THE 365 PROJECT

Wheeling Gaunt's legacy lives on in Yellow Springs as the village continues his willed desire to have flour given to the poor, worthy widows of Yellow Springs regardless of their race. Below are several pictures taken from articles written about the Christmas gift tradition that the village maintains. Originally, the widows were to be given 25 pounds of flour but the village later changed it to 10 pounds of flour and 10 pounds of sugar to be given out every year. As we can se

Welcome to our second installment of blog posts dedicated to the life and legacy of Wheeling Gaunt!! When we left off we had learned about Gaunt's early years as a slave in Kentucky and how he eventually purchased his freedom as well as the freedom of his wife, Amanda and a family friend named Nick. The couple eventually made the move to a village in southern Ohio by the name of Yellow Springs. Once settled in the town, Gaunt went to work utilizing his notable entrepreneur sk

Happy Monday! This past Friday, the youth and the Young People of Color Group in Yellow Springs gathered at Gaunt Park to dance, swim and eat in fellowship. This was a part of the YPOC Group's annual pool party that is an open event within the Yellow Springs community but this celebration has a unique significance in that it takes place at Gaunt Park. Gaunt Park was originally part of the numerous properties within the area that was owned by Wheeling Gaunt, himself. Upon Gaun

Good morning and welcome to another #WheelingGauntWednesday! This post will be the first in a series of blog posts sharing the known history of Wheeling Gaunt and telling of his legacy within the Village of Yellow Springs. In this post we will begin a brief history of what we think that we know about Wheeling Gaunt: While the birthdate of Wheeling Gaunt remains a topic of question, we do know that he was born a slave in Kentucky. In 1838 Gaunt married another slave by the nam

Good afternoon and Happy Father's Day! The 365 Project working in partnership with the Yellow Springs Arts Council and the Yellow Springs Historical Society to raise money for a bronze statue of one of Yellow Springs most prominent entrepreneurs: Wheeling Gaunt. Now, who is Wheeling Gaunt? Some of you may be asking yourselves. Wheeling Gaunt was born in 1812 in Carrollton, North Carolina into the institution of slavery. Gaunt was the son of a slave woman and a prosperous Whit