Richland County, Ohio - The whole text, 1908 (part 11 of 16)

In 1816 the Rev. George Van Eman, a Presbyterian minister, began preaching at Lexington, and the first church building was erected by that denomination in about 1831.

Several denominations soon had organized societies in Troy, among the number being the Old School, the New School and the United Presbyterians, the Baptist, the United Brethren, the Universalists and the Methodists. The township, outside of Lexington, had its churches also. A United Presbyterian Church was built a mile and a half northwest of Lexington and was called "Troy church." A mile north of Troy the Methodists had a church called "Fairview." Each is now numbered among the "has beens."

The Congregational Church at Lexington was organized as a New School Presbyterian society in 1844 by the Rev. James B. Walker, who later served as pastor of the Congregational Church at Mansfield. The Rev. Mr. Walker was a writer of note of both prose and poetry. His "Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation" and other works treating of nature and revealed religion were republished abroad in several languages. 'The Angel Whisper" and other poems gave him a high place as a poet. While Mr. Walker was successful as a minister and parishioners may feel pride in having a pastor who has literary ability, whatever fame a minister may win in that line is usually attained at the expense of his ministerial vocation. But few men are endowed with the two-fold ability of succeeding in the ministry or in the law and also in literature. The Rev. Mr. Walker was an exception to this rule.

The Rev. James Johnson, who was pastor of the United Presbyterian Church in Mansfield from 1821 to 1852, also preached for several years for the Troy congregation. The Rev. Mr. Johnson was a remarkable man, being of fine presence and address, an indefatigable worker and an eloquent speaker. He died in 1858.

Noah Cook, who came to Troy township in 1814 and died in 1834, did much in those intervening twenty years to promote religious interests. Upon one occasion when he held service in a country school house, no one came to attend the meeting, but he did not permit that to disconcert him. <A passer-by heard him singing and stopped to listen. Mr. Cook then read and prayed and preached as though the benches were auditors with ears to hear and souls to save. The report of this meeting was noised about with the result of good congregations at subsequent services. Noah Cook was a soldier in the War of the Revolution. He was also a soldier in Colonel Crawford's ill-fated expedition, and encamped at the big spring, where Mansfield now stands, in 1782.

In the grand galaxy of ministers for which Troy has been noted, the Rey. Orville L. Cook, of the present day, must not be omitted. The Rev. Mr. Cook is the son of Carter L. Cook and a descendant of Pioneer Noah Cook. He is a young man of fine ability, who by his distinctive individuality. earnest work and eloquent words has won a success in the ministry that few men ever reach. For several vears he was the pastor of the Christian Church at Lexington.

In pioneer times religious services were frequently held in the log cabin homes of the settlers. At one of these cabin meetings an amusing incident occurred, for amusing things do sometimes take place even at devout religious services, and as the incident referred to was followed by good results, its narrative is permissible. Although it is vouched for by an old resident as having occurred in these parts. it flavers somewhat of a Wilson Lee story, the principal change being in the venue. The children of the family in whose home the meeting was held had a pet lamb that had been taught to "butt." The children would make motions at it with their heads and the lamb would dart forward at them and then they would jump aside to avoid being hit. Upon this occasion a man came to the meeting in a somnific state of intoxication. He quietly took a seat near the door and was soon asleep. The pet lamb was in the house and, seeing the man nod, mistook the motion as a challenge for a butting contest, and butted the sleeper over on the floor, to the consternation as well as the amusement of the audience. That was the last time the man was intoxicated, and some time after the incident he united with the church and became one of its most useful members.

The residents of Troy township have always had faith in their country and contributed to its advancements and its achievements. With pardonable pride they say, "We are Trojans," Thebes and Babylon passed into oblivion because they had no poet to sing their praise and no writer to record their history. But the history of Troy township and the valor and gallantry of her sous, and the grace. beauty and accomplishments of her daughters have been graphically portrayed and faithfully sketched by Correspondent Moore, whose versatile peu kept the readers of the Mansfield News fully informed of people and events in that vicinity for a long time. He is now dead.

Tn the list of interesting localities in Troy township, King's Corners has an Important place. In the vears that are past "Squire Jacob King was an influential and prominent resident of that locality, and the ''Corners" were named in his honor. He was the father of J. J. King, of Mansfield. 'Squire King built a saw mill on the branch of the Clearfork that runs a short distance south of the corners. This mill was a valuable industry in its time and was operated for a number of years.

James Summers. who was county recorder in 1844-47, built a large brick residence upon his farm at the Corners. This house was one of the largest and best of its kind in the county at the time it was built. Since Recorder Summers' time the house has been owned by the Maxwells for two generations. It is now the residence of D. C. Maxwell.

Troy township was a favorite hunting ground for the Indians and later for the pioneers. But the bears and the deer have gone and only the smaller game remain. Among the latter the raccoons still hold a place, but their number is limited.

The raccoon is a carniverous mammal, somewhat larger than the fox, and originally inhabited most parts of the American continent and abounded particularly in this part of Ohio. The animal lodges in hollow trees, feeds occasionally on vegetables, and its flesh is palatable and its fur is deemed valuable next to that of the beaver. A sketch of coon hunting in the past, before Cy Gatton introduced modern methods, may be of interest to the reader.

In the old-time way of coon hunting a trained dog was indispensable. In the selection of a dog for the sport it was not thought best to choose a hound, as its persistence in "giving tongue" warns the raccoon of his danger, and gives that crafty little animal ample time to seek safety in the hollow of some high trec, the size and value of which would prevent the hunter from cutting it down. .\ good coon dog will not follow the trail of a rabbit when hunting the coon; but many a dog about whose ancestry there cluster= much uncertainty, develops into a remarkable "coon dog." Some of these dogs are very keen scented and will follow the trail of a raccoon over the ground where the scent of rabbits and other animals is encountered every few yards. A well-trained dog of the old days would take large circles and xkirt along the edge of the woods that bordered on the cornfields. never giving tongue until their approach to the coon was zo close that it would try to escape by climbing the nearest tree, and then the frantic barking of the dog would proclaim to the hunter that the "game was up" - up a tree. If the tree was small, so much the better: the animal was either shaken off the tree. and the dog given an opportunity of testing his metal. or else the coon was shot, and the dog allowed to be in at the finish. It often happened that the tree was large, and then the scientific part of coon hunting was brought into' play. This was called 'shining the coon." which was done by placing a lantern upon the head of one of the hunters, who would walk around the tree until the reflection of the hght located the game. The coon is a tricky animal, especially if he be an old timer: he would take to rail fences across streams, run along the bottom of shallow streams and jump long distances. The time for coon hunting was in October. when they would visit cornfields for food at night. A coon pelt was worth from one dollar to one dollar and fifty cents in the market. Sometimes a dog would blunder upon one of those little animals that have large, bushy. black tails and a white stripe down the back, when the odor that filled the night air and enveloped the dog. convinced the canine that he was in the vicinity of a different kind of game.

Al Moore, for many years the Lexington correspondent of the Mansfield Daily News, in one of his communications to that paper referred as follows to the famous snake of that neighborhood and to the snake deed:

"The existence of the monster reptile. which inspired people here with so much terror in the dim and distant past. had almost faded from the memory of those vet living here who were cognizant of the fabulous tales told about the reptile. But A. J. Baughman's reference to the famous snake deed of Allen B. Beverstock. deceased, in his interesting article in the News. brought vividly to their memory the fear and excitement that long prevailed about the reptile. It lurked in the dismal swamp near the town and it would emerge from the swamp and pursue its sinuous course through the meadows and public highway. Its size-and appearance were variously described according to the intensity of the fear and elasticity of the imagination of those who claimed to have seen it and heard its loud hissing and bellowing. Its length was variously estimated at from ten to fifteen feet, and some described it as having huge, blazing eves, a forked tongue and several tails. Its body was mottled with black. green and yellow, and on its back was a row of sharp spines. It has been seen entwined along fences and about trees and it moved and hogs and squads of men with guns would grope cautiously about to kill the reptile. The most sensible people gave credence to the wild tales of narrow escapes made from the reptile and they avoided its haunts lest it strangle them in its slimy coils and swallow them and their fate would ever remain a mystery to their sorrowing friends."

Alta lies southwest of Manstield four miles from the city, by rail. It is a siding and coaling station on the B. & O. and is the highest point on that road between the Alleghany mountains and Chicago, having an elevation of over 700 feet above Lake Erie.

Alta is on the "divide." Here the Toby branch of the Rocky Fork has its source. and on the south rise the waters of the Lexington branch of the Clearfork of the Mohican.

While .\lta station has but little importance aside from its railroad connections, a stretch of .\ltanian country extends to the southwest, beautiful and fertile. and abounding in family associations and replete in local histories.

This .\ltaic country has a rolling surface of pleasing aspect and the sky seems to reach down at the horizon and kiss the rim of ridges that nearly encircle the plateau-like vallev.

