USA > Ohio > Richland County > History of Richland County, Ohio, from 1808 to 1908, Vol. I > Part 11
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The first train on the Mansfield & Sandusky City road, carrying passen- gers, was run on the 16th day of May, 1846, and brought a party of excur- sionists from Plymouth and Shelby to attend a war meeting in Mansfield, when General Mclaughlin was recruiting a company of volunteers to serve in the war with Mexico, in which the United States was then engaged.
The track was then "barely passable" (as the Swiss guide told the great Napoleon of the pass in the Alps), and was laid only to the north edge of the town, not far from where the waterworks pumping station now stands. Our late esteemed fellow citizen, J. H. Cook, was the conductor of the train, and among other incidents of the occasion, often related how the crowd which had gather to see the cars come in, scattered and scampered when the engi- neer blew the engine whistle.
But the first passenger train that ran into Mansfield was on the 19th of June, 1846. The extension to Newark was completed in 1850, but no definite date can be ascertained when regular trains ran through on schedule time.
In conclusion, Mr. Baughman spoke of the contrast between the rail- roads and their equipments of today with those of the earlier period, and, in illustration, stated an incident that occurred north of Shelby in the long ago. as narrated by the late John Hoover, for many years a conductor on the Mansfield-Sandusky road. Something had gone wrong with the engine, and when they got it in running order again night was upon them and they
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sought lodgings for the night at a farm house near by. A passenger suggested that if they had a big lantern a man might carry it ahead and the train fol- low him to Shelby. The idea was looked upon as absurd and the man who suggested it viewed with pity, if not with contempt, for whoever heard of : train of cars running after night!
Mr. Baughman's paper called forth reminiscent remarks from Miss Sturges, General Brinkerhoff, Captain A. II. Condict, S. C. Parker, Sanniel Bell and others.
MANSFIELD'S INDUSTRIES.
The manufacturing industries of Mansfield were so well presented in a special-feature article in the Mansfield News during the week of the Feast of Ceres, held in this city in the fall of 1907, that it is reproduced here :
It is not untimely, as Mansfield approaches its centennial anniversary, to stand for a brief spell on the proud eminence of the city's present pros- perity and cast a backward glance over the hundred years in which it has grown from a wilderness settlement into a city which is fast approaching the 25,000 mark in population.
Mansfield does not come under the classification of "boom" cities, the kind which grow up in a day, stand for a short time in the limelight and then pass quietly from view. This is not a city hastily built to meet temporary requirements, but is the result of gradual development which was made necessary in meeting the increasing needs of its people.
As the slow-growing oak sinks its roots deeply and clings so tenaciously to mother earth as to withstand the buffetings of the severest storm, so Mans- field has grown, and the growth to its present stature has required an hundred years.
But, looking now upon the result of this hundred years of growth, every resident of the city and every resident of the county may well feel proud of the achievement. The development of the city has not been one-sided-no one part of the city structure has been strengthened at the expense of some of the other parts, but as he who would become a perfect athlete trains each muscle in order that no vulnerable point can be found, so has the city steadily grown in strength and numbers until now it stands firm and well rounded, a credit to its founders and its present residents.
Contemplate for a moment if you will, Mansfield as you now see it, with its busy factories, fine mercantile establishments, beautiful parks, elegant residences, handsome churches, commodious schoolhouses, its paved streets, street car lines, all of its modern improvements and conveniences: then imagine, if you can, the desolate wilderness from which all of this has grown in a short five score of years.
Where stands a fine business block was erected the first unpretentious cabin which served as the home of one of the earliest settlers, and during the seven years that followed the total building done amounted to only twenty- two houses and two block houses, the latter being required about that time for protection against the attacks of hostile Indians, many of whom skulked through the woods about the little settlement.
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For a time the rough hewn logs sufficed in the construction of places of abode, but it was not long until the sprit of progress which impregnated those sturdy people of the early days made itself felt and resulted in the erection of a sawmill, primitive, it is true-propelled, in fact, by three yoke of oxen, but indicative, nevertheless, of a confidence that the settlement was to be a permanent one.
