Col. Charles Young was born in 1864 in a two-room log cabin in May’s Lick, the son of former slaves.
He and his parents later relocated to Ripley, Ohio where he excelled academically.
At age 17, he graduated from integrated high school in 1881 and taught at the African-American elementary school in Ripley for two years, according to information from the university.
In 1883, encouraged by his father, Young took the entrance examination to the United States Military Academy at West Point. He scored the second highest on the exam but was not selected for the academy that year. The next year he gained entrance as only the ninth African-American to attend West Point and only the third to graduate. He received his diploma and commission in 1889.
Young was the first black military attaché’ to a foreign government, the first black superintendent of a National Park. He was the highest rank black officer in the Armed Forces for majority of his career.
The Young cabin was originally built in the 1790s and was nearly collapsed when Mason County purchased the cabin and surrounding acreage in 2013 and began the process of restoring the structure.
In January 1922, while on an inspection tour to Nigeria, Young died. He was buried on foreign soil in Lagos by British military personnel with full military honors. At the request of his widow and the black press, Young’s remains were returned to the United States more than a year later.
On 17 May 1923, the Colonel Charles Young Post 398 of the American Legion in New York held services in his honor in the great hall of the City College of New York. Among the speakers were the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., the son of President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt.
Young’s cabin is open for tours by appointment.
