Homepage

 

Visit the Descendants Registry

 

 

Ohio Counties

 

Adams | Allen | Ashland | Ashtabula | Athens | Auglaize | Belmont | Brown | Butler | Carroll | Champaign | Clark | Clermont Clinton | Columbiana | Coshocton | Crawford | Cuyahoga | Darke | Defiance | Delaware | Erie | Fairfield | Fayette | Franklin Fulton | Gallia | Geauga | Greene | Guernsey | Hamilton | Hancock | Hardin | Harrison | Henry | Highland | Hocking Holmes | Huron | Jackson | Jefferson | Knox | Lake | Lawrence | Licking | Logan | Lorain | Lucas | Madison | Mahoning | Marion Medina | Meigs | Mercer | Miami | Monroe | Montgomery | Morgan |Morrow | Muskingum | Noble | Ottawa | Paulding | Perry Pickaway | Pike | Portage | Preble | Putnam | Richland | Ross | Sandusky | Scioto | Seneca | Shelby | Stark | Summit | Trumbull Tuscarawas | Union | Van Wert | Vinton | Warren | Washington | Wayne | Wood | Wyandot

---

Historical Collections of Ohio

By Henry Howe

Vol. II

©1888

 

RICHLAND COUNTY

 

Page 474

 

RICHLAND COUNTY was organized March 1, 1813, and named from the character of its soil.  About one-half of the county is level, inclining to clay, and adapted to grass.  The remainder is rolling, adapted to wheat, and some parts to corn, and well watered.  Area, about 490 square miles.  In 1887 the acres cultivated were 165,970; in pasture 71,752; woodland, 63,143; laying waste, 4,986; produced in wheat, 520,776 bushels; rye, 6,699; buckwheat, 905; oats, 783,314; barley, 8,100; corn, 712, 143; meadow hay, 30,636 tons; clover hay, 13,470;  flax 6,600 lbs. fibre; potatoes, 93,054 bushels; butter, 682,564 lbs.; cheese, 11,240; sorghum, 902 gallons; maple syrup, 27,577; honey, 6,332 lbs.; eggs, 503,168 dozen; grapes, 12,295 lbs.; apples, 14,257 bushels; peaches, 7,953; pears, 1,709; wool, 251,873 lbs.; milch cows owned, 7,289. 

 

School census, 1888, 11,189; teachers, 343.  Miles of railroad track, 155.

 

 

Population of Richland in 1820 was 9,186; 1830, 24,007; 1840, 44,823; 1860, 31,158; 1880, 36,306; of whom 27,251 were born in Ohio; 3,931, Pennsylvania; 602, New York; 254, Virginia; 228, Indiana; 28, Kentucky; 1,563, German Empire; 446, Ireland; 387, England and Wales; 81, British America; 60, Scotland; 51, France, and 10, Sweden and Norway.  Census, 1890, 38,072.

 

 

Page 475

 

KINNEY, Calvin HILL, John MURPHY, Thomas COULTER, Melzer TANNEHILL, Isaac MARTIN, Stephen VAN SCHOICK, Archibald GARDNER and James M’CLURE.

 

In September, 1812, shortly after the breaking out of the war with Great Britain, two block-houses were built in Mansfield.  One stood about six rods west of the site of the court-house, and the other a rod or two north.  The first was built by a company commanded by Capt. SHAEFFER, from Fairfield county, and the other by the company of Col. Chas. WILLIAMS, of Coshocton.  A garrison was stationed at the place, until after the battle of the Thames.

