Zane Township Official Community of America 250

Zane Township is proud to announce that we are now an Official Community of America 250! As part of this historic celebration, we are excited to co-host our 87th Annual Memorial Day Parade followed by a Community Picnic.

This event is free and open to the public. The parade begins at 11:00 AM, with the picnic starting at 12:30 PM. Enjoy free giveaways, a special free gift from the Ohio America 250 group, a car show, and more.

2026 Memorial Day Event:
On May 25, 2026, at 9:30 am EST, the historic Phebe Sharp Memorial Monument near Middleburg, Ohio will be rededicated to Logan County’s oldest community, Zane Township. Family, friends, neighbors, and local historians will gather to enjoy a re-enactment of the September 17, 1947, original ceremony.

Location: The granite monument is located on a small, fenced knoll a few feet south of 5422 County Road 152, East Liberty, Ohio 43319, near the Big Darby Headwaters Nature Preserve trailhead.
Parking: Free lawn parking adjacent to the monument is available at 5422County Road 152, East Liberty, Ohio 43319.
Seating:  Bring a lawn chair.
Handicap Accessibility: Yes. Terrain is flat lawn, no steps. Parking is within 50 feet of the event.
Rain Date: None at this time.
For more information: Contact Janet Heath Murphy, Project Manager. 513-703-7950. Text preferred.

About Phebe Haines Sharp, her husband, and children arrived as the first settlers in Logan County, Ohio on Christmas Day 1801, in what is now Zane Township, near Middleburg, Ohio. As America celebrates 250 years of independence, Phebe Sharp stands tall among Ohio’s most famous pioneers.

In 1759, Dr. Phebe Haines Sharp was born in a Quaker Friends settlement in the colony of Burlington, NJ. At a young age, she realized her life’s goal was to be of service in the medical profession. Encouraged by educated parents, her preparatory education was obtained in New Jersey schools and her professional studies in Philadelphia. She married Job Sharp, a respected surveyor. In about1796, the two settled in Culpeper County, VA, in a Quaker colony. There, they saw firsthand the enormities of the African slave trade.

Determined to seek a home where this plague would not face them and their children, they looked to the Northwest Territory.  Their neighbor, Philip Slaughter, had obtained patents for several large military land surveys in the Northwest Territory. A specific clause in the Ordinance of 1787, the framework that governed the Northwest Territory, appealed to the young couple: “Slavery should always be forbidden.” Phebe’s husband, Job, assessed the new territory and on October 20, 1800, he deeded his Virginia land holdings to Philip Slaughter in return for 500 acres of Survey No. 3154 in what is now Zane Township, Ohio.

In 1800, the couple and their children traveled by wagon to Chillicothe, Ohio, where they rested for a few months before travelling on to Survey No.3154.  The family arrived at their new home on Christmas Day 1801.

After a lifetime of service to both settlers and Native Americans in the area, on her death bed Phebe Sharp asked that she might be buried on a pleasing slope near the road she had often traveled so that her many patients passing might be reminded of her counsels for health and for happiness during her calls. In obedience to her request, her body was so placed.

In 1947, her descendants arranged for a permanent monument on the resting place of this pioneer doctor. The landowner, Mr. Chauncy A. Cochran of Youngstown, Ohio, who purchased the property from Joshua Sharp, son of Job and Phebe Sharp, donated a small section for the placement of the monument.

Phebe Sharp’s descendants remain in Zane Township and surrounding communities to this day. It is with great pride that we invite youto attend the rededication ceremony of her monument.  All are welcome.