USA > Ohio > Richland County > History of Richland County, Ohio, from 1808 to 1908, Vol. I > Part 33
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St. John's is situated in one of the richest valleys of the Clearfork-a valley that is as beautiful in its landscape as it is fertile in its soil. The town- ship line running east and west divides this valley between Monroe and Worthington townships.
The first settlement in the southeast part of Richland county was at St. John's, and among the carly settlers were Samuel Lewis, Captain James Cunningham, Andrew Craig and Henry MeCart. In 1812 the "Lewis block-
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house" was built on the northeast quarter of section 1 in Worthington town- ship, about a mile south of where the church now stands.
In the St. John's valley is the Darling fort, an ancient earth-work, erected by a people of whom we know nothing. Some of the finest specimens in the large collection of relics and curiosities owned by the late Dr. J. P. Henderson were taken from this fort, which is situated on the north bank of the Clearfork, a short distance south of the church. The fort is circular and contains an area of about three acres. It had embankments from the gate at the south side leading down to the bank of the river. It was visited, surveyed and explored by Judge Peter Kenney in his day. The embankments were then about three feet high, and the whole covered with a growth of timber which showed that the works had been made centuries before. The fort commands a good view of the valley, and was, perhaps, intended as a defensive work. The greater part, if not all, of these ancient earthworks were planned and constructed upon geographical and geometrical lines and measurements. Their uses and pur- poses are matters of vague conjectures which the people of this age will never be able to determine. Evidences exist of the occupation of this country by a race of people somewhat advanced in the arts and sciences, but who they were, from whence they came, and what became of them, are questions for speculative history.
The Pennsylvania element predominated in the early settlement of Monroe township, but the proportion was not sufficiently large to leave dis- tinctive racial characteristics among the generation of today.
For several years, commencing, perhaps, in 1855, the late Rev. W. A . G. Emerson was pastor of the congregation at St. John's. Mr. Emerson was born in Fairfax county, Virginia, 1816, and died at Ashland November, 1879. He was of French descent and possessed many of the traits and polite accomplish- ments of his ancestry. In many respects Mr. Emerson was an extraordinary man. As a preacher he was one of the most eloquent and powerful. The most appropriate words were always at his command, and he never hesitated for a term to felicitously express his thoughts. His voice was under the most perfect control and capable of expressing all the emotions of the human heart. His manner was earnest and impressive and his style pleasant and fascinating. He threw such persuasive power and convincing force into his sermons that he electrified his hearers and swayed them at his will. He loved to dwell upon the goodness of the Father and of the Savior's love, and his word-pictures were beautiful and entrancing. In 1862 Mr. Emerson became chaplain of the One Hundredth and Twentieth Regiment, O. V. I., and lost his health in the serv- ice. Mr. Emerson was not successful financially-and the majority of people are not-but many who read these lines will bear witness that he was one of the greatest preachers of his day and generation.
MIFFLIN TOWNSHIP.
Vermillion township was originally eighteen miles long from north to south, and twelve miles wide from east to west. In 1814 this territory was cut into two parts, and the west half was called Mifflin. In 1816 Mifflin was
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divided, and the portion lying directly east of and adjoining Madison, six miles square, retained the name and organization of Mifflin township. A number of settlers there came from Mifflin township, Allegheny county, Penn .. sylvania-hence the name.
When Ashland county was created in 1846, Mifflin was again divided by the county line, which follows the general course of the Blackfork. The territory on each side of the line retains the name of Mifflin. one being in Ashland, the other in Richland county.
The surface of Mifflin along the Blackfork is generally hilly, but the western part of the township is more level, and some of the most productive farms in the county are along the Blackfork valley, and the farmers are generally well and comfortably situated.
Long before Mifflin was settled by white men it was a favorite hunting ground for the Indians, as all kinds of game abounded in its primeval forests. Samuel and David Hill and Archibald Gardner were the first white settlers in Mifflin, locating there either late in 1809 or early in 1810. Samuel Hill settled on the northeast quarter of section 33, north of Lucas. Archibald Gardner located near Windsor.
