Founded in 1834 by a small group of Quakers protesting human slavery in the South, Westfield and Washington Township served as an important home station on the Underground Railroad. Shortly after black emancipation, residents rallied to promote racial equality and harmonious living, helping to curtail the clout of the Ku Klux Klan. Van Camp Company, once the largest local employer, provided pork and beans for thousands of troops entrenched in World War I, and the community's strong agricultural tradition sustained the town through the Great Depression. Author and historian Tom Rumer chronicles the challenges of growth and change in this history of Westfield and Washington Township.
Author, historian, and former teacher and director of a state historical society rare book and manuscripts library, Tom Rumer (B.S., M.A., M.L.S.) has written on a variety of topics, time periods and regions in American history, including emigration (on the Oregon Trail, the Quaker Migration from the South to the Midwest), environmental, labor, agricultural, genealogical, veterans' and Native American and Black history, as published in trade books, journals, magazines, newspapers and in TV.