August 5, 2004

Gaunt home houses museum of local history

Nancy Mellon and Steve Deal are working with the Yellow Springs Historical Society to establish a local history museum in the living room of their North Walnut Street house, which is commonly known as the Wheeling Gaunt house.

When Steve Deal and Nancy Mellon were looking for a home in Yellow Springs last fall, the story of Wheeling Gaunt drew them to the two-story white brick house at 131 North Walnut Street, where Gaunt is thought to have lived.

The improbability of a slave who bought his freedom and went on to amass a small fortune inspired Deal and Mellon with the idea that their new home would be a natural spot for a museum of Yellow Springs’ history.

Gaunt’s familiar black and white portrait hangs over an old coal fireplace in the front living room, where, eight months after Deal and Mellon moved in, they and the Yellow Springs Historical Society have agreed to create a mini-museum of local history. Historical Society member Pam Adams volunteered to organize the first installment, focused on the research Miami Township trustee Chris Mucher and the Hammond family gathered on Grinnell Mill and the township’s milling industry.

“The offer by the Deal/Mellon family is very generous. I was floored when they offered us the space,” Adams said. “A lot of people are interested in our history and this is a good way to show it off.”

The exhibit is scheduled to open in early September and will be open to the public for a few hours every Saturday afternoon. The Historical Society has a small collection of photographs that might supplement certain exhibits or serve as their own installation.

Deal and Mellon hope that the museum will raise awareness about the importance of local history and provide a space to showcase photos and antiques that local residents might have inherited and stored away.

“This is an opportunity, an almost galvanizing opportunity, for people to be aware that this exists and for people to show off the cool pieces they drag out from their basements,” Deal said. “Of course, the Historical Society will make it what they want; we’re just duffers here.”

Both Deal and Mellon are interested in history, and while Deal has been working as an engineering contractor with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Mellon has been sculpting and drawing, both have been eager to find out more about the Gaunt family and the history of their home. Through the shards of pottery, tithing coins, yellowed books and papers they continue to dig up from the basement and the backyard, in hidden closets and behind removable wall boards, they are slowly uncovering the story of families who once lived in their house, including possibly Amanda and Wheeling Gaunt.

For as much local and national publicity as the story of Wheeling Gaunt has received over the years during the Village’s annual Christmastime flour and sugar distribution, relatively little is actually known about his life. Deal and Mellon seem determined to change that by uncovering his story and getting it right.

“There’s a real story to be told there, but there are so many versions of history out there, and we want to make sure it’s accurate,” Deal said.

Since arriving here last November from California, the Deals have regularly visited Antiochiana, the Antioch University archives, the Greene County Records office and the Greene County archives room. They have looked for copies of property deeds, tax records and other verifiable sources that would indicate whether Gaunt ever owned their house.

They trust that Gaunt came to Yellow Springs sometime in or after 1861 and began to acquire property around town, including the block containing their home. Starting from the property north of the Highlander Laundromat, Gaunt owned three and a half acres of property at the time of his death in 1894, Deal said.

Gaunt also owned farmland that he donated to the Village with the stipulation that rental income from the land be used to buy flour each Christmas for Yellow Springs widows. Today the land is Gaunt Park, and the Village continues the holiday tradition started over 100 years ago.

“The thing about Wheeling Gaunt that was so exemplary was not that he was a slave, because you can’t diminish that, but that here is a guy who escaped slavery to became a tremendously acute businessman,” he said.

A small permanent display about Gaunt is planned for the museum, which will rotate main installments three to four times a year by theme, Adams said. Deal said he and Mellon hope the museum will inspire a local cooperative of historical caretakers for generations to come.

The Historical Society has discussed looting Antiochiana’s “treasure trove” for an exhibit on Antioch’s history, unearthing its own collection from storage at YSI for a general exhibit, and soliciting contributions from local residents for artifacts relating to the history of the railroad, African-American history, the history of local industry and any other ideas villagers have.

“The history here is so rich, it begs to be told,” Adams said.

—Lauren Heaton