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 History of Richland County

 By A J. Baughman

 CHAPTER XXI

MADISON TOWNSHIP

Madison township in 1807 included the territory which then comprised Richland county.  The township was named in honor of President Madison, the fourth president of the United States  On the 16^th of January, 1803, a bill passed the Ohio legislature creating the counties of Knox, Licking and Richland, with a provision placing Richland under the jurisdiction of Knox county, as it had been before under Fairfield, “until the legislature may think proper to organize the same.”  The commissioners of Knox county, on June 10, 1809, declared “the entire county of Richland a separate township, which shall be called and known by the name of Madison.”  At the election held in 1809, but seventeen votes were cast, showing that there were but few settlers here at that time.

Thomas Green, a white man, who assisted the Indians in the Wyoming massacre, lived with the Indians at Greentown, and the village was named for him (1n 1783), but he was not a settler.  Other renegade white men may also have been in these parts temporarily. But the first permanent settler was Jacob Newman.  He located within the present boundaries of Madison township in the beginning of 1807.  Gen. James Hedges was here prior to that date, but he was then in the employ of the government as a surveyor, and did not become a resident until later.

The first white man, so far as is known, to traverse the territory now known as Richland county, was James Smith, a young man who was captured by the Indians in Pennsylvania in 1755, and was adopted into one of their tribes.  Smith, in company with his foster brother, Tontileaugo passed a number of hunting seasons in these parts.  Next, Major Rogers and his rangers passed through were Mansfield now stands, when passing to and fro between Gnadenhutten and Wyandot.

In 1782, Colonel Crawford, with his company, passed through Richland county and halted at “a fine spring” - now known as the Lampert spring, on East Fourth street, Mansfield.

The first white woman in this region was Miss Heckewelder, daughter of the Moravian missionary.  These were pre-settlement white people, and were in the territory now known as Richland county, only as sojourner in transit.

The successful campaign of General Anthony Wayne in 1794, and the peace treaty with the Indians that followed in 1795, secured comparative safety on the Ohio frontier and immigration to the west was resumed.  The surveys of the public lands, which had been practically stopped were resumed and the surveyors tried to keep in advance of the setters, and land offices were established in several places.  General Hedges began the survey of Richland county in 1806, and at that time there was not a settler within its borders.  The year following the Newman settlement was made and the first cabin was erected on section 36, about sixty rods from the first mill, later known in history as “Beam’s Mills.”  The site of this historic cabin was doubtless selected on account of the spring of water at the base of a knoll a few yards west of where the cabin was erected.  This was known as the Newman cabin, and the owner was Jacob Newman, the first settler.  The cabin was made of rough hewn logs with the bark on.  There was but one room with a loft above it, walls were chinked and daubed with sticks and mud.  In the little window, oiled paper was used instead of glass.  The door was low, but its latch-string was always on the outside.

No stranger was turned away hungry.  Jacob Newman’s family consisted, beside himself, of three nephews and a niece - Isaac, Jacob, John and Catharine Brubaker.  Mr. Newman was then a widower, and Catharine Brubaker acted as his housekeeper until he remarried.  Their nearest neighbors were at Wooster and Fredericktown - the distance to either place being twenty-five miles.

*Henry Newman, was a son of Jacob Newman, the original settler.  He was the youngest son of Jacob's first marriage and was left at Canton (OH) when his father first came here, but followed later and as boy and man, lived in the cabin for years.  Henry Newman married Jane Ward, an aunt of Mrs. Hiram R. Smith.  During the later years of Mr. Newman's life, he lived at Bryan." [Semi-Weekly News:  21 December 1897, Vol. 13, No. 102]

Michael Newman, Jacob Newman’s brother, joined the little colony the next spring.  The next addition to the settlement was Moses Fontaine and family, followed by Capt James Cunningham.  In 1809, the Newmans built a sawmill, prior to which the settlers had to use puncheon instead of board ____ers in their cabins.  A grist mill was added a year later.  These mills were purchased in 1811, by Michael Beam, who improved the former and finished the latter, which became widely known as “Beam’s Mills,” and by that name have passed into history.  The buhrs of the grist mill were made of “nigger-head” stones, and did poor work, but it was a great deal better than no mill at all.  It was well patronized by the settlers who came from great distances and from all directions, and often had to wait several days to have their grinding done, many grists being ahead of them.

