On Saturday, a group of over 50 local residents met inside Wallace Lodge in Sally Buffalo Park. The meeting was planned to discuss the future the abandoned Dunbar School building, located at the junction of North Buffalo and Spring Street in Cadiz, Ohio. City Mayor Kevin Jones officiated over the meeting, while receiving concerns and comments over the importance and the value of the history that has been made through the school.
“We are looking at the building and any possibilities that the building can be saved and obtained,” Jones said. “We realize that there is a lot of sentimental and personal ties held within this structure. There is a lot of research and investigations to be done before we can even look at the possibilities. We have heard a lot today, and the possibilities of the schoolhouse being repaired and saved as a history relic certainly has the mayor’s office support.”
Jones added that they will look at every possibility of making the building a historical project that will satisfy the people of the city.
The story of how the AME Church and the Dunbar Schoolhouse originated is a very interesting and heartwarming one. That story began recently during a Black History Month celebration, as one local family shared its story about finding freedom and opportunity through seven generations. So, the story begins:
Josiah Lucas became a free man in 1852 and arrived in Cadiz in 1855. It was there that he paved the way for seven generations of success. The narrative unfolds from a Virginia plantation, and the history is retold through six generations.
Rev. Charles Lucas reminisced about his great-great-grandfather’s journey to secure freedom in pursuit of a better life for himself and his future family. The slave owner of the plantation where they lived and worked told Lucas that he would give him his freedom if he would parquet his entire house. Lucas, a fifth-generation member of the family described the parquet project as using little, tiny blocks that fit together. The project would be straining and require a lot of time. However, Lucas completed the project, and the plantation owner kept his word and gave him his freedom. Once freed he walked from Virginia to Cadiz.
Often, slaves took the last name of their enslaver, however Josiah wanted to be different, so he didn’t take the name. Now five generations later, Charles Lucas is thankful over his great-great grandfather’s first action of independence.
“The plantation owner didn’t think he could read or write,” Lucas said. But he could. And he took a pen and put a line through the K because he didn’t want to take his name. He put a C in its place. So, rather than Lukas it was Lucas, and he thanks him for the “C.”
Lucas was a carpenter and tanner who would set up shop and sell leather made products.
Upon arrival in Cadiz, he found a lack of places for African Americans to worship and be educated. As a result, he helped create the St. James AME Church and then built the Dunbar School, providing opportunities for black children in the community. He was a master at building and also made wallets and briefcases, and that’s how they earned the money to buy the church.
He then, by hand and other hands, built the Dunbar School. Josiah Lucas’ son, William Lucas Sr., served as the principal of Dunbar School for years. He was later elected county clerk and became the first African American elected to a county-wide office in Ohio. He served as county clerk for 60 years and from there, his son, William Lucas Jr. began the first black barber shop in Cadiz. Every branch of the Lucas family from then on have been in business one way or another.
Charles Sr., the fourth generation Lucas, was the first African American to serve on the Cleveland Transit Board, now known as the RTA. He was also the first full-time executive director of the Cleveland NAACP and was elected to the Ohio Board of Education. “Every Sunday we would get together as a family at his aunt Josephine’s house and they would tell stories over and over, and now they’ve been implemented to that,” said Jason Lucas, the sixth generation.
Charles Lucas served over 50 years in ministry and community service. Jason, his son, owns a funeral home, and his son, Harper, hopes to pursue a career in NASCAR commentary.
Harper was quoted saying, “If I could tell Josiah one thing, I would tell him how my grandfather, my father, his grandfather and how everyone in the family has been so successful and he’s left a great impact on this family! That’s what I would tell him.”
The Lucas family has both Josiah and his wife, Betsy Bowman’s freedom papers to this day and will continue to pass them on to future generations.
