USA > Ohio > Richland County > A centennial biographical history of Richland county, Ohio > Part 7
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Sharon was organized in 1819, at which time there were but fourteen voters in the township. A postoffice was established in 1828, called Gamble's Mills, with John Gamble as postmaster. The town was platted in June, 1834, and the name changed to Shelby, in honor of Governor Shelby, of Ken- tucky. Shelby grew and prospered in its way, and in time manufacturing plants were established there whose pay-rolls equal those of any other town of its size in Ohio. The town has miles of asphalted streets and the town- ship has well piked roads.
Butler is a thriving village in Worthington township, nineteen miles south of Mansfield, on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The town was origin- laly called Independence, but was changed to Butler some years ago, to agree with the name of the postoffice, named after General William O. Butler, of Kentucky, who was a hero of the Mexican war and the candidate for vice-president on the ticket with General Lewis Cass, in 1848. The postoffice was established before the town was laid out, and was kept at the residence of 'Squire T. B. Andrews, the first postmaster. The extension of the Mans- field & Sandusky City Railroad to Newark caused Independence to be laid out, January 12, 1848, on its line, and, as the business men of Bellville were jealous of having a rival town spring up within the limits of their trade. T. B. An- drews suggested that the new town be called Independence, in defiance of the attitude of Bellville. The town was, therefore, christened according to Squire Andrews' suggestion, and was called Independence over forty years ere it was changed to Butler. Worthington township was named for Thomas Worthington, who was the governor of Ohio in 1814-16. The surface is broken and hilly, especially along the Clear Fork, where in many places the scenery is picturesque and beautiful. Two tributaries enter the Clear Fork near Butler, Andrews Run from the southwest and Gold Run from the south- east. Butler is situate at the great bend of the Baltimore & Ohio road, where a number of railroad accidents have occurred, the most notable of which was the terrible collision in September, 1872, during the first state fair at Mans- field.
Olivesburg sits in the beauty of quiet surroundings on the left bank of the Whetstone, in Weller township. From the west a good view of the village
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and its environs is obtained from the Shenandoah road,-a view that is varied in its loveliness,-a landscape picture of an expanse of fields, with fringe of woodland, which, in the glory of a cloudless summer sunset, would give in- spiration to artist and poet. And, at eventide, after the sun has set and the moon, cold and calm, rises, throwing pale light and dark shadows here and there, and the Whetstone shining like molten silver between its dark banks, the scene is still more enchanting.
Olivesburg was laid out in 1816 by Benjamin Montgomery and was named in honor of his daughter Olive. The first schoolhouse in Olivesburg was built in 1824. It was a hewed-log building, twenty feet square, and had glass windows, glass panes having superseded the greased paper of an earlier .
period. Joseph Ward taught the first school in this building and took his pay one-third in corn, one-third in maple sugar and the remainder in money.
Olivesburg is on the celebrated Beall trail, and after Beall's troops re- turned east and were discharged many of them returned to Richland county and made it their home, having been attracted here by the beauty of the coun- try and the richness of the soil, and the pure, cool water that flows so copiously from Richland's numerous springs.
Winchester was once a promising little village in Worthington township, this county, but its site is now cultivated fields. The county records show that it was platted March 31, 1845, but otherwise it exists only in memory. Winchester was situate on the left bank of the Clear Fork of the Mohican, half way between Butler and Newville. There were several reasons why Winchester was founded, the principal one, perhaps, being on account of the large gristmill at that point. Another reason was that Newville was the only town in Worthington township then, being near to. the north line, making it inconvenient as a township seat, as some men had to go nearly six miles to vote at elections. The town of Winchester was only a half mile from the township center. The mills, then known as Calhoon's, consisted of a grist- mill, sawmill and a carding-mill, around which several dwellings clustered, but the land in that immediate vicinity was too rough and uneven for a town site; therefore the plat was made upon a more eligible location on the opposite side of the river, where a half dozen or more houses were subsequently built, and the business of the place, in addition to the mills, was soon increased to include a store of general merchandise, a smith shop, cooper shop, shoe shop and a weaver's shop, and the village bid fair for the future.
