her degree in 1916).

During that visit, he met Arthur Templeton, John Newton Templeton's great-great-nephew. Theirs was a meeting of clemency and camaraderie as two families, once linked by slavery, met on equal, amiable terms.

As this year's reunion party files into Templeton Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium, fond memories return.

''One of the greatest highlights of my life was to be here in 1999 at the rededication ceremony,'' Jeff said, once again taking the podium in the Patricia Ackerman Lobby of Memorial Auditorium, where the African American Alumni Heritage Wall stands.

Forerunners of freedom

Jeff began digging up family history about 15 years ago. By now he has produced pages of abridged notes nearing book proportions.

In these notes Jeff refers to his ancestors -- Wilson, William Williamson and James Gilliland, a triumvirate of Presbyterian ministers who helped develop and sustain the Ohio Underground Railroad -- as ''a small band of fanatics.''

Writes Jeff, ''These men started speaking out against slavery in the 1790s, in, believe it or not, South Carolina. This was a very courageous and unpopular thing to do at that time, especially in the South. They could no longer tolerate living in a slave state and moved to Ohio in 1805, bringing some of their relatives and fellow church members with them.''

Seven years later, William Williamson's father, Thomas Williamson, died. As ordered in his will, all 27 of the family's slaves were freed and brought across the Ohio border. Among the troupe, William recognized young John Newton Templeton for his intellect and drive. Eventually, Wilson employed him in his home and enrolled him in Ohio University.

Templeton is thought to be the nation's fourth African-American university graduate, having earned his degree 65 years before Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Jeff and a friend, Presbyterian minister and Underground Railroad historian Lisa Corum Fox of West Union, decided this history necessitated a formal celebration.

''Lisa and I realized that the three Presbyterian ministers came to Ohio 200 years ago, and we decided that we needed to do something about it,'' Jeff says.

The two arranged an ancestral tour that traced the Ohio Underground Railroad through Athens, Red Oak, Ripley, West Union, Chillicothe and Manchester. Fox serves as pastor of the West Union Presbyterian Church, where William Williamson preached upon settling in Ohio. The church hosted and financed the weekend reunion excursion.

''These people's histories are full of firsts,'' Fox says. ''They led phenomenally faithful, adventuresome lives. For six decades, they and generations of their offspring labored for liberty and justice for all.''

Tribute tour

The visit began at the Ohio University Visitors' Center, the oldest log cabin in Athens and reportedly once the home of Wilson, his wife, Jane, and Templeton. Participants assembled there from as far away as Washington state. Director of Education Abroad Connie Perdreau, who coordinated the campus event, highlighted other historic markers such as the First Presbyterian Church on the corner of Court and Washington, where Wilson and other early university presidents preached, and the first three university buildings, Cutler, Wilson and McGuffey halls.

Although much has changed, many Athenians still honor the legacies left by early academic, political and religious leaders such as Wilson, Williamson and Templeton.

''It took a lot of courage to come here and support the abolitionist movement,'' says Craig Seitz, one of two current pastors at the First Presbyterian Church. ''The people who did so started from nothing.''

Considering that Ohio gained official statehood in 1803, Ohio University, founded 1804, sprang right out of the frontier. Such early activists as Ohio University co-founder Manasseh Cutler and the Williamson family helped establish the Ohio Underground Railroad, according to local historians such as Perdreau.

For Vibert Cambridge, chair of the university's Department of African American Studies, the reunion tour was ''an important moment. The event made the point that this university has been pivotal in the black experience in Ohio.''

Today, the university celebrates and supports African-Americans' success through academic research and assistance for students. But before today's Templeton Scholars and their peers came the 19th-century pioneers, both black and white, who, in the words of Cambridge, ''proved the power of vision, the power of courage, the power of doing the right thing at the right time.''

For Jeff Williamson, yesterday's triumphs are today's responsibilities. ''I try to make decisions based on the way that these people lived,” he says. ''Sometimes it's hard to live up to their ideals, but I hope to do so.''

Anita Martin, BSJ '05, is a writer for University Communications and Marketing.