Shelby Settlement

Bethlehem, or the Shelby Settlement. is situate about two miles southwest of Vernon Junction. The locality is often called the "German Settlement." as the majority of the residents are Germans, or of German descent. At this settlement the Rey. J. M. Henni organized a parish of the Roman Catholic communion in 1823. The church is called the "Sacred Heart of Jesus." Father Heuni later became archbishop of Milwaukee. Not only in Richland county. but all over the American continent, the Catholic Church bas been fully abreast of other religious bodies in missionary, educational and charitable work.

The first members of the Settlement parish were Matthias Ulmcheider, Joseph Kurtzman, Joseph Wensinger, Heinrich Dollinger, John Ritschlin, Theobald Singer, Carl Sutter, Mr. Heitsman. Mr. Richerd, Sebastian Scheibley. Gottleib Schuble, John Brodmann, Joseph Miller, Morris Keller, Mr. Ebner. Mr. Hinsky. Frederick Christian, Nicholas Bieglin and John Bomgardner.

Forty acres of land where the church stands was entered and deeded to the trustees and their successors. A part of this tract was subsequently sold. The land still owned by the parish is in use for the parochial buildings and cemetery.

At his first visit (1823) Father Henni found sixteen Catholic families in the "Settlement."' The excellent land and the prospect of having a church built, induced others to locate there, and when Father Henni made his second visit, a year or two later, the number of families had increased to thirty. For several years services were held in the log cabins of the settlers by visiting priests. In 1836 a log church was built, which served its purpose until 1852,

The Rev. F. A. Schreiber, now of St. Peter's, Mansfield. was the pastor at the "Settlement" from 1890 to 1898, and during his pastorate there the long-cherished project of building a new church in keeping with the growth of the parish was begun under Father Schreiber's direction. The corner stone was laid by Bishop Horstmann on May 29, 1892, and the same prelate dedicated the splendid church on September 15, 1895. The occasion was a day of supreme joy for Father Schreiber, whose able management of the building affairs was seconded by the generosity of his devoted parishioners. The new church has a length of one hundred and forty-eight feet and a width of forty-eight feet, is of Berea cut stone, of Gothic architecture, and is doubtless the finest country church in the Cleveland diocese. Among the generous donors, Simon Metzer, Sr., and the late Elizabeth Brotmann should hare special mention. The Rev. Father Kuebler is now pastor of the Settleniet parish,

"Upon the comely wooded mount I stand, Where erst of old the simple huntsman stood: I see about me far and wide expand The scenes of hill and valley. field and wood."

Cowper wished for a lodge in a wildernesx. and a number of Mansfield families, sharing with the poet this desire for seclusion. have cottages at (satton's Rocks. about half-way between Bellville and Butler, where they spend a considerable part of their time during the summer months. The location is an admirable one and combines the practical with the romantic.

Several of the cottages are of rustic exterior. but within all are modernly furnished and' equipped. They stand in a row on the top of the knoll, with a street or promenade between them and the brow of the cliff. which is almost perpendicular in its declivitv to river ninety-six feet below. Back of the "buildings is a road or driveway. extending down with gentle slope to Gatton's ford, above which a suspension bridge one hundred and eighty-five feet in Jength spans the river.

The elevation upon which the cottages stand is a detached oblong bluff on the north side of which is the precipitate declivity to the river already mentioned: on the south side the slope is more gradual, terminating in a valley coursed by a smaller stream. The bluff is covered with primitive forest trees - oak, hemlock and other varieties - affording ample shade and romantic seclusion.

The Clearfork at the suspension bridge is one hundred and twelve feet wide and about four feet deep. ample volume for boating and fishing. Bass and carp abound in the stream. Across the river from the Rocks is a beautiful valley or plain containing perhaps two thousand acres and extending from Bellville to Butler, and is one of the most fertile in Ohio. And the people of that valley are descendants of old-time families and bear honored names. Before the settlement of Richland county by white people. this Clearfork valley was a favorite hunting ground of the Indians, who had annual outings there, as our people have now. The valley was so noted for its game that Jong after the evacuation of Greentown, squads of Delaware Indians would re-visit this locality for their annual hunt. The last of their annual feasts was attended by John Gatton, Sr., and Joe Haynes, his kinsman and hired man. Tom Lyons, "old leather lip," who had taken a bloody part in Wyoming massacre, was there, drunk and loquacious. He boasted that he had ninety-nine scalps on his belt, and that he wanted one more to make an even hundred. He stated that it was he who had killed Isaac Mericles, who had been murdered a short time before at Willow Bend, and whose murderer up to that time had not been known. This admission enraged young Haynes, who publicly vowed to avenge his uncle's death. This rash avowal made a tumult in the camp and tomahawks flashed in the camp-light. Gatton prevailed on Haynes to withdraw to avoid bloodshed and they left the camp. A few days later Tom Lyons and Joe Haynes disappeared. But the purpose of this reference to the affair is not to give or repeat stories and theories of their fate, but to simply show that the locality has a history dating back into the past.

Again the summer holds the hills and valleys in garbs of green. Her cloud-fleets sail through the azure sky as gracefully as thev did fifty years ago when the writer - then a Bellville boy - angled in the stream at Gatton's Rocks and hunted wintergreen on the bluff where the Mansfield cottages now stand. Fifty years! What events have taken place in that half-century! What a terrible struggle our country passed through to preserve our national unity! The thousands and tens of thousands of graves that have grown green this <pring-time tell of the Civil War, of the soldiers who fought and died for "one country and one flag." Monuments and headstones in Beulah cemetery at Bellville and elxewhere show where soldiers rest whose earthly warfare is over.

But nature. as if she took no part in earthly wars or in human sorrow; as if it were her's to lift humanity to the consciousness of immortality in herself renewed, wears today all youthful verdure of her May days of fifty years ago. The fleecy clouds sail through the air as of old and encircling hills cover their brows with veils of tender green; the hemlocks distill their frankincense and the deciduous trees flutter their leaves as new and unsullied as they did in the vears that are gone.

Barring sentimental retrospection, those fifty years have brought forth inventions and improvements that are today the servants of men. The Baltimore & Ohio railroad courses through the valley and it is an interesting moving-picture to see long trains of cars wind around graceful curves as they <peed over the rails, but the road is a utility as well. for four passenger trains stop daily at the Gatton's Rocks station for the convenience of the public. The telephone companies have strung wires to the cottages. In addition to the railroad, telephone, free mail delivery and other utilities and facilities, grocery and meat wagons make daily trips from Bellville to the rocks, and milk, butter and fruits are produced and grown in the neighborhood.

There are more than a dozen springs of good water on the Gatton farm. but the cottages have a well ninety feet deep, cut through solid rock, from which they get cool water, pure and soft. Surely, Gatton's Rocks, both in location and environment. is all that could be desired as a summer resort.

The view from the camp is entrancing. In the distance hill tops notch the horizon and lift their green crowns through the clear, soft atmosphere of these summer days into the azure sky.

Shenandoah is in the southeast part of Blooming Grove township, and was laid out in June, 1844, by William and George Altorfer, of Virginia, and was named after the far-famed valley of their native state. The land upon which Shenandoah was platted is the southeast quarter of section 24, and had previously been owned by Robert Cummings. and was sold by him to the Altorfers. The first house erected upon the town site was a hewed, log building, and was used as a hotel for a number of vears. and of which Standard Cline was at one time the landlord. Jacob Bushey erected the second house and John Valentine the third. Bushey and Cline were xshoemakers. John Niman opened a blacksmith shop, and William Hisey a pottery. John Sanker a wagon shop and conducted the business for years. Edward Hall had a store of general merchandise and was the first postmaster. The most important industry in the village was McClain's rake and handle factory. which was successfully operated for a number of vears. Andrew J. Beelman engaged in carriage building, but in latter years, after factoryv-inade vehicles were shipped over the country and crowded hand-made work out of the market, Mr. Beelman devoted his time more to repairing the machine-made vehicles than to building new ones.

When Shenandoah was at its best, the village contained from twenty to thirty families. The number is now, perhaps. less, but the town has not the appearance of being in a state of decadence. A number of the buildings are new, and all are kept painted and in repair. Two church buildings sit upon the south side of the village in neighborlv-like propinquity. and here, too, the civic taste for which Shenandoah is noted haz touched with its magic wand both buildings and grounds.

The founders of Shenandoah had no expectations of their town ever being a great city. They simply platted a village site and were content to let it take its chances in the prorenata of the future. And although the town never became great in population in a numerical way. the majority of the olden-time residents - as well as those of todav - mavy be referred to with more local pride, for their influence and usefulness can not be pent up within municipal lines.

Benjamin Morris, a Pennsylvanian. settled in Butler township, a half mile east of Shenandoah, in 1846. Mr. Morris was a prosperous. influential man in his day, and was a county commissioner in the '50s.

The Rey. B. F. Morris, a son of the late Benjamin Morris, is a minister of the Christian church and is chaplain of the Sherman brigade organization. He served in McLaughlin squadron of cavalry and was wounded in the service.

David and Michael Miller owned farms and resided upon opposite sides of the road just west of Shenandoah. They have gone from the earthly life.

