USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in three volumes ; an encyclopedia of the state : with notes of a tour over it in 1886 contrasting the Ohio of 1846 with 1886-90, Vol. III > Part 20
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Mansfield is a rich agricultural centre and heavy wood market. Great attention is given to the improvement of farm stock, as horses, cattle, swine, etc. Popula- tion, 1880, 9,859. School census, 1888, 3,589 ; John Simpson, school superin- tendent. Capital invested in industrial establishments, $1,036,500. Value of annual product, $2,592,000 .- Ohio Labor Statistics, 1887.
Census, 1890, 13,473.
Mansfield, in 1846, was reached by a railroad from Sandusky, and I came here by it, though they were not then running regular trains. Everything about it was rough and erude. The track had thin, flat bars of iron spiked on wood, and our train consisted of a locomotive, tender, and a single car with a few rough seats, what they called in those days a "Jim Crow " car. In this car was a young man of great height ; slender, pale, and then just 23 years of age. He was attired with studied neatness, and looked to me like a college student, pale and thought- fil. He sat in statue-like silence ; not a word escaped his lips. But I noticed he had his eyes well open ; nothing seemed to fail his observation. My saddle-
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bags, containing valuable drawings and notes, had been taken in charge by the railroad man, and I knew not its whereabouts. In talking with him about it, I showed, as I felt, a nervous anxiety. The young man heard my every word, and the thought came over me, "You must think I am very fussy." He could not realize how important to me were those saddle-bags. Since that day our country has gone through much. We, of advanced years, who have lived through its periods of deadly peril, and suffered the agonies of its sore adversities, alone can realize how much. But I know not a living man who has done such a prolonged, united to such a great, service to the United States, as the silent, reflecting youth who sat by me on that day-JOHN SHERMAN.
Sunday morning, the first day of November, 1886, arrived, and I was again in Mansfield. The town is on a hill; on its summit is the public square, con- taining about three acres ; around it are grouped the public buildings. On it is the soldiers' monument, a band-stand, a pyramid of cannon and a fountain, and tliese things appear under a canopy of overhanging trees.
After breakfast I walked thither and looked around. The day was one of the autumnal show-days; the sun bright, the air balmy, the foliage gay in softly blending hues. Standing there, enjoying the scene, a large, portly gentleman of about 60 years of age approached me. He had in his hand a book-was on his way to open Sunday-school. He was a stranger, and I stopped him to make in- quiries about the surroundings. He seemed pleased, it being complimentary to his superior knowledge. A moment later I made myself known. I could not have met a better man for my queries. It was Mr. Henry C. Hedges ; he was town-born and loved the spot ; and when I remarked, " It is an honor to this town to possess such a citizen as John Sherman," it hit like a centre-shot. The remark was in innocence of the fact that he was the old law partner of Mr. Sherman, and his most intimate friend. " You had better go and see him ? " said he. "Oh, no, it is Sunday, and it will be an intrusion." "The better the day, the better the deed. He has just ended a speaking campaign, and now is the very time. He will be glad to welcome you."
Mr. Sherman's was near the end of a fine avenue of homes, on the high ground, about a mile distant. I walked thither. The bells were ringing for church, and I met the people in loving family groups on their way to wor- ship. The antimal sun filled the air with balm and gladness, and the leaves glinted in its rays their hues of dying beauty. The home I found an amplo brick mansion, with a man- sard roof, on a summit, with a grand outlook to the north, east and west. It is on a lawn, about 200 feet from the avenue, in the midst of evergreens and other trees. The home place has about eight acres, with a large farm attached, on which are orchards abounding in choicest fruits.
The last distant tones of the bells had died on the air, and the leaves ceased rustling under my feet as I reached the door of the mansion. I found Mr. Sherman alone in his library ; the ladies had gone to church. His greeting was with his characteristic calm cor- diality. There is no gush about John Sher- man. Simplicity, direetness and integrity mark alike his intercourse and thought. These qualities are illustrated in those para- graphs forming the conclusion of a speech made in Congress, Jannary 28, 1858 :
" In conclusion, allow me to impress the South with two important warnings she has received in her struggle for Kansas. One is,
that though her able and disciplined leaders on this floor, aided by exeentive patronage, may give her the power to overthrow legisla- tive compacts, yet, while the sturdy integrity of the Northern masses stands in her way, she can gain no practical advantage by her well laid schemes.' The other is, that while she may indulge with impunity the spirit of filibusterisur, or lawless and violent adventure upon a feeble and distracted people in Mex- ieo and Central America, she must not come in contact with that cool, determined conrage and resolution which forms the striking char- acteristic of the Anglo-Saxon race. In such a contest, her hasty and impetuous violence may succeed for a time, but the victory will be short-lived and leave nothing but bitter- ness behind.
