The Sutliff Museum Story
The Sutliff Museum opened in November 1971 inside the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library. Still, its roots go back to 1955, when Phebe Temperance Sutliff willed her family’s home and belongings to the Warren Library Association. Today, the Museum explores the history of the Underground Railroad in Trumbull County, the Sutliff family, and Victorian-era life.
In 2024, the Trumbull County Historical Society took over management of the Museum. We received an Ohio History Fund grant to fund “Moving the Sutliff Museum: Preserving Warren, OH’s Underground Railroad History.” As part of this project, the Museum is closed and will relocate to the Morgan History Center in 2026. There, it will undergo a reinterpretation to focus more deeply on the Underground Railroad and the local Anti-Slavery movement.
The History Fund is supported exclusively by voluntary donations of Ohio income tax refunds, sales of Ohio History “mastodon” license plates, and designated gifts to the Ohio History Connection.
The Sutliff family were passionate abolitionists and served as station masters on the Underground Railroad. Their home — once located where St. Mary’s Church parking lot now stands — was a known stop for those seeking freedom.
Levi Sutliff and his brother, Judge Milton Sutliff, also helped establish the Anti-Slavery Society in Trumbull County. Together, the family’s letters and belongings preserve a first-hand record of the fight against slavery in northeast Ohio.