USA > Ohio > Richland County > A centennial biographical history of Richland county, Ohio > Part 6
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Along this route historic places can be pointed out to those who take an interest in the events of former years. At Spring Mills, Colonel Crawford and his army encamped for the night on June 4, 1782, when en route to the Wyandot country, to defeat and to death, for a few days later the troops were defeated in a battle by their savage foe, and the gallant Crawford suffered death at the stake near Tymochtee creek, a few miles from Upper Sandusky.
Jackson township, through which the Mansfield-Shelby road passes in an oblique course after leaving Spring Mills, was not organized until after Richland county had been despoiled of part of her territory to help make new counties, and our original townships in the northern part of the county were re-mapped to suit new conditions. But some of the land which now forms a part of Jackson township was entered and settled as early as 1816. The first house in the township was built by Matthew and Joseph Curran in the southwest quarter of section 36, a short distance east of the Baltimore & Ohio crossing. At the same place occurred the first death and the first birth in the township. Matthew Curran entered the southwest and Joseph the southeast quarter of section 36. It is related that settlers from the vicinity of Mansfield assisted the Currans in building the cabin. The family had en- camped in the woods near where they intended to build, and upon the day of the raising, while the women were cooking the dinner for the workmen, Cur- ran's little boy, in attempting to walk the log against which the fire was built, fell into a large kettle of boiling coffee, scalding him to such an extent that he died the following day. This was in the spring of 1816. Hunters and trappers may have previously sojourned in that locality, but the Currans were the first permanent settlers.
The first permanent settlers in the southern portion of the township came via Mansfield and the state road, while those who settled the northern sections came along Beall's trail, a number of whom were from Connecticut, bringing
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New England thrift and enterprise with them. Uriah Matson, the father of J. S. B. Matson, assisted Joseph Curran and others in cutting the Mans- field-Shelby road through the forest.
In 1858 Uriah Matson was awarded an ax for having been the champion wood-chopper of the county, at which time he made the following state- ments : "I came to Richland county the 4th day of August, 1815, and from that time to October, 1822, I followed chopping exclusively, during which time I chopped the timber off about one hundred and ninety acres of land and did a large amount of other chopping, such as making rails, sawing tim- ber for frames, getting bark for tanners, etc. Since 1822 I have chopped and cleared upward of eighty acres on the farm I now occupy. I think I have done more chopping, assisted in raising more cabins and rolling more logs than any other man in the county. When I came here there were but four families living in Springfield township."
Mr. Matson was of Scotch-Irish descent. He was born in 1793 and died in 1873. He resided in Jackson township many years. J. S. B. Matson is now living in Shelby and has a large collection of curios and relics.
The Sheriff church north of the road brings to the mind one who wor- shiped there for many years,-the late hero veteran,-John F. Rice, who was the last survivor of Perry's victory-a victory that keeps heralding down from generation to generation in the triumphant words of that immortal dis- patch, "We have met the enemy and they are ours." John F. Rice had served in the army before he entered the navy, and later was transferred back to the land force. He participated in that great battle on Lake Erie when "many a Britain took his last sleep." He saw Commodore Perry take off his coat and stuff it into the hole made by a British ball in his vessel, and looked on with tearful admiration as he rowed in an open boat, under the fire of the enemy, to the Niagara, where, taking personal command, he turned the tide of battle and won a victory that has immortalized the name of Perry.
After the victory, Rice was transferred back to the land force under General William Henry Harrison, and assigned to Colonel Richard M. John- son's regiment, fought in the battle of the Thames and saw Tecumseh fall. Twenty years ago the veteran Rice, at a ripe old age, was transferred to the "army triumphant." His funeral was attended by all the clergy of Shelby, the Light Guards, a band of music, a squad of artillery, ex-soldiers, the chil- dren of the public schools and a large concourse of citizens. Colonel Demp- sey was in charge of the procession.
A sermon was preached from Leviticus xix, 32: "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man." "My Country,
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'Tis of Thee" was sung by a hundred school children. Interment in Oak- land cemetery. During the day flags, not only at Shelby but also at San- dusky, Cleveland and other places, were at half mast.
Let the living honor their soldier dead.