Samuel Martin was the first settler at the Mansfield site.  He was from New Lisbon, Columbiana county, and was somewhat of an adventurer, who following the course of the pioneers westward, heard of the new town that was to be, halted here, put up a cabin, and prepared to board the party of surveyors who were coming to lay out a town.  Martin, however, got into trouble by selling whiskey to the Indians, and had to leave the country.  He was succeeded by Capt. James Cunningham, who thereby became the first bonafide resident in the place.  This was in 1809.

As a new county was to be formed, a town for a county-seat must be founded, and the site selected was upon the opposite side of the Rockyfork of the Mohican, where George Mentzer’s residence now stands, between the grist mill and the grange hall  Here a number of cabins were built.  Within a year, however, another site was chosen for the county-seat town, and the latter is where the city of Mansfield stands today, and from her vantage location as a railroad, manufacturing and commercial center, sends her products around the world.  An hundred years have not yet been counted off the calendar of time since this first settlement was made in a little clearing in the wilderness at Bean’s mills, but how important that period has been in the history of the world, and how fraught with results for the betterment of mankind.  How interesting that lives sometimes span from one epoch to another.  John Gray, who was the last survivor of the war of the revolution lived eighty-three years after the close of that struggle, dying at Hiramsburg, Noble county, Ohio, March 29, 1868, aged 101 years.  He lived to see great changes in the country he fought to sever from the tyrant beyond the sea, and in making that service an independent nation - “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

It is also interesting to trace the history of a country from its beginning, and follow society in its formative state and note its material developments and scientific achievements.  It took George Washington eight days to journey from Mt. Vernon to New York to be inaugurated first president of the United States.  Now the same distance can be traveled in less than eight hours.

Macauley’s eloquent panegyric on science, as applied to the arts in protecting human welfare is justified and more than justified by the facts about us.  And all those achievements and others since Macauley, still more wonderful, have accrued to the benefit of mankind since Madison township was first settled.

No fable - no mythical legend of encounters with dragons and monsters exaggerates the heroisms of the pioneers.  Their acts, their lives are in the full light of history.  To them can be applied Pericles’ commendation of Athens, “Athens alone among her contempories is superior to the report of her.”

Although the first town site was abandoned, the locality has always been prominent in the history of the county on account of Bean’s mills and Beam’s blockhouse, the latter being one of the most important of its kind in this part of Ohio during the war of 1812.  It is not definitely known why the site was changed.  The big springs or East Fourth street may have been considered, but another reason, it has been said, was the fact that James Hedges had entered land upon which the county-seat was located, and where Mansfield stands today.

At the time the first settlement was made in Richland county, there were no railroads, no locomotives, no steamships, no telegraphs, no telephones, no power printing press, no known utility of frictional electricity, no spectroscope, no microscope, no farm machinery - all of these have since that time been given to the world, and to which we greatly owe that remarkable advance in the conveniences and comforts of life that unite in making this a grand age - an age in which it is a blessing to live, to be part of the same and to enjoy its privileges.