 

At the commencement of hostilities, there was a settlement of friendly Indians, of the Delaware tribe, at a place called Greentown, about 12 miles southeast of Mansfield, within the present township of Green, now in Ashland county.  It was a village consisting of some 60 cabins, with a council-house about 60 feet long, 25 wide, one-story in height, and built of posts and clapboarded.  The village contained several hundred persons.  As a measure of safety, they were collected, in August, 1812, and sent to some place in the western part of the State, under protection of the government.  They were first brought to Mansfield, and placed under guard, near where the tan-yard now is, on the run.  While there, a young Indian and squaw came up to the block-house, with a request to the chaplain, Rev. James SMITH, of Mount Vernon, to marry them after the manner of the whites.  In the absence of the guard, who had come up to witness the ceremony, an old Indian and his daughter, aged about 12 years, who were from Indiana, took advantage of the circumstance and escaped.  Two spies from Coshocton, named MORRISON and M’CULLOCH, met them near the run, about a mile northwest of Mansfield, on what is now the farm of E. P. STURGES.  As the commanding officer, Col. KRATZER, had given orders to shoot all Indians found out of the bounds of the place, under an impression that all such must be hostile, MORRISON, on discovering them, shot the father through the breast.  He fell mortally wounded, then springing up, ran about 200 yards, and fell to rise no more.  The girl escaped.  The men returned and gave the information.  A party of 12 men were ordered out, half of whom were under Serjeant John C. GILKISON, now (1846) of Mansfield.  The men flanked on each side of the run.  As GILKISON came up, he found the fallen Indian on the north side of the run, and at every breath he drew, blood flowed through the bullet-hole in his chest.  MORRISON next came up, and called to M’CULLOCH to come and take revenge.  GILKISON then asked the Indian who he was: he replied, “A friend.”  M’CULLOCH, who had by this time joined them, exclaimed as he drew his tomahawk, “D–n you!  I’ll make a friend of you!” and aimed a blow at his head; but it glanced, and was not mortal.  At this he placed one foot on the neck of the prostrate Indian, and drawing out his tomahawk, with another blow buried it in his brains.  The poor fellow gave one quiver, and then all was over. 

 

GILKISON had in vain endeavored to prevent this inhuman deed, and now requested M’CULLOCH to bury the Indian.  “D–n him! No!”  Was the answer; “they killed two or three brothers of mine, and never buried them.”  The second day following, the Indian was buried, but it was so slightly done that his ribs were seen projecting above ground for two or three years after.

 

This M’CULLOCH continued an Indian fighter until his death.  He made it a rule to kill every Indian he met, whether friend or foe.  Mr. GILKISON saw him some time after, on his way to Sandusky, dressed as an Indian.  To his question, “Where are you going?” he replied, “To get more revenge!”

 

Mr. Levi JONES was shot by some Greentown Indians in the northern part of Mansfield, early in the war, somewhere near the site of Riley’s Mill.  He kept a store in Mansfield, and when the Greentown Indians left, refused to give up some rifles they had left as security for debt.  He was waylaid, and shot and scalped.  The report of the rifles being heard in town, a party went out and found his body much mutilated, and buried him in the old graveyard.

 

After the war, some of the Greentown Indians returned to the county to hunt, but their town having been destroyed, they had no fixed residence.  Two of them, young men by the names of SENECA JOHN and QUILIPETOXE, came to Mansfield one noon, had a frolic in WILLIAMS’ tavern, on the site of the North American, hotel, and quarrelled with some whites.  About four o’clock in the afternoon they left, partially intoxicated.  The others, five in number, went in pursuit, vowing revenge.  They overtook them about a mile east of town, shot them down, and buried them at the foot of a large maple on the edge of the swamp, by thrusting their bodies down deep in the mud.  The place is known as “Spook Hollow.”–Old Edition.

 

 

Page 476

 

TRAVELLING NOTES.

 

The name MANSFIELD is with me a very old memory, that of a personal acquaintance with the eminent character, COL. JARED MANSFIELD, in whose honor the place was named.  One incident is indelibly impressed in connection with his death, which occurred in his native place, New Haven, Connecticut, February 3, 1830, now more than sixty years since.  On that occasion my father had involved upon him a delicate duty, to write to Mrs. Mansfield, then in Cincinnati, of the event.  And as he walked the floor to and fro pondering, he turned to me and said he was troubled to think how he could the most appropriately and gently impart the sad tidings. 

