History of Richland County, Ohio : (including the original boundaries) ; its past and present, containing a condensed comprehensive history of Ohio, including an outline history of the Northwest, a complete history of Richland county miscellaneous matter, map of the county, biographies and histories of the most prominent families, &c., &c., Part 37

Author: Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Mansfield, O. : A. A. Graham & co.
Number of Pages: 968

USA > Ohio > Richland County > History of Richland County, Ohio : (including the original boundaries) ; its past and present, containing a condensed comprehensive history of Ohio, including an outline history of the Northwest, a complete history of Richland county miscellaneous matter, map of the county, biographies and histories of the most prominent families, &c., &c. > Part 37

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Two years after this was done, Mount Gilead, an enterprising town near the southwest corner of the county, asserted her claims to a county seat so strenuously that the new county of Morrow was created. of which Mount Gilead was made the seat of justice. This new county took from Richland all of Congress and Bloom- field Townships-the latter known as North Bloomfield. since the creation of Bloomfield in Knox County, now also a part of Morrow County-the west half of Perry and the west half of Troy, save Sections 28 and 33. This last act reduced Richland to its present size, an area of 485 square miles.

The creation of these new counties, it will be observed, left again irregularly shaped townships, some of which contained only twelve sections.

No act of the Commissioners seemed to have been passed regarding the portions of Troy and Perry in this county. They seem to have been simply allowed toretain the original names, and as such yet exist. In the northern part of the county, however, the inhabitants soon expressed a desire for new divisions. and, in compliance there with, the next year after Ashland County was created, the citizens of the eastern part of Sharon petitioned the court for the erection of a new township. March 2, 1847. the request was granted, and Jackson Township was created.

In the spring of 1849, the citizens of Clear Creek and the eastern part of Blooming Grove requested a similar organization, and, March 5, 1849. Butler Township, comprising two miles in width of the eastern part of Blooming Grove. and all of Clear Creek, in all four miles wide by six in length, was erected. June 5, in re- sponse to a request from the residents of the eastern part of Franklin Township, four miles in width of that township were erected into a new township, and named Weller.

When Butler was organized, it left Blooming Grove an equal extent of territory. Plymouth was now left with its original six by six miles in extent, and that part of Auburn remaining in Richland County, when Crawford County was created. The residents of the eastern half of Plymouth asked for a separate organization in the autumn of 1849, and. December 6, the Board granted the request. creating Cass Town- ship. The erection of Cass completes the list of divisions in the county, leaving it with its present organizations. In all there have been about thirty divisions of the county made since 1807, each division until 1845 marking an in- crease in population.

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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

CHAPTER XXIV.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND THEIR EXTENSION.

THE TERRITORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY-FIRST SETTLER AND SETTLEMENT-THE NEWMANS AND BRUBAKERS-THE NEWMAN CABINS -" POLE" CABINS -CATHARINE BRUBAKER - FIRST SAW-MILL- ARRIVAL OF MICHAEL NEWMAN-THE FOUNTAIN CABIN-EARLY SETTLERS ON THE BLACK FORK-FIRST GRIST-MILL-LAYING OUT A TOWN-JACOB NEWMAN-MICHAEL AND " MOTHER" BEAM-SECOND SETTLEMENT IN THE COUNTY-THE MCCLUER SETTLEMENT-FIRST ROADS-SETTLEMENTS IN 1809-SETTLEMENTS IN 1810 AND 1811-OPENING OF THE COUNTY BY THE ARMY IN 1812-SETTLEMENTS IN 1814 AND 1815-WAGON TRAINS AND OTHER MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION-PRODUCTS AND PRICES -" TAVERNS" AND TOWNS-SOCIAL MATTERS-RING FIGHTS- WOOD CHOPPINGS, QUILTINGS, CORN HUSKINGS, ETC .- WOLF PENS-FIRST TEMPERANCE SOCIETY-THE IRISH SCHOOLMASTER-FOURTH OF JULY AND MILITIA MUSTERS-AX PRESENTATION -- AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS -HEALTHI-CONGRESSMEN FROM RICHLAND.

" Should auld acquaintance be forgot An' never brought to min' ?"-Old Song.

" I hear the tread of pioneers, Of nations yet to be, The first low wash of waves where soon Shall roll a human sea."- Whittier.