Ohio was the battle-ground where the savages tried to stop the tide of civilization in its westward course across the continent and Richland county was the theater-stage upon which some of the bloodiest tragedies of that terrible strife were enacted, and in those conflicts her soil was reddened with the blood of many of their noblest sons.  It was, in fact, a battle between civilization and barbarism, and the former conquered, and the latter receded by that world propelling plan by which peoples are driven forward in the ways of destiny.  Millions of people have been hurrying westward, westward ever since the dawn of time - even before Abraham took up his journey from Haran into Canaan.  In this great movement of emigration all the nations of the earth have taken part, and its path have arisen all the splendid moments of civilization.  External motives, whether of propulsion or attraction, will not account for all the migrations of people.  There are many forces by which tides of population are controlled.  Yet over all, and harmonizing all, and bringing order out of them is the plan of the Ruler of the world, who makes even the wrath and the folly of men to praise Him.  The great fact in this world-movement is that migration is but fulfilling a design that is more comprehensive and farther-reaching than can be understood by the finite wisdom of man.

In America all citizens, whether as rich as Croesus or as poor as Lazarus are equal before the law.  And because of our free institutions and public schools, any boy, though born in a cabin, though reared in poverty, may attain whatever place in life to which his ambition might lead, and his ability quality him to fill.

Other sketches, descriptive, historical and biographical, will be given in succeeding chapters

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source:  Mansfield News, 25 April 1903

The history of Madison township is closely interwoven with that of Mansfield, but this sketch deals with the former, leaving the latter to succeeding chapters.

There should be a monument erected to mark the site of the first cabin, that future generations may know where the first settler in Richland county founded a home.  The locality is of additional historical interest from the fact that the first town in the county was to have been located there, and there the first mills were built, and one of the first, and the most prominent and important of the several blockhouses in the county was erected there.  This block-house is known in history as “Beam’s block-house.”

During the war of 1812, forts and block-houses were necessary to protect the settlers from the Indians, who were aided and abetted by the British against the pioneers.  This barbarous mode of warfare was also employed by Great Britain in the war of the revolution, and was denounced by Lord Chatham in a speech in parliament.

Block-houses were square, heavy, double-storied buildings, with the upper story extending over about two feet all around.  They also projected slightly over the stockade, commanding all the approaches thereto, so that no lodgment could be made against the pickets of which the stockade was built, to set them on fire or to scale them.  They were also pierced with portholes for musketry.  The roof sloped equally from each side upward, and was surmounted at the center by a quadrangular structure called the sentry-box.  This box was the post of observation, affording, from its elevated position, an extensive view on all sides.  In times of threatened attacks, the whole settlement would seek the safety and protection of the block-houses.  Many were the tragedies witnessed by the pioneers, whose courage and devotion should ever be held in memory.  It has been related that evening roll-call was an important, as well as an amusing part of the day’s programme at a block-house.  At roll-call, men and boys, assuming different tones of voice, would loudly answer to fictitious names added to the list, so that if Indians were prowling about meditating an attack, they would think the block-house was well garrisoned.

The Beam block-house stood on the east side of the Rockyfork, a few rods north of the gristmill  It was used as a military post during 1812, 1813, and 1814.  Thirteen soldiers died there during its occupancy, and are buried on a beautiful knoll on the bank of the Rockyfork, a half-mile below the mills.

In 1812, when the Indians were being removed from Greentown to Piqua, and while temporarily encamped at Mansfield, an Indian named Toby escaped, but was captured and killed near where the Leesville-West Fourth street road crosses the Toby run, which takes its name from the Indian.  There was a military order  to shoot any Indian who tried to escape, and a party of scouts, obeying the order - as soldiers are required to do - fired upon the fleeing savage, and he was buried where he fell.  The name is the Indian “Toby” - not the German “Touby.”

A month or two later Levi Jones was killed by the Indians.  Jones kept a grocery store upon the site now known as the Sturges corner, and the Indians had pawned some articles with him, and because he refused to give them up without pay, they assassinated him as he was passing along North Main street, near the foot of the hill.

