Muskingum County History launching Underground Railroad forum on Thursday

ZANESVILLE − Muskingum County History is launching its inaugural season of the Putnam Underground Railroad Forum at 7 p.m. Thursday, at Stone Academy Historic Site and Museum, 115 Jefferson St.

The first forum program topic is Birthplace of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, with speaker Peter Cultice, who is a local historian and Underground Railroad researcher, as well as the MCH board president. No registration is required for the free event.

Cultice said the focus on the first forum will be “the shift in attitude and change in strategy that occurred in the movement to end slavery.”

According to a news release from Muskingum County History, a recent increased interest in the Underground Railroad and Abolitionist activity in Putnam, along with a recommendation from the National Park Service, inspired the series.

It also inspired the group to update Putnam’s listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

“The original 1975 listing recognized the historic impact of Putnam at the local level," according to the release. "It was amended in 2004 to include Putnam’s importance at the state level. The 2024 update seeks recognition of Putnam’s national significance.”

Each forum will feature a program about Putnam history as well as information about the National Register of Historic Places update including related Q&A and discussion. The program theme for the forum’s inaugural season is Old Putnam: Stories That All Americans Can Relate To, Regardless of Where They Live.

The additional forums

● July 25 will be Putnam’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Sites, an overview of the historical integrity and verifiable underground railroad connections of Putnam’s five Network to Freedom sites as well as other pre-Civil War structures, with speaker James Geyer, retired MCH museum director, author of "Putnam Network to Freedom Nominations."

● Aug. 22 is Mob Violence in Putnam in the 1830s, discussion of violent attacks against Theodore Weld, Henry Howells and other Abolitionists in Putnam by pro-slavery mobs.

● Sept. 26 brings Putnam Women: Social Reform, Abolition, and the UGRR, discussion how history becomes herstory in this program about the Hale sisters, Lucinda Belknap Nye, Sarah Guthrie, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and others.

● Oct. 24 will be Stories from Across the Muskingum, included in this presentation will be stories about Joshua McCarter Simpson, the 1859 Fugitive Slave Case in Zanesville, and the Market Street Baptist Church, with speaker Peter Cultice.