Editing Westerville, Ohio (section)

===Post-Ohio statehood===
The land that is today Westerville was settled by those of European ancestry around 1810. In 1818, Matthew, Peter, and William Westervelt, settlers of Dutch extraction, migrated to the area from New York. Matthew Westervelt donated land for the construction of a Methodist church in 1836, and the settlement was subsequently named in the family's honor.<ref>Anita Palladino ed., Diary of a Yankee Engineer: The Civil War Diary of John Henry Westervelt ''x'' n.5 (1996).</ref> In 1839, the Blendon Young Men's Seminary was chartered in Westerville;<ref>Edward Alanson Miller, The History of Educational Legislation in Ohio from 1803 to 1850, at 83 (1920).</ref> Matthew Westervelt was one of its first trustees.<ref>Palladino, ''supra'', at ''x'' n.5.</ref>  The [[Church of the United Brethren in Christ]] bought the seminary in 1846,<ref>[[Henry Kiddle]] & [[Alexander J. Schem]], eds., [https://books.google.com/books?id=lNaEAAAAIAAJ ''The Cyclopædia of Education''] (3d ed.), 1883, p. 823 (at [[Google Books]]).</ref> and the next year the seminary was reformed, and renamed Otterbein College after the church's founder [[Philip William Otterbein]]. It continues today in Westerville as the private [[Otterbein University]].<ref>Quentin Charles Lansman, Higher Education in the Evangelical United Brethren Church, 1800&ndash;1954, at 18 (1972).</ref>

Westerville was [[plat]]ted by 1856, and officially incorporated in August 1858. The town's population in that year was 275.<ref>Beth Berning Weinhardt, Westerville, p.13 (2004).</ref>

Throughout the [[Antebellum era]], several homes in Westerville were stations on the [[Underground Railroad]]. Among these is the Hanby House, located one block from the college. [[Benjamin Hanby|Benjamin Russell Hanby]] had moved to Westerville in 1849, at the age of sixteen, to enroll at Otterbein University.<ref>C.B. Galbreath, ''Song Writers of Ohio'', in 14 Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications 180, 183 (1905).</ref> Hanby went on to write many familiar hymns and songs, among them "[[Nelly Gray (song)|Darling Nelly Gray]]" (inspired by his sympathy for Southern slaves<ref>''Id.'' at 185.</ref>), "Who is He in Yonder Stall?", and the Christmas favorite "[[Up on the House Top|Up On The Housetop]]". His home in Westerville, listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]], was dedicated as a museum in 1937<ref>Weinhardt, ''supra'', at 17.</ref> and is now owned by the [[Ohio Historical Society]] and managed locally by the Westerville Historical Society. It is the only state memorial to a composer in the state of Ohio.