After the close of the war of 1812, some of the Indians returned to Richland county, but Greentown having been destroyed, they had no fixed habitation here.  Two young “braves” by the names of Seneca John and Quilipetoxe came to Mansfield and got on a spree and at the Williams tavern, at the site of the present Southern hotel, got into trouble with some of the settlers.  The Indians left late in the afternoon, intoxicated and swearing vengeance against the whites.  They were followed by five settlers, who overtook the redskins about a mile east of town and in the battle that ensued, both Indians were killed and their bodies buried in the ravine east of the Sherman hill on  the Ashland road, and the place has since been called Spooks’ Hollow.  The Wooster road then passed through Spooks’ Hollow.  It now runs a half mile south of its first location.  In former years many tales were told of apparitions that had been seen in Spooks’ Hollow, but the Indians seem to be “keepin’ quiet” there now.

Coming to later years, the Finney murder, in Madison township, south of Mansfield, was committed on the night of December 6, 1877.  For this foul and bloody crime, Edward Webb, a brutal negro, was hanged May 31, 1878, in the presence of over 10,000 people.  William S. Finney, the murdered man, was an uncle of County Commissioner Finney.

While the Beam mills were the first in the county, others were erected within a few years thereafter.  Among the number was the Keith mills, erected by the father of Judge H. D. Keith.  The location of this mill was near the junction of Rocky run with the Spring Mills, or main branch of the Rockyfork, in the vicinity of the recent B. & O. railroad accident.  This mill was operated for about fifty years, but is now a thing of the past.

Where and how to get grain ground were questions that confronted Madison township pioneers.  It required both capital and millwrights to erect grist-mills, and as both were scarce mills were not numerous.  The first settlers frequently went to the Clinton mills, a mile north of Mt. Vernon, to have their grain ground into breadstuff.  Expedients were often employed, such as grating corn into meal for mush, or grinding the grains by hand between two flat stones.  A power mill, when it came, with runs of buhrs, was a blessing to the settlers.

The first mill in Mansfield was located where the county jail now stands.  It was built by Clement Pollock.  It was a tread-mill, operated by three yoke of oxen.  The mill was duplex - it ground corn and sawed lumber.  Robert Pollock erected and operated a carding mill on East Fourth street, near Adams street.  It was propelled by horsepower, and simply made “rolls” - prepared wool for the spinning wheel.

John Wright built a sawmill on Toby’s run in 1820, in the vicinity of Mulberry street.  Later, Henry Leyman built a gristmill where the old oil mill now stands on West Sixth street.  Thomas Clark built a sawmill on Toby’s run, west of the B. & O. depot.

Jacob Bender, the grandfather of Jacob Laird, had a carding mill on the new state road, propelled by the water of the Laird spring, now known as the upper reservoir.  The spring had an output of 400 gallons a minute.

The Tingley woolen mills, just north of the Ohio reformatory, was one of the early industries in that line.

The Painter woolen mills, east of Mansfield on the Sherman hill road, came early and stayed late - was operated for many years.  Its propelling power was water from the Painter, or Bender, springs.

The Bartley mill on the Rockyfork, east of Mansfield, served its day and purpose, and then, like others mentioned, passed away.

Archaeology and pre-historically, Ohio is richer than any other state in the Union, and Madison township has its fair share of such remains, as would be shown was the bibliography of its earthworks and relics fully given.  Pre-historic earthworks are usually called “Indian Mounds,” which is a misnomer, for the Indians never made them.  These earthworks were erected many years before the Indians came.  And all pre-historic earthworks may not have been erected by the same race of people.  Ohio was inhabited even prior to the coming of the “Mound Builders,” as archaeological discoveries show there were people here before the close of the pre-glacial period.  Paleolithic implements - unquestionably of human manufacture - have been found near Loveland and other places - similar to others found in the east - showing that in Ohio, as well as on the Atlantic coast, pre-glacial men existed and manufactured implements, such as were necessary for their pursuits and vocations.  When the age of the Mound Builders is reckoned by centuries, that of the pre-glacial race must be counted by thousands of years.