The settlement and history of Mifflin have been similar to that of the other townships of the county. In the beginning there were dangers from savages and from the climatic diseases of a new country. The Mifflin pioneers, like those of other localities, lived in log cabins, cleared their lands, worked early and late, and their bill-of-fare consisted, principally, of corn bread, fish and game. As the population increased, there were shooting matches and militia musters. The men were robust and brave and the women were fit mothers for the generations that were to follow. Time passed and Mifflin grew and im- proved and prospered, keeping step with her sister townships, and will soon be traversed by trolley lines, bringing the people in touch with the county seat and country towns and pleasure resorts.
Before churches or schoolhouses were built, religious services were held and schools were taught in the cabins of the pioneers. In time, fine churches were erected for religious and educational purposes, and today the churches and schoolhouses of that township are evidences of the high character and attainments of the people.
Robert Bentley settled upon the southwest quarter of section 10 in 1815. The family camped in their wagon until their cabin was built and in which they lived until 1828, when they moved out of the old cabin into a fine brick residence-the first brick dwelling erected in Richland county. Mr. Bentley was for seven years an associate judge of the court of common pleas, and served two terms in the state senate. He was a major general of the Ohio militia, and was a prominent man in business, as well as in civic and military affairs. He died in Mansfield in 1862. Two grandchildren of General Bentley reside in Mansfield-the Hon. M. B. Bushnell and the wife of General Brinkerhoff.
Peter Hout was born upon the farm on which he now resides November 17, 1821, and has, therefore, been a resident of this township for eighty-two years. He attended school in one of the log schoolhouses connon at the time. He can relate many interesting incidents of pioneer life, when the land was all
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wild and unimproved and when wild game was plentiful in that region. Mr. Hout has held several township offices, and also served his county as infirmary director two terms. As an honored pioneer and representative man of Mifflin he is worthy the high regard in which he is held. The Houts are both numer- ous and prosperous. One rural mail carrier from Mansfield delivers mail to a dozen Hout families.
The late Isaac Aby settled in Mifflin in 1826. In 1854 he married Sarah Clugston, sister of George A. Clugston, of this city. Mr. Aby was a California "forty-niner," and what he accumulated in the Golden State gave him a good financial start upon his return, and as the years came he bought farm after farm and was quite wealthy at the time of his death. His son-Byron J. Aby-is one of the wealthy and prominent farmers of Mifflin today.
The Ballietts are both numerous and prosperous. Mifflin does not con- tain all of them, for Washington and other townships have many families of them. Whenever you pass a Balliett farm you see a place that is well im- proved.
There are a number of Boals families, all well situated, and the late David Boals was a county commissioner.
James Chew located in Mifflin in 1817. His sons were Andrew, William, Aaron and Cephias. James Chew died in 1839. The Chews have been prom- inent people in Richland county since its early settlement.
Daniel Hoover was one of the early settlers of Mifflin township, and through his industry and frugality accumulated considerable property. He was married to Sarah Sheller. They were the parents of eight children, of whom Joseph, born in 1824, was the eldest The others were Mary, Henry, Aaron, Christian, Alfred, Elizabeth and Daniel. Mr. Hoover was a Baptist, and frequently had preaching at his house.
Daniel Kohler, Sr., was born in Pennsylvania in 1814. Came to Ohio at an early day and was married to Nancy Brubaker. The Kohlers, the Kagys, the Cotters, the Coles and Hershes are related by marriage.
Duncan McBride was born in Virginia in 1807, came with his parents to Richland county in 1817, and settled one mile north of Lucas, in a log cabin, which for a time had no floor but the earth; later a puncheon floor was laid and a quilt was hung up for a door. In those days they put bells on their horses and on their cows, which were turned out to browse in the woods, which were the only fields of pasture then. In hunting for them they were apt to encounter almost any kind of wild animals from bears to porcupines. When the dogs attacked the latter their mouths would get filled with the quills of the porcupines, and then their yelling and howling was terrible. Their master would have to pull the quills out of their mouths, to which the dogs would submit intelligently. In 1829 Duncan McBride bought a farm at the foot of the Mohawk hill in Monroe township, upon which he resided until his death, in 1862. Duncan McBride was a justice of the peace for many years, and during the period when cases that now go to the common pleas court, were then tried before justices of the peace. One of these was the notable "California case," which was tried before Justice McBride, and in which the Hon. John Sherman and the Hon. George W. Geddes were
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opposing counsel. This was before Sherman went to Congress, and before Geddes was elected a judge in the common pleas court.