Then, as the needs of the settlers increased and the ability came to meet these needs, there followed the erection of the first grist mill, the grinding theretofore having been done at Fredericktown or Mount Vernon, which, in view of the fact that horses and oxen furnished the only means of transpor- tation, was about a two days' trip.
And after a while came the first store, the first tailor, the first shoemaker, and the first tinner, each fitting into his respective niche in the growing com- munity and each arriving at the psychological time when his services were required.
So the little settlement grew and there came the hotelkeeper, preacher, the lawyer and the doctor. And among the early manufacturing enterprises there was the carding mill, which carded the wool that went into the clothing of the settlers, the tannery, the pottery and the cooperage shop.
Toiling on through the years Mansfield finally, in 1828, reached a suffi- cient degree of importance to be incorporated as a village. but, although all steps were forward, it was not until 1846, when the first railroad train came into the city, that he town began to take on that marked activity which has brought it to the position which it now occupies.
And now, after this hasty glance at the receding years, a picture of the city in its swaddling clothes, let us take a look at least at one feature of the present-day city-Mansfield as a manufacturing center.
Probably few people are aware of the fact that Mansfield is located in the very center of the manufacturing belt of America, it being shown by the official report of the factory department of the United States Census Bureau that the actual center of manufacturing in the United States, based on the value of output, is just seventeen miles southeast of this city.
At the present time Mansfield has sixty-one manufacturing industries, the largest of these being the Ohio Brass Company, with six hundred and twelve employes. This concern is regarded as one of the best of the kind in the world, and is looked upon as ranking high in its class in point of general construction, convenience of operation, economy of conduct and also as to the appointments for the employes in the way of sanitary conveniences.
Employed in the factories of Mansfield at the present time are 4,492 persons, 3,110 men and 1,382 women, and the amount paid annually in wages to these employes is computed at $2,241,820, while the output of the factories for the year ended July 1 will reach nearly $9.000.000.
The investment of capital in the manufacturing plants of the city and their equipment is estimated at $4,200,000.
The number of factory employes as above given is exclusive of the plants of the Seneca Chain company, the Globe Steel company and the Safety Cylinder Valve company, which will add at least another three
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hundred male employes to the wage-earning population of the city within the next four months.
A marked diversification of manufactures has been advantageous to Mansfield in many ways and with the satisfactory labor conditions the wage-carning population of the city is found to be uniformly happy and contented.
It is a fact worthy of note that no less than sixty per cent of the skilled mechanics of the city own their own homes, while the percentage of other wage earners owning their homes is vastly larger than is to be found in many other cities of the state.
The manufacturing interests of Mansfield have been very largely built up by home people and nearly all the factories are practically owned by Mansfield citizens, there being only one case in which the holdings of the company are entirely foreign to our people and only three in which the majority of the stock is held by non-residents.
Prominent among the industries of the city and giving some idea of the diversified nature of their output, may be mentioned the two manufacturers of agricultural instruments, the stove foundries, the sanitary appliance plants, the three brass factories, two manufacturers of electrical equipment, one chemical manufacturing plant, a suspender factory, a number of cigar fac- tories, seven wood working establishments, and a great many smaller iron- working establishments.
Prominent among the newer factories of the city is the growing plant of Browning Bros., which is now operating entirely in the manufacture of railroad wreckers and cranes.
And too, it may be said that the local plant of the National Biscuit company is regarded as one of the prominent ones of the concern and that it is known abroad as being a producer of the best oyster cracker made.
Taste of the water with which the people of Mansfield are supplied and then, if you will, consult the mortality statistics of the city, take into con- sideration the extremely low death rate, give a thought to the general health conditions and the beauty of the surroundings, and you cannot help realizing that when our forefathers chose this as the site for a future city they builded better than they knew.