"Let us not war with each other ; but, with the grasp of fellowship and friendship, re- gard to the full each other's rights, and let us be kind to each other's faults ; let us go. hand-in-hand in securing to every portion of our people their constitutional rights."
I had never met Mr. Sherman to speak with him until ten days before, and then, but for a moment, and now I had called upon his then-given invitation. He was at leisure for conversation, and passing me a cigar we talked for a while and then he took me on a short walk around the place. The outlook
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MICHAEL D. HARTER.
COL. JARED MANSFIELD.
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GEN. ROELIFF BRINKERHOFF.
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was magnificent-the town in the distance ; the valley through which runs the Mohiccan, and the distant gently sloping hills. The place is 700 feet above Lake Erie, distant in a direct line about 40 miles.
Everything about . it and the mansion within is on the expansive, generous scale, substantial and comfortable. Chesterfield once took Dr. Johnson over his place, and as the doctor concluded his rounds, he turned to Chesterfield and said, with a sigh, "Ah! my lord, it is the possession of such things that must make it so hard to die."
The mansion is spacious in its varied apart- ments, and the walls are filled with books, and by the thousands, and they are there in great variety, and in many lines of human in- terest. The history of our country is all told, the utterances of her most eloquent sons; the deeds of her heroes ; the acts of her statemen. Many of the works are of elegance, many out of print, and of priceless value. He took me to the large rooms under the roof, where is his working library, consisting largely of books appertaining to American legislation and to law. In this great collection it is said, there is not one official act of Government since its foundation that is not recorded, nor a report or utterance by an official, Congress- man or Senator of any moment, that is not given.
Such are the equipments of a Statesman who has made a life-study of, and had a life- experience in behalf of a righteous govern- ment for this American people. I don't say great American people : every reader feels the adjective.
In Mr. Sherman's safe are over 40,000 letters : largely from noted characters, but so carefully classified, that any one can be found in a twinkling. Among them is the famous letter from his brother, the General, giving the first authentic intelligence of the dis- covery of gold in California.
The greatest curiosity he produced were two large volumes containing perhaps a thousand letters, written by the General to him, from the year 1862 to 1867, embracing the period of the civil war.
From youth they had begun a correspond- ence. The General, during his most arduous military duties-in the midst of his famous march to the sea-took time to write long let- ters to his brother, and he in like manner to him. What a mine they will be to the future historian, as revealing the workings of the ininds of the famous brothers, in the light of the events in the passing panorama of that stupendous era. The lifelong affection be- tween them has no other, nor to our knowledge a like example in the history of our eminent public men.
On the opposite side of the avenue from Mr. Sherman's are the homes of two other gentlemen, bright lights in Ohio, upon whom he thought I ought to call. GENERAL, ROELIFF BRINKERHOFF and M. D. HARTER. I took his advice. The first I had met, the other I had not, but, when I did, he pleased me by saying that he remembered "when a very little boy, lying on the floor looking at the pictures in Mr. Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio." It seems to be the custom now-a-days to write of lights while yet shining, and call it " contemporaneous biography." Our ancestors waited until their lights were glimmer' and then on their tombstones told how bright had been their scintillations.
