Welcome to The 365 Project's First Blog Post!
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 White merchant. Over the years, Gaunt used his intellect and his knowledge of money to eventually purchase his own freedom from his master on January 20th, 1845. He was 33 years old.
Eventually, Gaunt bought the freedom of his wife and relocated to Greene County and Yellow Springs were his philanthropy flourished. Gaunt grew to be an impactful member of the Yellow Springs community and owned several plots of land in and around the Yellow Springs Village. Gaunt made much of his financial success from the buying and selling of property but he is best known now for the legacy that he left when he passed away. He left land for specific purposes and one of which was left to generate revenue has now been turned into Gaunt Park.
Gaunt Park is a popular place of recreation and events within the great Yellow Springs Village community. The park now contains a pool and baseball fields for the community. Gaunt Park is one of the potential places in the Village where the bronze statue like-ness of this largely influential man in our community may reside.
Please stay tuned and join us on seeing our vision come into fruition.
Until our next post!
