Yellow Springs in Greene County, Ohio — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)
Moncure Daniel Conway / The Conway Colony
Moncure Daniel Conway
Moncure Daniel Conway was born on March 17, 1832 in Stafford County, Virginia, the son of Walker Peyton and Margaret Daniel Conway. His father was a wealthy slaveholder and prominent state legislator and county court justice official while his mother, who opposed slavery, introduced her son to abolitionism. Conway graduated from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania in 1849 and from Harvard Divinity School in 1854. Despite his southern aristocratic background, Conway, influenced by his mentor and friend Ralph Waldo Emerson, strongly opposed slavery and eventually religious orthodoxy. Much of Conway's career was spent abroad, where he became a writer and scholar, writing such notable biographies as Emerson at Home and Abroad (1882), Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne (1890), and Life of Thomas Paine (1892).
[Side B:]
The Conway Colony
The cabin of Dunmore and Eliza Gwinn, the leading family in the Conway Colony, was located east of this site and overlooking Glen Helen. In 1862, Reverend Moncure D. Conway, who in 1858 had served as minister for the First Congregationalist Church in Cincinnati, established a colony here for former slaves from his family's plantation in Falmouth, Virginia. Fighting between Union and Confederate forces near the plantation had displaced the family slaves and a large group of them assembled in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. to join Conway for the arduous journey through slave-holding states to Ohio. Conway believed that the colony would be accepted in Yellow Springs, a village known for its progressive ways, due partly to the influence of Horace Mann, the president of Antioch College for its first six years.
Erected 2002 by The Ohio Bicentennial Commission, The Longaberger Company, Yellow Springs Historical Society, and The Ohio Historical Society. (Marker Number 6-29.)
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Abolition & Underground RR • African Americans • Arts, Letters, Music • Charity & Public Work • Churches & Religion • Settlements & Settlers. In addition, it is included in the Ohio Historical Society / The Ohio History Connection series list. A significant historical date for this entry is March 17, 1832.
Location. 39° 47.657′ N, 83° 53.003′ W. Marker is in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in Greene County. Marker is at the intersection of Corry Street and Grinnell Road, on the right when traveling north on Corry Street. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Yellow Springs OH 45387, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within one mile of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Glen Helen Natural Area (approx. half a mile away); Antioch College (approx. half a mile away); Antioch College / and Glen Helen (approx. 0.7 miles away); Virginia Hamilton (approx. 0.7 miles away); Historic Grinnell Mill (approx. 0.9 miles away); Erastus Mitchell Birch (approx. 0.9 miles away); Horace Mann (approx. 0.9 miles away); Yellow Springs (approx. 1.1 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Yellow Springs.
Credits. This page was last revised on December 2, 2019. It was originally submitted on November 18, 2008, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania. This page has been viewed 2,032 times since then and 45 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on November 18, 2008, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania. • Christopher Busta-Peck was the editor who published this page.