The first meeting of the 2024 season of the Fayette County Genealogical Society was held March 18. Paul LaRue presented the program “Sam Lucas and Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

Sam Lucas was a tall black man born in Virginia in 1840 but was raised free in Washington Court House by his mother and stepfather. Lucas served in the Civil War, and after the war he became an entertainer performing in minstrel shows, on river boats, and black acting companies. He was best known as a singer and a comedian.

Lucas was also a vaudeville performer and authored many songs, the most famous being “My Grandfather’s Clock.” Lucas was the first black man to play Uncle Tom in a stage performance of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Harriet Beecher Stowe saw Sam Lucas play Uncle Tom on stage and thought he truly put a face on slavery.

Up until Lucas’s portrayal of Uncle Tom on stage, only white men had played the part. At the age of 73, Lucas played Uncle Tom in the first film version, becoming the first black man to portray Uncle Tom on stage and on film. That film has been preserved and is stored in the Smithsonian. Lucas died at age 75 and is buried in the Cyprus Hills Cemetery in New York with a Civil War grave marker.

LaRue is a retired social studies teacher from the Washington City Schools, a local historian, president of the Ohio State Board of Education, and he is serving on the Ohio 250 Committee, which is planning our nation’s 250th birthday.

The next meeting of the Fayette County Genealogical Society will be Monday, April 15 at 7 p.m. in the downstairs meeting room of the Economic Development Building at 101 E. East St., Washington Court House. Jeff Garringer will be presenting “G.AR. Grand Army of the Republic.” The G.A.R. was made up of veterans of the Civil War and is now made up of their ancestors. The program will be the history of the G.A.R. in Fayette County. Garringer is a Fayette County Genealogical Society member.

For more information concerning this meeting, society membership, lineage society applications, or research, please contact president Peggy Lester at 740-495-5720 or [email protected] or lineage chair Cathy Massie White 740-333-7227 or [email protected].