Shenandoah is on the historical Beall's trail - the road cut through the north part of Richland county by General Beall's army in the fall of 1812. The first halt of Beall's army within the present limits of Richland county was on the Whetstone, where Olivesburg now stands, and the camp was called "Camp Whetstone." For the purpose of getting better spring water and of being nearer the Huron trail. the army broke cump on the Whetstone and went about five miles west and founded "Camp Council." The location of this camp is a mile west of Shenandoah and Rome. Here is the famed Ferguson spring, the water of which is healthful and the output suflicient for a much larger army than the one commanded by General Beall. Here. too. is Camp Council run, whose volume of water was then sufficient for. and afterwards used as power to operate mills. -.\ half mile south is the Blackfork of the Mohican, thus affording the troops all the water facilities needed even by an army of occupation.

Prior to the halt on the Whetstone, General Beall's army camped for a short time at Hayesville, then called Hayes' Cross Roads, and while there an amusing incident occurred. On a dark, rainy night the soldiers were awakened by the firing of pickets at one of the outposts, and, in obedience to the command to "fall in," the soldiers soon formed into line to meet the foe. as it was supposed the Indians were coming to attack the camp. The pickets reported that the enemy was advancing in solid columns and the ground seemed to tremble with the tread of the foes. It was the army's first experience in war's alarms, but the troops acted as veterans and as bravely opened fire upon their unseen enemy. The musketry firing, the charging of cavalry combined to make the night awfully grand with the pomp and reality of war.

Soon, however, the tramping and bellowing of stampeding cattle explained the '"'attack" - that the stock had broken out of the corral, and advancing toward the camp had been mistaken by the pickets for Indians. The incident, however, showed the vigilance of the sentinels and the bravery of the troops, and that the army was ever ready to meet surprises, midnight attacks and other emergencies.

General Beall had previously served as an officer under General Harmar, in the campaign against the Indians in 1790, and possessed many of the characteristics of a commander, as was shown in leading his troops successfully through the wilderness in this 1812 campaign against both a savage and

This cattle stampede at Hayesville has been likened in its humorous aspect to the "Battle of the Kegs," in the war of the Revolution, and which was made the subject of a mock heroic poem, by Francis Hopkinson, from which the following lines are taken:

East Crestline

"Twas early day, as the poets say, Just when the sun was rising, A soldier stood on a log of wood And saw a thing surprising. As in amaze he stood to gaze, The truth can't be denied, sir; He spied a score of kegs or more Come floating down the tide, sir. _ The British supposed that each keg contained a Colonial soldier, who was coming to destroy. in some inexplicable manner, the shipping at Philadelphia. EAST CRESTLINE.

East Crestline is in Sandusky township and. while it can hardly be classed as a town by itself, being only the east part of Crestline proper, it is a part of Richland county, and, therefore, deserves a place upon the pages of its history. In faet, the entire plat of Crestline was in Richland before a four-mile strip was taken off its west side and given to Crawford county. Therefore this chapter may treat of that territory as though it were still a part and parcel of "Old Richland," with which it 1s so closely allied in history.

The Sandusky river has its source about two miles north of Ontario, and, in its northwest course to Lake Erie, passes through a country which was so thickly timbered and abundant in game that the pioneers were at first reluctant to undertake the hard, difficult task of clearing the land and despoiling such prolific hunting grounds. But, in the westward march of civilization. even this thickly-wooded tract on the upper waters of the Sandusky had to be supplanted in part by an enterprising town through which trunk lines of railroads pass, whose trains carry much of the interstate traffic of the north.

The Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati railroad - now known as the Big Four - was chartered in 1836, but its construction was delaved for a number of years. Even after the work was begun it progressed so slowly that the road was not opened to traffic until 1851. There was no town at that time between Shelby and Galion - a distance of thirteen miles. For the convenience of the people it was thought there should be a station between these towns, and the crossing of the Leesville road was selected as the proper place for its location. The station was established and called Vernon. Its location was where Main street crosses the Big Four, which is nearly a half-mile north of the present station or junction of the Big Four and the Pennsylvania lines. Soon after the erection of the station a town was founded there called Livingston, after its founder - Rensselaer Livingston.

built a fine residence which is in fair condition today. Livingston was of the noted Livingston family of New York. Being wealthy, educated and cultured. Livingston and his family were the aristocrats of that neighborhood. Mr. Livingston died in 1882.

A postoftice called Livingston was opened, with Mr. Livingston as postmaster. He resigned soon after his appointment and was succeeded by Thomas Hall, whose brother, A. Hall, is still a resident of the place.

But Livingston as a town had but a brief existence, for within a few years it became a suburb of Crestline, and finally lost its identity and became absorbed by its former rival.

The Pennsvlvania road - then éalled the Ohio & Pennsylvania - did not eross the 3Cs where the station had been established, but for reasons not necessary to be given in this chapter, the line was changed and located south of the original survey, leaving Livingston north of the crossing. This change gave an opening for another town to be founded, which was doubtless the intention of the men who made the change from the first survey.

The farm of Harvey Aschbaugh had been purchased by a party consisting of Judge Thomas W. Bartley. John and Joseph Larwill and Jesse R. Stranghan. and through this land the new line was run and upon it the town of Crestline was founded. Mr. Stranghan was the chief engineer of the Pennsvlvania road. The land was then supposed to be on the crest of the "divide." and the town was named Crestline.

In 1845 Wvyandot county was created largely from the west part of Crawford county. and, to compensate Crawford for the territory taken from it, a part of Richland - four miles wide and nineteen miles long - was given to Crawford. Thix four-mile strip extends.in width from Crestline to Leesville. a portion of country fraught with historic. events.

Tt was in this strip. ceded from old Richland to Crawford county, that Colonel Crawford was captured by the Indians, as shown from the following abridgment from Dr. Knight's journal. Leaving Spring Mills on the morning of June 2 (1782), Crawford's army reached the Leesville locality about noon. where a halt was made for an hour; then followed the Sandusky river for some distance and encamped for the night near the eastern edge of the plains. Omitting the events which transpired - the marches, the battles and disasters that resulted within the three days, the 3d and 7th - the army in disorder retreated after the battle of Olentangy, reached the Sandusky on Friday evening, June 7, and encamped for the night at the place where it had halted upon its outward march, six days before. The pursuing enemy encamped within two miles of Colonel Crawford's army. The retreat and pursuit were continued the next day, and Colonel Crawford, Dr. Knight and two others were captured about a mile west of Leesville. Therefore, the eapture of Colonel Crawford was made within the original borders of Richland county.

On August 3, 1877, the Pioneer Association of Wyandot county erected a marble shaft to the memory of Colonel Crawford. It is situated as near the site of his torture and death as could be determined by Dr. Knight's

This brief resume of the capture of Colonel Crawford gives but one of the many historical events that occurred in old Richland, and for which the county is so noted in history.

Both Richland and Crawford claim the honor of having been, each in its time, the home of the late Hon. Ross Locke, a political satirist. better known to the reading world as "Petroleum V. Nasby." In 1855-6 Mr. Locke was associated with General R. Brinkerhoff in the publication of the Mansfield Herald. Upon his retirement from the Herald, Mr. Locke went to Plymouth and became one of the publishers of the Advertiser. Later he went to Bucyrus, where he was connected with the Journal for several years. During the early part of the Civil War Mr. Locke began his Nasby letters, which soon attracted much attention and were widely read in the North. His first letters were (the date-heading indicated) written from Wungert's Corners, in Crawford county, but that was only feigned. Many of the circumstances and incidents narrated in the Nasby letters, although given with partisan coloring, actually transpired, and the principal characters were taken from fancied resemblances to individuals living at the Corners at that time. As the Nasby letters became more generally read Mr. Locke changed their headings from these Corners to the "Confederit X Roads. which is in the state of Kentucky."

Toledo Junction is seven miles west of Mansfield, where the Toledo division leaves the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad. A few buildings are clustered around in that vicinity, but the place is a railroad junction. not a town.

Vernon Junction

Vernon Junction is in Sharon township, at the crossing of the Toledo. Walhonding Valley & Ohio, the Toledo' division of the Pennsylvania, and the "Big Four" railroads. The crossing takes its name from Vernon township, Crawford county. It was first called Junction City, then changed to Vernon Junction, in accordance with Goethe, that "Change amuses the mind." But there may have been more potent reasons in this case.

Vernon Junction was founded in 1872, upon the building of the "'Coldwater" railroad, and a fine hotel was erected there and was kept by a Mr. Sager, who had previously been a popular landlord at Shelby. A number of business rooms and dwelling houses were also erected, and whatever the little village lacks in size is fully compensated for in appearance. Fifty years ago a railroad junction was thought to be a big thing because there were so few of them in Ohio at that time, but they are so numerous now that their value and importance have diminished.

The country about Vernon Junction is generally level, and in its primitive state was covered with a dense growth of hardwood timber. There were swamps in places along the Blackford, east of Vernon.

was au Indian hunting camp near to the present site of Vernon Junction for many years after the war of 1812. It is stated that about a dozen Indians under the lead of Johnnycake maintxined a camp there until 1828. Civilization has blotted out all external evidences of Indian occupation, but here and there Indian relics are often plowed up. Many of these relics may be of a prehistoric instead of an Indian period.