W HEN Gen. James Hedges was sent West to " spy out the land." the territory now embraced in Fairfield. Licking, Knox, Richland, and parts of Morrow and Ashland Counties, con- stituted one county, called Fairfield, with the county seat at Lancaster. But few settlers were then in Knox and Licking (1805-6), and none whatever in the others. This territory was then covered thickly with the original forest, and was the favorite hunting-grounds of the Indian tribes of the Northwest. Hedges began the survey in 1806, and in February, 1808. " Old Richland " came into existence, not as a county proper. but as a township called " Madison." not having a sufficient number of votes within its limits to en- title it to a county organization. It therefore remained under the jurisdiction of Knox County until 1813, and included nearly all of Ashland, and part of Morrow, within its limits. The ques- tion of who was the first permanent white settler within this territory, has been settled beyond any reasonable doubt. The man was Jacob New-

man. Several white men were here before Jacob Newman, and some of them became, afterward, permanent settlers. Gen. Hedges himself was here a year or more before Newman, and after- ward became a permanent resident of Mansfield. but he was not here as a settler in 1807, when Jacob Newman came-he was simply in the em- ploy of the Government as surveyor ; and the same may be said of his employes. Thomas Green. who established the Indian village of Greentown. might have been called the first set- tler in Richland County, had he been consid- ered a settler at all in the proper sense of that term : but, although here years before Mr. Hedges. he was looked upon as a renegade, and not a settler, though he lived many years at Greentown, and his name is perpetuated in the history of that village, and the name of the township, which is now within the limits of Ashland County. Other renegade white men, may, and probably did. occupy the village tem- porarily. Just what date Abraham Baughman and John Davis came, has not been ascertained ; but they came to the neighborhood of Green- town at a very early date : it might have been before 1807, but there is no evidence of it. They are mentioned in Knapp's history as

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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

being here before Peter Kinney, who arrived in 1810. The evidence is very conclusive that Jacob Newman came to the Rocky Fork within the present limits of Richland County, in the spring of 1807, making him the earliest per- manent settler. Mr. Newman was then living near Canton, Stark County, whither he had moved from Pennsylvania. He may have been here to visit his kinsman, Gen. Hedges, once or twice before he located his land or built his cabin. He, however, sold out at Canton, and, in the spring or summer of 1807, built his cabin

Jacob Newman, was his housekeeper. The settlers of Richland County then, during the year 1807, can be numbered on the fingers of one hand; viz., Jacob Newman, Catharine, Isaac, Jacob and John Brubaker. The Bru- bakers were from Paint Creek, Ross County, Ohio. Mr. Newman's children (four in num- ber) were yet in Pennsylvania, except the youngest, Henry, who remained near Canton. The nearest neighbors of these hardy pioneers, were, on the east, at Wooster, and on the south at Fredericktown, Knox County, the distance

FIRST CABIN BUILT IN RICHLAND COUNTY.

on the bank of the Rocky Fork, three miles southeast of the present city of Mansfield, near the present site of Goudy's mill. Here he preempted three quarter-sections of land. and three brothers, by the name of Brubaker, came out with him and assisted in building his cabin. He may have been assisted by Gen. James Hedges and his employes, who, 110 doubt, made his cabin their headquarters, while surveying portions of the county. At this time Mr. Newman was a widower, his wife having died in Pennsylvania; and Catharine Brubaker, a sister of the three brothers, and a niece of |

to either place about twenty-five miles. They erected a small cabin on the bank of the beautiful Rocky Fork, near a clear, sparkling spring that yet gushes from the bank, emptying its waters into the first mill-race in Richland County. The cabin is fairly represented in the upper right-hand corner of the accompanying sketch. The sketch of these cabins was made from a description given by Henry Newman, one of the children of Jacob Newman, who is yet liv- ing at Bryan, Ohio. a hale, hearty, well-pre- served old gentleman, who was here before Richland County was formed, and has lived

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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

to see it peopled by its thousands ; its well- cultivated farms take the place of its dense forests; its thousands of cattle and other domes- tic animals, in place of its wolves and bears ; its beautiful towns and farmhouses, in place of the wigwam of the savage. He was a boy of nine or ten when this cabin was erected, but remembers it well, and says it was a little log pen. with a roof over it ; a wide fireplace occu- pying nearly all of one end, with a stick and mud chimney running up on the outside, no floor but mother earth; windows made of a little twelve-by-twelve piece of oiled paper, put in where a log was sawed off for the purpose. It contained but a single room with a loft over- head ; was made of rough, round beech logs with the bark on; chinked and daubed with sticks and mud to keep out the wintry blast. The door was so low that a man of ordinary height must stoop to enter ; but the lateh-string always hung out, for these pioneers were men of large and open hearts. warm hands. and no stranger was turned away empty. Indian or white man, it mattered not, he was welcome to unroll his blanket by the great log fire, and par- take of the homely fare of venison and corn bread, served upon a table of puncheons.