But soon that great revolutionizer of affairs and annihilator of time and distance, the railroad, came hard by and upset the old-time calculations of the founders of the town. The Sandusky, Mansfield & Newark Railroad
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went within two miles of Winchester and that sealed the fate of the village and caused a new town to be laid out January 12, 1848, and called Indepen- dence.
Lexington has always been noted for the culture and social standing of its people. The village is beautifully situated upon an elevation of gentle slope and the Clear Fork of the Mohican laves its eastern boundary. The town was named for historic Lexington, where the first battle for political freedom on the American continent was fought April 19, 1775-a battle that put an end to the long dispute between the colonies and Great Britain and inaugurated the war of the Revolution. Lexington was laid out in 1812, on land owned by Amariah Watson, who built the first house-a log cabin-in the place in the spring of 1812, soon after the town was platted. The second house was built by Jacob Cook. The first cabins had port-holes for purposes of defense against the Indians. Grist and sawmills were erected on the Clear Fork at Lexington within the year and contributed to the development of the prosperity of the new town. A tannery was built and stores of general mer- chandise opened, and Lexington soon had several hundred inhabitants.
Tempus fugit, and years went by, and in 1850 the "iron horse" came puffing along the valley. A railroad may make or unmake a town, but it did neither in this case : it simply let the village remain as it found it, which status it still maintains. It is difficult to write of Lexington,-a town with such a conservative history ; of a well-balanced people, free from eccentricities and vagaries, such as make a town notorious. No people ever treaded the pathis of peace with more willing feet, and the law of love has been the rule of their action and the light by which they have interpreted events. Envy knocks in vain at the door of their hearts. The people are not jealous of their neigh- boring towns, but peace and good will have a perfect habitation in the village's unruffled breast.
When Lexington was founded this was the western border. Since then civilization has marched westward with rapid strides, across the Mississippi, over the Rocky mountains and out to the isles of the Pacific, and will soon ineet a similar column advancing from the west and ere long will engirdle the earth. Then the "border" will be obliterated and previous conditions changed. Civilization is peregrinatic and capricious, and coming centuries may verify the prediction of Macaulay that New Zealanders shall sit upon the ruins of Westminster Abbey and gaze upon the crumbling ashes of for- gotten London. It is claimed that there was an advanced civilization in China before Babylon was founded, and before Jerusalem existed even in prophecy. Yet we now speak of the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire as
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"heathen Chinese" and call them "barbarians." What the future of Ameri- can civilization may be time alone can disclose.
HELLTOWN AND GREENTOWN.
"All along the winding river And adown the shady glen, On the hill and in the valley, Are the graves of dusky men."
To understand the founding of Greentown we must look at its pred- ecessor, Helltown. Helltown was an Indian village and was located on the right bank of the Clear Fork, one mile and a half below Newville. Mounds are still discernible upon a knoll where it is said Indians are buried. Below where the little village stood was a native plum orchard.
The name, "Helltown," means the village of the clear stream. How long the town existed is not known, but in its day it was the home of Thomas Lyon, Thomas Armstrong and other leading Indians of the Delaware tribe. The site of Helltown was well chosen; the ground sloped to the east, and the river laved the base of the plat upon which the town was built. From the bank a spring bubbled forth a stream of cool water which rippled down to the creek below.
"Here the laughing Indian maiden, Has her glowing lips immersed, And the haughty forest hunter Often here has quenched his thirst."
More than a century has passed since the Indians, to whom the hunt and the chase were so alluring, roamed among the hills and over the valley of of the Clear Fork and still
"The cool spring is ever flowing, Through the change of every year, Just as when the Indian maiden Quaffed its waters pure and clear."
In 1782 Helltown was abandoned, the inhabitants fleeing in alarm when they heard of the massacre of the Moravian Indians at Gnadenhutten, some going to the Upper Sandusky country; and others, joining a party of whites renegades, of whom a Thomas Green was the leader, founded the village of Greentown on the Black Fork. The Indians killed at Gnadenhutten were of
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the Delaware tribe and kinsmen of the Helltown squad. The former had been converted to Christianity, the work of the Moravian missionaries, and as such were opposed to war and were, therefore, looked upon with suspicion by both parties to the conflict.