After a greater number of the Indians had gone to other hunting grounds, a small party of red=kins called at the cabin of a settler with whom they were acquainted and upon invitation gave an exhibition of one of their war-dances. They chose one of their number, named Buckwheat, to personate a white man. Buckwheat was placed in the center of the room, and the other Indians then began to dance around him. Hideous as the Indians were themselves. they added to their repulsiveness. contortions of face and body. They jumped and whooped and yelled furiously. and finally threw Buckwheat roughly upon the Hoor. Then one of the "braves" placed his foot upon Buckwheat's neck and went through the pantomimic action of scalping him, while other "braves" acted the part of plunging their knives into the body of their victim. Buckwheat also played his part so well that the scene was horribly realistic and made a lasting impression upon those who witnessed the performance, and recalled vividly the atrocities perpetrated in certain localities but a few years before.

The pionecrs endured many privations, especially during the period prior to the vear 1820. The flouring mills were but few, and from five to twenty miles distant from some of the settlements. Whenever trips to mills could not be made, grain was pounded in a mortar with a wooden pestle. The mortar was made out of a log. hollowed out by burning a hole sufficiently large to hold about a half-bushel of grain. At the close of the "pounding," the next process was =ifting with sieves of different meshes until the grade of flour or meal desired was obtained. The finest flour was made into bread. The coarser grades were made into batter and baked into pancakes or boiled into porridge. Corn-meal was made into pones, Johnny-cakes or mush. Sometimes both flour and meal chests were empty, but the pioneer women were always resourceful. and when that condition existed in the fall season the children were sent to the cornfields to get ears of corn which the good women would grate into meal and prepare into food. If the corn-meal was mixed and baked in a Dutch oven it was called "'pone''; if baked on a board | in front of the fire it was called ""Johnnv-cake," and if made into balls and baked in the oven, the cakes were called ''dodgers." Another way to use meal was to boil it in water. and this was called "mush." But if bread was scarce at times. game and honey abounded in great quantities.

As far as possible the pioneers chose the uplands, but many of them built their cabins upon land that rose up, island-like, out of swamps and marshes. They did not seem to care for the ague and malarial fevers, especially incident to the low wet lands. With no hope of ever seeing the land tiled and drained, they went to work to clear farms and let the sun in to dry up the stagnant water.

were "blazed" through the forests, and as they were often indistinct in places, people sometimes got lost. A case of this kind occurred in Worthington township as late as 1851. A farmer living in Slater's valley had occasion to go to Independence, and took a '"near-cut" through a half-mile stretch of woods and got lost. He wandered through the woods for some time and finally got to the edge of the timber and saw a beautiful valley spread out before him. At the far side of the valley stood a large brick house, and the man said to himself, "What a lovely farm, what a fine residence; I wonder who lives there." He crossed the fields, went up to the house and asked the way to Independence of a woman who was standing upon the porch. The woman was his wife, the house and farm were his own, but in his confused and bewildered condition he had failed to recognize them, as he was so thoroughly 'turned around" that he thought north was south, and that east was west, but when his wife spoke the points of the compass were right to him, and he then realized that he had been lost within call of his home. Children were frequently lost. a few of whom were never found. -\ little girl some miles southwest of Vernon Junction disappeared from a sugar-camp where her mother was boiling sap, and was never heard of. A number of strange Indians had been seen in the neighborhood, and it was supposed they had stolen her. OLIVESBURG.

' Olivesburg is in Weller township and was laid out by Benjamin Montgomery in 1816, and was named for his daughter. Olive. By 1821 business in its several lines of those days was represented there. Benjamin Montgomery kept a tavern, Abel Montgomery, a blacksmith shop: John Gun, a tailor shop; Thomas Beach, a cabinet shop. and Joseph Burget. a tannery. The town is on the left bank of the Whetstone creek, about two miles north of its junction with the Blackfork of the Mohican.

The first road in the Whetstone country was cut through the forests by General Beall's troops in September, 1812. and the road is still often called "Beall's Trail." The first roads were called "'trails' and '"'paths."' There was the "Great Trail" from Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) to Detroit. Then there were Muskingum and Wvandot trails, ihe Portage path and others. Not only were the Indian trails used largely by the pioneers. opening the way to a distribution of population over the new country, but they became the course of the first roads. In those days nearly all the roads passed along ridges. having been located along buffalo trails, later widened by the Indians and the pioneers. The first towns as well as the first roads were upon ridges and hills. But in time the need of motive power furnished by the streams led to the building of mills in the vallevs, and about the mills sprang up settlements and towns. The coming of the railroads was the doom of many vil- ~lages, and the shrill scream of the locomotive sounded the passing of many towns, not only on the hill-tops, but also in the valleys. The Beall trail in time became the Wooster road to the Northwest. And since the trail was cut through, the village of Olivesburg has been built, and, instead of the wild forest that surrounded Camp Whetstone, where General Beall's army en- - camped, fields of waving grain are now kissed and ripened by the summer sun.

To one of an imaginative turn of mind, who is interested in history, the old century comes back at times in retrospection. In a panorama-like view, border armies can be seen marching by in militia garb or in the uniform of Continental soldiers. The pioneers may also be seen, the lines upon their faces telling of the hardships and work which made the present civilization possible. And in each scene the story may be read of the century now passed away.

The mission of Beall's army was to keep between the settlements upon the south of the trail and the British troops and their allies - the Indians - upon the north. After remaining in camp a few days at Olivesburg General Beall moved forward and founded Camp Council, in Blooming Grove township.

The first schoolhouse in Olivesburg was built in 1824. It was a log building, twenty feet square, and Joseph Ward was the first teacher. The Presbyterians built a church in 1827 and the Methodists erected one in 1847. People say "'the railread killed Olivesburg,'' meaning the Erie road. A more correct expression would be that railroads - the railroad age - prevented Olivesburg from becoming anything more or greater than a little village. It has a pretty location and nestles in a quiet valley with charming surroundings.

In 1857-8 the Rev. J. R. Burgett was the pastor of the Presbyterian church at Mansfield. His pastorate, though brief, was successful. He was called to Mobile. -\labaima, and was on board the vessel with Mason and Slidell when they were captured while enroute to England as emissaries of the rebellion. When a boy. Olivesburg was the Rev. Burgett's home.

The sawmill a short distance below Olivesburg was operated for a number of years by Mr. Tinkey. the father-in-law of Mr. Willis, of East Fourth street, Mansfield. William Houston came to Ohio from the state of Delaware in 1815. and was a resident of Olivesburg for many years. Jonathan Montgomery. then a resident of Olivesburg, was a county commissioner in 1850. Dr. Hubbs, of Butler, passed his boyhood years in Olivesburg. The late David Berry was a wagonmaker in Olivesburg for a number of years. John T. Crabbs. of Mansfield. formerly lived in Olivesburg.

Perhaps incidents are of more interest to the general reader than are personal mention. .\ story is told of a justice of the peace in the long ago but as the same story has been located in different places the exact location ean not be vouched for. .\ certain man who had just been elected a justice of the peace. upon returning home told his wife that he had been elected a "Squire." ax such magistrates are usually called. The next day the children were calling each other " "Squire." Their mother ordered them to "shut up," saying, ''There is nobody 'Squire here but your daddy and me."

When David Tod was running for governor as a democrat before the war, Joe Geiger made a campaign song out of the foregoing incident, changing it to suit the politics of the time. One stanza of the doggerel runs as follows:

An old resident. speaking of muster days. says: 'We boys had fine times during the general musters. Then we got gingerbread. which to our taste was next to ambrosia, the food of the gods. Whisky. too, was plentvy - the good kind that Tom Corwin called the leveler of modern society.

Of the schools. another states that. "The early school teachers were paid for their services by subscription. There being but few schoolhouses. teachers often got permission to hold school in settlers' cabins. The children learned to 'read, write and cipher,' the latter as far as the rule of three. which was considered sufficient for ordinary business purposes."

East of Olivesburg. in Ashland county. "sick wheat' was often produced in the early settlement of the country. This condition could not be accounted for. The grain would look as plump and perfect a= the best quality ever grown and the flour made from the same would be as white and nice as any ever bolted, and when made into bread would be palatable. except that the bread would have a sweetish taste. But whenever eaten by man or beast a distressing sickness would follow. Neither the weevil. rust nor smut then affected. the grain and the cause of "sick wheat" was never ascertained.

Elijah Charles came from Beaver county. Pennsvivania. in 1814. and built a sawmill on the Blackfork. about one and a half iniles south of Olivesburg. His son. Isaac Charles, succeeded to the property. to which he added a grist mill in 1835. In 1868 he removed to Bluffton. -\llen county. where he died some vears later. His son, Isaac, was charged with murdering his father, and was convicted and sentenced to the state prison for life.

When Rogers' rangers passed through the northeastern part of what is now Richland county, in 1761, the Blackfork was called "Moxskongam: Creek."