Solomon Aby is a successful farmer. He is a great-grandson of the late Rev. James Copus, who was killed by the Indians in the Copus battle, Septem- ber 15, 1812.
Squire Freeman Osbun owns farms in both Mifflin and Weller townships. He was a soldier in the War of the Rebellion, being a member of Company D, One Hundred and Second O. V. I. He is of a pioneer family, and is a justice of the peace, as his father was before him.
Of other prominent people in Mifflin, past and present, the familiar names of a number are recalled: N. S. Henry, E. N. Ernsberger, the Hales, Au, Bell, Barr, Cole, Hoover, Kaufman, Kaylor, Van Cleaf, Miller, Sattler, Snyder, Wolfe, Woodhouse, Yeaman, Swoveland, McNaull, McCready, Wal- ters, Haverfield, Sunkel, Amsbaugh, Sturgeon, Tucker, Hunt, Reyher, Simp- son, Hostetter, Culler, Gongwer, McCormick, Zook, Niesley, Sites, Koogle, and Cook.
Peter Hout was in Mansfield Saturday and in conversation with some friends on the Sturges corner, told in an interesting way of the pioneer days, when he was a boy-three-fourths of a century ago, and of the change made by
"The inaudible and noiseless foot of time."
With the network of telephone wires now strung over the country, every man is in communication with his neighbors, even to the remotest parts. How different from the slow intercourse of that of bygone years. This is realized as much in receiving election returns as in any other way. Years ago post riders were frequently sent to the outlying townships to bring in the returns. Upon one occasion the contest between two candidates was very close, and when the returns had been received from all the precinct- except one, the interest became intense. as the vote was so close that it was conceded that the township to hear from would decide which of the two can- didates would be chosen. The suspense became more and more intensified as time passed. Finally the messenger appeared, riding at a furious speed, and halting where the crowd had gathered, his panting horse flecked with foam, exclaimed, "Seven of a majority." "For whom?" yelled the anxious crowd. "I don't know for whom, but I do know, gentlemen. that this 'hoss is a speeder."
It was the custom in the pioneer days, when a man killed a calf or pig to divide it among his neighbors. One who had often received the benefit of this generous custom, but was rather noted for his parsimony, had, in his turn, killed a pig, and meeting a friend, informed him of the circumstance and expressed to him his fear that he would not have meat sufficient to dis- tribute among his neighbors and retain what he considered necessary for his own use. His friend, after considering the case, proposed that he could relieve himself of his dilemma by permitting the pig to remain suspended outdoors where it had been dressed, during the night, and before daylight take it in and conceal it in his house, and then to give out that it had been
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stolen during the night. The suggestion received the approval of the pig owner; and on the next morning he met his friend, and, with a rueful coun- tenance, informed him that, sure enough, his pork had been stolen. The friend complimented the pig man upon his skill in lying, and told him that he had only to repeat the story with the same skill to all whom he would meet and there would be no doubt that the lie would be successful. The other swore that his tale was neither a lie nor a joke, but that his pig had indeed been stolen. In response to his vehement protestations, his friend would the more compliment his skill in playing off, and urge him to put on a bold front and maintain his position in the face of everybody. The truth of the matter was, that the disinterested and facetious "friend" who had advised the plan, had taken the pig.
There has been a tendency to unearth ancient graves in the interest, as it is claimed. of historical research, but often, perhaps, to gratify curiosity, or to hunt for supposed trinkets and treasures. The meanest kind of a thief is a grave robber. There are two kinds of ancient graves in Richland county-one of the pre-historic people who inhabited this locality eight or ten centuries ago. The other, those of Indians of the pre-pioneer per- iod. Many people confound the Indians with the pre-historic race of mound builders, who were not Indians. A different people may have inhabited this part of the country at a period between its occupancy by the mound builders and by the Indians. Why desecrate those ancient graves in a fruitless attempt to roll back the centuries of the past, for the search light of investigation reveals but little of "the night of time."
