USA > Ohio > Richland County > History of Richland County, Ohio, from 1808 to 1908, Vol. I > Part 44
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Richard Kimmel, for many years a Mansfield grocer, owns a farm just north of Shiloh, and is now a tiller of the soil, but is as jovial as ever.
Fred Wolfsereberger, editor of the Review, makes somewhat frequent visits to Mansfield of late, on account, he claims, of political matters, but, inasmuch as he is young, good looking and single, the reasons for his visits should not be insisted upon too strenuously.
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Further personal mentions must be deferred for a future chapter.
NEWVILLE.
Newville was founded by John Frederick Herring, and was platted in December, 1823. It is situated upon section 3, Worthington township. Abraham Nye was one of the first settlers there, and was instrumental in inducing Mr. Herring to lay out the town.
In 1811-12, John Frederick Herring built the second grist mill in Rich- land county. This mill was situate on the Clearfork, four miles west of Bell- ville, in what is now Perry township. Peter Weirick was employed to do the carpenter work, and while he was erecting the building, Mr. Herring drove to Baltimore with a six-horse team to procure buhrs, wheels and gearings for the mill. The round trip from this part of Ohio to Baltimore and return was then made by team and occupied about two months' time. Now the same distance can be traveled in fewer hours than the days required then. After operating this mill for several years, Mr. Herring sold the same to Francis Baughman in 1815. In 1833, Mr. Baughman disposed of this property to John Hanawalt, who operated the same for about fifty years, and the mill is known in history as "Hanawalt's." This mill stood where the Lexington and Fredericktown road crosses the Clearfork. The building is now used as a barn. John Hanawalt was the father of J. L. Hanawalt, of South Main street, Mansfield.
After selling the mill west of Bellville, Mr. Herring entered another mill site, also on the Clearfork, fifteen miles down the stream, where he erected his second grist mill, and a few years later laid out the town of Newville.
The first settlers in Newville and vicinity were John Frederick Herring, Abraham Nye, Michael Hogan, Daniel Carpenter, George Armentrout and Luther Richard. Abraham Nye was the first tavern keeper, Daniel Stoner the first blacksmith and Michael Hogan the first merchant. Newville was named after Newville, Pennsylvania, the native place of the founder of the town.
At the time Newville was laid out, the volume of water in the Clearfork of the Mohican was larger than it is now, and the pioneers were wont to found towns along streams of water, for mill power and other purposes .. Great things and a bright future were predicted for the town, but the hopes entertained for its future greatness were never realized. In the scramble for new counties back in the "forties," Newville had hopes of becoming a county seat town, but
"The best laid schemes o' mice and men Gang aft a-gley."
And the county-seat hopes in which Newville people indulged, ganged aft a-gley. But, to add further to disappointments as to future prosperity, the two railroads that were built through the southern part of the county, left Newville about midway between them, the B. & O. at Butler, four miles to the south- west, and the Pennsylvania at Perrysville, four miles to the east. This being a railroad age, towns off the paths of the iron horse seldom thrive, and Newville has been no exception to the general rule.
Newville nestles in a lovely little valley, at the confluence of Slater's Run with the Clearfork of the Mohican. It is nearly surrounded by rock-ribbed
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hills, which, when covered with summer verdure, are picturesque and beautiful.
The early settlers of the Newville country came, mostly, along the old Wyandot trail, following up the Mohican and its Clearfork to Newville. Some of the latter arrivals came along the Portage road-a military road cut through by a portion of General Harrison's army in 1812. This road runs diagonally across Worthington township from the northeast to the southwest. This was probably the first road in the township, and although it has been changed in certain places to conform to local conditions, it is still a public highway.