"Let the flags float out above them ; Let the music fill the air ; In the hearts of those who love them It shall echo like a prayer."
"O, birds! to other climes that wing, Repeat the story as ye sing That ye have found no brighter green, No softer shade, no rarer sheen, Than that which fair Columbia spread Above her honored patriot dead."
"UNDERGROUND RAILROADS." 24
One of the most noted stations of the "Underground Railroad" was at "Uncle" John Finney's, in Springfield township, four miles west of Mans- field, on the Walker's lake road, where the Mansfield and Cookton road crosses the road leading from Spring Mills to Lexington. The farm is now owned by George F. Carpenter, the well-known lawyer and capitalist.
It was during the administration of Martin Van Buren that the doctrine of the abolition of slavery began to be propagated. At first there was a dis- tinction drawn between those who were opposed to the extension of slavery and those who were in favor of its abolition; but as revolutions seldom go backward the latter in time absorbed the former. "Uncle" John Finney was a man of strong convictions and as bitter as Cato was in ancient Utica, when he denounced the fugitive slave law under the operation of which runaway slaves ivere returned to bondage. Finney did not want to simply drift with the tide,-he was too assertive and strong willed for that,-he wanted to take an active part in forming public opinion and shaping public events.
The fugitive slave law not only required people to assist in returning slaves to their masters, but made it a penal offense to refuse to do so, which rendered it so repugnant to the people of the north that they prided them- selves more upon its breach than upon its observance.
Politics in those days was largely a matter of sentiment, and that senti- ment was an anti-slavery one,-the liberty of the slaves. Politics to-day are
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a matter of commodity, a question of finance or of the tariff, with a pictur- esque tinge of "imperialism" at the present.
During the many years that "Uncle" John Finney assisted fugitive slaves on their way to Canada and to freedom, several thousands were entertained at his home over night or for several days and were then taken by him to Savannah or Oberlin, from which points they were assisted on to freedom. At one time the late Benjamin Gass brought five colored men with five or six women and children to Mr. Finney's. The latter he secreted in the loft and the men he put in a granary at the barn. Their pursuers arrived the next morning and demanded a search of the premises, which was denied with- out warrant. A detachment was sent to Mansfield for the necessary papers of search and seizure, and the remainder of the party were invited into Fin- niey's home, where "Uncle" John exerted his great fascinating manners to entertain them. Breakfast was announced and "Uncle" John, being a Pres- byterian, and a U. P. at that, proceeded to have family worship. As a matter of courtesy his guests kneeled with him. The back of the chair at which Mr. Finney knelt was to the window looking toward the barn. A member of the family had given the negroes the tip to leave. "Uncle" John literally obeyed the command to "watch and pray." He prayed long and earnestly and watched anxiously and did not say "amen" until he saw the last fugitive leave
the barn. He then requested his guests to join him in singing the 119th psalm, which was sung to slow music. Breakfast was then served and as much time as possible consumed in the different homely courses. After the close of the meal the party returned from Mansfield with the warrants, but it was discovered the fugitives had fled. As the house was not sus- pected, it was not searched, and the women and children in the garret were not molested.
Numerous incidents might be given of attempts to retake fugitives, but in the majority of cases the pursuers were outwitted by "Uncle" John, and the slaves escaped. The condition of affairs which then existed creating this "underground" mode of traffic is known to the younger generation of to-day only as a matter of history. John Underwood remembers it was no uncom- mon sight to see darkies around Finney's house or at work in his fields. Jacob Laird, the surveyor, saw Mr. Finney coming to town one winter mor- ning with a "load of wheat" in the sled, but a sudden lurch at 'a gutter on West Fourth street revealed the true nature of the load .- a number of negroes covered in the sled, instead of bags of wheat. There were readjusted and taken on to Savannah, the next station on the "Underground" road. Vic Dickson, the merchant, remembers of having seen, when he was a boy, fugi-
JOHN SHERMAN
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tives passing from Joseph Roe's to John Finney's. John Finney's first wife was a Marshall, an aunt of John Marshall, of Bowman street, this city. James Finney owned the farm south of his brother John's and facing on the Leesville road, where his daughters, Miss Jennie and Miss Lizzie, yet reside. Among Mr. Finney's old-time neighbors were John Neal, James Marshall, John Ferguson, Mr. Maybee and John Bishop, some of whom preceded and others have followed Mr. Finney where under-ground railroads are unnec- essary and unknown.