 

The MANSFIELDS have been eminent people.  The late Edward Deering MANSFIELD, “the Sage of Yamoyden,” Ohio’s statistician and journalist, was his only son: while General Joseph K. F. MANSFIELD, the old army officer, who fell at Antietam, was his nephew.

 

COL. JARED MANSFIELD was rising of 70 years of age, a tall venerable silver-haired old gentleman, and one of the great, useful characters of his day.  It was under his teachings that our famed military school at West Point got its start, in the beginning years of this century.

 

In giving him the position of Surveyor-General of the Northwest Territory the good judgment of Thomas JEFFERSON was illustrated.  In person and qualities he resembled his own son, Edward DEERING; had the same strongly pronounced Roman nose, the same childlike simplicity of speech, and the same loud, guileless laugh.  This last was one of the life troubles of Mrs. MANSFIELD; a somewhat proud, punctilious old lady, ever mindful of the proprieties.  She “wished the Colonel”–she was always thus careful to give his title–she” wished the Colonel would not laugh so loud; it was so undignified.”

 

Mrs. Mansfield herself was one of the strong-minded and most elegant of the pioneer women of Ohio and deserves a notice.  She was a girl-mate and life-long friend of my mother, and so I have the facts.  The family came out to Ohio in 1803, and settled in Cincinnati in 1805, when, as her son wrote, it was “a dirty little village.”  She was a society-leader, and introduced the custom of New Year calls; a queenly woman withal, of high Christian principles; a close thinker and great reader; suave and gracious in manner, but imperious in will.  True to her sex, she looked for admiration and respect, and, as was her due, received them.

 

She had come from a commanding stock and inherited the qualities for leadership.  Her father and family–the PHIPPS–had largely been shipmasters.  Among them was Sir William PHIPPS, a shipmaster, an early governor of Massachusetts; a generous man, but imperious, “quick to go on his muscle.”  Another is remembered, not by his name, but for the usual manner of his “taking off.”  He was in command of a frigate.  It had just arrived, and anchored in the harbor of Halifax.  Date 1740, or thereabouts.  He personally landed in a small boat, having left orders for his ship to fire the usual salute for such an event, and was walking on the dock, leading a boy by the hand.  By an oversight in loading the guns for the salute, a previous load that was in one of them had not been withdrawn.  It had been loaded with ball while at sea.  That ball went ashore and cut him in two; the lad was unharmed.

 

MANSFIELD, in his “Personal Memories,” gives a handsome tribute to his father, in some very interesting and instructive paragraphs.  He says: My father’s family came from Exeter, in England, and were among the first settlers in New Haven, in 1639.  My father, Jared MANSFIELD, was, all his life, a teacher, a professor, and a man of science.  He began his life as a teacher in New Haven, where he taught a mathematical school, and afterward taught at the “Friends’ Academy,” in Philadelphia, where he was during the great yellow-feaver season, and went from there to West Point, where he taught in the Military Academy, in 1802-3 and in 1814-28.  In the meantime, however, he was nine years in the State of Ohio, holding the position of Surveyor-General of the United States.  The manner of his appointment and the work he performed will illustrate his character, and introduce a small but interesting chapter of events.

 

 

Page 477

 

teacher, and he whipped them very severely.  Their father complained, and the case came before a magistrate; but my father was acquitted.  It may be thought that the boys would have become my father’s enemies.  Not so; they were of a generous temperament, and knew their conduct had been wrong; this they acknowledged, and they became my father’s fast friends.  Judge Henry BALDWIN told me that nothing had ever done him so much good as that whipping; and the brothers were warm in their friendship to my father, both in word and act.