The decade between 1825 and 1835 was a preaching period at Newville, such as no other town in the county ever passed through. Men preached according to their own views of the scriptures without regard to what any denomination taught or believed, all agreeing, however, upon Anabaptist lines. They were out-comers from various sects, and in time organized new ones. The most prominent among these preachers were the Rigdons-Sidney and Thomas-both gifted men and orators of great power. Sidney Rigdon, it has been claimed, was one of the most charming and convincing speakers of that olden time when there were orators in the land. For several years he was a minister of the Disciples, as was also his brother Thomas. Later Sidney became a Mormon elder, and took a number of converts from the southern part of this county with him to Nauvoo. In time, an estrangement sprung up between Brigham Young and Mr. Rigdon, resulting in the withdrawal of the latter, who returned to the east, where he died in 1876, aged eighty-three years. Notwithstanding the early promulgation of different views, the M. E. Church is the only one that has been able to maintain an existence as a religious body in Newville.
Daniel Carpenter was one of the principal promoters of the business and industrial interests of Newville. He had a store of general merchandise and founded and operated a tannery and an ashery. Baltimore was the market place for this part of the country at that time and the journey to and from- a round-trip distance of a thousand miles-had to be made with wagon teams, and part of the journey was over mountain roads. Grain was too bulky, heavy and low priced to haul so far to market. Ginseng, maple sugar and beeswax were the principal marketable articles and they were not all year-round products. To further the business interests of the town, Daniel Carpenter founded an "ashery," and manufactured another exportable commodity- pearl ash. His teams traversed the country for miles around, buying ashes of the farmers, thus adding to their meager income.
Of the distinguished men who once claimed Newville as their home, the name of the late Hon. Samuel J. Kirkwood should head the list. He was one of the first school teachers of the village. Mr. Kirkwood read law, became prosecuting attorney of Richland county, and after the close of his term, removed to Iowa, became governor of that state; was later a senator in the Congress of the United States, and closed his official career as a member of the Garfield cabinet.
HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY
Major Hogan was a scholar and a gentleman, more devoted to his books than to his business interests.
Dr. J. P. Henderson, who passed nearly all his life in Newville, was a close student and much devoted to archæological researches.
Joseph Musgrave, once a Newville merchant, was a state senator from the Ashland district in 1856-57.
The late Major George F. Carpenter-lawyer and banker-was a son of Daniel Carpenter, the promoter of the early business interests of Newville. Major Carpenter was one of the charter members of the Richland County Historical Society and its first vice-president.
Governor J. P. Altgeld, was for several years a Newville boy. As a man in after years he became a noted jurist, an eloquent orator and a great leader among nien.
These are all departed from earthly scenes. Others, young men still living, who were once Newville boys, have gone out into the world and in their several lines of endeavor are winning success.
Among the early industries was pennyroyal distilleries, dotted here and there over the pennyroyal regions of Ohio. Pennyroyal grew in profusion in the southern part of the country in the earliest days. It is a deciduous, herbaceous plant, aromatic, with a pungent taste. As this was a rare and peculiar industry, a brief description of the process of distillation may be of interest to the reader. The pennyroyal after being gathered was allowed to wilt until it would pack well, and was then tramped down carefully in a steam chest until it was full. The oil is in small globules on the under side of the leaf. When set free by steam, it passed into a condenser, into which a small stream of cold water was conducted. After being condensed it was poured into an oil vat, nearly filled with water. The oil being lighter than the water, ran into the vessel and passed out into a receiver. Pennyroyal oil is used for its medicinal properties, and was thought by the pioneers to be valuable as a carminative remedy. The last pennyroyal distillery in this part of the county was Fisher's, at Palmyra, five miles south of Bellville. At the Fisher distillery essence of peppermint was also distilled.
Distilleries are often called "still houses." And upon this play of words Comrade Ricksicker, of Galion, tells a good anecdote in his inimitable way, at Grand Army reunions. As the story goes, a revenue officer was trying to ferret out illicit distilleries in Kentucky during the latter part of the Civil War. He had not been successful, and being anxious to show results. approached a typsy soldier, an Irishman, and inquired after "private stills." as the illicit distilleries are called. But Paddy didn't seem to have any informa- tion to give out. Then the detective offered him a ten-dollar bill. whereupon Paddy admitted having certain knowledge about several private stills and. offered to conduct the officer to one, but the money must be paid in advance. This having been done, Paddy escorted the detective through forests and over hills, and finally coming upon a camp of soldiers, they halted. The officer demanded an explanation. An Irishman never gives away a friend, even though he should be a "moonshiner." Paddy called the officer's attention to a soldier who was sitting by a tree, and said: "That man is of a good family.