The most extensive pre-historic earthwork in this part of Ohio is the “fort” on the Balliet farm, in the vicinity of Spooks’ Hollow, east of the Sherman hill in Madison township.  This earthwork was surveyed in 1873 by the county surveyor, John Newman, who made a report of the same to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, and also made his report a matter of county record.  This work is upon an elevation at the east side of the head of Spooks’ Hollow, and consists of an oval-shaped embankment or fort, five hundred and ninety-four feet long by two hundred and thirty-eight feet wide in the center, and contains two and two-thirds acres.  Southwest of the fort, seven hundred and ten feet, there is a spring at the side of the ravine from which a copious flow of water issues at all seasons of the year.  Directly south of the fort, upon the side of the hill leading to the old stage road, is the “furnace,” which is an excavation walled with stone like a well.  It is called a “furnace,” as charcoal, charred bones and evidence that fire had been used there were found at the bottom of the drift with which the place was filled.  This furnace is about five feet across, is circular in form and its uses and purposes must be conjectured.  At the east side of the “fort” there were a number of depressions varying from four to twenty feet, but they have been so filled up in the tilling of the land as to be nearly obliterated.  In excavating one of these depressions at the time of the survey, at a depth of eight feet a drift was struck leading toward the fort.  Geographically, the fort was platted upon longitudinal lines and upon geometrical measurements, and the depressions were variously located with relative mathematical distances, all giving evidences that the people who planned and made and occupied these works were well advanced in the higher branches of mathematics.  Since their day and occupancy large forest trees have grown upon these earthworks - trees of at least six centuries’ growth.  These works are relics of a pre-historic age of which much has been written and but little is known.

Geologically, Madison has interesting features, the most notable of which is its inexhaustible stores of stones of the Waverly conglomerate.  The quarries just east of Mansfield yields good building stones, although not equal, perhaps, to the Berea on the north, nor to the more homogenous and finer grained sandstones of the Waverly, further south.  The peculiarly variegated coloring of the stones from these Madison township quarries make beautiful window-caps, sills and corners, and also fine-looking building fronts.

There is so much in and of Madison township that should be noted, and so many personal mentions to be given, that the indulgence of the reader must be asked for another chapter.

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source:  Mansfield News:  09 May 1903

Madison township is an interesting subject for both choragraphers and topographers in its location and its environments, its surface and its physical features and outlines, being situate in the center of Richland county and on the crest of the “Divide,” with hills and valleys and rocks and streams, and although it has neither extended plains nor high mountains, it has an undulating surface and beautiful landscapes in charming variety.

From the western slope of the Sherman hill, on the Ashland road, an excellent view can be had of Mansfield and from the top of the hill, looking south, down along Spook’s Hollow, a valley of garden-like beauty is presented, and the landscape-picture extends for miles, embracing some of the Washington township hills.

From the Tingley hill on the Olivesburg road, a good view is also obtained of Mansfield, including the adjacent country to the north and west.  A newspaper man had occasion recently to visit that part of Madison township, lying northeast of the city.  Leaving the car at the reformatory grounds, walked up the Tingley hill, halting occasionally to look back and around at the city and its environments.  He tramped along, passing Hancock’s Heights and Excelsior Hall school house, and the homes of Sol Harnley, Fred Nixon and others, to the Charles B. Tingley cottage on the hill, from which, looking down the slope and over the city, a beautiful picture was presented that morning, the view terminating in the hazy west, with forms lying across the dim horizon which might be low lying clouds or distant hills.  The morning sun was touching the scene with its warming rays, dispelling the mist that had hung over the city at the dawn.  From the contemplation of this view, and from the historical reminiscences the scene recalled, the knight of the pencil turned to meet Mr. Tingley and family and to receive the cordial greeting they extend to their guests.

