Legacy of Grace: Musings on the Life and Times of Wheeling Gaunt

By Brenda Jean Hubbard and Brian Maughan

Legacy of Grace, Musings on the Life and Times of Wheeling Gaunt, by Brenda Jean Hubbard chronicles the true life and times of a formerly enslaved Black man named Wheeling Gaunt who purchased his own freedom and through hard work, diligence and disciplined real estate investment slowly built his fortune. Moving with his wife Amanda to the Village of Yellow Springs, Ohio in 1864, Mr. Gaunt became an important village leader and philanthropist as he continued his real estate investments. Upon his death in 1894 he gifted both family and community with impressive and substantial gifts including a sizable bequest to Wilberforce University. He is perhaps most famous for his creation of The Poor Widows Fund gifting flour and sugar to older women in the village each Christmas, a tradition the village still observes. The land that he gave to the village is known today as Gaunt Park and houses Gaunt Park Pool and adjacent sports fields. Through an exploration of the times in which he lived, Mr. Gaunt’s remarkable story of achievement is investigated. Author Brenda Jean Hubbard was born and raised in Yellow Springs where her family lived for over 50 years. She is donating all money raised in the sale of this book to The Yellow Springs 365 Project, a vital non-profit organization committed to racial justice and education. Hubbard says, “Growing up in Yellow Springs was a true blessing. I was privileged to experience the unique joys and many benefits of knowing diverse, amazing, accomplished and distinguished people from many walks of life. This gifted me with a lifelong passion to celebrate diversity and a heart for social justice. Writing this book is my small attempt to honor the impressive people, history and accomplishments of the Black community while also conveying important and timely history.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665510165

Brenda Jean Hubbard

For over forty-five years as an actor, theatre director, writer and master teacher, Brenda Jean Hubbard has focused her creative and scholarly inquiry on topics related to social justice She has authored two original plays and two adaptations. This marks her first foray into the exploration of African American history and social commentary.

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Copyright © 2021 Brenda Jean Hubbard. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 02/03/2021

ISBN: 978-1-6655-1017-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-1016-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020924151

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Dedication

Prologue

Introduction

Part 1 : Before Ohio

Chapter 1   Beginnings

Chapter 2   The Buying and Selling of Humans

Chapter 3   Tobacco and Hemp Were Also King

Chapter 4   Perpetual Dread— Life for Kentucky Slaves

Chapter 5   Options of an Enslaved Woman

Chapter 6   Consigned into the Hands of God—Plight of Enslaved Children

Chapter 7   Biracial Life- Benefits and Drawbacks

Chapter 8   Money, Money, Money, Money

Chapter 9   Wheeling’s Legal Dealings In Carrollton

Part Two: The Ohio Years

Chapter 10   Elements Coalesce

Chapter 11   The Magnetic Pull Of The Springs

Chapter 12   Utopia Attempted

Chapter 13   Underground

Chapter 14   ... and Overground

Chapter 15   A College is Born

Chapter 16   Moved by the Spirit

Chapter 17   Wilberforce University

Chapter 18   Impact of the Civil War

Chapter 19   A Colony That Worked

Chapter 20   The Yellow Springs Years

Chapter 21   Wheeling’s Kin

Chapter 22   The Last Years — Divinely Driven

Chapter 23   The Last Will and Testament

Epilogue, My Personal Call To Action

Acknowledgments

Endnotes

About the Author

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the African American community past

and present, in acknowledgement of their strength, talent,

wisdom and fortitude. Let none of us give up the fight for right.

To me, healing means you have to recognize there is a wound and you try to understand what the sources of the wound are, which means you try to tell a story about how it came to be. So you have to engage in some historical interpretation.¹

—Dr. Cornel West

Prologue

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another,

as good stewards of God’s varied grace—Peter 4:10 ²

The Gift of Grace That Keeps On Giving

Thirty-three years ago, I first became aware of Mr. Wheeling Gaunt when my own mother received of one of his philanthropic gifts which were subsequently brought to her door every Christmas for the last eleven years of her life. These gifts are emblematic of the many acts of grace that have flowed from Mr. Gaunt into the lives of others. Grace is thought to be a divinely inspired desire to recreate, sanctify and encourage virtuous impulses. It imparts strength to endure trials and resist temptation. Wheeling Gaunt’s life embodied such spiritual grace and his legacy is still felt one hundred and twenty-six years after his death. The following story will illustrate how the impact of even one of Mr. Gaunt’s many philanthropic deeds still touches us today.