Heckwelder's Moravian missionaries made a number of converts at Greentown, whom they baptized into the Christian faith and church, but the little leaven was not sufficient to leaven the whole lot, and the greater part of the Indians there remained savages. The Rev. Heckwelder had him- self preached to the Indians both at Greentown and Mohican Johnstown; and when James Copus, who had settled further up the valley, held religious services there, he found the Indians not unaccustomed to Christian forms of worship.
At the time of the advent of the white settlers here, the village of Greentown contained from one hundred and fifty to two hundred Indian fam- ilies, who lived in pole cabins, and in the center of the town was a council house built of logs. There were Mingoes there as well as Delawares, and some writers have confounded Greentown with the "Mingo Cabbins" spoken of by Major Rogers. Dr. Hill thought the cabins referred to were on the Jerome Fork, near to the place where the Mingo village of Mohican "Johnstown" was afterward located.
Two branches of the Delaware tribe-the Wolf and the Turtle-were represented at Greentown.
By the year 1810 a number of families had been added to the Black Fork settlement, among whom were Andrew Craig, James Cunningham, Henry McCart, Samuel Lewis, Frederick Zimmer and others.
A remnant of the Mohican tribe of Indians from Connecticut settled at an early day on the western branch of the Muskingum river; and, as nearly all our streams have Indian names, Mohican was derived from Mohegan and of that river we have the various "Forks."
POTATO REGION.
Knox's schoolhouse, midway between Lexington and Bellville, is in the center of a valley of the north branch of the Clear Fork of the Mohican. This valley is noted not only for its great fertility, but also for the character- istics of its soil, which is peculiarly and desirably adapted to the cultivation of the Irish potato.
The composition of soil affects all vegetable products. There is a tract of country around Berea where the onion is grown with productiveness and
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characteristics that no other part of the country can give or impart. The muck land east of Orrville produces celery of a tenderness and flavor that excels the product of the noted Kalamazoo district; and this Lexington-Bell- ville valley grows potatoes so mealy and fine-flavored that they sell at the highest price in the market. It is not the purpose of this sketch to give an analytical or analogical disquisition or attempt to explain the whys and wherefores of this relative relation between the soil and its products, but to simply state the facts.
This potato tract is situate in the southwest part of Washington town- ship, and the dip of the surface of the country along the eastern border of the valley is to the southwest, forming a pleasing background to the beautiful pastoral picture presented to the eye from the south bank of the Clear Fork. It is five miles in length and averages nearly a mile in width, and lies prin- cipally on the north side of the stream, beginning at Kyner's and ending at Fry's. About two hundred acres in this strip are annually planted in potatoes, and the yield is from one hundred and fifty to three hundred bushels per acre. The average output during the past ten years has been about five thousand bushels annually of the best potatoes in the world.
The Touby Run valley, to the northeast, cuts through a range of hills and is attractive in its modest beauty.
What a grand thing it is to be a farmer! The farmer was the first producer and he is likely to be the last. Before there were towns and cities, before there were factories and work-shops, before there were doctors and and lawyers, the farmer was a producer-was earning his own living-and was enjoying the products of the land. If all the cities of the world, all the ships of the sea, all the arteries of commerce, all the channels of trade, and all the manufactories and industries of the country were to perish from the earth, the farmer would be able to maintain himself by means of the products of his toil, the cities and towns would be rebuilt, the channels of trade would be restored and in time the former industries would be revived and recreated.
The government complimentarily recognizes the tiller of the soil, for it educates for their calling but two classes-farmers, to feed and clothe the people and enrich the nation, and soldiers and sailors to defend its honor.
RICHLAND COUNTY'S PLACE IN GALAXY OF OHIO POETS.
Richland county can point with pride to her quota in the galaxy of Ohio poets. "The poet is born, not made," and "the poet alone sees nature" were favorite sayings among the ancients. From his very infancy the beauties
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and melodies of the earth impress themselves divinely on the soul of the true poet. To him the heavens and the earth seem full of spirituality and beauty and melody, and his instinct indulges in musings, reveries and day-dreams, and afterward, when his thoughts are put into verse, they come forth with poetic aroma or crystallize in imperishable luster. It is the province of poetry to present higher and more divine and spiritual ideals of life, and in this aim we claim for our local poets the highest meed of praise and honor.