 

While teaching in New Haven he published a book entitled “Essays on Mathematics.”  It was an original work, and but a few copies were sold; for there were but few men in the country who could understand it.  The book, however, established his reputation as a man of science, and greatly influenced his after life.  Abraham BALDWIN was at that time senator from Georgia, and brought this book to the notice of Mr. JEFFERSON, who was fond of science and scientific men.  The consequence was that my father became a captain of engineers, appointed by Mr. JEFFERSON, with a view to his becoming one of the professors at the West Point Military Academy, then established by law.  Accordingly, he and Captain BARRON, also of the engineers, were ordered to West Point, and became the first teachers of the West Point cadets in 1802.  He was there about a year, when he received a new appointment to a new and more arduous field in the West.

 

Mr. JEFFERSON had been but a short time in office, when he became annoyed by the fact that the public surveys were going wrong, for the want of establishing meridian lines, with base lines at right angles to them.  The surveyors at that time, including Gen. Rufus PUTNAM, then surveyor-general, could not do this.  Mr. JEFFERSON wanted a man who could perform this work well; necessarily, there-fore, a scientific man.  This came to the ears of Mr. BALDWIN, who strongly recommended my father as being, in fact, the most scientific man of the country.  My father did not quite like the idea of such a work; for he was a scholar and mathematician, fond of a quiet and retired life.

 

He foresaw, clearly, that going to Ohio, then a frontier State, largely inhabited by Indians and wolves, to engage in public business involving large responsibilities, would necessarily give him more or less of trouble and vexation.  He was, however, induced to go, under conditions which, I think, were never granted to any other officer.  It was agreed that, while he was engaged in the public service in the West, his commission in the engineer corps should go on, and he be entitled to promotion, although he received but one salary, that of surveyor-general.  In accordance with this agreement, he received two promotions while in Ohio; and his professorship at West Point was (on the recommendation of President MADISON) subsequently, by law, conformed to the agreement, with the rank and emoluments of lieutenant-colonel.

 

My father, so far as I know, was the only man appointed to an important public office solely on the ground of his scientific attainments.  This was due to Mr. JEFFERSON, who, if not himself a man of science, was really a friend of science.

 

Mansfield in 1846.–Mansfield, the county-seat, is sixty-eight miles northerly from Columbus, twenty-five from Mount Vernon, and about forty-five from Sandusky City.  Its situation is beautiful, upon a commanding elevation, overlooking a country handsomely disposed in hills and valleys.  The streets are narrow, and the town is compactly built, giving it a city-like appearance.  The completion of the railroad through here to Sandusky City has added much to its business facilities, and it is now thriving and increasing rapidly

 

It was laid out in 1808 by James HEDGES, Jacob NEWMAN, and Joseph H. LARWILL.  The last-named gentleman pitched his tent on the rise of ground above the Big Spring, and opened the first sale of lots on the 8^th of October.  The country all around was then a wilderness, with no roads through it.  The first purchasers came in from the counties of Knox, Columbiana, Stark, etc.  Among the first settlers were George COFFINBERRY, William WINSHIP, Rollin WELDON, J. C. GILKISON, John WALLACE, and Joseph MIDDLETON.  In 1817 about twenty dwellings were in the place–all cabins, except the frame tavern of Samuel WILLIAMS, which stood on the site of the North American, and is now the private residence of Joseph HILDRETH, Esq.  The only store at that time was that of E. P. STURGES, a small frame which stood on the northwest corner of the public square, on the spot where the annexed view was taken.  The Methodists erected the first church.

 

 

Page 478

 

JOHN SHERMAN, U. S. SENATE.                              HENRY B. PAYNE, U. S. SENTE.

 

 

Page 479

 

Top Picture

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

PUBLIC SQURE, MANSFIELD.

 

Bottom Picture

W. B. Kimball, Photo, Columbus, 1890.

PUBLIC SQUARE, MANSFIELD.