The writer was in Olivesburg the night of the great frost - June 4. 1859. Sunday morning, June 5, the sun rose on a scene of artistic beauty. but. alas. it was only a ervstalline veneering of destruction. As the warm rays of the sun shone upon the ice-incrusted vegetation. the scene of beauty was soon changed to one of desolation, as all plant, life wilted and withered. some having been frozen to the roots. Ice was formed a half-inch in thickness. Garden as well as field crops were ruined. While some vegetation revived. a season of scarcity followed, and breadstuff advanced to prices never reached before. This frost devastation passed over a considerable area of country and was particularly severe in northern Ohio. There were frosts every month in the year of 1859. In 1838 there were destructive frosts between the 15th and 18th of May.

Darlingtown was originally called Hagerstown - named for Christopher Hager, the first settler on the town site. For postoffice reasons the name was changed to Darlington.

Darlington is the only town in Perry township. Perry is six miles long from north to south, and three miles wide from east to west. and contains eighteen sections. The location of Darlington is a little southwest of the center of the township.

The first store in the little village was opened as a branch of a Johnsville concern. Later there were stores there which were owned and conducted by residents of the village.

William James was the first blacksmith of the village. A dry goods store, a grocery, wagon, blacksmith and other shops constituted the business of the place thirty-five years ago, and the town being simply a country village, has changed but little in the years that are past.

The first settlement in Perry township was made in 1809 by John Frederick Herring on the east side of section 11, Richland county, and represent, in the main, families of prominence and probity, and many of them were pioneers and helped clear the county andchange the forest lands into farms.

A formidable amount of work confronted the pioneers - the building of homes and barns. clearing and fencing the land. Then came planting and sowing and the cultivating and harvesting the crops. The first buildings were log cabins. Logs of a suitable size were cut to the length required, hauled to the cabin site. and neighbors invited to the "raising." An axeman went to each corner to notch and fit the logs and put them in place. The cabins were covered with clapboards, which were held in place by ''weight-poles." Floors and doors were made of "puncheons." After the advent of the sawniills, boards superseded puncheons.

Roads had to be made and streams bridged. What stupendous work was done by the pioneers - work of which no written record has been left of its doing, for although they made history, they did not write it. It is a fact that the typical pioneer said but little about his exploits, and vaunted not of his work. It is the same with soldiers. Take the men who served a few months in the Civil War. what stories they spin, as did Othello tell the fair Desdemona, the hair-breadth escapes, of battles and of sieges in which they were engaged. while the veterans who served from the start to the finish of the war, say but little about the bloody conflicts through which they passed. They were brave in war, but are not boastful in peace.

It has been stated that the pioneer annalist left his diary to his son, who lost it in moving to the far West, and that thereby the story of the lives of the first settlers exist largely in tradition.

In an address delivered in the Lutheran church, Mansfield, September 15, 1885, the late Hon. Henry B. Curtis, in speaking of the character of the pioneers, said in substance that it is a great mistake to suppose that our fathers were of less culture in the arts and sciences, and all the elements of civilization, than the succeeding generations. On the contrary, the natural character of the men, and the advantages they had received in earlier life, gave them an ascendancy to which the first generation that followed could not atiain for the want of these accessories. So that it often happened that the growing family of sons and daughters in the absence of schools were wholly or largely dependent upon their parents for such teaching and instructions as other pressing labors would permit them to give. Hence in contemplating the character of our fathers we must go back beyond the generation that succeeded and remember the men in their individual and collective relations; in the great qualities that fitted them to lay the foundations of government.

In the years of the past there were more demonstrative manifestations of feeling at revival meetings than are exhibited today. Two churches prominent in such exhibitions were Center church in Perry and Easterly's in Worthington township. At these ''shouting" was a nightly occurrence. One Adam Bechtel, who had been unable to "get through" at a revival at Center church, prayed one night that a sign might be given him. A few hours later the Bible fell from a'shelf, and upon picking it up Mr. Bechtel opened it at the passage. 'He brought me up also out of a horrible pit." This converted Bechtel and gave the religious excitement new impetus.

Adario is the only town in Butler township, and was founded in 1538 by Henry Foulks and was called Lafayette. The name was changed, it seems, to conform to that of the postoffice, but the place is still called by many people by its old-time name in honor of the Marquis d' La Fayette, the liberty-loving Frenchman who came to the aid of the .\merican colomes in the darkest time of the war of the revolution.

Butler is the northeast township in the county, and was mapped and organized March 5, 1849, after Ashland county was created. The township is aix miles in length from north to south, and is four miles in width - a strip of two miles was given it from Clearcreek township on the east, and a twomile strip from Blooming Grove on the west. As Clearfork was formerly in Richland county and lies so close to Adario, this sketch may deal with the Clearcreek country.

Adario's part in the history of Richland county towns has not been a prominent one. The people of that part of the county are industrious and law abiding. and the village has two churches - Methodist and Disciple - and its schools are noted as rating well with others elsewhere.

A single exception to the rule of good deportment among the Lafayette people was the case of Parson Montgomery, but his was a case wherein a man's great intelJect became unbalanced, resulting in his downfall and degradation.

Adario has a lovely site. and Butler township as fine lying land and as beautiful farms as there are in the county. The surface is level. but is sufficiently rolling for proper drainage. The roads are equal to the best. making country trips both pleasant and desirable.

As you drive, farm after farm can be seen stretching toward the horizon - to the line where the firmament seems to come down to encircle the green, fruitful earth with the blue canopy of the skies.

A level country is conducive to evenness of life. John Brown's scheme did not thrive upon the plains of Kansas; but, with a change of venue to the mountains of Virginia, he nursed his purpose and matured his plans to precipitate an insurrection. But before he went to Kansas he had dwelt amid the solitudes of the Adirondacks, where no voice spoke to him but the screaming winds which in winter sweep summits in hurricane blasts, making the

Thomas Ford and his son Elias came from Jefferson county in April, 1819, and entered the northeast quarter of section 22, in Clearcreek township. The journey was made in a one-horse wagon which contained, besides themselves, such tools and implements as would be needed in clearing land and building a cabin. They found tolerably well-defined roads until after leaving Uniontown - as Ashland was then called - about two miles west of which they entered an unbroken wildernes:. and had to cut their way through the forest to the land they had entered. Their first work was to erect a place of shelter, which was a little cabin with a bark shed-roof. The father returned to his home in the East and Elias remained to get the place in readiness for the advent of the family in the fall. Elias Ford, who at that time was about twenty years of age. had a lonesome summer, but a very busy one. The Indians infested the country during the hunting seasons, and were his only "neighbors." Rattlesnakes were so numerous that Mr. Ford had to have his bed suspended from the rafters to keep the venomous reptiles from sharing it with him, and having once retired to his swinging bunk, he did not dare to leave it till daylight the next morning lest he would tramp upon the snakes crawling over the floor.

In front of his cabin a fire burned all night to keep off the wolves and drive away the mosquitoes. His dog was a faithful sentinel at his door, and his gun was within reach each day and night. In November of that vear the father and family joined Elias. and a larger cabin was erected for their comfort. Within a radius of +ix miles there were but four settlers to assist at this raixing.

At that time there was neither a schoolhouse nor church in the township, and the cabin of Mr. Ford was used for a place of religious worship for eleven years - until "Ford's meeting house" was erected in 1830. The pioneers, as a rule. were regular attendant= upon religious meetings. men and women often eoing five or xix miles on foot to hear the gospel preached and to worship. At night they found their way through the forest by carrying lighted torches of hickory bark.

On the 10th of October. 1830, Thomas Ford departed this life, aged fifty- <evel) vears, and his funeral was the first religious service held in Ford's meeting house.

To show the needs and generosity of the pioneers the following incident is given: In the spring of 1822, Mr. Ford had purchased three bushels of frost-bitten cornmeal, which he supposed would be sufficient to sustain him until he could realize something from the ripening of a small piece of rye which he then had growing. This meal, however, as a matter of economy, and in order to lengthen out its days. was baked and eaten without subjecting it to the usual process of sifting - as he well knew that if his little stock should become exhausted before his rye harvest he would not be able to obtain any more supplies. The little sack of corn and the growing field of rye were watched with intense solicitude. .4 short time before the latter was ready for the sickle he was called upon by two neighbors, who informed him that their families were entirely out of breadstuff, and appealed to him for relief in their extremity. Mr. Ford produced his sack of cornmeal. poured its contents upon his puncheon table and divided it into three equal parts, and his neighbors gratefully received each his third and the other third was returned to his sack. When the little field of rye, which was the only one in the neighborhood, was harvested it was found scarcely adequate to supply himself and neighbors, although it was the only grain of any kind then immediately attainable; and it was consumed without having been ground - the grain being boiled and eaten with milk, or being cooked by frying. That was the most trying season for the settlers of the township - the succeeding harvests being generally sufficient to afford materials for bread.

John Ford, a son of pioneer Thomas Ford, married a Miss Barnes and settled in Washington township, where he was a prominent farmer for many vears, and was a justice of the peace. He was the father of S. N. Ford, W. E. Ford, E. C. Ford and T. W. Ford, of Mansfield. Another son of pioneer Thomas Ford was Colonel Thomas H. Ford, father of P. P. Ford, of Mansfield.