In the growth of Mansfield as a manufacturing city there has been one factor that stands out with more than ordinary prominence as an attraction to industries of every sort, this being the railroads, for without facilities for transporting their ouput the factories would have no way of reaching other than a strictly local market, while as it now is the product of these factories finds buyers in every part of the world.
From the standpoint of its railroad facilities Mansfield is one of the most advantageous points for manufacturing in the United States. It is located on the main lines of the three greatest railroads of the country-the Penn- sylvania, the Baltimore & Ohio, and the Erie-and in this Mansfield stands out prominently as being the only city between New York and Chicago transversed by these great arteries of interstate commerce.
The iron-working industries of Mansfield draw their supply of iron
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ore from seven different sources at the equal tariff of one dollar, this one thing making the situation of the city more advantageous than any one of the sixteen other Ohio cities of about the same population.
At the same time Mansfield has two direct lines of transportation to the rivers and the great lakes, giving us unexcelled fuel advantages, in addition to which the natural gas supply of Mansfield is without doubt superior to that of any other Ohio city, with a possible single exception.
The progressiveness of the people of Mansfield and their adaptability to modern conveniences could scarcely be shown in a better way than by a reference to the growth of the telephone business in the city. While twenty- five years ago only forty business offices and residences enjoyed the advan- tages of telephone service, it is found that at the present time the total num- ber of subscribers of the two competing companies in the city will pass the four thousand mark and the vicinity business adds another fifteen hundred to the list.
In the wholesale or jobbing business in the city there are three large grocery firms, one of general merchandise, one wall paper, two hardware, an oil company, a drug firm, one of agricultural implements and two cigar jobbing houses, all enjoying a lucrative business and covering many states with their traveling salesmen.
In the retail business the merchants of Mansfield, in every line, are live and progressive, glad of a chance to compete in quality and prices with the stores of the larger cities and handling such comprehensive stocks as to leave no inducement for residents of the city to do out-of-town trading, but at the same time offering many advantages to the residents of the sur- rounding country and nearby towns.
From the standpoint of churches and schools Mansfield may be said to offer exceptional advantages, all of the leading denominations having beauti- ful and costly houses of worship, while the schools take high rank in the recognition received from the colleges and universities of the country.
THE TELEPHONE.
ITS GENERAL AND LOCAL HISTORY.
That the American people readily take to new utilities and adapt them- selves to the new conditions shown by the fact that. although it has been but twenty-nine years since Alexander Graham Bell first exhibited his apparatus for the "transmission of sound by electricity," over two million telephone instruments are now in use. This shows a phenomenal growth of the use of one of the greatest inventions of the age along the line of general utilty.
In 1881, two years after Professor Bell had strung his first long-distance wire from Boston to Lowell, a distance of forty miles, there was only one . telephone subscriber to each 1,074 of population; in 1904, the ratio was reduced to 1 to 53. During the year 1881, the telephone was used 300,000 times in the United States; in 1904, the average daily number was 10.134,- 020. In 1881, the number of communications per inhabitant per year averaged two; in 1904 the average had risen to forty-two.
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At the time of the invention of the telephone, O. HI. Booth was the superintendent of the Western Union Telegraph company at Mansfield. One of his co-workers was Samuel Uhlich, an expert electrician, with ample means to engage in any business enterprise that might suit his fancy. Soon after Professor Bell had made his invention, Messrs. Booth and Chlich took the initiative work of introducing the telephone in Mansfield. and in the summer of 1877, a telephone entertainment was given in the Sunday school room of the Congregational church. A wire was run from the old parsonage to the church, with an instrument in each building. Singers were at tho parsonage, and an audience at the church. At a given signal, the choir would sing, and then the people at the church would file along by the table where the instrument was placed, each having the privilege of taking the receiver and listening a moment to the singing, all declaring, "it is some- thing wonderful."
About this time a third person (W. L. Leonard), without being finan- cially interested in the matter, assisted Messrs. Booth and Uhlich in founding a telephone plant in Mansfield. Prior to coming to this city, Mr. Leonard was a telegrapher in Cincinnati. After locating here he conducted a cigar stand in the Wiler House. The "Wiler" was then under the management of Rush H. Field, and was one of the leading hotels in this part of Ohio.
