Author: Katie Frame

Zanesville has its own history surrounding slavery and the Underground Railroad, and thanks to some Muskingum County conductors, many runaway slaves found their way to freedom.  To begin Zanesville’s history with slavery, we must first go back to when Zanesville and Putnam were two separate cities.  Ebenezer Zane built Zane’s Trace to collect on his […]

Despite being the son of a wealthy slave owner, George Adams focused on making his fortune in a new way: without using slavery. Adams was uncomfortable with the idea of slavery. Upon inheriting a Virginia plantation, Adams sold the land, freed the slaves and moved to Ohio. He used the money from the Virginia plantation […]

Behind every successful man is a woman, and behind Pearl ‘Zane’ Grey was his wife Dolly. Grey, a Zanesville native, was the author who popularized the concept of ‘the Old West.” He traveled the west for 30 years gathering information that would become the groundwork for his plethora of books.  Grey did not do all […]

Nelson Talbot Gant left a trail of history behind him as he became a free man, helped his wife escape from slavery, and eventually landed in Zanesville, Ohio.  On May 10, 1821, Gant was born into slavery on a tobacco plantation owned by John Nixon. Gant quickly became a favorite of Nixon and was made […]

The Daughters of the American Revolution, frustrated they were barred from the Sons of the American Revolution, decided to take matters into their own hands and established their first chapter on Oct. 11, 1890.  The original founders – Mary S. Lockwood, Ellen Walworth, Mary Desha, and Eugenia Washington – originally wanted Oct. 12 to be […]

Decaying signs that read Pottery Capital of the World. Vasehenge. Abandoned pottery factories. Zanesville used to be ripe with the culture of ceramics, and the remains of that period of history are still visible. So, the question remains: What happened to the pottery capital of the world? In 1808 Samuel Sullivan began Zanesville’s clay industry […]

Muskingum University’s Greek Life culture spans almost 115 years, but while it has a positive impact on the campus and community today, it wasn’t always thought of in that way. Greek Life as it is known today began in the early 1700s at the College of William and Mary as a secret society for students […]