Nearly opposite Charles B. Tingley’s is the home of Samuel Nail, who might almost be called a pioneer.  Miss Anna Etringer, of Chicago, a relative of the Nails, owns five acres of land on the brow of the hill and is having the grounds platted by a landscape gardener, and will build a cottage there, with the intention of spending the summers at that rural retreat, which will be one of the finest suburban homes in Richland county.

Adjoining the Nail place on the north is the farm of Thomas Tingley, and where his father lived before him.  Thomas Tingley, the present owner, was born upon this farm October, 1822, and is, therefore, over eighty years of age, but his mind is clear, of excellent memory, and has the old style cordiality and candor of the pioneer period in which he was born.  Mr. Tingley lives in the two story brick house built by his father over seventy years ago.  It is the first brick residence built in Madison township.  Back in the “forties,” Mr. Tingley hauled grain to the lake markets and relates many interesting incidents connected with his trips. 

The Tingley farm will ever be prominent in the history of the county, as a part of it was a military camp during the war of the rebellion.

In July, 1861, a military camp for organization and instruction was established upon this Tingley farm and called Camp Mordecai Bartley, in honor of Mordecai Bartley, who had been a soldier in the war of 1812, had represented the Richland district eight years in congress and later was governor of Ohio.  In this camp the Fifteenth and the Thirty-second Ohio infantry rendezvoused, but were later transferred to Camp Dennison.  For convenience, the name was changed to “Camp Mansfield.”

The One-hundred-and-second Ohio infantry went into camp Mansfield Aug. 18, 1862, and remained until Sept. 4, when they left for the front with 1,041 men, rank and file.

The One-hundred-and-twentieth Ohio Infantry went into Camp Mansfield, Aug. 29, 1862, where the “boys” drilled and prepared for the service which awaited them at the front.  They left camp, October 25, with 949 men.

The late James Purdy began the draft on the morning of October 1, 1862, and 236 men were drawn to fill the deficit in Richland county’s quota.

Ohio had been divided into eleven military districts.  The tenth district was composed of Ashland, Erie, Huron, Holmes, Richland and Wayne counties and of this district Camp Mansfield was the military camp, and thus Madison township has the distinction of having had the headquarters of the Tenth Ohio military district within her borders during the civil war.  Of this camp, the late W. S. Hickox was quartermaster and Thomas Tingley was the sutler.

At the close of the draft over 4,100 men were sent to Camp Mansfield.

The land upon which Camp Buckingham was located, where the Sherman brigade were in camp, is now a part of the second ward of the city of Mansfield, and does not, therefore, come within the scope of a Madison township sketch.

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 What scenes a visit to old Camp Mansfield recall!  Forty years and more ago preparations for war were witnessed which made it seem as though life had been very commonplace before.  Public meetings were held, patriotic songs were sung and eloquent speeches were made, and enlisting went on, more eloquent in its silence than were the speeches and songs.  Recruits “donned the blue” to fight for the preservation of the Union of the states.  The city of Mansfield blossomed out in flags and banners; they floated from almost every house, and well-nigh canopied the streets.  Amid cheers and prayers and tears, troops went off to the front to fight their country’s battles and to uphold the starry flag.  Anon, funeral pageants passed along the streets where a few months before troops had gaily marched.  For whenever possible the remains of those whose lives went out in camp or field, were brought home and were buried beside of kindred, and each recurring Memorial day their graves are decorated with flowers.

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The Tingley school house - called “Excelsior Hall,” since the change of location - was often used for religious gatherings and the Rev. Harry O. Sheldon, the Methodist circuit rider, who preached in Mansfield as early as 1818, frequently conducted services there, as also did other ministers of later years.  Ministers did not read essays in those days - they preached.  And their preaching was effective and powerful.  Upon one occasion when a minister was discoursing upon “hell” (they gave it to them straight then), he told them the devil was at that moment outside the building, rattling his chains.  His eloquence and word-pictures had so held and swayed the audience that many thought they really heard chains clanking.