 

Page 480

 

MANSFIELD, county-seat of Richland, is about midway between Columbus and Cleveland, about sixty-three miles from each.  It is a prosperous manufacturing and railroad centre; is on the P., Ft. W. & C., B. & O., L. E. & W., and N. W. O. Railroads.  The Intermediate Penitentiary is now in course of erection there.  County officers, 1888: Auditor, John U. NUNMAKER; Clerk, John C. BURNS; Commissioners, Christian BAER, David BOALS, John ILER; Coroner, Eli STOFER; Infirmary Directors, George BECKER, Edwin PAYNE, Joseph FISHER; Probate Judge, Andrew J. MACK; Prosecuting Attorney, Hubbert E. BELL; Recorder, William F. VOEGELE; Sheriff, Bartholomew FLANNERY; Surveyor, Orlando F. STEWART; Treasurer, Edward REMY.  City officers, 1888: Mayor, R. B. McCRORY; Clerk, John Y. GESSNER; Marshal, H. W. LEMON; Civil Engineer, Jacob LAIRD; Chief of Fire Department, George KNOFFLOCK; Street Commissioner, A. C. LEWIS; Solicitor, Marion DOUGLASS.  Newspapers: Herald, Republican, George U. and W. F. HARN, editors; News, Republican, CAPPELLER and HIESTAND, editors; Shield and Banner, Democratic, GAUMER and JOHNSTON, editors; Courier, German, L. S. KUEBLER, editor and publisher; Democrat, Democratic, A. J. BAUGHMAN, editor and publisher; Buckeye Farmer, agricultural, W. N. MASON, editor and publisher.  Churches: 1 Baptist, 1 Believers in Christ, 1 Catholic, 1 Christian, 1 Congregational, 1 Evangelical German, 3 Lutheran, 1 Episcopal Methodist, 1 African Methodist, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Reformed Presbyterian, 1 United Brethren, 1 Protestant Episcopal.  Banks: Citizens’ National, George F. CARPENTER, president, S. A. JENNINGS, cashier; Farmers’ National, J. S. HEDGES, president; Mansfield Savings, M. D. HARTER, president, R. BRINKERHOFF, cashier; Sturges’, W. M. STURGES, president, John WOOD, cashier.

 

Manufactures and Employees.–Larabee Manufacturing Co., vehicle chafe irons, 12 hands; BODINE Roofing Co., 7; E. J. FORNEY & Co., linseed oil, 9; Jacob CLINE, cooperage, 18; BISSMAN & Co., coffee, spices, etc., 16; Union Foundry and Machine Co., 12; GILBERT, WAUGH & Co., flour, etc., 15; HICKS-BROWN Co., flour, etc., 15; Mansfield Barrel Co., cooperage, 14; BARNETT Brass Co., bras goods, 42; AULTMAN & TAYLOR Co., engines, etc., 330; NAIL & FORD, planing mill, 25; Mansfield Plating Co., nickel-plating, 11; Buckeye Suspender Co., 84; Mansfield Steam Boiler Works, 42; Mansfield Carriage Hardware Co., 57; HUMPHREY Manufacturing Co., pumps, etc., 182; Mansfield Machine Works, 100; Mansfield Buggy Co., 97; FAUST & WAPPNER, furniture, 4; S. N. FORD & Co., sash, doors and blinds, 70; BAXTER Stove Co., 96; MILLS, ELLSWORTH & Co., bending works, 25; R. LEAN & Son, harrows, 12; Western Suspender Co., suspenders, 85; CRAWFORD & TAYLOR, crackers, etc., 80; Herald Co., printing, 21; HAUTZENROEDER & Co., cigars, 285; DANFORTH & PROCTOR, sash, doors and blinds, 25; Ohio Suspender Co., 33; Mansfield Box Manufacturing Co., paper boxes, 15; Shield and Banner Co., printing, 19; News Printing Co., printing and binding, 22.–State Report, 1888.

 

Mansfield is a rich agricultural centre and heavy wood market.  Great attention is given to the improvement of farm stock, as horses, cattle, swine, etc.  Population, 1880, 9,859.  School census, 1888, 3,589; John SIMPSON, school superintendent.  Capital invested in industrial establishments, $1,036,500.  Value of annual product, $2,592,000.–Ohio Labor Statistics, 1887.

