The town of Mount Pleasant was established in 1803 by Robert Carothers, an Irishman from Virginia, and Jesse Thomas, a Quaker from North Carolina. Some or all of the down is designated as Mount Pleasant Historic District, a U.S. National Historic Landmark District.

It is important for the role it played in the antislavery movement and the Underground Railroad. Incorporated in 1814, the town became a center for pork packing and shipping, and was also successful in the milling industry. The strong Quaker population in Mount Pleasant preached and practiced its abolitionist views and published antislavery literature, such as Benjamin Lundy

Benjamin Lundy

Benjamin Lundy was an American Quaker abolitionist from Ohio who established several anti-slavery newspapers and worked for many others...

's "Genius of Universal Emancipation

Genius of Universal Emancipation

The Genius of Universal Emancipation was an abolitionist newspaper from Mount Pleasant, Ohio run by Benjamin Lundy.Elihu Embree established the Manumission Intelligencier in 1819 which became The Emancipator in 1820. In 1821 the paper was bought by Benjamin Lundy and renamed Genius of Universal...

." A station on the Underground Railroad

Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...

, the town was a refuge for fugitive slaves and a welcome home for free blacks. Local residents built and administered a school for free black children, and in 1848 established a Free Labor Store which sold no products produced by slave labor.

The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Districts in 1974, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2005.