The Newmans lived in this little hut about two years. when, by hard work, having accum- ulated some means, they began to feel aristo- cratic. and erected a new cabin. This cabin is also shown in the sketch. It was of hewed logs, was built about eight or ten feet from the old one, and a covered porch extended from the old one over this space. By the time they were ready to erect this larger and better cabin they had a saw-mill in operation, and this enabled them to put a board floor in it, and. as it was a half-story higher than the old one, a board loft was put in, which was reached by a ladder and used as a sleeping-room. The doors and win- dow frames were made of sawed lumber; the logs were nicely hewed and fitted, and they were able to procure glass for windows. The

usual great cheerful fireplace occupied the end, and the never-to-be-forgotten iron crane was suspended therein, with its numerous hooks upon which to hang the iron cooking kettles.

It was not often that an early settler of Rich- land County was found who could afford to have a cabin like this hewed-log one of the Newmans. The earliest settlers often lived for weeks and months, with their families, in what was called a " pole cabin ;" that is, a cabin made of small poles and sticks, and covered with brush and bark. These could be erected by the head of the family, without assistance, in twenty-four or forty-eight hours, and during the summer sea- son were not unpleasant habitations. Hundreds of these brush cabins were erected. The set- tlers generally arrived in the spring. and the first consideration was to put in a crop of corn or wheat. and establish a " truek " patch : there- fore they put off building their permanent cabins until fall, or until the spring erop was attended to, and in the mean time these tempo- rary brush structures were erected to shelter the family. Sometimes they brought tents which they pitched upon the bank of some beautiful stream, and lived in them until they could make a little clearing in the great woods. and put in the spring crop ; at other times they camped ont without shelter except such as their covered wagons afforded. They did their cook- ing by a fire in the open air and used their wagons for sleeping-rooms.

It may be imagined what these five pioneers at the Newman cabin did during the long sum- mer, autumn and winter of 1807. occupying their solitary cabin far in the deep. dark woods. surrounded by wild animals and wilder men. There was much more to do than could be ac- complished in one season ; indeed. years must elapse-years of the hardest kind of pounding- before a home could be shaped out of this wil- derness. Catharine Brubaker. the pioneer woman of the county-the first white woman to settle in Richland County, so far as known-

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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

had enough to do to cook for those four brawny backwoodsmen, with their appetites sharpened by labor and the pure air of the woods. It is not on record that they raised a crop that first summer, they were too late for that. and the woods were to be cleared away and buildings erected. Their provisions were brought from Canton, to which place Mr. Newman frequently returned. But four of them could get through with a good deal of work, and, knowing they would soon be followed by other pioneers, who would need lumber for their cabins, they made preparations to erect a saw-mill. This saw- mill was not finished, however, until the spring of 1809, and was the first mill of any kind in the county. It was not until the spring of 1808. that an addition was made to the settlement- then Michael Newman came -- a brother of Jacob's. He brought his wife with him from Canton, and went into that little cabin with one room. Upon his arrival Catharine Bru- baker returned to her home. and Michael Newman's wife became the housekeeper. The location of this first cabin was upon the right bank of the creek, back several hundred yards from it, near the present dwelling of H. L. Goudy. a few feet west of his barn. The spring is a short distance west of the site of the cabin. The saw-mill they erected stood almost on the exact spot where Goudy's mill now stands.

The spring of 1808 opens with six settlers in this little cabin. People may now wonder how so many could be accommodated. and it must be remembered that, in addition to these, Gen. Hedges and his employes were frequently there a day or two, so that without doubt, eight or ten people or more were often crowded into this cabin. During this summer the men worked upon the mill raee, and put in crops of corn and wheat in the clearings they had made during the winter. In the fall of this year Jacob Newman brought his son Henry, from C'anton, and he constituted the seventh perma- nent occupant. This was not enough. however;

the cabin must have looked very empty and cheerless to Jacob Newman; for he went back to Pennsylvania and married again, bringing his bride out, on horseback probably, to occupy and render cheerful the vacant places in that cabin, which now contained but eight people.