GENERAL ROELIFF BRINKERHOFF had for his remote ancestor Joris Derickson Brinker- hoff, who came in 1638, from Holland to Brooklyn, N. Y., and " bringing with him his wife, Susannah :" certainly pleasing in name and we opine pleasing in person. Providence seems to have blessed the twain, inasmuch as they were the originals of all the Brinker- hoffs in America. Roeliff is of the seventh generation, and had among his ancestors some French Huguenots. Ile was born in Owasco, N. Y., in 1828. At 16 he began teaching school in his native town ; at 19, was private tutor in the family of Andrew Jackson, Jr., at the Hermitage, Tennessee : this was two years after the death of the General. At the age of 22, he came north and 'acquired the profession of the law, in the office of his kins- man, Hon. Jacob Brinkerhoff, in Mansfield: and when the war broke out, was one of the proprietors and editors of the Mansfield Herald. Going into the Union army in 1861, he was soon assigned to the position of. Regi- mental Quartermaster of the 64th Ohio, and rose very high in that department, first in the
west and then in the east. At one time was Post Quartermaster at Washington City; in 1865, Colonel and Inspector of the Quarter- master's Department ; he was then retained on duty at the War Office, with Secretary Stan- ton ; later was Chief Quartermaster at Cin- cinnati, and in 1866, after five years' contin- nous service, retired with the commission of Brigadier-General.
General Brinkerhoff is the author of "The Volunteer Quartermaster," which is still the standard guide for the Quartermaster's Department. As a member of the Board of State Charities, and as President of the Na- tional Board of Charities, he has won by his executive capacity high honor and wide rec- ognition.
He has given for years much study on the subject of prison reform. Largely through his efforts, Mansfield was selected as the site for the State Intermediate Penitentiary. The site is abont a mile north of the town, and the corner-stone was laid November 5, 1886.
MICHAEL D. HARTER is the head in Mans- field of that great manufacturing concern,
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"The Aultman & Taylor Co." He was born part in a fight and pop over an Indian or two. in Canton, in 1846 ; the son of a merchant and . He retraced his steps alone through the dense banker. He is a highly respected and genial gentleman, patriotic and publie-spirited ; the gift of the handsome soldiers' monument in the public square at Mansfield is one of the many illustrations of these qualities. His re- ligious attachment is Lutheran and his politics Democratic, believing in the axiom, "That government is best, which governs the least." He is prominent as the champion in Ohio of the policy of FREE TRADE and Civil Service Reform.
One of the most hale and vigorous old gen- tlemen I met on my tour was DR. WILLIAM BUSHNELL, of Mansfield. He was born about the year 1800. After the surrender of Hull, he, being then in his twelfth year, went with his father with the troops from Trumbull County, to the camp near Cleveland. A battle being imminent with the Indians, his father told him he must go back home. He obeyed reluctantly, for he so wanted to take
wilderness, guided only by the trail left by the regiment. He said to me, " When I got into Wayne township, Ashtabula county, I came to a .cabin, was worn out and half starved, and there I found the biggest people I had ever seen ; and it appears to me now, as I think of it, I have scarcely seen any since so big. They took me in and almost over- whelmed me with kindness. They were the parents of Joshua R. Giddings, who was then a seventeen-year-old boy about the place, swinging his axe into the tall timber. In 1878, Dr. Bushnell was the delegate from Ohio to the International Prison Reform Congress, called by the Swedish Government, and held at Stockholm. The portrait of a solid strong white-bearded patriarch forms the frontispiece to Graham's History of Richland Co., and in fac-simile under it is the signature of Wm. Bushnell, M. D.
JOHNNY APPLESEED.
At an early day, there was a very eccentric character who frequently was in this region, well remembered by the early settlers. His name was John Chapman, but he was usually known as Johnny Appleseed. He came originally from New England.
He had imbibed a remarkable pas- sion for the rearing and cultivation of apple trees from the seed. He first made his appearance in western Penn- sylvania, and from thence made his way into Ohio, keeping on the outskirts of the settlements, and following his favorite pursnit. He was acenstomed to clear spots in the loamy lands on the banks of the streams, plant his seeds, enelose the ground, and then leave the place until the trees had in a measure grown. When the settlers began to flock in and open their " clear- ings," Johnny was ready for them with his young trees, which he either gave away or sold for some trifle, as an old coat, or any article of which he could make use. Thus he proceeded for many years, until the whole country was in a measure settled and supplied with apple trees, deriving self-satisfac- tion amounting to almost delight, in the indulgence of his engrossing passion. JOHNNY APPLESEED. Abont 20 years since he removed to the far west, there to enact over again the same career of humble usefulness which had been his ocenpation here.
