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6 GU I D E to Y E L L OW S P R I NG S | 2O22 – 2O23 The year Gaunt died, on Christmas Eve as he requested, the village deliv - ered 69 sacks of flour to 23 of the most “needy and deserving” widows among the 50 or more who applied. Though the management of Gaunt’s estate caused the rent to fall short of an expected $90 that year, council member George H. Drake donated $20 out of pocket to make up the dif - ference and allow an even distribution of flour among the recipients. Years later, the delivery was expanded to include sugar, and the modern Village government continues the tradition of delivering flour and sugar to all widowed local residents. In 1955, the Village named the land after Gaunt — now called Gaunt Park. When he died the Review said of Gaunt: “Many wealthy men have died in this commu- nity but none perhaps will be remembered so long and so gratefully as Mr. Gaunt.” ♦ the Council members didn’t know how much longer he would live. One evening Council agreed to make an exception and read the resolution three times in one night. It passed unani - mously. The Yellow Springs Torch, which during this period was also called the Review and the Weekly Citizen, published numerous announcements around the time of Gaunt’s death in May 1894, at the age of 82. The Torch said that Gaunt was “known to every dis - tinguished man of his race, from Fred Douglass to Bishop Payne,” as one of our most “highly respected” and “noble, generous and kind-hearted citizens.” The paper also reported that Gaunt had so many friends from Wilberforce, Springfield and Xenia assem - bled at his memorial service that Central Chapel’s High Street church was “filled to suffocation.” Gaunt is buried in Glen Forest Cemetery. tages and called them “Gaunt cottages,” that are still in use today. Gaunt was a pious man and a member of the Cen- tral Chapel AME Church. He also supported the kind of education he himself likely lacked, donating money to Wilberforce University and the Payne Theological Seminary. He also ran for the Yellow Springs school board in February 1887, the year racial integration occurred in the public schools. At some point, Gaunt acquired the tract of land on the south side of West South College Street, just east of what today is called Wright Street, and had it farmed. And though little informa - tion about his activities in the last 30 years of his life is available, he may have been known outside of Yellow Springs because just before Gaunt died, the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette ran an article summarizing his newly formulated will and calling him “our wealthy colored citizen.” At 82, Gaunt fell sick with Bright’s disease. In Janu - ary 1894 he bequeathed his entire estate, estimated at a value of $30,000, to his second wife, donating prop - erty to Wilberforce College. He also left the nine-acre tract on West South College Street to the Village, stipulating that proceeds from the rent could be used to buy flour for the “poor and worthy widows” in Yellow Springs. According to a letter from a researcher named C.W. Boyer to the late Read Viemeister in 1976, Village Council in February 1894 had to consider a resolution to accept the conveyance of Gaunt’s land, which, accord - ing to Council rules, had to be read on three separate days in order to pass. But Gaunt wasn’t showing any signs of recovering, and ▲ Unveiling of a bronze statue of Wheeling Gaunt, Oct. 2, 2021. The statue stands at Hilda M. Rahn Park. Uncovering the statue are, from left, YSHS students Malcolm Blunt, Gini Meekin (obscured), Aamil Wagner and Malaya Booth. P H O T O : K A T H L E E N G A L A R Z A 937-767-0131 3536 Bryan Park Rd. | www.grinnellmillbandb.com • renovated historic mill • private bathrooms • conference/party room available   Grinnell mill bed & breakfast