It is not remembered whether the Brubaker boys remained at the Newman cabin during the winter of 1808-9, but Michael, his wife and others, occupied it, and Gen. Hedges made it his headquarters.

In the spring of 1809 the saw-mill was in operation, and they probably had an addition to their settlement during this year. A family by the name of Fountaine came, and erected a cabin near the Newmans. Other pioneers were by this time coming in along the Black Fork, a few miles further east. The Copus and Zimmer families, Martin Kuffner. Samuel Lewis, Henry MeCart, James Cunningham, Mr. Schaffer, Arch- ibald Gardner and Andrew Craig, arrived and settled near the Indian village of Greentown, in Green Township. now Ashland County.

The saw-mill erected by the Newmans was a rude log affair, and had all the business it could do from the start. It worked very slowly.

In the spring of 1810, Michael Newman moved out of Jacob Newman's cabin and into the one erected near, by Moses Fountaine, the latter having moved away. probably cast to his former home.

About this time the Newmans saw the neces- sity and began the erection of a grist-mill. Thus the first grist-mill in the county was established ; and a mill is yet in operation on its site, though nearly all evidences of the first mill have dis- appeared.

There is little doubt that James Hedges and Jacob Newman thought, when Mr. Newman entered his land on the Rocky Fork, that it was near the center of the territory which they knew would soon be creeted into a county, and they desired to make their fortunes by establishing a county seat. With this in view

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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

they laid out a town near the mill. They soon changed their minds, however. regarding this location. and went further up the Rocky- fork where Gen. Hedges had entered land, and nearer the center of what afterward became a county, where they established the present city of Mansfield. In 1811 Jacob Newman sold his possessions on the Rocky Fork, and moved to the present site of Mansfield. Mr. Newman was in all respects a superior man. He is described as an imposing-looking man. over six feet high, well proportioned and of light complexion. He was of a social disposi- tion and very popular among his associates. He was temperate in his habits, never using in- toxicating liquors of any kind or tobacco in any form. He was always a friend to the poor. and had many of them about him dependent on him. He was a man of the highest character in all respects, and died greatly beloved and regretted. In the winter of 1812, he acted as guide to Gen. Crooks, contracting a disease from which he died. Thus passed away the first settler in Richland County. His remains were among the first to occupy the old cemetery that had been established on the southwest corner of the town plat. They were removed about twenty years since, and now rest in the new cemetery, in Lot 100.

Michael Beam purchased the Newman place on the Rocky Fork, finished the grist-mill, which became celebrated and widely known as "Beam's mill." It was a crude water-mill, the buhrs being made of "nigger-heads," which did poor work, but it was a great deal better than no mill, and was patronized by the early settlers, who came from great distances. from every di- rection through the unbroken forest. Mr. Beam was often compelled to turn away patrons. being unable to do all the grinding that came to him. His wife, familiarly known as "Mother Beam," was largely instrumental in bringing cus- tom to the mill. Settlers were often compelled to wait several days for their grinding, mean-

while boarding with Mother Beam, who was celebrated for the excellence of her corn-cakes, corn-dodgers, and her general superiority as cook.

Mr. Beam remained here many years, and. in 1812, erected a block-house near the mill, well known as " Beam's block-house," where squads of soldiers were stationed at different times during the war, and to which the settlers looked for protection from the Indians.

The second settlement in Richland County, so far as known, was on the site of the city of Mansfield, in the fall of 1808. made by one Samuel Martin, from New Lisbon, Columbiana Co., Ohio. Martin was somewhat of an advent- urer, had followed the current of the pioneers westward, stumbled upon the Newman settle- ment. heard of the new town which had been laid out in June, 1808, came up, and, with the help of Jacob Brubaker, one of the employes of Gen. Hedges, erected the first cabin and be- came the first settler in Mansfield. The record is silent as to whether Martin brought his fam- ily with him ; but he lived in this cabin during the winter, and sold whisky to the Indians, which, being against the law, compelled him to leave the country. When he moved out, the cabin was occupied by James Cunningham, in 1809. From this date, the settlement at Mansfield began a steady and permanent growth, the details of which will be found in another chapter.

The next settlement in the present limits of Richland County was upon the present site of Bellville, in 1809, and was known as the " Mc- Cluer settlement."

James McCluer seems to have wandered up the Clear Fork in 1808, entered land and erected a cabin thereon, but did not bring his family until the spring of 1809, from which time, therefore. the settlement must be dated.

