Unfortunately, the lands were sold for taxes in 1970. It is known that many escaping slaves passed through this settlement and were helped by its residents. The marker documents this important aspect of Gallia County history.
HISTORY OF THE LAMBERT LANDS:
The Lambert Land, located in Morgan Township, was one of Gallia County’s early landmarks. Stories about this segment of local history were handed down by word-of-mouth for three generations by family members who once lived on the 265.5 acre plot of land. For years the inhabitants believed that Frank, Miller and Minnis Lambert were supposedly plantation owners in Virginia who freed their slaves 20 years before Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and led them to Ohio; however new research has disclaimed this legendary tale.
Gallia County Deed Records at the Courthouse show that in 1843, a Frank Lambert, along with 29 other individuals with the surname Lambert, purchased three parcels of land in Gallia County. Recent research in Virginia found the Last Will and Testament of Charles Lambert, Jr. who was the actual owner of the group of slaves. Charles Lambert, Jr. of Bedford County, Virginia died in 1839, but he willed that his blacks be freed and provided money for them to buy land where they could go to live in freedom. The researchers discovered that Frank Jones, also known as Frank Lambert, was actually one of Charles Lambert’s former slaves and not a plantation owner.
Shortly after the former Lambert slaves settled in Morgan Township in Gallia County, they began to change their slave surname to their authentic names. Some of group became the Burks, Jones, Leftwiches, Millers, Minnises, Randolphs, Reeds, Sales, and Winfields. Within two years after the 1843 Lambert Land purchase these early settlers and other free blacks in Morgan Township established the Morgan Bethel Church.
Descendants of the original settlers continued to live on the Lambert Lands for two or three generations. By 1960 most had moved away, and the real estate taxes became delinquent. As a result, the county sold the communal property at a public auction on the Courthouse steps in 1969. That was the end of the real estate which had existed in the Lambert name for 126 years.
The Last Will and Testament of Charles Lambert, Jr. not only disclosed the authentic names of his slaves but also provided their age and description. In Richmond, Virginia researchers found the appraised value of each slave in the 1840 Property Tax records. This and more information can be found at the Gallia County Historical/Genealogical Society and The John Gee Black Historical Center, Inc. located at 48 Pine Street, Gallipolis, Ohio 45631-1512. Barbara Scott, local historian of Black History, also has information.
You are looking for a Loc N Loc at the base of a tree. Bring your own pen.
From SR 160 turn Right on Thompson Rd. (look for the Historical Marker at this intersection)