An old-time poet wrote:
"Oh, Mound! consecrated before The white man's foot e'er trod the shore, To battle's strife and valour's grave, Spare, oh, spare, the buried brave.
"A thousand winters passed away. And yet demolished not the clay. Which on yon hillock held in trust The quiet of the warrior's dust.
"The Indian came and went again ; He hunted through the lengthened plain : And from the mound he oft beheld The present silent battlefield.
"But did the Indian c'er presume, To violate that ancient tomb? Ah, no, he had the soldier's grace Which spares the soldier's resting place. .
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"It is alone for Christian hand To sever that sepulchral band, Which ever to the view is spread, To bind the living to the dead."
MADISON TOWNSHIP.
Madison township in 1807 included all the territory which then con- prised Richland county. The township was named in honor of President Madison, the fourth president of the United States. On the 16th of January, 1808, a bill passed the Ohio Legislature creating the counties of Knox, Lick- ing and Richland, with the provision placing Richland under the jurisdiction of Knox county, as it had been before under Fairfield, "until the Legislature may think proper to organize the same." The commissioners of Knox county, on June 10, 1809, declared "the entire county of Richland a separate township, which shall be called and known by the name of Madison." At an election held in 1809, but seventeen votes were cast, showing that there were but few settlers here at that time.
Thomas Green, a white man, who had assisted the Indians in the Wyom- ing massacre, lived with the Indians at Greentown, and the village was named for him (in 1783), but he was not a settler. Other renegade white men may also have been in these parts temporarily. But the first permanent white settler was Jacob Newman, who located within the present boundaries of Madison township in the spring of 1807. General James Hedges was here prior to that date, but he was then in the employ of the government as a surveyor, and did not become a resident until later.
The first white man, so far as is known, to traverse the territory now known as Richland county, was James Smith, a young man who was captured by the Indians in Pennsylvania in 1755, and was adopted into one of their tribes. Smith, in company with his foster brother, Tontilcango, passed a number of hunting seasons in these parts. Next, Major Rogers and his rangers passed through where Mansfield now stands. when passing to and fro between Gnadenhutten and Wyandot.
In 1782, Colonel Crawford, with his army, passed through Richland county, and halted at "a fine spring"-now known as the Lampert spring. on East Fourth street, Mansfield.
The first white woman in this region was Miss Heckewelder. daughter of the Moravian missionary. These were pre-settlement white people, who were in the territory now known as Richland county, only as sojourners. or in transit.
The successful campaign of General Anthony Wayne in 1794, and the peace treaty with the Indians that followed, in 1795, secured comparative safety on the Ohio frontier and immigration to the West was resumed. The surveys of the public lands, which had been practically stopped were resumed, and the surveyors tried to keep in advance of the settlers, and land offices were established in several places. General Hedges began the survey of Richland county in 1806, and at that time there was not a settler within
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its borders. The year following, the Newman settlement was made and the first cabin was erected on Section 36, about sixty rods from the grist mill, later known in history as Beam's Mills. The site of this historic cabin was doubt- less selected on account of the spring of the water at the base of a knoll a few rods west of where the cabin was erected. This was known as the Newman cabin, and its owner was Jacob Newman, the first settler. The cabin was made of rough beech logs with the bark on. There was but one room with a loft above. The walls were chinked and daubed with sticks and mud. In the little window, oiled paper was used, instead of glass. The door was low, but its latchstring was always on the outside, and no stranger was turned away hungry. Jacob Newman's family consisted, besides himself, of three nephews and a niece-Isaac, Jacob, John and Catharine Brubaker. Mr. Newman was then a widower, and Miss Brubaker acted as his housekeeper until he remarried. Their nearest neighbors were at Wooster and Frederick- town, the distance to either place being twenty-five miles.