RICHLAND COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR.
The story of the Civil war, when read a hundred years hence, may not be credited in its awful magnitude. That sectional strife had become so bitter that certain states attempted to disrupt the American Union, will scarcely be believed by future generations. In 1860 we heard the mutterings of the tempest of political hate, but did not then realize that the storm of its fury would so soon burst upon us with such terrible destruction. When South Carolina demurred against the general government occupying Fort Sumter, we stood dazed at such state-rights presumption ; but when she pro- tested against supplies being delivered to the beleaguered garrison and fired upon the Star of the West when on its mission of mercy, we then realized that we were at the beginning of a rebellion that would be bloody and ter- rible. When the rebels fired on Fort Sumter the north became fully aroused and patriotically determined to fight for the old flag and for the preserva- tion of the Union of the states.
President Lincoln issued his proclamation for seventy-five thousand troops, of which Ohio's quota was ten thousand, one hundred and fifty-three, and within a few days more than thirty regiments were offered and twelve thousand, three hundred and fifty-seven men were accepted. Richland county responded promptly to this call, and within five days six companies tendered their services to the governor! General Mclaughlin, a veteran of the Mexican war, manly and erect in his bearing, although then nearly seventy years of age, raised the first Richland county company. He was the personification of a soldier and died in the service. Judge M. R. Dickey, then a comparatively young lawyer, now one of the leading members of the Cleveland bar, raised a company for the Fifteenth Ohio. John W. Beekman was the captain of a Plymouth company. He also was a lawyer, a large man of fine physique and appearance. Colonel George Weaver, of Lucas, who was a captain in the
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Mexican war and had served a term as sheriff of our county, raised a company at Ganges and Lucas.
Captain A. C. Cummins, then a young lawyer associated wtih Judge T. W. Bartley, raised a company at Shelby for the Fifteenth Regiment, and his company was one of the first at Camp Jackson. Captain Moody, a col- lege graduate, a man of scholarly attainments, of polished manners and of faultless dress, raised a company at Bellville. He died of wounds received at Antietam, after suffering five amputations. The G. A. R. post at Bell- ville is named in his honor.
Limit will not permit details, or even naming other companies organized later and for longer terms of service, except to state that Richland county through the whole conflict did her duty nobly, furnishing two thousand, seven hundred and twenty-nine men for the war. Many Richland county boys who then went forth to war never returned. Some were killed on southern battle- fields, and were buried where they fell; some died in hospitals, others in rebel prisons. The bodies of a few were brought home and interred in our local cemeteries, and their graves are annually decorated in the May time.
It would be an honor to write the name of each private soldier in the Union army in the great war of the Rebellion, but they need no encomium, for their patriotic deeds speak more forcibly than words-than any words this poor hand could trace. When we read of their services we recall the battles of Antietam, of Gettysburg, of the Wilderness, of Shiloh, of Stone river, of Vicksburg, of Hooker's fight above the clouds and of Sherman's march from Atlanta to the sea,-history written in blood and emblazoned in glory. If roses are the tear-drops of Angels, as the Arab belief so beauti- fully sets forth, then a soldier's grave needs not the sculptured stone, the fretted column, the ivy, the obelisk; for the fragrance of the rose is perennial and its beauty is everlasting-fit emblems to commemorate deeds of valor.
What a sublime spectacle was presented at the close of the Civil war when that grand army of citizen-soldiery laid down their arms and left the avocation of war to return to their homes and to the vocations of peace! But even the youngest soldiers of that army are now crossing the "divide" and will soon begin the descent where the shadows lengthen. They are on their last march.
"They are marching down the valley, At the great Commander's call,
Though the way is rough and weary And the mystic shadows fall;
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But the hearts that beat so bravely In the battle's fierce affray, Do not falter at the summons Nor the dangers of the way.
"They are marching down the valley ; Hark! the sound of tramping feet!
They go on through summer's sunshine, They go on thro' winter's sleet ; Banners wave and arms a-glitter, And the music's throbbing breath
Echoes in the solemn valley That we name the vale of death.