Mr. Leonard installed a telegraph instrument in the office of the Wiler House, and became interested in the sale of tickets for a number of rail- roads connecting with the trunk lines that pass through Mansfield, and the hotel became headquarters for information relative to trains, the price of grain, etc., and this line of business information was increased after a 'phone had been placed in the office, and prior to the telephone getting into general use.
In 1880, Messrs. Booth and Uhlich installed a telephone exchange in the Stocking building and got a few subscribers, and after conducting the same for a year or more, sold out to the Central Union Telephone company. which had obtained a franchise from the city council in 1881, and early in 1882 the exchange was removed from Stocking to the Dickson building. where it remained for a number of years.
It is twenty-six years since the Central Union exchange was installed with forty-nine subscribers, and now there is a total of about six thousand 'phones in use, city and suburban, by the two companies operating in Mans- field.
Miss Ella Wulle was the first lady operator and served a year or more before she had an assistant. Miss Wulle was attentive to her duties, was a plain talker, and gave general satisfaction to the public.
There was no night operator at the exchange for several years. The first step toward a night service was to get a man to sleep in the office, who was supposed to answer calls, if he heard them.
About ten years ago a Mansfield Telephone company was organized and installed, and the two companies now fully occupy the field, making Mansfield one of the most thoroughly 'phoned towns in Ohio.
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The following incidents are given to show how little the people knew of the use of the telephone twenty-five years ago.
The late John B. Netscher for a number of years bought apples at a frame building that stood between West Sixth street and the B. & O. freight house. One day a farmer entered the Wiler House and asked Mr. Leonard what Mr. Netscher was paying for apples. Mr. Leonard said he would inquire, and, going to the 'phone at the door of the cloak room, asked, "Mr. Netscher, what are you paying for apples today?" Upon getting a reply. Mr. Leonard turned to the farmer and stated the price. "Why doesn't Netscher come out and tell me himself? What is he cooped up in that little room for?" the farmer asked. He did not know about the telephone and supposed Mr. Netscher was in the cloak room.
A man and wife from Butler came to Mansfield on a shopping trip soon after telephones had been placed in some of the stores. At Sam Lowen- stein's, in the Dickson building, they were looking at a suit of clothes shown them by Mr. Geltz. A man was using a 'phone at the back part of the store. The woman saw him, but did not know of the 'phone, and addressing her husband in an undertone, she requested him to leave the store, saying; "There is a man standing back there talking to the wall. He is evidently crazy and is liable to get violent at any time."
A story is also told of a new subscriber who heard his telephone bell ring after he had retired, and, jumping out of bed. said, "All right ; I'll be there in a moment." Before he got down stairs the bell rang again. and this time he answered impatiently, "I told you I am coming."
With the telephone, trolley cars and other modern utilities. Mansfield people have within their reach more conveniences and better facilities than had any other people of all the years that have gone to make the history of the world.
THE BUTLER OIL AND GAS FIELD.
The finding of oil and gas in the vicinity of Butler, in the southern part of Richland county, was an event of so much importance that the subjoined account of the same is taken from the Butler Messenger news- paper, of Friday, March 30, 1905.
The village of Butler has been the Mecca of oil and gas men for nearly a year and still holds its record for that. This town, with its eight hundred inhabitants, nestles cosiły amid the hills of Worthington township, about one mile west of the geographical center of the township, which is the extreme southeastern one in Richland county. It is surrounded by fertile, well- improved agricultural land, and up to a little over a year ago the raising of all kinds of crops occupied the attention of the land owners of this locality.
But a change came over the scene. One year ago last December leasing of the territory for prospecting for gas and oil was commenced in earnest. Although many of the land owners had leased some years ago without any consideration whatever, they were willing to lease once more for the privi- lege of finding what lay underneath their farms.
