WARREN — It was the end of an era Thursday as the Sutliff Museum presented its final event, “Sutliff After Dark,” on the second floor of the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library.

Upon the death of Phebe Temperance Sutliff in 1955, the Sutliff family’s belongings were endowed to the Warren Public Library Association to create a museum. Temperance Sutliff was president of the WPLA board.

The collection was in storage from Phebe Sutliff’s death in 1955 until 1971 when the library opened at this location,” said Kate Pfouts, archivist at the Trumbull County Historical Society.

Pfouts regaled the attendees with a discussion of the Sutliffs’ lives, from their original homes in Connecticut, which were damaged in the American Revolution, to moving west to several locations in Trumbull County. At the time, the area was known as the Connecticut Western Reserve.

“The family lived in Vernon and Bazetta. They moved to Warren and their home has been torn down. It is now the parking lot of St. Mary’s Church,” Pfouts said.

For 54 years, the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library has housed the Sutliff family heirlooms and provided information about their significance in the anti-slavery movement and Trumbull County history.

Levi Sutliff witnessed a young female slave being beaten while on a work trip to Kentucky. This experience cemented his abolitionist activism. The men in the Sutliff family became lawyers and judges.

Pfouts believes that even though the Sutliffs knew helping a slave escape was illegal and would have consequences, their legal profession would help them if they were caught.

“This is one of my favorite stories about Phebe Marvin Sutliff,” Pfouts said.

She explained how the Sutliffs were station masters in the Underground Railroad, which housed slaves on their journey to freedom.

She continued, “The Sutliffs were housing four escaped slaves in their home as part of the Underground Railroad when a couple of slave hunters came to their home. They did not have time to get the slaves out of their home, so Phebe sent them to her parlor and shut the door. She stood in front of the door while the slave hunters searched every other room in the house. The men said that they did not search that room because a woman would never allow slaves in her parlor. The slaves went on their way through the Underground Railroad.”

Typically, in Victorian times, a parlor was a room to receive guests, entertain and display the family’s wealth with extravagant furnishings.

The life of Phebe Temperance Sutliff also was discussed. She was born in 1859 and died in 1955. During her life, she received a degree from Vassar College and a master’s degree at Cornell University. She taught at Hiram College and was a strong supporter of women’s rights, including voting. In 1924, she was the assistant secretary to the National Democratic Convention.

The Trumbull County Historical Society took over management of the Sutliff Museum in April 2024. They received an Ohio History Fund grant to help in the relocation of 3,500 artifacts of the Sutliff family.

“The new location will be at the Morgan History Center, 338 Mahoning Ave. in Warren, across the street from the Warren Community Amphitheatre and the Tourism Bureau,” said Meghan E. Reed, Executive Director of Trumbull County Historical Society.

To assist in the transfer of the museum artifacts is a $20,000 Ohio History Fund grant. Of 12 grants awarded from the Ohio History Connection, the Trumbull County project received the largest amount of funding.

“We will be honoring Phebe’s wishes with the move to the new location. She wanted the focus of the museum to be on the Underground Railroad and we will do so at the new site,” Pfouts said.

She added that the Underground Railroad will be part of the permanent collection and there also will be rotating exhibits.

Preservation of important local history will continue to be available for research and viewing. The letters and belongings of the Sutliff family will just have a new home thanks to the forethought of the Trumbull County Historical Society, Phebe Temperance Sutliff and the donation of grant money for the project.