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and enlisted with high hopes of being made a general within a short time. But now, after two years' service, he is a 'private still.' "
Worthington, in which Newville is situated, was the banner township in the camp-meeting line in the days of the popularity of such gatherings. Of the several camp-meeting sites the one called "Easterly's," two miles west of Newville, was the most popular and the best known. The meetings were under the auspices of the United Brethren denomination. Perhaps, also, by the Evangelicals, commonly called the "Albrights."
In these camp-meeting gatherings, social cordiality was blended with religious zeal. Fervor along religious lines was more intense and demon- strative a half century ago than it is today. A man was expected to shout to show his zeal and attest his spirituality. It is different now. The camp- meeting preachers believed, as a rule, that "where the spirit of God is, there is liberty." And aside from the general supervision of the prayer meetings, they did not attempt to control the boisterous element around them. Thus the meetings seldom got far advanced before men and women were praying. groaning and singing together. Some were groaning on account of their sins, some praying for their companions, others singing and shouting because they felt happy, and a few would swoon from physical exhaustion.
A horse-back procession of religious enthusiasts, returning from a camp meeting, was heard approaching by a poorly-clad woman working in a field near to the roadside. It was a sound of music-of men's and women's voices mingling harmoniously together in sacred song. Abashed, she hid herself behind a tree, but peeped around as the procession passed by. To the unseen observer the countenance of the leader's wife seemed lighted up like the face of a glorified saint. Her bonnet hung by its ribbons down her back, and her auburn hair floated like waves of golden sheen over her shoulders, forming a beautiful, living, moving picture. The faces of all the members of the party glowed with happiness as they sang :
"What is this that casts you down What is this that grieves you? Speak, and let the worst be known, Speaking may relieve you."
This scene, with its music and song, so affected the poor woman whose lot was to toil in the fields, that she sank upon her knees in prayer, and dated her conversion from "that very hour."
LUCAS.
Lucas is situated on the Pennsylvania railroad, seven miles southeast of Mansfield, and was laid out in 1836 by John Tucker, who acted as agent for his brother, David Tucker, the owner of the land upon which the village was platted.
Prior to the founding of Lucas a town had been started about a mile farther down the Rockyfork and upon the opposite side of the stream, and was called Octororo, In the rivalry that ensued Lucas won, and Octororo
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HEINEMAN PARK, MANSFIELD
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quietly acquiesced in the decree of fate and not a building is left to show where the town once stood.
Lucas is situated on the Rockyfork, with excellent mill sites and three grist mills were operated there for many years. The old-time names of these mills were LaRue's, Zerby's and Oldfield's. LaRue's and Zerby's are gone, but Oldfield's has kept step to the music of a progressive age and is still in business.
The Zerby mill was built in 1820 by Peter Zerby, the father of the Peter Zerby now a resident of Mansfield. The LaRue mill was built in 1830 by a Mr. LaRue, and Oldfield's was built about the same year by Reinhart Oldfield. The Oldfield mill was owned a number of years by Silas Rummel. This mill was owned in the "fifties" by Colonel George Weaver-a man prominent in his day and generation, having been the sheriff of the county and a soldier in two wars. There were also a number of saw mills on the Rockyfork in the vicinity of Lucas.
The first cabin within the present limits of Monroe township was near the site where the residence of Silas Rummel now stands. The first house in the village of Lucas stood near the place now occupied by the new bank building. The Myers house was the second building erected and has been a hotel for two-thirds of a century.
Lucas for its size has dwellings and business buildings that will compare favorably with any other place in Ohio. Water from a spring on the south side is piped to the center of the village and supplies the people with pure water.