 

Census, 1890, 13,473.

 

 

Page 481

 

bags, containing valuable drawings and notes, had been taken in charge by the railroad man, and I knew not its whereabouts.  In talking with him about it, I showed, as I felt, a nervous anxiety.  The young man heard my every word, and the thought came over me, “You must think I am very fussy.”  He could not realize how important to me were those saddle-bags.  Since that day our country has gone through much.  We, of advanced years, who have lived through its periods of deadly peril, and suffered the agonies of its sore adversities, alone can realize how much.  But I know not a living man who has done such a prolonged, united to such a great, service to the United States, as the silent, reflecting youth who sat by me on that day–JOHN SHERMAN.

 

Sunday morning, the first day of November, 1886, arrived, and I was again in Mansfield.  The town is on a hill; on its summit is the public square, containing about three acres; around it are grouped the public buildings.  On it is the soldiers’ monument, a band-stand, a pyramid of cannon and a fountain, and these things appear under a canopy of overhanging trees.

 

After breakfast I walked thither and looked around.  The day was one of the autumnal show-days; the sun bright, the air balmy, the foliage gay in softly blending hues.  Standing there, enjoying the scene, a large, portly gentleman of about 60 years of age approached me.  He had in his hand a book–was on his way to open Sunday-school.  He was a stranger, and I stopped him to make inquiries about the surroundings.  He seemed pleased, it being complimentary to his superior knowledge.  A moment later I made myself known.  I could not have met a better man for my queries.  It was Mr. Henry C. HEDGES; he was town-born and loved the spot; and when I remarked, “It is an honor to this town to possess such a citizen as John SHERMAN,” it hit like a centre-shot.  The remark was in innocence of the fact that he was the old law partner of Mr. SHERMAN, and his most intimate friend.  “You had better go and see him?” said he.  “Oh, no, it is Sunday, and it will be an intrusion.”  “The better the day, the better the deed.  He has just ended a speaking campaign, and now is the very time.  He will be glad to welcome you.”

 

Mr. Sherman’s was near the end of a fine avenue of homes, on the high ground, about a mile distant.  I walked thither.  The bells were ringing for church, and I met the people in loving family groups on their way to worship.  The autumnal sun filled the air with balm and gladness, and the leaves glinted in its rays their hues of dying beauty.  The home I found an ample brick mansion, with a mansard roof, on a summit, with a grand outlook to the north, east and west.  It is on a lawn, about 200 feet from the avenue, in the midst of evergreens and other trees.  The home place has about eight acres, with a large farm attached, on which are orchards abounding in choicest fruits.

 

The last distant tones of the bells had died on the air, and the leaves ceased rustling under my feet as I reached the door of the mansion.  I found Mr. SHERMAN alone in his library; the ladies had gone to church.  His greeting was with his characteristic calm cordiality.  There is no gush about John SHERMAN.  Simplicity, directness and integrity mark alike his intercourse and thought.  These qualities are illustrated in those paragraphs forming the conclusion of a speech made in Congress, January 28, 1858:

 

“In conclusion, allow me to impress the South with two important warnings she has received in her struggle for Kansas.  One is, that though her able and disciplined leaders on this floor, aided by executive patronage, may give her the power to overthrow legislative compacts, yet, while the sturdy integrity of the Northern masses stands in her way, she can gain no practical advantage by her well-laid schemes.  The other is, that while she may indulge with impunity the spirit of filibusterism, or lawless and violent adventure upon a feeble and distracted people in Mexico and Central America, she must not come in contact with that cool, determined courage and resolution which forms the striking characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon race.  In such a contest, her hasty and impetuous violence may succeed for a time, but the victory will be short-lived and leave nothing but bitterness behind.