"They are marching down the valley, And we follow gladly on,
For the music, sweet and eiry. Tells the way that they have gone; And we'll find them camped in meadows Where the waters stilly flow,
Where the sward of soft and verdant And the flowers of heaven grow."
MURDER MYSTERIES.
Among the unsolved criminal mysteries of Richland county, that of the murder of Mrs. Mary Lunsford was the most appalling; for the victim was a woman and mutilation was added to murder. On the fateful night of March 12, 1870, Olive street, Mansfield, Ohio, was the scene of one of those horribly bloody deeds that stain pages in the criminal calendar of the county. The city was startled by the report that a murder had been com- mitted, and when people beheld the scene and saw the evidences of the struggle that had ensued in the poor woman's tragic efforts to save her life, many turned away sickened by the awful, bloody spectacle.
Mrs. Lunsford, the murdered woman, was a seamstress, was young and good-looking, and while upon her life there rested the blot of the social sin she was popular among her few acquaintances, and it was not known that she had an enemy-surely not one of sufficient deadly hate to take her life; and as it was apparent that robbery had not even been attempted, the authori- ties were at a loss for a theory to account for and ascertain the actuating motive that led to the commission of the murder.
Ms. Lunsford had been a resident of Mansfield less than a year, having come from Cincinnati at the instance of Ansel L. Robinson, then superintend-
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ent of Blymyer, Day & Company's works. About a month before the murder, Mrs. Lunsford became engaged to a' Mr. Ebersole, and the wedding was to take place the next week. Robinson, it was said, was opposed to her, mar- riage. At the time of the murder, Ebersole was taking care of a sick man at Shelby. Upon searching the murdered woman's trunk, letters were found from Robinson which betrayed the relations that had existed between them and led to his arrest. A long imprisonment followed, but at the final trial- one of the most memorable in the criminal history of the county-he was acquitted. Soon after his acquittal Robinson removed to the northwest, accompanied by his wife and children, who had faithfully stood by him through all his troubles.
Early Sunday morning, September 18, 1881, the community was throivn into a high state of excitement by a report that a dead body had been found in Sherman's woods-now a part of Sherman-Heineman park-a few rods south of Park avenue west. The marshal, coroner and a large number of citizens were soon on the ground and the body was recognized as that of Charles Leonard, a brother of W. L. Leonard. Charles had been employed as a clerk in Finfrock's drug store and had mysteriously disappeared on the evening of the 9th. He had left the store between 8 and 9 o'clock and had been seen a little later on Third street going west. When found the body was lying in the edge of the woods with the head against a tree. In his pockets were found the store key and some change. Upon examination of the body it was found that he had been stabbed in the back, and it was evident that the deed had not occurred where the body was found.
Charley was a young man of the most exemplary character and was universally popular, and the motive for his death and by whom the deed was committed remain in the list of the unsolved criminal mysteries of the county, although the offer of one thousand dollars reward for the apprehen- sion and conviction of his murderer is still open and held good by W. L. Leonard.
The cowardly and premeditated assassination of John Fox occurred Thursday evening, March 8, 1883, about two miles south of Bellville, on the road leading east from Honey Creek schoolhouse. John Fox was about forty years old, was a prosperous farmer and lived within a half mile of the place where he was killed.
John and Daniel Fox were brothers. On the morning of the day of the fatal tragedy they had come to Mansfield together in a two-horse wagon, and at the City Mills exchanged wheat for flour and bran. They left Mans- field about 5 o'clock for their home, fourteen miles distant, and at about 8:30
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o'clock, when in a slight hollow a half mile east of the Honey Creek school- house, an assassin fired two shots, killing John instantly. Dan claimed that he jumped from the wagon when John was attacked and that as he essayed to run he was shot in the leg. The post-mortem examination of John's body showed, from the course the bullet had taken, that it was evident the assassin either stood on the back end of the wagon or in it, the shots having been fired from the rear, and, as the hair on the back of John's head was singed, the latter seemed the more plausible theory. John was sitting in front driving the team when attacked.