While the pioneers were vet few in numbers, the Clearcreek neighborhood was thrown into a high state of excitement by the following occurrence: Sarah Brink, the eighteen-vear-old daughter of Thomas Brink, who resided in the southern part of the township, started one evening on an errand to the house of Nathaniel Bailey, situated about a mile distant; became lost in the woods and wandered about for three days and nights. The whole neighborhood was searching for her, but as the weather was intensely cold, after the second day all hope was abandoned of finding her alive - that she must have perished or been devoured by the wolves. But the morning of the fourth day found her vet alive, though her limbs were frozen, and she was nearly famished. She heard the barking of a dog, and following the sound came to an Indian camp near the western shore of the lower Vermillion lake. The Indians gave her attention and care and returned her to her home. But she was crippled for life in consequence of the loss by freezing of nearly all the toes from both feet.

Butler is not behind some of her sister townships in spook stories. There is a place called Spook Hollow southwest of Adario, where apparitions are said to be occasionally seen.

Winchester And Hemlock Falls

Winchester was platted on the southwest quarter of section 9, in Worthington township, March 31, 1845. The land was owned by Noble Calhoun and the name was suggested by George Hammon, a Virginian, in honor of Winchester, the beautiful town of the Shenandoah valley - a town and valley since made memorable in history and in song by "Sheridan's Ride" and other incidents of the Civil War.

The Winchester site is on the left bank of the Clearfork of the Mohican, about half-way between Butler and Newville. The principal reason for the founding of the town was on account of the mills and the industries which had gathered around them. The site is near the center of the township, and Newville is near the north line, and as the elections were held there many voters had to go five miles to their polling place; and the idea of a town near to the center of the township became quite popular with many people.

David Herring built mills at this point late in the '30s. There were a grist mill, a saw mill and a woolen mill. The grist mill was the largest in the county at that time and the building stands intact today. There were three sets of buhrs, two for custom and one for merchant work. A number of buildings were erected in the vicinity of the mills, and a store of general merchandise and other lines of trade were conducted and business seemed to increese and require more facilities. And a town was platted upon the opposite side of the river on account of that being the more desirable site. Lots were sold and dwellings were built and soon the place contained eight or ten families. But ere the village got fairly started the town of Butler - first called Independence - was laid out upon the line of the railroad then being built from Mansfield to Newark. and as the railroad town was within two miles of Winchester the rest of the story need not be told, further than to state that where Winchester once stood there are now fields of waving grain, and the fine old structure that was once a grist mill is now used for a barn. By becoming surety for friends, David Herring became financially embarrassed and finally lost all. He died in 1872, and his widow, Mrs. Hannah L. Herring, now resides at No. 15 North Walnut street, Mansfield.

The Clearfork flows through an alluvial valley, bordered with hills of modified drift. generally sandy, in places composed of coarse, waterworn pebbles and boulders. A freshet of this stream, locally known as the "great flood,' occurred on June 28. 1838, the day of Queen Victoria's coronation. And when the flood was at its height a Miss Duncan was rescued from the island in a canoe and, declining a seat, stood with one foot upon each side of the little shallop and from a bottle drank to the health of the crowd upon the shore.

The "island" is above the mills, and there, near the cabin, which for years stood between the head race and the river, is where a legend claims a "pot of gold" is buried, and for which considerable search has been made. And there lights are seen to glimmer as though to indicate the place where the treasure is hidden.

Hemlock Falls is usually associated with Newville, but the place is more properly connected with Winchester. The falls is two miles south of Newville and two miles east of Winchester, making the distance relatively the same. But the geological and other features for which the falls locality is noted begin at Winchester and extend down to and around the falls, making the two places bound together by chains of rock-ribbed ridges and everlasting hills. The falls is about a mile - as the road goes - south of the Clear- fork, and the water is a spring run that leaps over a ledge of rocks that extends for a mile or more along the east side of a vale, which is a spur of the main valley. The little stream which here leaps over the precipice first runs over slanting rocks for perhaps fifty feet, then plunges over and down, making a direct leap of twenty-five feet into a basin below. Like other streams, this is not nearly so large as it was when the country was first settled, but even now whenever there is a freshet the altisonant roar of the waterfall can be heard more than a mile away with a sigh and moan like that of distress.

Hemlock Falls is interesting in its rough, wild beauty and in the geological formations and physical features of its ledge of rocks, especially those south of the falls, where here and there grotesque grottos, curious corridors and capacious caverns abound. It was in a cave beneath the falls, ax McGaw states, where Philip Seymour first saw Lilly Pipe, and of which meeting he gives such a graphic description. The parties had taken <helter there from a terrific storm, one of the most violent that ever visited that part of the country.

In viewing these massive rocks innumerable marks and indentations are seen upon their otherwise smooth surface, which are clearly wave marks, made by the surging waters of a lake that was but is not.

"What are the sad waves saving?" can here be changed to what have they here written in the centuries agone, when the valley lying west was a lake, as was, perhaps, the entire valley of the Clearfork.

The surface of this part of Ohio was once covered with ice. The origin of this condition was in the continual accumulation of snow over the glacial region in excess of the melting power of the summer sun. The extent of the glacial region is now pretty accurately known. In America the glacial sheet extended to the south of New England and southwestward from New York to the Mississippi. In Ohio the line of its southern boundary entered the state in Columbiana county, and ran nearly due west to the vicinity of Loudonville, in Ashland county; thence south, bearing a hitle west. to a point not far from Lancaster; thence southwest, leaving the state in Clermont county, about twenty miles above Cincinnati. To this hmit the ice of the glacial period extended in its southern movement, and as it withdrew the ice in melting left the material it had picked up in its long journey from the north to mark its former presence.

There is no doubt that great changes have taken place in this valley since the preglacial period, but what they have been can only be learned through geology. The date of the close of the glacial period has been approximately estimated at not far from ten thousand years.

A theory in explanation of the wavemarks upon the rocks at Hemlock Falls is that a post glacial gorge between the hills dammed up the river, thus inundating the vallevs above. The waves of the lake may have surged and tossed against these Hemlock Falls rocks for centuries, leaving their marks as wave-prints of time.

At last the gorge gave away, gradually perhaps but more likely broke suddenly through and tore the dam from its summit to its base to make a passage, and the rocks lving here and there down the river were thus strewed

Names have been given to a number of the rocks of the locality of the falls. One is called Threshing Floor, and rises perpendicularly three hundred feet above the river. The top is about forty feet square, and is nearly upon a level of the surface of the land upon the east. In the pioneer times the top of this rock was used as a floor upon which to tramp out wheat. There is a story that one of the horses used to tread out the grain fell over the rocks, whereupon the owner of the beast remarked, jokingly, 'Well, that 'hoss' will never fall again."

Hemlock Falls is interesting in its physical geography and in its historical associations. There is a fascination in its picturesque, rugged beauty that charms the eve. while it both interests and instructs the student of nature.

There are writers who seem to think that truth is not as interesting to the reader as are some fancies of their own brain which they give forth to the public as legends and traditions. Why not give the facts of historr - why not tell the truth?

And truth can be as entertainingly written and can be clothed in as fine a garb as can any fiction that the most visionary romancer can invent.

Millsborough, New Castle, Ontario

Millsborough was platted in October. 1831. and was the first town in Springfield township. It was laid out on part of the northeast and northwest quarters of section 28. The plat contained thirty inlots, two streets, six alleys and a public square. The main street was called "Portland." on account of it being the road north to Portland - now called Sandusky - on Lake Erie. The location of the town is picturesque. beiug situated among the rolling hills and narrow valleys of the east branch of the Clearfork of the Mohican. The stream furnished ample water-power for mills and other purposes, and John Garretzon erected a grist mill where the road crosses the stream. and on account of this enterprise the town was founded. James Woods, father of Harvey Woods. built a grist mill a mile down the stream, now known as the Otto mills, The Garretson mill is no more. These mills, with a saw mill or two, gave the town the name of Millsborough.

It is interesting to learn how towns got their names. Mansfield was named for Colonel Jared Mansfield. who platted the town June, 1808. Gamble's Mills was changed to Shelby, to have a name indicating a town instead of a grist mill, and the latter name being in honor of General Isaac Shelby, an Officer of the War of the Revolution, and also of the War of 1512, and who commanded Kentucky troops at the battle of the Thames October 5, 1813. In addition to his other public services, General Shelby was governor of Kentucky, and in the civil as well as in the military service of his country, he discharged faithfully, honestly and well the duties of the several positions given him, and the name has seemed to be talismanic, for but few towns can point with more pride to their past history or to brighter prospects for the future than Shelby.

Lexington was named in commemoration of Lexington, Massachusetts, where the first blood was shed in the War of the Revolution, April 19, 1775.

New Castle, as has been claimed, was named for Henry Cassell, who owned land upon which the town was platted. But, for orthographical and other reasons, this claim has been doubted, and there are assigned to prove that the name was given in honor of the New Castle-upon-Tyne, a city and seaport in England. Great things were expected of the town in a commercial way, it being a station on the crossroads of travel and traffic, from the East to the West and from the South to Lake Erie on the North.