My father, Jack Hubbard, died on the 19th of July in 1987 after forty-three years of marriage to my mother, Pat. They spent almost half a century together in the Village of Yellow Springs, Ohio. His passing left Mom with a raw wound that ached even more deeply as the holidays approached. For my family, the impact of Mr. Gaunt’s compassion was initially realized the first Christmas after Dad’s passing when Mom told me a story that ignited my interest. She set the scene by relating that she was sitting at her dining table looking out at Fairfield Pike on a bleak, grey December day. She said,

Suddenly, a village utility truck pulled up and I knew immediately what it meant and began to cry. A tall, Black man climbed out carrying two sacks in his arms. He picked his way through the piles of the wet leaves on the drive. I should have had those cleaned up, but Jack did the outside work, you know....Then I realized it was Andy Benning. I hid my tears and opened the door, and said, as cheerfully as I could, ‘Andy Benning, there you are!’ And you know Andy, he joked right back at me, ‘Hello Pat Hubbard! There you are! Guess what we have here?’ Of course I knew, so I just said, ‘Come in, come in.’ He stepped into the house and it was so cold outside and so warm inside, his glasses fogged right up. I said, ‘Well, Andy, I’m sorry to say it is now my turn. I guess I never realized this day would come.’ Of course he knew what I meant. I am sure he had heard such remarks from the other widows. So with a great flourish he gave me a sack of flour and a sack of sugar. He said, ‘A gift from Mr. Wheeling Gaunt. Have a nice holiday Pat and God bless you.’ Then he left. I cried even harder. I just looked at those two sacks and thought I am now one of the widows, Lord help me. I cried like a baby. But then, I began to think about this Wheeling Gaunt. He was a man who had been a slave, did you know that? He’s the one that created this program of giving out the flour and sugar to the widows of the village. I don’t know how well he was treated or how poorly, but at some point in his life he didn’t have any freedom and he still found it his heart to give to others. I guess it’s one of the sweetest things in life...freedom. The fact that he did such a kind thing in spite of whatever challenges he faced made me feel like, now, with your dad gone, I could face my challenges too because somebody who had it a lot worse than me had found it in his heart to do something so kind for others. He thought about the welfare of the older ladies alone in the world and did something about it.³

pg.%206%20.jpg

City Manager Howard Kahoe and Utility Worker Andy Benning

presenting Bertha Baber with her gift of flour circa 1950

Sparked by mother’s remarks, my curiosity was piqued. Yes, exactly, who was this man who had made the choice to employ kindness and compassion in response to a world filled with hatred and terrorism toward people of color, over a hundred years earlier? What possessed him? Was the giver of the gift doing for others what he was never able to do for his own enslaved mother? She was brutally stolen from him by his own father when he was but four years old. Was he returning symbolically to the wounded place Alice Walker referred to when she wrote, Healing begins where the wound was made? ⁴

Who was this man who had made sure that the widows of Yellow Springs received a Christmas gift each year? We know he was a formerly enslaved Black man. But that fact cannot define the man nor tell us who he was both in and out of slavery. How he lived, what obstacles he overcame and what motivated him to achieve became driving questions for me. Who was he-really? What was his journey like? How did he end up in Yellow Springs? How did African Americans live at this time in history? What motivated, inspired and empowered him to achieve such a legacy of grace? I couldn’t stop wondering about him and set about to find some answers.

In the course of the next seven years I came to understand more about Mr Gaunt’s life and times. I also gained a greater understanding about the TRUE story of the founding and building of America. This is a story that I knew next to nothing about. It wasn’t taught in the history books I read or the schools I attended.

The life of Wheeling Gaunt encompassed a complex and multifaceted identity. His creation resulted from the melding of two very different cultures and ancestry being both African and European. He was the son, as well as slave, of a white slave master/father and a Black enslaved mother; a four year old boy whose mother was stolen from him; a brother who throughout his life helped to raise and care for his sister, Louisa and later her family; an uncle to Louisa’s daughter Amanda (likely named for his wife Amanda) who was plagued with mental illness and whose husband was disabled after his military service in the Civil War; a half brother to six white brothers and a sister, only three of whom survived into adulthood; a man who was enslaved for over one third of his life to his own privileged white family.