Michael Newman, Jacob Newman's brother, joined the little colony the next spring. The next addition to the settlement was Moses Fontaine and family, followed by Captain James Cunningham. In 1809, the Newmans built a sawmill, prior to which the settlers had to use puncheon instead of board floors in their cabins. A grist mill was added a year later. These mills were purchased in 1811, by Michael Beam, who improved the former and finished the latter, which became widely known as "Beam's Mills," and by that name have passed into history. The buhrs of the grist mill were made of "nigger-head" stones, and did poor work, but it was a great deal better than no mill at all. It was well patronized by the settlers, who came from great distances and from all directions, and often had to wait several days to have their grinding done, many grists being ahead of them.
Samuel Martin was the first settler at the Mansfield site. He was from New Lisbon, Columbiana county, and was somewhat of an adventurer, who, following the course of the pioneers westward, heard of the new town that was to be, halted here, put up a cabin, and prepared to board the party of sur- veyors who were coming to lay out a town. Martin, however, got into trouble by selling whisky to the Indians, and had to leave the country. He was suc- ceeded by Captain James Cunningham, who thereby became the first bona- fide resident in the place. This was in 1809.
As a new county was to be formed, a town for a county seat must be founded, and the site selected was upon the opposite side of the Rockyford of the Mohican, where George Mentzer's residence now stands, between the grist mill and the grange hall. Here a number of cabins were built. Within a year, however, another site was chosen for the county seat town, and the latter is where the city of Mansfield stands today, and from her vantage location as a railroad, manufacturing and commercial center sends her products around the world. An hundred years have not yet been counted off the calendar of time since this first settlement was made in a little clearing in the wilderness at Beam's mills, but how important that period has been in the history of the world, and how fraught with results for the betterment of mankind. How interesting that lives sometimes span from one epoch to another. John Gray,
PYRAMID OF CANNON IN CENTRAL PARK COURT-HOUSE
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who was the last survivor of the War of the Revolution, lived eighty-three years after the close of that struggle, dying at Hiramsburg, Noble county, Ohio March 29, 1868, aged one hundred and four years. He lived to see great changes in the country he fought to sever from the tyrant beyond the sea, and in making America an independent nation-"the land of the free and the home of the brave."
It is also interesting to trace the history of a country from its beginning and follow society in its formative state and note it- material developments and scientific achievements. It took George Washington eight days to journey from Mount Vernon to New York to be inaugurated first president of the United States. Now the same distance can be traveled in less than eight hours.
Macaulay's eloquent panegyric on science as applied to the arts in pro- moting human welfare is justified, and more than justified, by the facts about us. And all those achievements and others since Macaulay, still more wonder- ful, have accrued to the benefit of mankind since Madison township was first settled.
No fable-no mythical legend of encounters with dragons and monsters exaggerates the heroisms of the pioneers. Their acts, their lives are in the full light of history. To them can be applied Pericles' commendation of Athens, "Athens alone among her contemporaries is superior to the report of her."
Although the first town site was abandoned, the locality has always been prominent in the history of the county on account of Beam's mills and Beam's blockhouse, the latter being one of the most important of its kind in this part of Ohio during the war of 1812. It is not definitely known why the site was changed.
At the time the first settlement was made in Richland county there were no railroads, no locomotives, no steamships, no telegraphs, no telephones, no power printing press, no known utility of frictional electricity, no spectro- scope, no microscope, no farm machinery-all of these have since that time been given to the world, and to which we greatly owe that remarkable advance in the conveniences and comforts of life, that unite in making this a grand age-an age in which it is a blessing to live, to be part of the same and to enjoy its privileges.
Ohio was the battleground where the savages tried to stop the tide of civilization in its westward course across the continent, and Richland county was the theater-stage upon which some of the bloodiest tragedies of that terrible strife were enacted, and in those conflicts her soil was reddened with the blood of many of her noblest sons. It was, in fact, a battle between civilization and barbarism, and the former conquered and the latter receded by that world-pro- pelling plan by which peoples are driven forward in the ways of destiny. Millions of people have been hurrying westward, westward ever since the dawn of time.
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