Local women’s commune, SuBAMUH celebrated their 35th year of being an intentional living community for women in Athens County.
Ten or so miles from the pristine and cavernous sorority houses near Ohio University, another sisterhood has long rooted on 150 acres of farmland.
After 35 years of living and working in Athens County, the women of Susan B. Anthony Memorial Unrest Home, a female-only community, celebrated their land’s birthday late last month.
Founders Jan Griesinger and Mary Morgan, who recently turned 89 years old, bought the repossessed farmland in 1979 after spending years advocating for feminism and women’s rights near Dayton. The farmland acts as what’s described as an “intentional living community” for the five women who live there in small, separate houses.
Free-roaming dogs outnumber men: Only women and boys younger than 5 years old can live on the property.
The property hosts feminism-themed workshops throughout the year and features a swimming pond frequently used for skinny-dipping, a campground, a community kitchen and many memories held by the women who live there.
The women preach the importance of self-independence — physically, financially and emotionally. Two weekends ago, their birthday celebration for the land was a chance for them to host lectures on those virtues for about 20 attendees.
Morgan moved to Athens in 1979 after her husband of 28 years died of cancer from working in radiation labs after World War II. She felt like she needed “to escape to a new territory” away from the city, knowing that her friend, Griesinger, had recently moved to the Athens area.
“I came down here … that’s when I found out farm after farm was going out of business,” Morgan said.
One Sunday morning, Morgan said, she picked up the morning paper and read about the farm, repossessed by a bank. The two friends acted on an impulse and put a blind bid in for the property. They won the auction at $44,154, about $1,500 more than the next-highest bid.
“We were beginners,” Morgan said, “We didn’t consider it a huge loss.”
As the two women began to think of what to do with their newly acquired land, they realized that women’s communities had been sprouting up throughout the country.
“It was just us and 150 acres,” Morgan said, “That’s just against our politics.”
The two decided to turn the land over to a land trust, which needs a board and purpose to qualify, so they could fashion it into a feminist educational center. The two women were the co-founders of Dayton Women’s Liberation in 1969, so it only made sense that feminism would be their cause.
“The issues of feminism have been growing and expanding,” Griesinger said.
Griesinger explained that they have feminist educational workshops throughout the year that teach topics ranging from self defense to what you can eat in the wild.
Five years after the two women acquired their land, a Columbus group called Sober Strong and Free began camping on the land’s campground every Memorial Day and Labor Day — a tradition they continue to this day. The camping excursion is for women who are in a 12-step recovery from alcoholism and want a safe place to come for a weekend.
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