Rendville honors their past with Emancipation Day

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RENDVILLE, Ohio – A small Perry County town celebrated their Emancipation Day Saturday. With a population of just 36, it is the smallest incorporated community in Ohio. However, it hasn’t always been that way.

In the 1800s when the village was a coal mining town it had a population near 1,000 and was one of the few places were whites and blacks were able to work together and receive equal pay.

“I like the history that’s associated with the village,” said Jerry Jackson, the President of the Rendville Historical Preservation Society. “It was a time when whites and blacks got along together. We we’re from different counties, spoke different languages, but they got along ok.”

William Rend founded Rendville as a coal-mining town where both whites and black were paid the same wage, a rarity in the 1800s. The first held Emancipation Day was in 1883. The tradition continued until the 1960s when the town’s population dwindled with the loss of the coal industry. Jackson said they brought the tradition back last year to try to help people understand the historical significance of the town.

Emancipation Day included tours of the former mining town, historical pictures on display, and a historical lecture about a one-day ‘war’ that broke out between Rendville and Corning in the 1800s over African-Americans coming into the area to work.

“You see a lot today about whites and black not getting along very well. But in this peaceful town they did. If you take a look at the historical marker out front it explains how diverse the town was. How everybody got along ok. They took care of everyone else.”

Rendville was also a major force in the turn-of-the-century labor movement and had the first black mayor in Ohio.