His personal appearance was as singular as his character. He was quick and restless in his motions and conversation ; his beard and hair were long and dark,
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and his eye black and sparkling. He lived the roughest life, and often slept in the woods. His clothing was mostly old, being generally given to him in exchange for apple trees, He went bare-footed, and often travelled miles through the snow in that way. In doctrine he was a follower of Swedenborg, leading a moral, blameless life, likening himself to the primitive Christians, literally taking no thought for the morrow. Wherever he went he circulated Swedenborgian works, and if short of them would tear a book in two and give each part to different per-
sons, He was careful not to injure any animal, and thought hunting morally wrong. He was welcome everywhere among the settlers, and was treated with great kindness even by the Indians. We give a few anecdotes, illustrative of his character and eccentricities.
On one cool autumnal night, while lying by his camp-fire in the woods, he ob)- served that the mosquitoes flew in the blaze and were burnt. Johnny, who wore on his head a tin utensil which answered both as a cap and a mush pot, filled it with water and quenched the fire, aud afterwards remarked, "God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort, that should be the means of destroying any of His creatures." Another time he made his camp-fire at the end of a hollow log in which he intended to pass the night, but finding it occupied by a bear and cubs, he removed his fire to the other end, and slept on the snow in the open air, rather than disturb the bear. He was one morning on a prairie, and was bitten by a rat- tlesnake. Some time after, a friend inquired of him about the matter. He drew a long sigh and replied, " Poor fellow ! he only just touched me, when I, in an un- godly passion, put the heel of my seythe on him and went home. Some time after I went there for my seythe, and there lay the poor fellow dead." He bought a coffee bag, made a hole in the bottom, through which he thrust his head and wore it as a cloak, saying it was as good as anything. An itinerant preacher was holding forth on the public square in Mansfield, and exclaimed, " Where is the bare-footed Christian, travelling to heaven!" Johnny, who was lying on his back on some timber, taking the question in its literal sense, raised his bare feet in the air, and vociferated "Here. he is !"
The foregoing account of this philanthropic oddity is from our original edition. In the appendix to the novel, by Rev. James McGaw, entitled " Philip Seymour ; or, Pioneer Life in Richland County," is a full sketch of Johnny, by Miss Rosella Price, who knew him well. When the Copus monument was erected, she had his name carved upon it in honor of his memory. We annex her sketch of him in an abridged form. The portrait was drawn by an artist from her personal recollection, and published in A. A. Graham's " History of Richland County :"
Johnny Appleseed' s Relatives. - John Chap- man was born at or near Springfield, Mass., in the year 1775. About the year 1801 he came with his half-brother to Ohio, and a year or two later his father's family removed to Marietta, Ohio. Soon after Johnny lo- cated in Pennsylvania, near Pittsburg, and began the nursery business and continued it on west. Johnny's father, Nathaniel, senior, moved from Marietta to Duck creek, where he died. The Chapman family was a large one, and many of Johnny's relatives were scattered throughout Ohio and Indiana.
Johnny was, famous throughout Ohio as early as 1811. A pioneer of Jefferson county said the first time he ever saw Johnny he was going down the river, in 1806, with two ca- noes lashed together, and well laden with apple-seeds, which he had obtained at the cider presses of Western Pennsylvania. Some- times he carried a bag or two of seeds on an
old horse ; but more frequently he bore them on his back, going from place to place on the wild frontier ; clearing a little patch, sur- rounding it with a rude enclosure, and plant- ing seeds therein. He had little nurseries all through Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana.
Iloro Regarded by the Early Settlers .- I can remember how Johnny looked in his queer clothing-combination suit, as the girls of now-a-days would call it. He was such a good, kind, generons man, that he thought it was wrong to expend money on clothes to be worn just for the fine appearance ; he thought if he was comfortably clad, and in attire that suited the weather, it was sufficient. ITis head-covering was often a pasteboard hat of his own making, with one broad side to it, that he wore next the sunshine to protect his face. It was a very unsightly object, to be sure, and yet never one of us children ven- tured to laugh at it. We held Johnny in
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tender regard. His pantaloons were old, and scant and short, with some sort of a substi- tute for " gallows" or suspenders. He never ware a cont except in the winter-time ; and his feet were knobby and horny and fre- quently bare. Sometimes he wore oll shoes ; but if he had none, and the rongh roads hurt his feet, he substituted sandals-rude soles, with thong fastenings. The bosom of his shirt was always pulled out loosely, so as to make a kind of pocket or ponch, in which he carried his books.
