Portsmouth's African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Underground Railroad

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 Fourth and Markets Streets.

The congregation's founding reflected the growth and relative prosperity of Portsmouth's African American community, whose residences, at the time, were concentrated north of the Academy building "on the lower end of Seventh Street, around near the river banks." The original members whose names have been passed down include: “Sofaxie Keels, Marina Barley, Kitty Kanan, Emily Wood, Robert Johnson, Polly Johnson, Anthony Hall and wife, Jeremy Delay and wife, George W. Johnson, Lewis Rogers, Martha Rogers, Toles Moore, David Coles, Patsy Coles, Christina Ross, and Francis A. Vaughn.”

Some of the founders had been born free, others had been emancipated by their former enslavers, and still others had purchased their own freedom. And members of the church would have undoubtedly been involved in assisting their fellow African Americans escape their enslavement and dodge pursuing bounty hunters. Counted among these heroic members of the AME Church was Joseph Love, who assisted freedom seekers when he lived just north of Portsmouth in Huston Hollow.

The existence of such a large black religious society at the time of its founding in 1837 is particularly noteworthy as the town's black population had faced a mass expulsion only six years earlier when township officials had enforced Ohio's discriminatory "Black Laws," expelling some eighty African American residents. Notwithstanding this dark history, the town's black population appears to have quickly rebounded and contributed to the town's overall growth in the 1830s and 1840s.

In 1842, the congregation acquired their own city lot and built a wood framed church on the north side of Fifth Street, between Court and Market. Within two years this structure was replaced with a more substantial brick structure. Thanks to the reminiscences of Betty Redman, who was a longtime church member, there is a description of the church's interior in the pages of the Portsmouth Times. "An aisle was in the center of the church and the pews were on either side. The church was equipped with heating stoves and was lighted with tallow candles placed in candle holders along the walls of the church. There were eight holders and each held two candles. The men occupied the pews on one side of the church and the women occupied the pews on the other."

In 1868, the congregation would move once again, purchasing what was known at the time as Spencer Chapel on Seventh Street, between Chillicothe and Gay Streets. This church structure had been originally built in 1853 by the city's German Methodist society and was named for Rev. R. A. Spencer, who had donated the lot on Seventh Street. In 1870, this was the location of Portsmouth's celebration of the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment.

In 1920, the congregation built their present structure at Twelfth and Waller streets, naming it Allen Chapel, in remembrance of Rev. Richard Allen, the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Sources:

Evans, Nelson W., "The African Methodist Episcopal Church," in A History of Scioto County, Ohio, Together with a Pioneer Record of Southern Ohio (Portsmouth, Ohio, 1902), 529.

“Allen A.M.E. Chapel Opens Anniversary Week Sunday,” Portsmouth Daily Times (24 September 1927).

"The Fifteenth Amendment in Portsmouth: Grand Ratification and Speeches by White and Colored Speakers,” Portsmouth Times (30 April 1870).

"Pioneer Negro Resident Recalls History of AME Church," Portsmouth Times (6 August 1932).