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The farmers, who were the first to sign leases in favor of the Butler Oil and Gas Co., were promised fifty cents per acre per year, payable at the end of the year. Several thousand acres were taken up at this figure. Many others, more fortunate, refused to lease at such a small stipend, and conse- quently secured $1.00 per acre. Others who were slow in leasing received much more than that, especially after the first well came in:
After considerable speculation regarding the matter of gas and oil, the Butler Oil and Gas Co. was finally incorporated with $40,000 capital. Stock was readily sold at $25 per share, and it was a momentous day when the work of constructing the first derrick, which is on Marion McClellan's farm, one and a half miles southeast of Butler, was begun. As soon as it was completed drilling machinery was installed and the work of sinking a shaft went forward. As the immense drill kept on going lower and lower into the earth, enthusiasm continued to increase, and when on June 18, 1905, the McClellan well came in a mammoth gasser, it knew no bounds.
It is always pleasant, and it is usually inspiring, to contemplate success, and a retrospect of the development of the Butler Oil territory will be full of interest. So far as can be determined, the early stages of the development of the field has proved an unqualified success in every particular.
The first well was drilled on the Marion Mcclellan farm. The well came in about July 25 a big gasser, with about 4,000,000 capacity. Steps were immediately taken to pipe the product into Butler, and also supply Bellville with fuel. Some delay in securing the necessary piping was caused, but about he firs of October gas was turned into the mains and a big demonstration took place in honor of the event. Two large pipes were erected at different places in Butler and the gas fired, while the band played on. The consumers were given gas at twenty cents per thousand, with a ten per cent discount, making it eighteen cents net.
Soon after the first strike arrangements were formulated to put down a well on A. W. Mishey's farm, a little south of east of the Mcclellan well. This well was drilled to a depth of twenty-six hundred feet and aban .. doned as a duster. No Clinton sand was encountered in this well, but instead, a sort of reddish sand, such as was later found in the Russell well. There was no indication whatever of oil or gas and the derrick was at once torn down and the casing removed.
Failure in the Mishey well did not dishearten the projectors and almost immediately another well was located. This was about five hundred yards south of the gas well on the Mengert farm, the property of L. C. Mengert, of Mansfield, Peter Mengert, of Troy township, and Fred Mengert, of Wash- ington township, heirs of the late William Mengert. The drilling of this well consumed nine weeks, and on December 22, 1905, at a depth of two thousand five hundred and forty-eight feet oil was found in nine feet of Clinton sand. Before the full depth of the sand had been reached the oil spurted forth twenty feet higher than the eighty-foot derrick, throwing out stones and sand with great force. And what oil it was! Genuine Pennsyl- vania oil in every particular. In color it was of a transparent yellow, and in specific gravity fifty-seven, making it eligible to the top notch of market
THE BUTLER OIL AND GAS REGION. THE MENGERT WELL
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price. A dilemma confronted the company at this time. Expectant of a flow of gas insead of oil, they were illy prepared to receive the golden shower precipitated upon them from nature's refinery, and as a result, at least one thousand barrels of the precious liquid ran away. A small spring ran near it and floated into Gold run, where much of it was secured by Butler residents, as it floated through the east part of town. However, a force of men was secured and a dyke was made below the well, checking the wasted oil until the tanks were secured to put it in. The well was after- ward drilled in and a steady flow of oil resulted. The estimated capacity was from two hundred to two hundred and fifty barrels per day for several days, and finally it dropped down to a flow of from seventy-five to one hun- dred. This capacity has been held up since that time. When the Mcclellan gas well became clogged a gas saver was attached to the Mengert well, and the wonderful well has since kept up its record of pouring out both oil and sufficient gas for Butler and Bellville also.
The finding of oil in this territory caused an influx of interested men from all parts of the United States. Butler hotels were taxed to their utmost capacity, and the livery business flourished. Butler had become more than a mere speck on the map. Experts were early in the field and readily recog- nized from the quality of the oil, the possibility of the great new oil field.
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