Singing was a prominent part in religious gatherings in the days of the pioneers.  It was of the old style congregational singing.  The church music of today may be more artistically rendered - more operatic with spectacular displays - but it is the old-time tunes, as our mothers sang them, that comfort us in our sorrows and sustain us in our trials.

To the pioneer preachers civilization owes much, and it has been truthfully said that it is due to the influence of these worthy men that the passions of the pioneers, stimulated by the continual cruelties and outrages of their savage foemen, did not degenerate into a thirst for revenge and a barbarous retaliation, and their respect for these sacred teachings has been perpetuated in their descendants, along with a chivalrous courage, and a contempt for everything base and mean.  A high moral tone has ever pervaded the children sprung from these early settlers, in whose own lives the spiritual truths of religions has taken root.

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 Among the prominent families, we note that of George McKinley, who came to Ohio with his parents in 1818, and settled in Richland county in 1852.  He was a cousin of the late President McKinley.  His wife was a sister of the late Judge McBride, of Wooster  Two of Mr. and Mrs. George McKinley’s children reside in Mansfield - Mrs. S. D. Nye, of South Diamond street, and Mrs. J. H. Borden, of Orchard street

John Dennis came from Germany in 1827, and located in Madison township in 1853.  He has held several offices, was trustee of Madison township three terms, and infirmary director two terms.  His wife died a few years ago.  Mr. Dennis and his son, Homer, reside on their farm a few miles southeast of Mansfield.

John Earnest, located in Madison township (the article begins to repeat the above paragraph here).

Levi Frankeberger was born in York county, Pa., in 1830; came to this county with his parents in his youth.  In 1872 he married Susan Heist.  They have one child - William - who was a soldier in the Spanish-American war.

Joseph Hamilton was born in 1832; married Mary Swartz in 1871.  His mother, Mrs. Sarah Calhoun Hamilton, who was born Jan. 26, 1809, is still living.  They reside southeast of Mansfield.

Henry Heselton, who has been a Madison township farmer for many years, married Catharine Hull in 1850.  Mr. Heselton served in the 163d Ohio infantry in the civil war.

David Johns, deceased, was born in Jefferson county in 1808, came to Madison township in 1814  He married Elizabeth Foglesong in 1832.  They had twelve children, six sons and six daughters.

John F. Murphy was born in Stark county in 1818, and came to Richland county in 1825.  He resides on the New State road north of Mansfield.  He served two terms as county commissioner  He has two sons residing in Mansfield - Henry K. and John A. Murphy.

Andrew Painter was born in 1804, and came to Madison township, Richland county, in 1815.  In 1825 he married Catharine Keith, who died in 1844.  He afterwards married Mary Bender.  Mr. Painter died in 1878.

Calvin Steward located in Richland county in 1816.  He resided in that part of Madison township called Yankeetown, a locality settled by eastern men, hence the name.

Samuel Race’s farm adjoins the south line of Madison township, just north of the Bentley mill site.  Mr. Race is a gentleman of the old school, a model farmer and an exemplary citizen.

West of the Race farm lies Woodville, a little village of charming homes, where reside Dice, Frost, Newlon, Wickert, Esselburn, Lauer, Cromer and others.

Between Woodville and the State road is the McCullough farm and dairy and adjoining it is the home of James O’Brien.  Among the old-time homes on the State road are those of Earnest and Dickerson.  The Mrs. Earnest place was formerly the home of Adam Gault, a soldier of the war of 1812, who died 33 years ago and is buried in the Mansfield cemetery.  Capt. Gault was the father of Mrs. John Kern, of South Adams street, and Mrs. Thomas Dickerson, south of the city, on what was formerly known as the Dickey farm, the home of the parents of Judge Moses R. Dickey.  The Dickersons have long been residents of Richland county.  Frederick Dickerson, Thomas’ father, many years ago owned what is now known as the Rummel-Krabill farm.

