Sharon Township (part 2 of 2)

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.

One night in the fall of 1877 there was a cry of fire - that the Brenneman building was on fire. The fire was in the room occupied by Mr. Williams. By prompt action and hard work the flames were extinguished with but slight damage to the building, but Williams' goods were more or less damaged by both fire and water.

The Richland Mutual Fire Insurance company, of Mansfield, had insurance on the stock, and N. S. Reed went to Shiloh to investigate the matter and adjust the claim. He arrived at Shiloh late in the afternoon and was met by Mr. Williams, who escorted him to the store and explained his theory of the origin of the fire, which was this: That it was the work of an incendiary, and, taking Mr. Reed down the stairway into the basement, pointed to a small, open window, through which, as he alleged, the incendiary had gained entrance. Then they separated until after supper. As usual, Mr. Reed was affable and courteous, and Williams, no doubt, thought he had smooth sailing. At the second interview, however, Mr. Reed remarked: 'Say, Mr. Williams, in planning this fire there is one thing you forgot - you should have swept that cobweb-net from the window." Whereupon Williams nearly fell from his chair, broke down and confessed and begged for mercy. Williams was arrested, but at the preliminary hearing entered a plea of "Not guilty." At the December term of court, 1877, indictments were found against Mr. Williams and his son Frank on the charge of arson. The latter confessed and turned state's evidence against his father. At his trial John B. Williams was found guilty. and was sentenced to five years in the penitentiary, but was pardoned before the expiration of the term. The son got off with a jail sentence of four months. A few months after Williams' conviction his wife - Mary Ann Williams - obtained a divorce.

The Hon. J. M. Hunter. now a resident of Shiloh, tell< of hix first trip to that locality, which shows the changes of time. His father wa a farmer, then residing in Blooming Grove township. \fter the completion of the Mansfield Sandusky railroad, Plymouth, thus having railroad shipping facilities to the lake, became a great grain market. The warehouse at Plymouth was built across the cut. which was of sufficient depth to permit the cars to pass beneath the building, thus requiring no elevator. The box cars used in shipping were covered with canvas or tarpaulin. and held about a hundred and forty bushels, and wheat in August, 1846. brought forty-five cents a bushel.

It was perhaps the latter part of the summer of 1850. when Mr. Hunter = father was hauling wheat to Plymouth. that J. M. accompanied him upon one of his trips. This the boy considered a great privilege, and it wax upon that trip that he first saw the site of Shiloh, and remembers it the more vividly. perhaps, because the street or road was being graded down to make a grade crossing. and that was the first grading the boy had ever seen. At the junction with the New State road west of Shiloh, they got in with a caravan of wheat teams coming from the south. while others were following them from the east. Thus wedged in, it took them hours to get to Plymouth and wait for their turn to unload. Mr. Hunter was then about six vears of age. His life has spanned the half-century period in which the world has advanced more than in any other age. During those years we have made history. It would require volumes to give even a syllabus of each of the discoveries, inventions and improvements of the last fifty vears. We use the utilities of today. and recall the past only as a matter of sentiment. or for the lesson it teaches. Mr. Hunter has served the people in a number of public offices, the most prominent of which was representing Richland county two terms in the legislature.

H. S. Moser retired from his farm some years ago, and resides in Shiloh. As in the past. he always has a cordial greeting for an old friend.

Richard Kimmel, for many years a Mansfield grocer, owns a farm just north of Shiloh, and is now a tiller of the soil, but is as jovial as ever.

Fred Wolfsereberger, editor of the Review, makes somewhat frequent visits to Mansfield of late. on account, he claims, of political matters, but, inasmuch as he is young, good looking and single, the reasons for his visits should not be insisted upon too strenuously.

Newville was founded by John Frederick Herring, and was platted in December. 1823. It is situated upon section 3, Worthington township. Abraham Nye was one of the first settlers there, and was instrumental in inducing Mr. Herring to lay out the town.

In 1811-12, John Frederick Herring built the second grist mill in Richland county. This mill was situate on the Clearfork, four miles west of Bellville, in what is now Perry township. Peter Weirick was employed to do the carpenter work, and while he was erecting the building, Mr. Herring drove to Baltimore with a six-horse team to procure buhrs, wheels and gearings for the mill. The round trip from this part of Ohio to Baltimore and return was then made by team and occupied about two months' time. Now the same distance can be traveled in fewer hours than the days required then. After operating this mill for several vears. Mr. Herring sold the same to Francis Baughman in ISt5. In 1855, Mr. Baughman disposed of this property to John Hanawalt, who operated the same for about fifty vears. and the mill is known in history as "Hanawalt's." This mill stood where the Lexington and Fredericktown road crosxexs the Clearfork. The building is now used as a barn. John Hanawalt was the father of J. L. Hanawalt. of South Main street, Mansfield.

After selling the mill west of Bellville, Mr. Herring entered another mill site, also on the Clearfork. fifteen miles down the stream, where he erected his second grist mill. and a few years later laid out the town of Newville.

The first settlers in Newville and vicinity were John Frederick Herring, Abraham Nye. Michael Hogan, Daniel Carpenter, George Armentrout and Luther Richard. Abraham Nve was the first tavern keeper. Daniel Stoner the first blacksmith and Michael Hogan the first merchant. Newville was named after Newville. Pennsylvania, the native place of the founder of the town.

At the time Newville was laid out, the volume of water in the Clearfork of the Mohican was larger than it is now, and the pioneers were wont to found towns along streams of water, for mill power and other purposes. Great things and a bright future were predicted for the town, but the hopes entertained for its future greatness were never realized. In the scramble for new counties back in the 'forties.' Newville had hopes of becoming a county seat town, but

And the county-seat hopes in which Newville people indulged, ganged aft a-gley. But, to add further to disappointments as to future prosperity, the two railroads that were built through the southern part of the county, left Newville about midway between them, the B. & O. at Butler, four miles to the southwest, and the Pennsylvania at Perrysville, four miles to the east. This being a railroad age, towns off the paths of the iron horse seldom thrive, and Newville has been no exception to the general rule.

Newville nestles in a lovely little valley, at the confluence of Slater's Run with the Clearfork of the Mohican. It is nearly surrounded by rock-ribbed

The early settlers of the Newville country came, mostly, along the old Wyandot trail, following up the Mohican and its Clearfork to Newville. Some of the latter arrivals came along the Portage road - a military road cut through by a portion of General Harrison's army in 1812. This road runs diagonally across Worthington township from the northeast to the southwest. This was probably the first road in the township, and although it has been changed in certain places to conform to local conditions, it is still a public highway.

The decade between 1825 and 1835 was a preaching period at Newville, such as no other town in the county ever passed through. Men preached according to their own views of the scriptures without regard to what any denomination taught or believed, all agreeing, however, upon Anabaptist lines. They were out-comers from various sects, and in time organized new ones. The most prominent among these preachers were the Rigdons - Sidney and Thomas - both gifted men and orators of great power. Sidney Rigdon, it has been claimed, was one of the most charming and convincing speakers of that olden time when there were orators in the land. For several vears he was a minister of the Disciples, as was also his brother Thomas. Later Sidney became a Mormon elder, and took a number of converts from the southern part of this county with him to Nauvoo. In time, an estrangement sprung up between Brigham Young and Mr. Rigdon, resulting in the withdrawal of the latter, who returned to the east, where he died in 1876, aged eighty-three years. Notwithstanding the early promulgation of different views, the M. E. Church is the only one that has been able to maintain an existence as a religious body in Newville.

Daniel Carpenter was one of the principal promoters of the business and industrial interests of Newville. He had'a store of general merchandise and founded and operated a tannery and an ashery. Baltimore was the market place for this part of the country at that time and the journey to and from - a round-trip distance of a thousand miles - had to be made with wagon teams, and part of the journey was over mountain roads. Grain was too bulky. heavy and low priced to haul so far to market. Ginseng, maple sugar and beeswax were the principal marketable articles and they were not all year-round products. To further the business interests of the town, Daniel - Carpenter founded an "ashery," and manufactured another exportable commodity - pearl ash. His teams traversed the country for miles around. buying ashes of the farmers, thus adding to their meager income.

Of the distinguished men who once claimed Newville as their home, the name of the late Hon. Samuel J. Kirkwood should head the list. He was one of the first school teachers of the village. Mr. Kirkwood read law. became prosecuting attorney of Richland county, and after the close of his term, removed to Iowa, became governor of that state; was later a senator in the Congress of the United States, and closed his official career as a member of the Garfield cabinet.

The late Major George F. Carpenter - lawyer and banker - was a son of Daniel Carpenter, the promoter of the early business interests of Newville. Major Carpenter was one of the charter members of the Richland County Historical Society and its first vice-president.

Governor J. P. Altgeld, was for several years a Newville boy. As a man in after years he became a noted jurist, an eloquent orator and a great leader among men.

These are all departed from earthly scenes. Others, young men still living, who were once Newville boys, have gone out into the world and in their several lines of endeavor are winning success.

Among the early industries was pennyroyal distilleries, dotted here and there over the pennyroyal regions of Ohio. Pennyroyal grew in profusion in the southern part of the country in the earliest days. It is a deciduous, herbaceous plant, aromatic, with a pungent taste. As this was a rare and peculiar industry, a brief description of the process of distillation may be of interest to the reader. The pennyroyal after being gathered was allowed to wilt until it would pack well. and was then tramped down carefully in a steam chest until it was full. The oil is in small globules on the under side of the leaf. When set free by steam, it passed into a condenser, into which a small stream of cold water was conducted. After being condensed it was poured into an oil vat, nearly filled with water. The oi] being lighter than. the water, ran into the vessel and passed out into a receiver. Pennyroyal oil is used for its medicinal properties, and was thought by the pioneers to be valuable as a earminative remedy. The last pennyroyal distillery in this part of the county was Fisher's. at Palmyra, five miles south of Bellville. At the Fisher distillery essence of peppermint was also distilled.

Distilleries are often called "'still houses." And upon this play of words Comrade Ricksicker, of Galion, tells a good anecdote in his inimitable way, at Grand Army reunions. As the story goes, a revenue officer was trying to ferret out illicit distilleries in Kentucky during the latter part of the Civil War. He had not been successful, and being anxious to show results, approached a typsy soldier, an Irishman, and inquired after "private stills," as the illicit distilleries are called. But Paddy didn't seem to have any information to give out. 'Then the detective offered him a ten-dollar bill, whereupon Paddy admitted having certain knowledge about several private stills and offered to conduct the officer to one, but the money must be paid in advance. This having been done, Paddy escorted the detective through forests and over hills, and finally coming upon a camp of soldiers, they halted. The officer demanded an explanation. An Irishman never gives away a friend, even though he should be a ''moonshiner." Paddy called the officer's attention to a soldier who was sitting by a tree. and said: "That man is of a good family,

Worthington, in which Newville is situated, was the banner township in the camp-meeting line in the days of the popularity of such gatherings. Of the several camp-meeting sites the one called ''Easterly's," two miles west of Newville, was the most popular and the best known. The meetings were under the auspices of the United Brethren denomination. Perhaps, also, by the Evangelicals, commonly called the 'Albrights."'

In these camp-meeting gatherings, social cordiality was blended with religious zeal. Fervor along religious lines was more intense and deimonstrative a half century ago than it is today. A man was expected to shout to show his zeal and attest his spirituality. It is different now. The campmeeting preachers believed, as a rule, that "where the spirit of God is, there 1x liberty." And aside from the general supervision of the prayer meetings, they did not attempt to control the boisterous element around them. Thus the meetings seldom got far advanced before men and women were praying. groaning and singing together. Some were groaning on account of their =ins, some praving for their companions, others singing and shouting because they felt happy, and a few would swoon from physical exhaustion.

A horse-back procession of religious enthusiasts. returning from a camp meeting, was heard approaching by a poorly-clad woman working in a field near to the roadside. It was a sound of music - of men's and women's voices mingling harmoniously together in sacred song. Abashed, she hid herself behind a tree, but peeped around as the procexxion passed by. To the unseen observer the countenance of the leader'= wife seemed lighted up like the face of a glorified saint. Her bonnet hung by its ribbons down her back. and _ her auburn hair floated like waves of golden sheen over her shoulders. forming a beautiful, living, moving picture. The faces of all the members of the party glowed with happiness as they sang:

This scene, with its music and song, so affected the poor woman whose lot was to toil in the fields, that she sank upon her knees in prayer. and dated her conversion from 'that very hour."

Lucas is situated on the Pennsylvania railroad, seven miles southeast of Mansfield, and was laid out in 1836 by John Tucker, who acted as agent for his brother, David Tucker, the owner of the land upon which the village was platted.

Prior to the founding of Lucas a town had been started about a mile farther down the Rockyfork and upon the opposite side of the stream, and was called Octororo, In the rivalry that ensued Lucas won. and Octororo

Lueas is situated on the Rockyfork, with excellent mill sites and three grist mills were operated there for many years. The old-time names of these mills were LaRue's, Zerby's and Oldfield's. LaRue's and Zerby's are gone, but Oldfield's has kept step to the music of a progressive age and is still in business.

The Zerby mill was built in 1820 by Peter Zerby, the father of the Peter Zerby new a resident of Mansfield. The LaRue mill was built in 1830 by a Mr. LaRue, and Oldfield's was built about the same year by Reinhart Oldfield. The Oldfield mill was owned a number of years by Silas Rummel. This mill was owned in the "'fifties'' by Colonel George Weaver - a man prominent in his day and generation. having been the sheriff of the county and a soldier in two wars. There were also a number of saw mills on the Rockyfork in the vicinity of Lucas.

The first cabin within the present limits of Monroe township was near the site where the residence of Silas Rummel now stands. The first house in the village of Lucas stood near the place now occupied by the new bank building. The Mvers house wax the second building erected and has been a hotel for two-thirds of a century.

Lucas for its size hax dwellings and business buildings that will compare favorably with any other place in Ohio. Water from a spring on the south side is piped to the center of the village and supplies the people with pure water.

Churches and graded schools are second to none elsewhere, and the blessings and utilities of the age are at every man's door. But it was not always thus. The locality passed through the strenuous pioneer period, whose history is written on of Indian massacres, and of other dangers and hardships of the pioneers. Hill's. as the Lucas locality was called by the first settlers, was on the Indian trail between Greentown and Tymochte. and along this valley in 1782 marched Colonel Crawford and his little army of 480 men, and the tale of their defeat and of the awful tortures and death of Colonel Crawford is a sad one in our history.

General Brooks came up the Rockyfork in 1812 with government supplies for the army at Fort Meigs. and halted a day where Lucas now stands. He had about one hundred teams, six horses to each wagon. Among the "supplies"? was money to be used in paying the troops in the northwest. Fort Meigs was on the right bank of the Maumee river, opposite the rapids. It was an important frontier post during the war of 1812.

What an unusual spectacle was presented in that supply train coming up the valley. One hundred wagons, drawn by six hundred horses, making a procession miles in length, and winding through the forests in whose fastnesses wild beasts had their lairs and in whose treetops birds sang. Now railroad trains course up and down the same valley in the interest of interstate trade and foreign commerce. The sun shines upon cultivated farms where the primeval forest once stood. The pioneers of the time when General Brooks' army train passed through Mansfield and halted at the Lampert spring are long since gone, and the generation that succeeded them are passing away. The late Rosella Rice once wrote that it is hard to be reconciled to this natural order of things, to see the pioneers passing away, to see them standing leaning on their staffs, dim-eyed and with white locks tossed in the winds, dazed at the change that has stamped its seal upon the wilderness whose winding paths they once knew so well. They beheld it slowly laying off its primeval wildness and beauty, and its grandeur of woods and waters, until now it blooms like unto the garden of the gods. How beautiful the labors of their hands! How much we owe to them! But the olden time is passing away and bearing on its bosom the dear old men and women whose "like we ne'er shall see again' - the glory of one age if not dimmed in the golden glory of the age succeeding it.

Bossuet, a French author, wrote that "although God and nature have made all men equal in forniing them of the same earth. human vanity can not bear that equality." Substitute "ambition" for '"'vanity," and the statement is verified in everyday life by young men who trv to rise to other pursuits than those in which they were reared. In Europe. with but few exceptions, the child is born to the station of the parent. but in America, with equally few exceptions, the reverse is the rule. The most illustrious men often rise from huinble beginnings. The man of millions. whoxe home is a palace. lived, perhaps, in a log cabin when he was a boy.

So in Monroe township. At least a half dozen of the leading lawvers of the Mansfield bar were Monroe township boyx - farmers' sons - and several of them had to earn their educations. Today they are men among men, and have filled high places of honor and trust.

The Hon. W. 8S. Kerr, ex-state senator, ex-congres-iman, a lawyer of large practice, with one of the most handsome residences o1 Mansfield's fashionable avenue, was born and reared in Monroe township.

There is Judge N. M. Wolfe, who served two terms upon the commou pleas bench, and as a trial Jawver is second to none in Ohio. And there is the Hon. C. E. McBride, who served his county faithfully and capably in the Ohio legislature, and whose success ax a lawyer secured for him the position of attorney for the Baltimore Ohio Railroad Company for 'all the lines west of the Ohio river.'' Such corporations seek the best talent at the bar.

And there are the Douglass brothers. A. A. Douglass served two terms as prosecuting attorney and is prominent in politics and as a lawyer. S. M. Douglass was a judge of the circuit court, and has the distinction of having been the first chief justice of said court.

J. M. Reed, J. P. Henry and Harry T. Manner each deserves a more extended notice than there is space to give them in this article, and all these were once Monroe township country boys, who tilled the soil until their attainments led them into more congenial pursuits. In the medical profession there are Dr. W. S. Mecklem and Dr. G. W. Baughman, also from Monroe township, who served as coroner of his county. Allen S. Beach has worked his way from the bottom of the ladder, round by reund, to affluence and position. and has the respect and confidence of all the people. These men are Monroe products, and men who succeed should be pointed to with pride, not in envy. If there are those who begrudge a man his hard-worked-for and well-earned success in finance, in law, in medicine, in literature or in any other pursuits, such people should be commiserated, for it is a pity they were not molded upon broader lines.

Suniner said "that the true grandeur of nations is in those qualities which constitute the greatness of the individual. The causes which shape the fortunes of men and the destinies of states are often the same. They may be remote and obscure until shown by results. The elements of success in life

John Barnes was the leading merchant at Lucas when the Pennsylvania railroad was being built. He seemed to have ample means, was quite popular and had the confidence of the people. He was a large contractor on the railroad, with a number of sub-contractors under him. One morning he failed to appear at his place of business. and upon inquiry it was ascertained that he was not in the town. He had dropped out of existence. so far as Lucas was concerned, during the night and never seen there afterward. Searching parties traversed hills and valleys in the quest, and streams were searched on the theory that he had been murdered - but without finding either his body or any trace of the man. A report was circulated that a pistol shot had been heard at the Mohawk hill upon the night of Barnes' disappearance, which confirmed in many the theory that he had been murdered, and that the men working on the railroad had committed the deed. But that railroad bed was made by Irixhmen, and the Irish are not murderers. When it became known that Barnes had collected large sums of money just previous to his disappearance, and that he was indebted to a large amount, the people generally settled down to the conclusion that Barnes had "skipped out," and this was confirmed years afterward by reports that he had been seen in California. There are people, no doubt, who still cling to the "foul play" theory. The fact is that John Barnes disappeared from Lucas upon a dark night more than fiftv vears ago and has not yet returned.

The student of history is interested not only in events, but also in a study of the causes which lead to the prosperity or adversity of a locality. Cause precedes effect. Two towns may be platted and start to build up with seemingly equal prospects of attaining size and importance. But conditions may change, beneficial to the one and detrimental to the other. New towns sometimes supplant older ones. But there are always causes for such changes, although they may not be so apparent that "he who runs may read" and understand the reasons for the same. Situations, conditions, commercial industries must be studied and analyzed to determine the cause of either decadence or prosperity. The fundamental principle that the greater force overcomes the lesser is as true in history as it is in science. This force may be of attraction or propulism. The results is called "fate" or "destiny," which

Bangorville, situate on the west line of Jefferson township, a mile north of Knox county line, was through the prosperity period in the "forties," and now has but little to point to with pride except its past history. The location is upon high land and commands a fine view of the country surrounding it. The little village stands on the Lexington and Fredericktown road, about midway between the two towns. This road intersects the New State road about a mile south of Palmyra. Another-road runs east from Bangorville, crossing both the new and old State roads, four miles south of Bellville. A road also runs due north along the township line, and another, from a half-mile south of the town, leads through the Lost Run region to Waterford, on the Owl creek. These roads diverging from the village seemed to place it in advantageous relations with the surrounding country, which fact was one of the reasons why Bangorville was selected as a location for '"Moore's foundry," a manufacturing plant of large capacity and of larger possibilities.

Four miles south of Bellville, on the new State road, there was a settlement of Maine Yankees, and the locality was called Yankeetown. And among these Penobscoters was one William Moore, the founder of Moore's "foundry" at Bangorville. The name "foundry" did not fully cover the scope of the plant, but as foundries were not numerous in this part of the state at that time, the name was not given in a special but in a general sense, and nearly all shops where casting was done were thus designated.

These Moore works were quite large for that period. The main building was two stories high, with molding room and blacksmith shop as annexes. The business was quite extensive and the machinery, implements and articles made and manufactured were threshing machines, wind mills, cider presses, with automatic presses, cheese presses, plows, cultivators, stoves and stove utensils. mill gearings and all kinds of custom work. Much of the output was of Mr. Moore's own inventions.

The threshing machine was of the "knocker" style, somewhat like that of the Aultman-Taylor machine of today, and competed successfully with the "endless apron" variety. The plow was called '""The Grasshopper" and was quite popular.

The shop started with a force of about twenty-five, which was increased until the pay roll for five years averaged about fifty men. The town grew and increased and the people prospered and were happy.

William Moore was a born mechanic, and was competent to capably fill the place of the most skilled workman in any department of the shop. He was an inventor and draughtsman as well as a skilled mechanic. In addition to these he was a business man of marked ability, with a foresight of the needs of the country and of the possibilities of the future, at least so far as farmers' supplies were concerned. He knew that thereafter grain would be threshed by machines, instead of being pounded out with flails; that the wooden moldboard plow would be supplanted by one of cast-iron, and that the lug-poles and trample hooks of the pioneer days had served their time, and that cooking was thereafter to be done on stoves. He saw that the country was in a state of transition from the old to a new order of things, and took the tide at its flow. His mind could grasp what was needed, and his inventive genius could supply the article. His inventions were not only numerous, but covered a wider scope than those of any other man perhaps in the world, and were made at a period when inventions were but 'few and far between."

Salesmen canvassed the country for the sale of Moore's machinery, farm implements and the other products of his foundries, and wagons conveyed the same to the farmers' homes.

But when the plant was on the highway to a still greater success, one night flames were seen to shoot from the foundry up through the dark pall that hung ominously over the village, and the people were aroused by the cry of "Fire! Fire! Moore's foundry is on fire!' But the flames had spread throughout the building to such an extent that it could not be saved, nor its contents taken out. And thus went out in smoke and in flames one of the earliest and most promising manufacturing plants of Richland county. The factory was never rebuilt for want of means. And with the destruction of the foundry, "Othello's occupation," so far as Bangorville was concerned, was gone, and the town went into decadence, and now barely holds a place upon the map of the county. 'What would have been if things had been otherwise," is often asked, but an answer can only come from the speculative realms of fancy.

A new condition of affairs came on soon after the Moore plant was destroyed that would of itself have operated against building at Bangorville. A railroad was built - was extended from Mansfield to Newark, and, like the priest and the Levite, it went by on the other side - left Bangorville five miles away on the uplands to the west.

Mr. Moore removed to Mt. Vernon, where he later connected with the Cooper works. and contributed much to the success of that firm. He is now dead, but his inventions place him in the list of a benefactor of the period in which he lived.