Allen
By Kelly Doran
Sun staff

After a successful, well-attended presentation in September, a village of New Richmond resident will be giving a second talk on local black history.

Mary Allen, a New Richmond council member, will be giving a presentation, titled “New Richmond’s Black History: The families and their contributions,” on Feb. 17.

Allen will speak about black history from 1850-1970, including business people, what she calls interesting characters, black contributions and abolitionists.

The information Allen provides is something that would be of interest to anyone at any age, she said, and will be presented in an informal, conversational way.

Allen began researching New Richmond’s black history for the village’s bicentennial event in September 2014. She looked at who the people were, what contributions they made and in what situations they made those contributions, like if a black man was educated or not.

Sometimes people can get a negative opinion of blacks because of the news, Allen said, so she is happy to provide information on positive impacts blacks have made on society.

To do this, Allen did genealogical research and interviewed families of descendents that still live in the area. She was able to follow some families, like the Hudson family, the Lamb family, the Boone/Moore family the Graham/Hale family and the Willis family, for 200 years. The research was personal at times, as Allen also researched her great-great grandfather.

Once she gathered a lot of information, Allen wanted to preserve it somehow, so she made an exhibit, wrote a presentation and wrote a keepsake book.

“I’m retired P and G. I don’t know what it means just to do something. I put my heart and soul into it,” Allen said. She even made family trees so she could better track family relations during her research.

Allen hopes to someday create one book with New Richmond history, using previous books written, the book she wrote and more information she hopes to find. Now that she has done so much research on black history, she hopes to research other nationalities.

“It struck a passion I didn’t know I had for history,” Allen said.

The keepsake books are $10 and Allen will have them at her presentation for anyone interested.

The presentation will be held from 6:30-7:45 p.m. at the New Richmond branch on the Clermont County Public Library, located at 103 River Valley Blvd. in New Richmond.

Those interested in attending should call the library at 513-553-0570 and preregister because space is limited.