The Tablertown People of Color Museum, currently located in Stewart, Ohio, at 9035 State Route 329, is moving locations to Tablertown, formerly Kilvert, at 10780 State Route 329 and adding more exhibits, as well as expanding current ones.
Created by David Butcher, the museum focuses on the local history of people of color in Southeast Ohio, including his own family history.
There is not currently an opening date for the new location, as the site is still being cleaned and is waiting on more federal grant funding.
Tours through the museum are given by Butcher and can be secured through appointment only. The museum does not currently have a fixed price for a tour but instead encourages donations to support the business.
However, Butcher plans to have a reasonable fixed price for tours once the new museum is built so he can employ people in the area who need jobs.
Butcher originally started displaying his collection of cultural history in 2003 at the Kennedy Museum of Art. However, in 2018, Butcher built and curated the museum that can be seen today next to his home between Stewart and Tablertown.
Current tours include a walk-through and explanation of pieces within the museum, as well as visits to the Tablertown church and cemetery, where notable figures in the museum have been buried.
Other highlights include a collection of Native American arrowheads, artifacts from the mining industry present in Southeast Ohio and artifacts from the Tabler lineage, one of the earliest families to settle in the region.
Additional exhibits at the new location will include vintage quilts made in the area, tours through underground railroad sites and large panels of photos and text explaining the exhibits and items within them.
Butcher also noted that a goal for this year is to get the story of the Tabler family, and his lineage, in print.
“We have an amazing writing team on our board and former board members,” Butcher said. “So, we’re really blessed to have a lot of people with the capability of writing this story, and there are other people in the community with a big interest.”
Dr. Robin Muhammad, associate professor in African American studies at OU, noted how important it is to have local museums like Tablertown. Muhammad says to understand U.S. history, a necessary step is to understand African American history.
Public history, including museums or touring exhibits, local history, this is really an important part of historical research and learning generally,” Muhammad said. “It’s also about accessibility. It’s important to highlight what’s going on in our own neighborhoods, right in our own regions.”
Muhammed also encouraged community members who want to learn more about African American history to call the African American Studies Department with questions.
Moreover, Butcher explained why he decided to relocate the museum.
“It’s very rare that property ever comes up for sale in (Tablertown), so we proceeded to purchase that, my wife and I, and it’s a very historic piece of property,” Butcher said. “It’s where the original log cabins in Tablertown stood. It’s where the 1850 railroad crossed federal creek. It’s where the earliest baptisms and (Tabler) family reunions were held.”
Butcher also explained that cleaning up the site has been a challenge, as it was an abandoned home and coal mine, as well as a landfill when they bought it.
“It’s been a massive undertaking to get the property cleaned up and get it back in shape to where we can actually build there,” Butcher said. “We’ve been working with (the Ohio Department of Natural Resources) for a few years now.”
ODNR has been helping Butcher with the cleaning of the abandoned coal mine and the removal of trash on the site.
While the primary goal of the museum is to tell a story about historic people of color, Butcher also explained that he has a goal of creating jobs for people in Tablertown with the help of the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service at OU.
“When I first approached (the Voinovich School), I said, ‘How would you like to come to a historically black community and help create something that could create jobs where there are no jobs,” Butcher said. “There is not one single job in Tablertown, so that is our goal.”