It has been said that our state is not rich in poetry. No new country is; and Ohio is new, compared with old New England. The early settlers here had a forest country to clear and wars to fight-events which furnish materi- als for romance and poetry only after the mellowing influences of time have long hung over their history. The pioneers may have had songs, descriptive of incidents and adventures of backwoods life, but they were not preserved even in traditions.
The first poem printed in Ohio, so far as is known, was an historical sketch written by Return Jonathan Meigs and read at a Fourth of July celebration at Marietta in 1787.
In 1860 there were about forty recognized poets in Ohio, the majority of whom were to the "manor born." They might be divided into two classes -those who followed literature or newspaper work as a profession and those who, although engaged in other vocations, in their leisure hours occasionally wooed the muse. Although some of the productions of the latter class may exhibit in a greater degree the feeling than the art of poetry, yet this class has written many poems that are likely to preserve the names of the authors for generations to come.
The poems of the poets of Ohio may not equal in pretending styles the poetry of the east, but in noble aspirations, in expressive appreciation of nat- ural beauty, in revealing and cultivating domestic affections and in breathing a spirit of morality and religion, the writings of our Ohio authors compare favorably with those of any other country in the world.
Poetry, in its highest perfection, is thought, feeling, imagery and music expressed in the most appropriate language. Poetry is the greatest of the fine arts and is closely allied to the rest of them. The prominent elements of poetry are love, beauty and religion. In some poems thought predominates, as in Pope's "Essay on Man ;" in some, feeling, as in Wolfe's "Burial of Sir John Moore;" in some, imagery, as in Moore's "Lalla Rookh;" in some, music, as in songs, and in some poetry are happily combined all of these ele- ments.
It would be a pleasure to write of dozens of Ohio poets did the limit
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admit of such mention. To come to our own county, the first to receive atten- tion chronologically is Andrew Coffinberry, commonly called "Count." Cof- finberry was a lawyer, but sometimes courted the muse. Among his poetical productions was an epic poem called "Forest Rangers," that struck the popu- lar current at that time.
Salathial Coffinberry was also a Mansfield poet and tale writer. He was afterward governor of Michigan.
The Rev. James B. Walker, for many years pastor of the Congregational church, of this city, was a poet and writer of wide reputation. His "Angel Whispers" and other poems give him a high place among the poets of America.
John Quincy Goss was a Bellville lawyer in the '50s, and his poems were published in the local papers and in eastern periodicals.
The writer was acquainted with the late Rosella Rice from his early boy- hood until her death. Her father and his father were friends and neighbors in the pioneer times. Rosella was born in Green township, then a part of Richland county, and passed her life at the old homestead of the family, near Perrysville. Miss Rice's writings, both in prose and poetry, first appeared in the Mansfield papers in the '40s. They attracted so much attention and were so well received by the public that she soon received remunerative offers from eastern publishers. She was for many years a regular contributor to Arthur's Home Magazine and other publications. Rosella Rice was a born poet, a child of nature, and loved to roam over the hills and among the forest trees of her native heath and listen to the revels of the winds and commune with the spirits of the wildwood. In her later years she wrote more prose than poetry, and in either line her writings were marked with her own charm- ing and peculiar individual characteristics.
Mrs. Nancy Coulter Eddy, of Perrysville, formerly lived in Washington township, this county. Her contributions to the county papers were quite popular, especially her political songs in the campaign of 1856.
And last, but not least, is Mrs. Ida Eckert Lawrence, of Toledo, a Rich- land county girl, called the Ohio poet, who is winning laurels in the literary world by her poems as well as her prose productions. Mrs. Lawrence writes: "I love old Richland. It always seemed the grass was greener, the skies bluer and the birds sang sweeter about the old home than anywhere I have been."
Verily, Richland county is blessed in her sons and daughters who have won distinction in literary as well as in other pursuits.
IDA ECKERT-LAWRENCE.
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THE MANSFIELD LYCEUM.
