Memorial Headstone of Joseph Love, Soldiers Circle, Greenlawn Cemetery, Portsmouth, Ohio

ID: 686 ~ Source: Scioto Historical Series, private collection, Friendship, Ohio. ~ Creator: Andrew Feight ~ Date: 2020

This file appears in: Portsmouth's African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Underground Railroad

Memorial Headstone of Joseph Love, Soldiers Circle, Greenlawn Cemetery, Portsmouth, Ohio

Joseph Love, a long-time member of Portsmouth's AME Church, was a key Underground Railroad conductor in the 1850s, providing a safe house north of town in Huston Hollow and helping transport freedom seekers to the next station at Pee Pee Prairie in Pike County. Love's connection with the AME Church in Portsmouth documents the important role its members played in the city's interracial network of Underground Railroad workers.

This file appears in: Portsmouth's African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Underground Railroad

Portsmouth's African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Underground Railroad

By Andrew Feight, Ph.D.

Portsmouth's African Methodist Episcopal Church (Allen Chapel - AME) is the city's oldest Black religious society. In March 1837, "Father Charleston" organizd the church in the "Old Wheeler Academy," which was located on the southwest corner of…