Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/246

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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

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

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

���riRST CABIN HUII.T IN RICHLAND COINTY.

��on the bank of the Rocky Fork, three miles southeast of the present city of Mansfield, near the present site of Groudy's mill. Here he preempted three quarter-sections of land, and three brothers, b}' the name of Brubaker, came out with him and assisted in building his cabin. He may have been assisted by Gren. James Hedges and his employes, who, no doubt, made his cabin their headquarters, while survej'ing portions of the county. At this time Mr. Newman was a widower, his wife having died in Pennsylvania; and Catharine Brubaker, a sister of the three brothers, and a niece of

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

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