This institution was organized September 6, 1871, and the officers elected for the first year were as follows: President, Colonel B. Burns; vice- presidents, Hon. Henry C. Hedges, Hon. M. D. Harter and Professor H. M. Parker; recording secretary, Charles Elliott; corresponding secretary, J. M. Hillyar; treasurer, E. W. Smith, and librarian, W. S. Bradford.
At this first meeting the directors were instructed to incorporate the Lyceum under the laws of Ohio, which was duly accomplished, and the pro- ceedings were filed with the recorder of the county, December 29, 1871, and recorded in vol. I, p. 136, of record for the incorporation of societies of this kind.
General Brinkerhoff was one of the promoters of the Mansfield Lyceum, and in this work he was ably seconded by the late Colonel James E. Wharton, a retired editor, who had the leisure and inclination to foster an enterprise of this kind. In his prime, Colonel Wharton had been the editor and pro- prietor of the Wheeling Intelligencer, and as the personal friend and cham- pion of Henry Clay he had been a man of prominence in the old Whig party. He was, in fact, a man of more than ordinary ability, and giving, as he did, almost his entire time for several years to the interests of the Lyceum, he is entitled to grateful remembrance by all its members.
The Lyceum met for some time in the Philharmonic Hall, but was later given the free use of a room in the basement of the court-house, and on the completion of the Memorial Library building, the Lyceum transferred its library of 2,106 volumes to the Memorial Library Association, and in consid- eration of this transfer the association contracted to give the Lyceum the free use of a suitable room in said Memorial Library in perpetuity.
The present officers of the Lyceum are: President, Hon. C. N. Gaumer ; and secretary, A. J. Baughman.
The membership of the Lyceum is limited to forty and the society does not seek to popularize its exercises with a view to attract the presence or patronage of the general public, but devotes itself to the educational improve- ment of its members, and by the publication of its proceedings to educate thie the public sentiment upon all questions pertaining to the general welfare.
The Richland County Historical Society was organized November 23, 1898. Its officers are: President, General R. Brinkerhoff ; vice-president, George F. Carpenter; secretary, A. J. Baughman; and treasurer, M. B. Bushnell. The society is auxiliary to the Ohio Archaeological and Histori- cal Society.
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A HUNDRED YEARS.
In 1908 Mansfield will celebrate her centennial, and a retrospect of the years that are gone is almost beyond the grasp of the human mind in the marvelous achievements accomplished within that period of time. Since Mansfield was platted, almost each year has seemed to give denial to the wisdom of Solomon expressed by his words that "there is nothing new under the sun," unless it be that inventive genius has but discovered and restored the arts that were lost. During these hundred years man has harnessed the winds and made of the unseen forces of steam and electricity the creatures of his will to lighten the burdens of his toil. Even Niagara no longer pours its mighty flood in sullen roar of idleness. Its mighty force has been con- quered by the genius of invention and made to obey the mandates of man in turning the wheels of industry and sending forth along the lightning laden wires the subtle force that moves the wheels of commerce, and, bursting forth into light, turns night into day. The stage-coach that made the jour- ney to be taken a thing to be feared because of the discomforts and dangers and the delay in time, has given way to the iron horse hauling its train of palace cars, giving to the passengers every comfort and convenience, and rushing across the country with time-annihilating speed. The slow-going sailing vessel, which was so often made the victim of the caprice of the wind and wave, has given way to the ocean "greyhound," the leviathan that plows the deep in scorn of all of Neptune's terrors.
Invention within the hundred years has revolutionized the world. Within these years, Fulton invented the steamboat, Stephenson the steam engine, Whit- ney the cotton-gin, Morse the telegraph, Bell the telephone, and Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park, has caused inanimate things to talk; pain has been banished by anæsthetics, and all of the sciences have been made to give of their secrets by man's investigation and intelligence.
But what of the century to come? There is no telling to what limit the the genius of invention may reach. The world's progress in the next hundred years can only be conjectured. It is not in the ken of man to peer beyond the veil that hides the future. Invention is yet in swaddling clothes, and greater, stranger things are yet to come than were ever dreamed of in our philosophy.
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