Churches and graded schools are second to none elsewhere, and the blessings and utilities of the age are at every man's door. But it was not always thus. The locality passed through the strenuous pioneer period, whose history is written on
"A Storied Page Whereon the Letters Speak"
of Indian massacres, and of other dangers and hardships of the pioneers. Hill's, as the Lucas locality was called by the first settlers, was on the Indian trail between Greentown and Tymochte, and along this valley in 1782 marched Colonel Crawford and his little army of 480 men, and the tale of their defeat and of the awful tortures and death of Colonel Crawford is a sad one in our history.
General Brooks came up the Rockyfork in 1812 with government sup- plies for the army at Fort Meigs, and halted a day where Lucas now stands. He had about one hundred teams, six horses to each wagon. Among the "supplies" was money to be used in paying the troops in the northwest. Fort Meigs was on the right bank of the Maumee river, opposite the rapids. It was an important frontier post during the war of 1812.
What an unusual spectacle was presented in that supply train coming up the valley. One hundred wagons, drawn by six hundred horses, making a procession miles in length, and winding through the forests in whose fast- nesses wild beasts had their lairs and in whose treetops birds sang. Now railroad trains course up and down the same valley in the interest of interstate trade and foreign commerce. The sun shines upon cultivated farms where the
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primeval forest once stood. The pioneers of the time when General Brooks' army train passed through Mansfield and halted at the Lampert spring are long since gone, and the generation that succeeded them are passing away. The late Rosella Rice once wrote that it is hard to be reconciled to this natural order of things, to see the pioneers passing away, to see them standing leaning on their staffs, dim-eyed and with white locks tossed in the winds, dazed at the change that has stamped its seal upon the wilderness whose winding paths they once knew so well. They beheld it slowly laying off its primeval wildness and beauty, and its grandeur of woods and waters, until now it blooms like unto the garden of the gods. How beautiful the labors of their hands! How much we owe to them! But the olden time is passing away and bearing on its bosom the dear old men and women whose "like we ne'er shall see again"-the glory of one age if not dimmed in the golden glory of the age succeeding it.
Bossuet, a French author, wrote that "although God and nature have made all men equal in forming them of the same earth, human vanity can not bear that equality." Substitute "ambition" for "vanity," and the statement is verified in everyday life by young men who try to rise to other pursuits than those in which they were reared. In Europe, with but few exceptions, the child is born to the station of the parent, but in America, with equally few exceptions, the reverse is the rule. The most illustrious men often rise from humble beginnings. The man of millions, whose home is a palace, lived, perhaps, in a log cabin when he was a boy.
So in Monroe township. At least a half dozen of the leading lawyers of the Mansfield bar were Monroe township boys-farmers' sons-and several of them had to earn their educations. Today they are men among men, and have filled high places of honor and trust.
The Hon. W. S. Kerr, ex-state senator, ex-congressman, a lawyer of large practice, with one of the most handsome residences on Mansfield's fashionable avenue, was born and reared in Monroe township.
There is Judge N. M. Wolfe, who served two terms upon the common pleas bench, and as a trial lawyer is second to none in Ohio. And there is the Hon. C. E. McBride, who served his county faithfully and capably in the Ohio legislature, and whose success as a lawyer secured for him the position of attorney for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company for "all the lines west of the Ohio river." Such corporations seek the best talent at the bar.
And there are the Douglass brothers. A. A. Douglass served two terms as prosecuting attorney and is prominent in politics and as a lawyer. S. M. Douglass was a judge of the circuit court, and has the distinction of having been the first chief justice of said court.
J. M. Reed, J. P. Henry and Harry T. Manner each deserves a more extended notice than there is space to give them in this article, and all these were once Monroe township country boys, who tilled the soil until their attain- ments led them into more congenial pursuits. In the medical profession there are Dr. W. S. Mecklem and Dr. G. W. Baughman, also from Monroe township, who served as coroner of his county. Allen S. Beach has worked his way from the bottom of the ladder, round by round, to affluence and position, and
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has the respect and confidence of all the people. These men are Monroe products, and men who succeed should be pointed to with pride, not in envy. If there are those who begrudge a man his hard-worked-for and well-earned success in finance, in law, in medicine, in literature or in any other pursuits, such people should be commiserated, for it is a pity they were not molded upon broader lines.
