Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/11



PREFACE.
THE origin of this book lies in the fact that something over twenty-five years ago, Gen. R. BRINKERHOFF then a young lawyer, who had recently come into the county and made it his home, conceived the idea of preserving the annals of its early history. He had married the daughter of one of its earliest and best-known pioneers, and, as his associations brought him in contact with the men and women of those days, he felt that a record of their trials, their deeds of valor, their bravery and their fortitude, ought to be preserved for the instruction of the generations that would follow them. To subdue the forest with its vast growth of trees, its wild animals, and wilder men, required courage, persistence and heroism. Only the men and women who possessed these qualities could hope for success, hence only this class came to stay. They fought their way to victory, and are entitled to a historic record as the founders of a free country and a free people.

Recognizing these facts, Gen. BRINKERHOFF resolved to do his part in preserving the history of the pioneers of Richland County. With this object in view, he began to gather information in regard to pioneer times. In 1855, he became the editor of the Mansfield Herald, and soon began to publish the facts he had collected. He requested corrections and additions, and also printed a series of interrogations to call out further information. Then many of the earliest pioneers were living, and could tell him their personal experiences and recollections in regard to the events of "long ago," in Richland County, and could give him history that could not at present be gathered. By these means, he preserved the early annals of the county, that otherwise would be now irretrievably lost. His efforts called out others, who from time to time sent him their reminiscences. These, with his own, as they were published, were gathered into a scrap-book, and thus preserved in their order, under appropriate headings. At his suggestion, another individual, the Rev. JAMES McGAW, was induced to take an interest in the enterprise. Mr. McGaw traveled over nearly all the southern part of the county in search of the history of different localities, sending to Gen. BRINKERHOFF, the results of his labors, who published them in his paper.

The massacre of the ZIMMER, (commonly but erroneously known as the Seymour), and Ruffner families, furnished Mr. McGaw the plot of a pioneer story, which he successfully carried out. It was published first in the Herald as a serial, and afterward in book form, under the title "Pioneer Times in Richland County," It is a thrilling narrative of fact and fiction, illustrative of early days here. It was not intended to be a history, and was written simply as a story. It is now quite rare.

Gen. BRINKERHOFF followed the threads of local history, publishing in the Herald the items he gathered, in 1861, the great war broke over the land, at once putting an end to all such work. After its close, he gathered the scattered fragments, and upon the establishment of the Ohio Liberal, by him in 1873, again began the publication of early remniscences,(sic) many of which he had written while in the army.

A pioneer society, also, had been formed, and meetings held, where the subject of a county history was occasionally broached, but no decisive steps taken, as no one appeared who understood the compilation of such a volume. The American Centennial of 1876 revived the question of such works, and gave an impetus to their compilation, that is now practically being carried out all over the United States. On the 4th of July of that year, by request of the President of the United States, centennial addresses were delivered in many of the counties in the country by competent persons, generally those who had made local history a study. In this county. Gen. BRINKERHOFF delivered the historical address. It was published in the county papers, and in pamphlet form.

In the spring of 1879, the compiler of these pages, who had then had about five years continuous experience in writing and compiling county histories and State gazetteers, came on a visit to