At that time there were no roads in Richland County, nor anything resembling a road more than an Indian trail. McCluer was a small

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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

man, but one of those bold, daring spirits that always stand ready to act as the picket-guard of civilization. He walked up through the woods from Mount Vernon, then a little hamlet and frontier town, and erected his cabin far in advance of all others. Probably the first road that entered the county came from the east at Wooster and ended somewhere about Green- town, and was probably soon extended to the Newman settlement, and thence to Mansfield. The next road was the one leading from Mount Vernon north through the MeCIner settlement. A settlement existed at the mouth of Huron River, and this road connected Mount Vernon and other frontier towns with that settlement. and was opened through Richland County in 1811. McCluer was so well pleased with the country and his prospects that he indneed some of his relatives, among whom was Jonathan Oldfield and Samuel McCluer, his nephew, to accompany him and his family in the spring of 1809, and make a permanent set- tlement. Thomas MeCluer also came, and worked as a hired hand, helping to clear up the land.

This James McCluer afterward became prom- inent in the affairs of the county, being one of its first Associate Judges. When Mansfield began to grow, he left his farm, at Bellville, and resided in Mansfield a few years, occupying a cabin on the southwest corner of Main and Fourth . streets (present site of the savings bank), and afterward moved to the vicinity of Leesville, in Crawford County, where he had previously purchased a piece of land, and where he resided until his death, occupied with farm- ing pursuits.

During this year (1809) settlements were made in different parts of the county, mostly, however, along the tributaries of the Mohican, the Black Fork, Clear Fork and Rocky Fork. They came partly by boat up these streams, and partly by the Indian trails. David Hill made the first settlement at Lucas, in this year. A

number of his kinsmen followed, and'consti- tuted quite a settlement of Hills in this neigh- borhood. Samuel Lewis settled in the northern part of Worthington Township, and afterward erected the "Lewis block-house " on his prem- ises. Settlements were also made in Green Township, in what is now Ashland County, and in Mifflin Township, within the present limits of Richland. Mansfield also received two or three additional settlers during this year.

During the year 1810, the road before men- tioned, from Wooster to Mansfield was opened. and settlers came more rapidly; none, however, settled west or north of Mansfield. A few were added to each of the settlements already made ; and the same may be said of the year 1811, except that Archibald Gardner, and, per- haps, one or two others, pushed on up the Black Fork, settling near the present site of Windsor; a settlement was made in the vicinity of Lexington, another in Vermillion Township (now in Ashland County), east of Hayesville : one in Monroe and one in Worthington Town- ship. The war of 1812 checked emigration somewhat. but after it ended the tide began again to flow in greater volume than ever. The passage of the armies of Gens. Crooks and Beall, as well as the presence and passage, at different times. of smaller bodies of troops, served the purpose of opening roads in differ- ent directions, as well as introducing into the new country thousands of men who would never otherwise have known of its beauty or advan- tages, and who, when they were at liberty to do so, returned and settled in it. The county. no doubt, settled far more rapidly than it woukl had there been no war of 1812.

The march of Beall's army opened up the county to the north, hence, in 1814 and 1815, quite a number of settlers followed "Beall's trail," and settlements were made at Trucks- ville, Plymouth, and in different parts of Mont- gomery, Milton, Weller, Franklin, Blooming Grove, Plymouth, Cass and other townships in

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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

the northern part of the county. The march of Crook's army opened the road west of Mans- field through to Upper Sandusky, and settlers followed this road, settling in Springfield and other townships west.

The road from Mansfield to Ashland, or a point near Ashland-Treckle's cabin-was eut in 1813. Samuel Lewis cut six miles of it. beginning at Mansfield, and Capt. Ebenezer Rice the remainder, beginning at the cabin mentioned. It was ten feet wide, and they re- ceived $9 per mile, and went to Chillicothe to draw their pay.

Where no roads existed, numerous " blazed" trails led off through the woods in every direc- tion, from the different settlements to the home of the solitary settler in the great woods. One of the most important and most used of the early roads was the one north and south from Mount Vernon to the lake. From Mansfield this road bore directly north to Brubaker Creek, in Franklin Township, thence northeast through what is now Shiloh, to Plymouth and New Ha- ven, in Huron County, thence to the mouth of Huron River. At Plymouth it intersected Beall's trail, which is followed from that place to the lake.

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Author: Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848- Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Mansfield, O. : A. A. Graham & co. Number of Pages: 968

Author: Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Mansfield, O. : A. A. Graham & co.
Number of Pages: 968