 

“Let us not war with each other; but, with the grasp of fellowship and friendship, regard to the full each other’s rights, and let us be kind to each other’s faults; let us go hand-in-hand in securing to every portion of our people their constitutional rights.”

 

 

Page 482

 

 MICHAEL D. HARTER                  COL. JARED MANSFIELD           GEN ROELIFF BRINKERHOFF.

 

Page 483

 

was magnificent–the town in the distance; the valley through which runs the Mohiccan, and the distant gently sloping hills.  The place is 700 feet above Lake Erie, distant in a direct line about 40 miles.

 

Everything about it and the mansion within is on the expansive, generous scale, substantial and comfortable.  CHESTERFIELD once took Dr. JOHNSON over his place, and as the doctor concluded his rounds, he turned to CHESTERFIELD and said, with a sigh, “Ah! My lord, it is the possession of such things that must make it so hard to die.”

 

The mansion is spacious in its varied apartments, and the walls are filled with books, and by the thousands, and they are there in great variety, and in many lines of human interest.  The history of our country is all told, the utterances of her most eloquent sons; the deeds of her heroes; the acts of her statesmen.  Many of the works are of elegance, many out of print, and of priceless value.  He took me to the large rooms under the roof, where is his working library, consisting largely of books appertaining to American legislation and to law.  In this great collection it is said, there is not one official act of Government since its foundation that is not recorded, nor a report or utterance by an official, Congressman or Senator of any moment, that is not given.

 

Such are the equipments of a Statesman who has made a life-study of, and had a life-experience in behalf of a righteous government for this American people.  I don’t say great American people: every reader feels the adjective.

 

In Mr. SHERMAN’s safe are over 40,000 letters: largely from noted characters, but so carefully classified, that any one can be found in a twinkling.  Among them is the famous letter from his brother, the General, giving the first authentic intelligence of the discovery of gold in California.

 

The greatest curiosity he produced were two large volumes containing perhaps a thousand letters, written by the General to him, from the year 1862 to 1867, embracing the period of the civil war.

 

From youth they had begun a correspondence.  The General, during his most arduous military duties–in the midst of his famous march to the sea–took time to write long letters to his brother, and he in like manner to him.  What a mine they will be to the future historian, as revealing the workings of the minds of the famous brothers, in the light of the events in the passing panorama of that stupendous era.  The lifelong affection between them has no other, nor to our knowledge a like example in the history of our eminent public men.

 

On the opposite side of the avenue from Mr. Sherman’s are the homes of two other gentlemen, bright lights in Ohio, upon whom he thought I ought to call.  GENERAL ROELIFF BRINKERHOFF and M. D. HARTER.  I took his advice.  The first I had met, the other I had not, but, when I did, he pleased me by saying that he remembered “when a very little boy, lying on the floor looking at the pictures in Mr. HOWE’s Historical Collections of Ohio.”  It seems to be the custom now-a-days to write of lights while yet shining, and call it “contemporaneous biography.”  Our ancestors waited until their lights were glimmed and then on their tombstones told how bright had been their scintillations.

 

GENERAL ROELIFF BRINKERHOFF had for his remote ancestor Joris DERICKSON BRINKERHOFF, who cam in 1638, from Holland to Brooklyn, N. Y., and “bringing with him his wife, Susannah:” certainly pleasing in name and we opine pleasing in person.  Providence seems to have blessed the twain, inasmuch as they were the originals of all the BRINKERHOFFS in America.  Roeliff is of the seventh generation, and had among his ancestors some French Huguenots.  He was born in Owasco, N. Y., in 1828.  At 16 he began teaching school in his native town; at 19, was private tutor in the family of Andrew JACKSON, Jr., at the Hermitage, Tennessee: this was two years after the death of the General.  At the age of 22, he came north and acquired the profession of the law, in the office of his kinsman, Hon. Jacob BRINKERHOFF, in Mansfield: and when the war broke out, was one of the proprietors and editors of the Mansfield Herald.  Going into the Union army in 1861, he was soon assigned to the position of Regimental Quartermaster of the 64^th Ohio, and rose very high in that department, first in the west and then in the east.  At one time was Post Quartermaster at Washington City; in 1865, Colonel and Inspector of the Quartermaster’s Department; he was then retained on duty at the War Office, with Secretary STANTON; later was Chief Quartermaster at Cincinnati, and in 1866, after five years’ continuous service, retired with the commission of Brigadier-General.

