Pleasant Litchford:
Pleasant Litchford, a blacksmith by trade and a freed African-American slave, migrated from Virginia to this area of Ohio around 1830. He purchased 227 acres of land in southern Perry Township between 1833 - 1849 which he owned until his death in 1879. These two distinct tracts of land are seen on this 1856 Perry Township map (from “RWICH” (in large, spaced caps) in the lower left, go east to find “P. Litchford” with 90 acres & 137 acres).
His land stretched from today’s Tremont Center to North Star Road, including what is now Tremont School, Northam Park, St. Agatha and our high school. He donated a parcel of land to Perry Township specifically to build a school for children of color (nothing more about this school is known besides a designation on an 1872 map). Friends and family were buried in his private cemetery which existed on today’s high school property. Litchford was also tied to other notable African Americans in Columbus such as Ezekiel Fields. Fields was the first pastor of Second Baptist Church, the area’s first Black baptist church, and Pleasant was a founding member and deacon.
latest research by the Upper Arlington historical society:
What happened to the land Pleasant owned at the time of death in 1879?
was there a “litchford road'“ and what happened to it?
It was in 1913 that the Thompson brothers purchased 840 acres of land south of current-day Lane Avenue from James T. Miller to begin the Upper Arlington community. It wasn’t until the 1940s and 1950s that Pleasant’s land, then owned by others, was annexed by the City of UA, expanding our footprint. One section of this newly-acquired property was designated for the new high school (at 1650 Ridgeview Road), and our community approved the corresponding bond issue in 1954.
This Dispatch article from 1955 reveals the journey from finding an overgrown graveyard on this land through the steps taken during the high school’s construction at the time to reinter the bodies found at the site. This event is also documented in our two history books - History of Upper Arlington (second edition, 1988) on p.79 and A Cherished Past, A Golden Future: Celebrating the First One Hundred Years of Upper Arlington (2017) on p. 64.
Now, as our new high school is built on this same site, we are in partnership with Upper Arlington Schools, the City of UA, the authors of Secrets Under the Parking Lot, Equal UA and other interested parties to learn and share more about Pleasant’s life and impact on the Perry Township community and beyond, specifically through the installation of historical markers and the documentation of accepted facts. This will be a multi-year process as the construction possibly reveals more layers to the story.
From History of Upper Arlington, copyright 1977.
The 1872 map of Perry Township. The green line indicates current location of Lane Avenue. Pleasant Litchford’s property is outlined in pink. In 1879 at the time of his death, his total acreage was reported at 227 (as referenced by obituary below). Today our high school property is situated on part of this land.
—> See the obituary for Pleasant Litchford entitled “Death of a Pioneer” at Daily Ohio State Journal, 1879-04-16, p.2 (bottom of 5th column, continues top of 6th column).