Ontario took its name from Ontario county, New York, the native place of Hiram Cook, who owned the land upon which our Springfield township, Ontario, stands.

In addition to his mills, Garretson erected other buildings and opened a public house at Millsborough, and after conducting it for some time sold the same to John Martin, who "kept tavern" there for a number of years. Landlord Martin was the father of Captain Martin. who headed a company of Richland county militiamen for the Ohio-Michigan boundary line war in 1835.

At Millsborough was established the first postofiice in the township. The town grew and had a prosperous trade, with two stores of general merchandise. with shops of the several lines of trade usual to villages at that time. During the '30s the town bid fair to hold its own in the march of time. But fate is an uncertain quantity, playing as fickle with towns as with individuals, and Millsborough is now a village of the past. But few houses remain, while ruins of others can be seen with the timbers rotting where they fell. The causes which led to these results are at least twofold - two rival towns were founded in close propinquity to Millsborough, and a few years later the Ohio & Pennsylvania was built and the town of Crestline was started at its crossing of the Cleveland & Columbus road, four miles northwest of Millsborough, and Crestline, being a railroad junction town, with shops and division yards, it had the advantage from the start over its neighboring villages, and as Crestline increased in population and importance and went up high in the scale of progress Millsborough went the other way, downward to the lowest notes.

New Castle was laid out and its plat recorded in December, 1834, and was the rival of Millsborough from its start. Being situated on the Mansfield &

Bucyrus stage line, at the juncture of a cross-road, it had certain advantages over Millsborough but lacked the water-power facilities of the latter.

But soon another Richard was in the field, and Ontario was-created within a mile of New Castle on the west, with a situation more elevated and commanding and was upon cross stage lines. New Castle had taverns, stores and shops and all villages were more or less "'wet'' in those days. But neither "wet" nor "dry" conditions will save a town when fate points at it its gaunt finger and says "Go." And New Castle, with graceful genuflexions, acquiesced in the survival of the fittest.

The following facts anent the killing of Peter Lintholm at New Castle were obtained of M. E. Douglas, whose boyhood years were passed in Springfield township. Peter Lintholm had passed the prime of life when the tragedy occurred that cost him his life. He was called "Old Peter Lintholm," and was rather feeble-minded, and was easily irritated, and upon this occasion was being teased by one Samuel Cristman, whereupon Lintholm struck Cristman, and the latter stabbed Lintholm with his knife, with which he had been whittling. The knife-blade passed between two of Lintholm's ribs and penetrated the heart, Lintholm dying almost instantly. At the preliminary hearing before Squire William Douglas, Cristman was bound over to the court of common pleas. where he entered the plea of self-defense, upon which he was acquitted.

Ontario was platted December, 1834, and soon thereafter took the lead of its two sister villages. Upon the opening of the Atlantic & Great Western railroad Ontario was given a station, which is still maintained. The Ontario academy was successfully conducted for a number of years, attended by students from different parts of the country, and which added much to the town's growth and prosperity.

Dr. Abraham Jenner was a prominent citizen of Ontario for many years and represented Richland county in the Ohio legislature in 1858-60. Dr. Jenner was the father of Judge John W. Jenner and the Hon. S. Eberle Jenner, of Mansfield.

As Ontario grew religious congregations abandoned their houses of worship in the country and erected new buildings in the town. Among the number were Bigelow chapel and Taylor's meeting house. The Methodists put up a church building in 1835. In 1850 the United Presbyterians erected a house for worship, as also did the Presbyterians in 1851.

Along the east bank of the Millsborough branch of the Clearfork of the Mohican, a half-mile below the town, is Newton Y. Gilkinson's forestry park, containing about five acres, with four hundred and seventy-seven different kinds and varieties of trees, native to the soil of Ohio. This is the only forestry park of the kind in the state, and deserves the attention of the public. Mr. Gilkinson has been years in planting and cultivating the trees of this park - not from pecuniary motives but as a work of love.

Mr. Gilkinson was a soldier in the Mexican War and has now reached the age where the shadows lengthen. When he answers the final roll-call he

Richland Village

The village of Richland is in Cass township and was laid out in 1837. A number of houses, forming a little village, had been erected there before the town was platted. John Long was the first settler and started a tannery. The Long cabin was on the State road, running from central Ohio through Mansfield to the lake, at its intersection with the road leading fron. Wooster to the northwest - then commonly called the Beall trail. Houses of public entertainment were called taverns in those days, and at the junction of these roads a tavern had been a necessity long before the town was laid out. The cabin of John Long was the only house at the crossing for some time, but supply came with the demand, and after the land was platted dwellings and business houses were put up, and the village soon had a population of about two hundred, with taverns, stores and shops to meet the wants of the trade. John Plank, who had the village laid out, kept the principal tavern of the town. and the place was therefore called Planktown, which name it is commonly known by today.

At this time the State road was the highway of freight transit between the interior of Ohio and Lake Erie. The port of the lake, after the opening of the Erie canal, were market marts for farm produce. Along this State road through Richland village teams hauling grain north and merchandise south passed in great numbers, sometimes as many as two hundred in a day. The village grew quite rapidly for those days, but in 1850 the Cleveland & Columbus railroad was built through Cass township, leaving Richland a mile off its line to the east, and a new town - now called Shiloh - was built at the crossing. Richland then went into decline. and but little is left of the village today.

As narratives of the murders committed at Richland by Return J. M. Ward have been given to the public in newspapers and in pamphlets, it might seem superfluous to repeat the story here. But as those bloody deeds were committed more than fifty years ago, generations have since come upon the stage of life to whom the narrative may be new. Then, too, this historical chapter would not be complete without at least a resume of Ward's terrible career of crimes. In about 1847. Return J. M. Ward became proprietor of the Eagle house, situated at the northeast corner of Wooster and Norwalk streets. Ward has been described jas a large, strong man, with a sinister countenance.

On the south side of Sandusky street. a short distance west of the Eagle house, one Noah Hall kept a store, carrying a line of general merchandise. as was the custom at that time. The store building was an isolated frame structure, with the north end to the street. Hall boarded with Ward and slept at the rear end of the store. There were no "drummers" on the road in those days, and merchants went East twice a year for goods. In March, 1850, Hal! collected money preparatory to going to New York to purchase goods for his spring trade. On the morning of March 18 the little village was startled by the report that Hall had been murdered the night previous. Ward directed suspicion against Daniel A. Myers and Thomas Mc@Garvy, brothers-in-law. -\s usual. detectives formulated theories and tried to find evidence to sustain them, instead of letting the facts establish a theory, and Myers and MeGarvy were arrested and indicted on the charge of murder. Persons charged with certain crimes could elect under the old constitution whether to be tried by the supreme or the common pleas court, and upon being arraigned, April 13, the prisoners choose the latter. They were then remanded to jail and their trial set for the July term. The prisoners elected to be tried separately, and Daniel A. Myers was put on trial for the murder of Noah Hall. William Stevens was prosecuting attorney, and Jacob Brinkerhoff and D. W. Stambaugh represented the prisoners. The trial resulted in a verdict of not guilty, and on July 16 MeGarvy was also released and the case dropped from the docket. -\t the trial of Mvers. Return J. M. Ward, the landlord, was the principal witness for the prosecution, and the overzeal he exhibited on the stand to obtain a conviction of the accused caused suspicion to be cast upon himself. which contributed somewhat to the acquittal of Myers. Ward was a too ready witness, too anxious to convict and his testimony bore earmarks of fabrication.

Some time after the Hall murder a pack-peddler by the name of Lovejoy put up at Ward's tavern for the night. and as he did not appear at the breakfast table the morning following Ward, in answer to inquiries. stated that the peddler had left early. and that seemed to end the matter for a time. It has been thought that Ward's wife suspected that her husband had murdered the peddler. for she soon afterwards became insane and was sent to an asylum, where she died. In a general way the suspicion of the public turned to Ward as the murderer of Noah Hall, but there was not evidence sufficient to place a charge against him in a court of justice. It also became the opinion of the public that the peddler, Lovejoy, had met with foul play at the hands of Ward. The distrust and suspicions of the people became so apparent that Ward left the place and later located in Sylvania, Lueas county, and again married.

And thus it was with Ward. and even the soughing of the winds reminded him of the moans of his victims, and the evening zephyrs seemed to whisper accusations against his guilty soul.

Such simple causes lead to the unmasking of crime, that. no matter how its perpetrators may endeavor to hide it, ''murder will out." The blood of Abel crying out against Cain is the type of all murders. The earth refuses to conceal such heinous crimes. and all nature conspires to betray the unlawful shedding of blood. The man who passes from earth in the ordinary course of nature may be missed and mourned for a while, but the community yields to the inevitable. for all are born under the sentence of death. Compared with the vast numbers of people who throng the earth one man is but an atom, a unit of the whole. but as such he is under the ever watchful care of the Father, who gave the command from Mount Sinai, "Thou shalt do no murder," and who has declared ''That vengeance is Mine." Vice leads to vice and crime begets crime. Ward, having imbued his hands in human blood, was not satisfied with his Planktown crimes, but added another to the list by murdering his wife, and to conceal the act attempted to cremate her body, which led to ehis detection. For this murder he was arrested, indicted, tried and convicted, and was hanged at Toledo, Friday, June 12, 1857.

