Members of the Society participated in the 102nd Homecoming Event at Roberts Settlement in Hamilton County on Saturday, July 5, 2025. The event is a tradition that goes back to 1924, when the first Homecoming was held on the Roberts Chapel grounds. The Homecoming is held every year on the July 4th weekend. Descendants come from all corners of the U.S. and beyond to renew family bonds and friendships, and to celebrate the rich cultural heritage of the Roberts Settlement.
Roberts Chapel at Roberts Settlement in Hamilton County, Indiana. Photo credit: Lee Lewellen.
Board members Cathy Robinson and Margaret Smith represented the Society, along with member Lezli Glover Davis. Also in attendance was Dr. Jazma Sutton, assistant professor of history at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Dr. Sutton received a Society fellowship grant in 2020 to support her doctoral dissertation, “Black Women in the Underground Railroad.” Dr. Sutton’s research focuses on the histories of slavery and freedom in the U.S. with a particular interest in African American women’s history and the Midwest. She is currently working on a book project that chronicles Black women’s transition from slavery to freedom in antebellum Indiana and Ohio, and the ways in which they expressed their ideas of citizenship through anti-slavery activism and material culture.
Part of the “Legacy Walk,” a self-guided tour of the Roberts Settlement property.
Dr. Jazma Sutton and Margaret Smith
A brief history of Roberts Settlement from their website:
In July 1835, African-American pioneers Hansel Roberts, Elijah Roberts, and Micajah Walden journeyed to the federal government’s land office in Indianapolis to purchase homesteads in northern Hamilton County, thirty miles to the north. Their claims had been intentionally chosen to be within several miles of Quakers, a group known to be accepting and supportive of free blacks. In October 1835, the men brought their families to their wilderness claims and settled permanently, thereby establishing a farm community later known as Roberts Settlement. By 1840 the neighborhood included about 10 families and 900 acres of land.
Cathy Robinson reported that there were “lots of people interested in the Society of Indiana Pioneers” at the event, which, while on a hot and humid afternoon, was well-attended and enjoyable.
More information on the remarkable history and legacy of Roberts Settlement is in this 22-minute video:
