With a population of about 1,000 people at its height during the boom years of the 1880s, Rendville was home to black miners who lived and worked alongside white immigrant miners who were newly arrived from central and eastern Europe.
The town was named for William P. Rend, a Chicago industrialist who operated a coal mine here and paid black and white miners the same wages. The town was filled with saloons and gambling, and stores and churches. It hosted a big Emancipation Day celebration every year to commemorate President Abraham Lincoln’s ending of slavery in the South.
Adam Clayton Powell Sr. was a hard-living miner here in the 19th century before he surrendered his vices and was “saved” at a religious revival at the local First Baptist Church. He later became pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood and a civil-rights leader.
Richard L. Davis, another black coal miner, was an organized-labor leader in the Knights of Labor and then the United Mine Workers of America in the late 1800s. He worked to make sure that black miners had the same opportunities as white miners. He is buried in Rendville Cemetery.
In 1879, the Ohio Central Coal Company established Rendville, Ohio. Traditionally, white miners had refused to allow companies to hire African American miners. William P. Rend, the founder of Rendville and owner of a mine in this community, hired large numbers of African Americans as well as Europeans. White miners in surrounding communities, especially in Corning, Ohio, feared that African American miners would drive down wages.
To prevent the continued use of African American miners, in 1880 white miners in Corning and neighboring communities descended upon Rendville, apparently hoping to drive the African Americans from the community. In an attempt to mask their true intentions, the white miners smuggled firearms into the community in wagons, with the guns concealed under hay. According to newspaper accounts no significant violence occurred, although Ohio Governor Charles Foster did dispatch the Ohio National Guard to disperse the mob. In a small skirmish, three or four protesters were injured. This event became known as “the Corning War.”
Tensions between the white and African American miners continued. In 1888, a mob of Corning whites prepared to descend on Rendville, following the murder of a white Corning man presumably by an African American man from Rendville. Rendville’s mayor, Isaiah Tuppins, the first African American man to serve as a mayor of an Ohio community, convinced Corning law enforcement officials to disperse the mob and to protect the accused man.
To prevent the continued use of African American miners, in 1880 white miners in Corning and neighboring communities descended upon Rendville, apparently hoping to drive the African Americans from the community. In an attempt to mask their true intentions, the white miners smuggled firearms into the community in wagons, with the guns concealed under hay. According to newspaper accounts no significant violence occurred, although Ohio Governor Charles Foster did dispatch the Ohio National Guard to disperse the mob. In a small skirmish, three or four protesters were injured. This event became known as “the Corning War.”
Tensions between the white and African American miners continued. In 1888, a mob of Corning whites prepared to descend on Rendville, following the murder of a white Corning man presumably by an African American man from Rendville. Rendville’s mayor, Isaiah Tuppins, the first African American man to serve as a mayor of an Ohio community, convinced Corning law enforcement officials to disperse the mob and to protect the accused man.
Perry County Cultural Arts and Historical Society
