Batavia
Underground Railroad and Abolitionist Sites

(31) Brice Blair Home Site

This building was once the residence of Brice Blair. Blair was an elder in the anti-slavery Batavia Presbyterian Church and the president of the Clermont County Anti-Slavery Society. Reverend George Beecher and his sister Harriet Beecher (Stowe) were frequent houseguests, when Rev. Beecher was in town to pastor at the Batavia Presbyterian Church. (123 North Third St., Batavia)

(32) John Jolliffe - Clermont County Courthouse

This site commemorates John Jolliffe, Prosecuting Attorney for Clermont County from 1833-1837. In 1839, Jolliffe defended Brown County Underground Railroad conductor, John B Mahan, on charges of assisting a slave to escape. Jolliffe moved to Cincinnati and continued to defend escaped slaves and conductors. Jolliffe was best known for defending, escaped slave Margaret Garner, who slashed the throat of her own daughter rather than to see her return to slavery. (Clermont County Courthouse - 270 E. Main St., Batavia)

(33) Philip Gatch Burial Site - Greenlawn Cemetery

Reverend Philip Gatch (1751-1834) was a Methodist minister who freed the slaves that he inherited from his wife’s father. Gatch moved to the Milford area in 1798, to escape the evils of slavery. Because of his anti-slavery viewpoint, Clermont County citizens selected him as a delegate to Ohio’s first Constitutional Convention in 1802. The Greenlawn Cemetery was originally established on Gatch’s farm as a family burial ground in 1811. Gatch and his wife Elizabeth are buried here. It also holds the burial site of John M. Pattison, 43rd governor of Ohio. (US Rt. 50 and Cemetery Rd., Milford)