Sumner said "that the true grandeur of nations is in those qualities which constitute the greatness of the individual. The causes which shape the fortunes of men and the destinies of states are often the same. They may be remote and obscure until shown by results. The elements of success in life in any line of endeavor consist in both innate ability and a determination to succeed.
John Barnes was the leading merchant at Lucas when the Pennsylvania railroad was being built. He seemed to have ample means, was quite popular and had the confidence of the people. He was a large contractor on the rail- road, with a number of sub-contractors under him. One morning he failed to appear at his place of business, and upon inquiry it was ascertained that he was not in the town. He had dropped out of existence, so far as Lucas was concerned, during the night and never seen there afterward. Searching parties traversed hills and valleys in the quest, and streams were searched on the theory that he had been murdered-but without finding either his body or any trace of the man. A report was circulated that a pistol shot had been heard at the Mohawk hill upon the night of Barnes' disappearance, which confirmed in many the theory that he had been murdered, and that the men working on the railroad had committed the deed. But that railroad bed was made by Irishmen, and the Irish are not murderers. When it became known that Barnes had collected large sums of money just previous to his disappear- ance, and that he was indebted to a large amount, the people generally settled down to the conclusion that Barnes had "skipped out," and this was confirmed years afterward by reports that he had been seen in California. There are people, no doubt, who still cling to the "foul play" theory. The fact is that John Barnes disappeared from Lucas upon a dark night more than fifty years ago and has not yet returned.
BANGORVILLE.
The student of history is interested not only in events, but also in a study of the causes which lead to the prosperity or adversity of a locality. Cause precedes effect. Two towns may be platted and start to build up with seem- ingly equal prospects of attaining size and importance. But conditions may change, beneficial to the one and detrimental to the other. New towns some- times supplant older ones. But there are always causes for such changes, although they may not be so apparent that "he who runs may read" and understand the reasons for the same. Situations, conditions, commercial industries must be studied and analyzed to determine the cause of either decadence or prosperity. The fundamental principle that the greater force overcomes the lesser is as true in history as it is in science. This force may be of attraction or propulism. The results is called "fate" or "destiny," which
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is so remorseless that it neither rejoices at the prosperity nor weeps at the adversity of either towns or individuals.
Bangorville, situate on the west line of Jefferson township, a mile north of Knox county line, was through the prosperity period in the "forties," and now has but little to point to with pride except its past history. The location is upon high land and commands a fine view of the country surrounding it. The little village stands on the Lexington and Fredericktown road, about mid- way between the two towns. This road intersects the New State road about a mile south of Palmyra. Another road runs east from Bangorville, crossing both the new and old State roads, four miles south of Bellville. A road also runs due north along the township line, and another, from a half-mile south of the town, leads through the Lost Run region to Waterford, on the Owl creek. These roads diverging from the village seemed to place it in advantageous relations with the surrounding country, which fact was one of the reasons why Bangorville was selected as a location for "Moore's foundry," a manufacturing plant of large capacity and of larger possibilities.
Four miles south of Bellville, on the new State road, there was a settle- ment of Maine Yankees, and the locality was called Yankeetown. And among these Penobscoters was one William Moore, the founder of Moore's "foundry" at Bangorville. The name "foundry" did not fully cover the scope of the plant, but as foundries were not numerous in this part of the state at that time, the name was not given in a special but in a general sense, and nearly all shops where casting was done were thus designated.
These Moore works were quite large for that period. The main building was two stories high, with molding room and blacksmith shop as annexes. The business was quite extensive and the machinery, implements and articles made and manufactured were threshing machines, wind mills, cider presses, with automatic presses, cheese presses, plows, cultivators, stoves and stove utensils, mill gearings and all kinds of custom work. Much of the output was of Mr. Moore's own inventions.
The threshing machine was of the "knocker" style, somewhat like that of the Aultman-Taylor machine of today, and competed successfully with the "endless apron" variety. The plow was called "The Grasshopper" and was quite popular.
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