At a time when traditional marriage arrangements were made difficult if not illegal for Blacks, he was a devoted family man who was married for over thirty years to Amanda, until her death. He was a father to at least one child who predeceased him — a boy named Nicholas; At various times he was likely a house slave and field slave, a laborer, teamster, carpenter, seller of apples and a boot black. Eventually he was a freed man and it is also likely he was a resistance fighter on the Underground Railroad providing a safe house for escaping people; Assuredly, he was a savvy businessman and real estate investor; and a husband, again after his first wife’s death to Elizabeth who cared for him in his final days; He was a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Yellow Springs and a celebrity in the newspapers whose finances were the fodder of much speculation and gossip. He was a friend or acquaintance who was purported to have known many impressive people of the period including Frederick Douglass, Dr. W.E.B Du Bois, Bishop Daniel A. Payne, Bishop James A. Shorter and Dr. John G Mitchell;⁵ and lastly, he was acknowledged as a benefactor to his race when he gifted Wilberforce University with a sizable bequest.⁶

He was a man who believed in freedom and justice and devoted his life to helping others achieve such dignity. On a personal level we can infer that he was socially adept, hard working, intelligent and a strategic thinker— A man who, against all odds, earned enough money to purchase his own manumission as well as his wife’s and another young man’s whom some speculate was his son. He was diligent and disciplined, saving money over years and years of effort. He was also a man of principle who put the welfare of others ahead of his own. A man of courage, at age fifty-two, he moved with his wife, Amanda, from Carrollton, Kentucky to Yellow Springs, over one hundred and forty-four miles away, as the Civil War raged on. He was civic minded and ran for the school board after the village integrated its schools. Toward the end of his life he was lauded in newspapers throughout Ohio and Indiana as the richest colored man in Ohio.⁷ He left sizable bequests to Wilberforce College and the village of Yellow Springs as well as providing for his family, church and friends.

In the final analysis, he fared far better financially than either of his two privileged white half brothers. At his death his estate was worth considerably more than was theirs. He also outlived both half brothers. He accomplished all this while living in a harshly racist and oppressive country and being enslaved for over one-third of his life. He realized all of it without any formal education that we know of, only learning to read and write in the later part of his life. Today, he is the subject of veneration in his community.

Wheeling Gaunt lived for eighty-two years. The study of his life and world tells us about a time in the relatively recent past when humans bought and sold other humans and when our country flourished economically by figuratively and sometimes even literally standing on the backs of a race of people. He is an example of how one Black man made his way in the world while setting a standard for accomplishment and service that is instructive and still to be admired, even to be emulated. I certainly think so. What motivated, inspired and empowered him to achieve such a legacy of grace? I couldn’t stop wondering about him and set about to find some answers.

Wheeling%20Gaunt%20page%2010%20IMG_2883.jpeg

A sketch of Wheeling Gaunt by Brian Maughan,

courtesy of Marie Hertzler

Introduction

It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always

looking at one’s self through the eyes of others....One ever feels his

twoness-an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled

strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength

alone keeps it from being torn asunder—Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois ⁸

There are just some things we will never know with any certainty. This is particularly true when the many details that comprise a people’s history are lost due to neglect, indifference or deliberate obfuscation. Sometimes more is to be gleaned by what has not been recorded than in what has. As I researched the life and times of Wheeling Gaunt this became increasingly evident. For over one hundred years his story has captured the imaginations of many and I had now joined the throngs of the curious. Over the next seven years, I would discover some answers to my questions and also come to realize that many questions would never find definitive answers. In my quest to find Mr. Gaunt, I also learned more about myself, my hometown and our country. One of the challenges of researching Mr. Gaunt’s life is the lack of primary source material. Such things as his letters or personal writings, photos, interviews with family members or friends with whom I might communicate simply do not exist. As a result, examining the social history of the period has been key in developing a greater appreciation of Mr. Gaunt’s life, times and challenges. It has also led me to postulate on what contributed to his abilities to accomplish and achieve in the face of the brutal oppression that so many people of color faced and overcame during that period of history.