Dan reached the house of a neighbor by going across fields, where he gave the alarm and was given attention, as he was suffering from loss of blood. A searching party found the wagon standing at the cross-roads, dis- tant about midway between the scene of the tragedy and the Fox residence. The horses, having become frightened at the shooting, ran that distance, when the pin of the doubletree jumped out and the team became detached from the wagon and ran to the barn. John was found lying where he had fallen, with his face upward and his head in a pool of blood.
The people for miles around were aroused over this cowardly murder but no evidence was ever obtained sufficient to justify an arrest. Dan Fox is now dead.
On Sunday, September 20, 1885, Clara Hough was murdered at the western outskirts of the city in a ravine a short distance south of the Balti- more & Ohio Railroad. Her body was not discovered for several days. She had been a domestic in the family of J. W. Dougal, of West Fourth street. The theory that she was murdered by a tramp was generally accepted. Re- cent developments, however, may throw some light upon the mystery of this in the near future.
Samuel Chew was assaulted and robbed on the night of August 25, 1887, and died without regaining consciousness. He and his wife were alone at the time, and she claimed the deed was committed by masked men; but there was not sufficient evidence to fasten the guilt upon any one. Mrs. Chew died within the past year. She was Mr. Chew's second wife.
Samuel Chew lived at the top of Mohawk Hill, on the road leading from Lucas to Perryville, on the farm now owned by the Rev. Mr. Grau. Samuel Chew was well advanced in years, was an exemplary man, and his tragic death cast a gloom over the whole community. It is now generally conceded that this mystery will never be revealed upon earth.
Frederick Boebel was killed and robbed while coming on a freight train from Crestline to Mansfield on the night of April 28, 1895, and his murder-
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ers, supposed to have been tramps, were never apprehended. Boebel was a contractor and lived in Mansfield.
William Kern left Mansfield July 30, 1895, on a II :15 a. m. train for Perrysville to buy stock. He walked from Perrysville back to Lucas, arriv- ing at the latter place between 4 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Upon learn- ing that he would have to wait about three hours for a train to Mansfield, he concluded to walk home, and was last seen alive at Chew's Crossing at about 5:30 o'clock. His dead body was found the next morning by a freight crew going east. It was evident there had been foul play, as his pockets had been rifled of over one hundred dollars which he was known to have had with him at the time. Mr. Kern was a highly respected citizen of Mansfield and one of our most prosperous business men.
J. Albert Hine was assaulted and shot the evening of November 22, 1897, while going from his grocery on Sturges avenue to his home on Ritter street, and he died from the effect of the wounds then inflicted September 11, 1898. Although Mr. Hine saw his assailant, he did not recognize him, and the assassin and the motive for the assassination remain among the unsolved criminal mysteries of the county.
Other crimes might be mentioned, the perpetrators of which have also gone unpunished by the law. But the murderers cannot escape punishment for their crimes, for if it is not meted out to them here it will be in the life to come, for "Vengeance is mine and I will repay, saith the Lord." The even- ing gloaming may come softly, ladened with the perfume of the flowers; but the murderer imagines something unnatural in the calmness and something uncanny in the scent of the perfumed air, for he thinks an avenging Nemesis is ever following him, and he sees wierd figures in the shadows as the twilight creeps under the blue arch that was so beautiful at the sunset. And if the stars, which at first shone with their usual brilliancy, become obscured in vaporing mists, making moving shapes of inanimate objects, causing flitting shadows to fade away as swiftly as they took form, they all combine to carry terror to the souls of murderers-to those who violate the commandment written upon tablets of stone at Mount Sinai, "Thou shalt do no murder," for "although joined hand in hand" the wicked cannot escape the vengeance of the Almighty.
TOWNS AND VILLAGES.
Shelby is the second town in size in Richland county, and has nearly six thousand inhabitants. The place was first settled in 1818, and was called Gamble's Mills. Henry Whitney, Stephen Marvin and Eli Wilson were among
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the first settlers, coming to Ohio from Norwalk, Connecticut. John Gamble came from New York state, and erected the first mill in Sharon township. The mill was situate on what is now the southeast corner of Main and Gamble streets. It was a log building and the mill was run by horse power. Those who brought grists would hitch their horses or oxen to the sweep, grind their grist, and then bolt it by hand.
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