Several weeks before his execution Ward made a confession of the three murders, in brief, as follows: That having access to Noah Hall's store, he had unfastened the back door during the day, and at midnight "I left my house, entered the store by the back door and found Hall sleeping soundly. I was armed with a heavy iron poker, large at one end and tapering to a point at the other. Having carefully ascertained Hall's position, I struck and stuck the point of the poker through his skull, on the left side above his ear, and then gave him a violent blow with the heavy end of the poker upon the top of his head. I then seized his pillow and held it tightly over his mouth, and with the other hand grasped his throat and choked him until life was extinct."

Upon searching the premises Ward obtained over eight hundred dollars in money, which he buried until after the excitement subsided. after which he used the money in small amounts as he needed it.

In Ward's confession of the murder of the peddler. Lovejoy, he says: "The peddler complained of being tired and retired early. I showed him to his roomi - a corner room on the second floor. At that time I had no idea of killing bim. I awoke about midnight, and the thought struck me that the peddler might have money. There was no lock on his door. I got up, went to his room, opened the door softly and found him asleep. The moon was shining in at the window, making the room almost as light as day. The temptation to kill him was so irresistible that I went and got an axe and with it dealt him a tremendous blow on the top of his head. He scarcely struggled and in a few moments was dead."

How to dispose of the body of the peddler was a question that Ward had not previously considered. He had to act quickly and soon decided to dismember the body and pack the same into a box, which he did, and before the morning dawn he had the remains boxed up and placed in the cellar. Upon the pretext of going to his father's, at Milan, Ward placed the box with its gruesome contents in his wagon the next morning and drove away. That night he dumped the box, heavily weighted, into the Huron river, near Abbott's bridge, and never heard of it afterwards. For this murder Ward obtained fifty dollars in money and such goods from the pack as he could use without creating suspicion against him.

Ward's mind was capable of planning crimes, and he kept his own counsel, but the curse of Cain was upon him and he could not rest. He changed locations, but the continued fear of exposure, like the fabled sword of Damocles, was ever suspended over him. He could not escape, and the edict, ""Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed," was meted out to Ward upon the gallows.

In this series of historical sketches the subject of "good roads" has not heretofore been considered. But as this chapter treats of the county at the intersection of the State road with the Beall trail, the matter will be briefly considered. In everything else the county has progressed marvelously, but with roads there has been but little improvement. The roads in Richland county have been patched up from year to year, and in those seventy-five or eighty years the work and money expended would have made our highways as good and as lasting as were those of Rome, built centuries ago, and which are still in use. It is a matter of poor economy to be annually repairing roads, with the view of having such repairs last only until a new supervisor comes along the next vear. Far better and cheaper in the end to make a large outlay for more permanent results. The great National road was opened in 1818, and notwithstanding the storms and frosts of the eighty-five years of its use its roadbed and its arches are in as good condition today as they were when Henry Clay. Lewis Cass. Thomas H. Benton, William Allen and other statesmen made stage journeys to and from Washington over the National pike while serving as schnators in the congress of the United States.

Salem, Shiloh

To understand the history of Shiloh that of Salem must first be reviewed and conditions considered. Prior to 1828 a town called Salem was laid out in the north part of what is new Cass township. a mile south of the Huron eounty line. but. as the plat was not recorded, there is no historical date of the <urvey. The lots were in time declared vacated. Mr. Powers, the founder of the place. had logical reasons to believe that a town was needed there, the site being at the crossing of the Savannah with the Huron road, the latter being at that time a great highway of travel between central Ohio and the ports on the lake. Powers was the first merchant in the place. Shoemakers, blacksmiths and wagoumakers were +0 necessary in every village that it seemed as though thev were indigenous to those localities.

One of the first schools in the township was held in a log cabin at the Salem Corners, on the south side of the Savannah road, and was taught by the Rev. Bennajah Boardman, a Methodist minister. Teachers were paid by subscription then. the present common school system not being inaugurated until vears afterwards. As a rule, the teachers in those days did not spoil the child by sparing the rod. and as the history in those early schools is recalled they bring to the mind Goldsmith's lines:

"There in his noisy mansion, skill'd to rule, The village master taught his little school ; A man severe he was, and stern to view. I knew him well, and every truant knew; Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace The day's disaster in his morning face."

The first church at Salem was a hewn-log structure, built by the Methodists in 1823. In about 1816, the Rev. Boardman began holding religious services at the homes of the settlers. He was a Methodist minister and preached in that part of the county as such for a number of years. Among the ministers who followed the Rev. Mr. Boardman were the Rey. Erastux Felton, the Rev. Mr. Chase, the Rev. Mr. Goddard and the Rev. Mr. Poe. The Rev. Mr. Boardman finally settled at Salem as a local preacher. where he died in 1858. Among the members of the Salem church were Asa Murphy. Peter and Annie Maring, John, Catharine, Nancy, Betsey and Sarah Long, and John and Hannah Bell.

It is often difficult to obtain historical dates. The date of the running of the first railroad train from Shelby to Mansfield, over the Mansfield & Sandusky road - now a part of the Baltimore & Ohio system - ix obtained by its association with another event - with the holding of a meeting to get recruits for the Mexican War.

The first blood in the war between the United States and Mexico was shed April 24, 1846. General Taylor, having been informed that the Mexicans were crossing the Rio Grande, above hix encampment. sent Captain Thornton with sixty dragoons to reconnoiter. They were surprised and captured. Sixteen Americans were killed in the skirmish. Troops were called for to reinforce Genera] Taylor, and a war meeting wa~ held in Mansfield May 16. For the purpose of running an excursion to Mansfield. to the war meeting, seats were improvised on flat-cars that had been in uxe in the construction of the road. But this train ran only to the north limit of the town. stopping in the vicinity of the present waterworks pumping station.

The late John Ricket= fixed the date of the first train of passenger cars running into Mansfield by the record of the birth of a son - June 19. 1846 - and remembered the coincidence of the two events.

But not even a coincidence ax to the date of the completion of the Cleveland & Columbus railroad - now a part of the "Big Four" xystem - through 'Shiloh can be obtained. Jesse Maring thinks the road was opened in the fall of 1849. Mr. Maring was the station agent of this road at Shiloh for thirty, vears - from 1851 to 1881.

But, so far as Salem was concerned. the date of the opening of the road was not of so much importance as wax the event itself. and the result would have been the same had it occurred sooner or later, for the railroad was run nearly a mile west of the town, and the station that was erected there was in such an undesirable location that it was soon afterwards removed a half-mile further south - still further away from Salem. The new site-for the station being at the crossing of the Wooster & Tiffin road, a town was platted there in September, 1852, by Charles R. Squires, who had purchased four acres of land for that purpose. This new town was called Salem Station. Then there were Old Salem and Salem Station, to distinguish the old town from the new. In 1862 the name of Salem Station was changed to that of Shiloh. The Old Salem is now known as a locality, not as a town.

The name "Shiloh" was taken in part as a matter of convenience. as there were two or more other towns in the state called Salem, and partly in patriotic sentiment after the battle of Shiloh - one of the battles of the Civil War, fought April 6 and 7, 1862, and in which the Union loss in killed. wounded and missing was 13,491 men. Shiloh. however. in the scriptural meaning of the word. signifies place of rest. peace. The ark of the covenant. kept at Gilgal, during the progress of the conquest, was at Shiloh from the last days of Joshua to the time of Samuel. And it is written that "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, till he shall go to Shiloh."

No reason is now known why Salem was thus named. At it was a religious center, perhaps the name was given from biblical reasons, as some commentators claim that Salem, so-called in Psalm 76, means Jerusalem - '"At Salem is His tabernacle; and His dwelling in Zion."

As to names, it has been said that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven. In the long sweep of time names may be forgotten, but events will be remembered.

Shiloh has prospered and is one of the promising towns of the county, with natural gas sufficient, at least, for its own heating and lighting purposes. New wells are to be drilled, and even though oil may not be found a greater volume of gas may be tapped, sufficient in quantity to pipe to other towns.

The railroad runs through a slight cut north of the main street. As trains go through this cut, playing, as it were, "hide and go seek" with the town, the passengers get glimpses of the beauty of the village, and often express regrets that they have not a better view of the town.

The Lutheran and Methodist denominations have handsome and commodius houses of worship. There is a graded school, which, with the churches, bear evidence that both the religious and the educational interests of the place receive proper attention.

The Brenneman block, built in 1873, is a three-story brick building, with a basement at the east end. In the fall of the Centennial year John Bradford Williams rented one of the business rooms in the Brenneman building and opened a dry goods store. He had married the second time just prior to locating in Shiloh. The woman he married was a milliner by trade and hailed from Medina county. To outward appearances they got along nicely for a time, but ere long gossip reports stated that the domestic relations of the Williams family were not of the most pleasant kind. These reports were confirmed by subsequent events.