Another of the challenges came with tracing the Gaunt family lineage. There were at least three Reuben Gaunt’s and at least two John Gaunt’s. Communication with a distant Gaunt descendant, Father Thomas Gaunt cleared up some of the confusion but it challenged the veracity of facts I had found on Ancestry.com.⁹

In Part One—Before Ohio I’ll explore the origins of Mr. Gaunt’s white family and muse about the how various elements of life in Kentucky influenced the man Wheeling became. Speculating on his relationship with his father and enslaved mother I will imagine the impact losing his mother had on him at such an early age. I will develop a theory about who she was and why she was stolen from him. As I examine what slave life was like I will propose which elements of living in a river town had their impact on Wheeling’s life. I’ll probe the chattel slave industry and in particular its treatment and abuse of women and children. I will consider how being biracial and serving as both son and slave to his father may have benefited Wheeling. I will also try to imagine how he earned and saved the money he needed to develop his real estate investment business.

In Part Two—The Ohio Years, I will consider what drew Wheeling and Amanda Gaunt to Yellow Springs, Ohio as I imagine the influences on them of their racial and religious communities. I will hypothesize about how Wheeling’s connections to the Underground Railroad along with the growth of key educational institutions in Greene County, Ohio made it a compelling destination. I will also make a case for how the pull of the land has made Yellow Springs a sanctuary destination for those who have often felt disenfranchised elsewhere.

Lastly, I’ll examine my own connection to Mr. Gaunt through the unique village where we both lived as I ponder why his story continues to captivate the world. I will conclude with reflections upon how we might use Mr. Gaunt’s great legacy of grace as a model for our own future commitments to overcoming racism while creating paths of peace, equality and prosperity.

Angela Carter wrote that, Language is power, life and the instrument of culture, the instrument of domination and liberation.¹⁰ The power of language in writing about race requires careful consideration. Thus, it is important to clarify my language usage with regard to people of color. When I reference people of African American or Native American descent, I have opted to use the terms Black, people of color, or African American for the former and Native American or Indian for the later. When the terms colored, negro, injuns, reds, savages or other pejorative and racist words are employed it is done strictly thru direct and indirect citation of terms that were used at a particular moment in history. Since Nineteenth Century African American history is a particularly racialized subject it often requires racialized language.¹¹ In addition, there has been much debate about whether the b in the word Black should be capitalized in reference to people of color.¹² Out of respect for the current trend to capitalize as a means to acknowledge past history and add dignity to the signifier I have chosen to capitalize the b unless it is a direct quote from another author.

Most historians conduct their scholarship based upon the preoccupations of the times and I am certainly no exception. I am writing in a time of pandemic, fear, death, extreme political partisanship and racial strife. Even in 2021, it is still a world where people of color, and in particular men of color, are not safe and often the recipients of criminal violence. Ours is an age where heated conflict is often fueled by partisan politics. It seems that our nation is either seeking to examine and change, or deny and reject the impact of racism, classism, sexism and nativism on both the past and the present. I began writing this book when President Obama was in office. I wanted to make Mr. Gaunt’s great legacy known and by doing so both examine the origins of oppression while also attempting to imagine how he overcame them; doing what so many people of color have done throughout history in a wide variety of ways— both large and small.

I hoped awareness of his story would contribute to the forward momentum occurring by so many men of color in their many acts of grace and accomplishment. Certainly President Obama’s legacy is a significant part of that momentum, but there are countless other examples that our nation rarely acknowledges. Now, seven years later, as heinous criminal actions are regularly perpetrated against people of color, it is crystal clear that much of the racial oppression that occurred throughout Mr. Gaunt’s life is still one of the most pressing concerns of our nation. We must understand where we have been, grasp where we are and both discern and choose where we want to go and how to get there.

The desire to revisit and accurately revise past historical scholarship is part of the ongoing responsibility of scholars.¹³ It is fundamentally important to analyze the many elements that have defined our national history as we question and revise, unearth and protest, change and rebuild. In doing so, we seek a truer and more inclusive understanding of how America was forged.¹⁴ By unmasking misconceptions and half truths and allowing ourselves to reimagine a more honest American history we may realize that our national identity is never static or conclusive. Rather, our national identity is an ever-evolving journey to illuminate and expose both the victories and trauma that have shaped our nation. In doing so we might even dare to imagine a better tomorrow.