 

General BRINKERHOFF is the author of “The Volunteer Quartermaster,” which is still the standard guide for the Quartermaster’s Department.  As a member of the Board of State Charities, and as President of the National Board of Charities, he has won by his executive capacity high honor and wide recognition.

 

He has given for years much study on the subject of prison reform.  Largely through his efforts, Mansfield was selected as the site for the State Intermediate Penitentiary.  The site is about a mile north of the town, and the corner-stone was laid November 5, 1886.

 

 

Page 484

 

“The Aultman & Taylor Co.”  He was born in Canton, in 1846; the son of a merchant and banker.  He is a highly respected and genial gentleman, patriotic and public-spirited; the gift of the handsome soldiers’ monument in the public square at Mansfield is one of the many illustrations of these qualities.  His religious attachment is Lutheran and his politics Democratic, believing in the axiom, “That government is best, which governs the least.”  He is prominent as the champion in Ohio of the policy of FREE TRADE and Civil Service Reform.

 

One of the most hale and vigorous old gentlemen I met on my tour was DR. WILLIAM BUSHNELL, of Mansfield.  He was born about the year 1800.  After the surrender of Hull, he, being then in his twelfth year, went with his father with the troops from Trumbull County, to the camp near Cleveland.  A battle being imminent with the Indians, his father told him he must go back home.  He obeyed reluctantly, for he so wanted to take part in a fight and pop over an Indian or two.  He retraced his steps alone through the dense wilderness, guided only by the trail left by the regiment.  He said to me, “When I got into Wayne township, Ashtabula county, I came to a cabin, was worn out and half starved, and there I found the biggest people I had ever seen; and it appears to me now, as I think of it, I have scarcely seen any since so big.  They took me in and almost overwhelmed me with kindness.  They were the parents of Joshua R GIDDINGS, who was then a seventeen-year-old boy about the place, swinging his axe into the tall timber.  In 1878, Dr. BUSHNELL was the delegate from Ohio to the International Prison Reform Congress, called by the Swedish Government, and held at Stockholm.  The portrait of a solid strong white-bearded patriarch forms the frontispiece to GRAHAM’s History of Richland Co., and in fac-simile under it is the signature of Wm. BUSHNELL, M. D.

 

JOHNNY APPLESEED.

 

At an early day, there was a very eccentric character who frequently was in this region, well remembered by the early settlers.  His name was John CHAPMAN, but he was usually known as Johnny Appleseed.  He came originally from New England.

 

He had imbibed a remarkable passion for the rearing and cultivation of apple trees from the seed.  He first made his appearance in western Pennsylvania, and from thence made his way into Ohio, keeping on the outskirts of the settlements, and following his favorite pursuit.  He was accustomed to clear spots in the loamy lands on the banks of the streams, plant his seeds, enclose the ground, and then leave the place until the trees had in a measure grown.  When the settlers began to flock in and open their “clearings,” Johnny was ready for them with his young trees, which he either gave away or sold for some trifle, as an old coat, or any article of which he could make use.  Thus he proceeded for many years, until the whole country was in a measure settled and supplied with apple trees, deriving self-satisfaction amounting to almost delight, in the indulgence of his engrossing passion.  About 20 years since he removed to the far west, there to enact over again the same career of humble usefulness which had been his occupation here.

 

 

Page 485

 

and his eye black and sparkling.  He lived the roughest life, and often slept in the woods.  His clothing was mostly old, being generally given to him in exchange for apple trees.&nbs