In the southwest part of Madison township are the Finneys, a name long identified with the history of the county.  West of Mansfield are the families of McKee, Shortest, Crouch, Ludwig, Trimble, Cline, Condon, Bliely, Hetler, Daum and others as well known.

North of the city are Schettier, Isaly, Grihling, Case et al.  Northeast - Wallace, Carl, Chatlain, Wortman, Hursch, Richler, Niman, Kirsh, Pittenger, Wirts, Bush, Shultz, Garrison, Curtis, Lantz, Hout, Gates, Face, Hink, Grice and others.

East - Balliett, Au, McElroy, Painter, Mowery, Manzer.  Southeast - Hamilton, Sturgeon, Heselton, Purdy, Mentzer, Dillon, Newlon, Miller, Funk.

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Within the memory of persons now living, country people would start for church Sunday barefooted, carrying their shoes and stockings tied in a handkerchief until they got near the meeting house, when they would stop and put them on.

In those early days, wheat often brought but 25 cents a bushel and the only market for it was at the lake, where it had to be hauled by wagons, taking nearly a week to make the trip.  Ginseng sold for 25 cents a pound and often more.  It was found in the woods, dug, cut into pieces and strung upon strings to dry, then it was ready for the market and shipped east.  Cash was paid for ginseng and beeswax.  Coffee then cost fifty cents a pound.  It could not be bought without ginseng, beeswax or money.  Most families made it a point to have store coffee on Sunday or when they had company; other times they used “coffee” made from burnt rye or wheat.

Lewis Pearce, wife and three little children removed on horseback from Allegheny county, Pa., to Richland county, Ohio, in 1810.  The year following, Mrs. Pearce visited her mother at their old Pennsylvania home, made the trip on horseback with her youngest child in her arms.  The distance was over two hundred miles, a considerable part of the journey was made along bridle-paths through the wilderness.  She camped at night, but would be in the saddle early in the morning.  She was her mother’s only daughter, and her filial love was so deep that she counted the privations and dangers of the trip as naught, for at the end of her journey her mother awaited her coming.  Lewis Pearce and wife were the grandparents of L. W. Severns, of South Diamond street, Mansfield.

A pioneer stated that people who have spent their lives in an old-settled country can form but a faint idea of the privations and hardships endured by the first settlers of our now flourishing and prosperous state.  That when he emigrated he was a young man, without any property, trade or profession, and entirely dependent on his own industry for a living.  He purchased a tract of new land on credit two miles from any house or road and built a pole cabin.  He got a loaf of bread, a piece of pickled pork, some potatoes, borrowed a frying pan and commenced house-keeping.  He had no company by days, but the wolves and owls gave him a concert by night.  In time he persuaded a young woman to tie her destiny to his.  He built a log house twenty feet square, which was considered quite large and aristocratic in those days.  He said he was fortunate enough to possess a jack knife; with that he made a wooden knife and two wooden forks which answered for the two to eat with.  He made a bedstead of poles - poles for posts, for side rails and for springs, and upon the latter he placed a straw bed, which answered the purpose and upon which he said they slept soundly.  In time, a yard and a half of calico was wanted and he went ten miles on foot to the nearest town to procure it.  But he had no money and could not get credit, and therefore, the calico could not be obtained.  Upon his return home, he reported his failure, whereupon his wife suggested that he had a thin pair of pantaloons which would make a decent frock.  The pants were cut up, the frock made and in due time the child was dressed.  The family became wealthy and prominent.

Surely -

“Old times have gone, old manners changed.”

Providence crowned the labors of the pioneers with success and they had enough to eat and to wear.  Of course their wants were few and simple and the products of the soil and hunting yielded a sufficient supply.  They spun and wove the fabrics for their clothing and the law of kindness and goodwill governed their actions.

In the early settlement of a new country there is to be found a larger development of a true and brotherly love and magnanimity than in any other place, or under any other conditions.

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