Part One

Before Ohio

Chapter One

If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk. If you

can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to

keep moving forward—Martin Luther King, Jr.¹⁵

Beginnings

Born into the tumultuous world of 1812, as wars raged and the horrors of slavery blighted the American landscape, a mixed race baby began life in a nascent river town called Port William, Kentucky. Like so many other biracial children borne of a white slave master father and Black enslaved mother, there was little glimmer of hope or promise in such humble beginnings. It was often expected that such a child would be yet one more person of color destined to spend away life in poverty and servitude. The fact that during his subsequent eighty-two years of life, this little baby rose far above such limited expectations has become a source of curiosity, admiration and even gratitude.

His name was known variously as Whelan or Wheeling Gaunt. As was common in those days, record keeping was less than accurate and the spelling of names often haphazard. For example, the slave master’s surname, Gaunt, was also noted in various records as Gannt, Gant, Gantt, Gauce, Garnet and Ghant. Whether by design or coincidence it is not known, but when one examines the meaning of the name Whelan the definition invites additional speculation. Derived from a Gaelic word meaning Little Wolf, Whelan is a name of Irish or Scottish descent. This small bit of information introduces the possibility that Whelan was Wheeling’s original name and likely given to him by his father who was also of English, Irish or Scottish descent.

Little Wolf is a moniker that proved prophetic. In storytelling, the wolf is often regarded as a symbol of guardianship, ritual, loyalty, and spirit—traits Whelan or Wheeling would later embody in his life.¹⁶ The name Wheeling Gaunt would come to be documented on all extant legal records noting the purchase of manumissions, real estate purchases and sales, all things Wheeling accomplished as he built his financial acumen. The fact that he served as a loyal guardian to both his family and community for generations might be interpreted as fulfillment of the prophetic name Whelan.

As to the origins of Wheeling’s father, while it was repeatedly reported in U. S. Census records that John Gaunt was from Ireland, exactly when and from where the Gaunt family immigrated is uncertain. Contrary to Census records, Father Thomas Gaunt, a distant white half uncle, guessed that the Gaunt family mostly hailed from England. This may be accurate. Vivien Markley, a local genealogy researcher found evidence that the first of the Gaunts to arrive in America was Peter Gaunt who was born in 1608 in Saint Bridgett Parish, Lincolnshire, England and died in 1680 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts. Thereafter, it is likely that some members of the Gaunt family immigrated to Virginia, perhaps arriving in the early 1700s. The name Gantt is listed as one of the earlier family names to settle Virginia.¹⁷

Nonetheless, Wheeling was born into a young nation on the move. By his birth, eighteen states had already joined the union. A vast American frontier was enticing those hopeful of laying claim to land upon which they might build their own dreams. Prior to Wheeling’s birth and answering such a call, Wheeling’s white great grandfather, Reuben made the arduous journey from Caroline County, Virginia to Port William, Kentucky in the 1790s. Caroline County was known for horse racing and as the birthplace of William Clark and his Black slave, York, of the famed Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1803. Reuben harkened from a privileged slave owning gentry. Virginia was successful in growing fine tobacco of both the sun cured and flue-cured varieties. Thus the Gaunt family’s knowledge of and subsequent later success with farming tobacco in Kentucky seems to have been a natural progression borne from their Virginia roots.

It is important to note that long before the planting and harvesting of cotton by a enslaved labor force, tobacco was an important cash crop that required a large labor system composed of both slaves and family members, to bring it to market, especially in Kentucky.¹⁸ In fact, the growing of tobacco dictated many aspects of life in America both before the American Revolution and for hundreds of years thereafter. When Wheeling’s great grandfather Reuben moved his family and slaves to Port William he was moving them to a region that was to become one of the largest producers of hemp and tobacco in America. It was an industry that Wheeling would one day be molded to serve in his early acculturation to slave life.

It is likely Reuben travelled to Kentucky with an entourage that included his wife, Sarah Robins Gaunt, their children and spouses and at least thirteen slaves.¹⁹ Why, after living in comfort and wealth in Virginia, he decided to leave for the new and uncharted world of the Kentucky frontier is unknown. Perhaps, like so many people in this period in American history, the promise of creating a new life by owning vast acreage overshadowed fear of the unknown. Since he was traveling with his children, some young adults, it is possible he wanted to help his sons become established in an area that would offer them new opportunities for advancement. Maybe the famed American adventurous spirit was bubbling in Gaunt family veins as it has for so many others throughout the ages.