Johnny's Nurseries .- All the orchards in the white settlements came from the nurseries of Johnny's planting. Even now, after all these years, and though this region of coun- try is densely populated, I can count from my window no less than five orchards, or re- mains of orchards, that were onee trees taken from his nurseries.
Long ago, if he was going a great distance, and carrying a sack of seeds on his back, he had to provide himself with a leather saek ; for the dense underbrush, brambles and thorny thiekets would have made it unsafe for a coffee-sack.
In 1806 he planted sixteen bushels of seeds on an old farm on the Walhonding river, and he planted nurseries in Licking county, Ohio, and Richland county, and had other nursories farther west. One of his nurseries is near us, and I often go to the secluded spot, on the quiet banks of the creek, never broken since the poor old man did it, and say, in a reverent whisper, "Oh, the angels did com- mune with the good old man, whose loving heart prompted him to go about doing good !"
Matrimonial Disappointment .- On one oc- casion Miss Price's mother asked Johnny if he would not be a happier man, if he were settled in a home of his own, and had a family to love him. He opened his eyes very wide -they were remarkably keen, penetrating grey eyes, almost black-and replied that all women were not what they professed to be ; that some of them were deceivers ; and a man might not marry the amiable woman that he thought he was getting, after all. Now we had always heard that Johnny had loved once upon a time, and that his lady love had proven false to him. Then he said one time he saw a poor, friendless little girl, who had no one to care for her, and sent her to school, and meant to bring her up to suit himself, and when she was old enough he intended to marry her. He clothed her and watched over her ; but when she was fifteen years old, he called to see her once unexpectedly, and found her sitting beside a young man, with her hand in his, listening to his silly twaddle. I peeped over at Jolinny while he was telling this, and, young as I was, I saw his eyes grow dark as violets, and the pupils enlarge, and his voice rise up in demmeiation, while his nostrils dilated and his thin lips worked with emotion. How angry he grew ! He thought the girl was basely ungrateful. After that time she was no protege of his.
His Power of Oratory .- On the subject of
apples he was very charmingly enthusiastic. One would be astonished at his beautiful de- seription of excellent fruit. I saw him once at the table, when I was very small, telling about some apples that were new to us. His description was poetical, the language re- markably well-chosen ; it could have been no finer had the whole of Webster's "Un- abridged," with all its royal vocabulary, been fresh upon his ready tongne. I stood back of my mother's chair, amazed, delighted, be- wildered, and vaguely realizing the wonder- ful powers of true oratory. I felt more than I understood.
His Sense of Justice. - He was scrupulously honest. I recall the last time we ever saw his sister, a very ordinary woman, the wife of an easy old gentleman, and the mother of a family of handsome girls. They had started to move West in the winter season, but could move no farther after they reached our house. To help them along and to get rid of them, my father made a queer little one-horse ve- hicle on runners, hitched their poor little ear- icature of a beast to it ; helped them to pack and stow therein their bedding and few mov- ables ; gave them a stock of provisions and five dollars, and sent the whole kit on their way rejoicing ; and that was the last we ever saw of our poor neighbors. The next time Johnny eame to our house he very promptly laid a five-dollar bill on my father's knee, and shook his head very decidedly when it was handed back ; neither could he be prevailed upon to take it again.
He was never known to hurt any animal or to give any living thing pain-not even a snake. The Indians all liked him and treated him very kindly. They regarded him, from his habits, as a man above his fellows. Ile could endure pain like an Indian warrior ; could thrust pins into his flesh without a tremor. Indeed so insensible was he to acute pain, that his treatment of a wound or sore was to sear it with a hot iron, and then treat it as a burn.
Mistaken Philanthropy .- He ascribed great medieinal virtue to the fennel, which he found, probably, in Pennsylvania. The over- whelming desire to do good and benefit and bless others induced him to carry a quantity of the seed, which he carried in his pockets, and occasionally scattered along his path in his journeys, especially at the wayside near dwellings. Poor old man ! he inflicted upon the farming population a positive evil, when he sought to do good ; for the rank fennel, with its pretty but pungent blossoms, lines our roadsides and borders our lanes, and steals into our door-yards, and is a pest only second to the daisy.
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