Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/248

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��HISTOEY or RICHLAND COUNTY.

��had enough to do to cook for those four brawny backwoodsmen, with their appetites sharpened by Uvbor and the pure air of the woods. It is not on record that they raised a crop that first Huninier, the^^ were too hite for that, and the wootls were to be cleared away and buildings erected. Their provisions were brought from Canton, to which place Mr. Newman frequently returned. But four of them could get through with a good deal of work, and, knowing they would soon be followed b}' other pioneers, who would need lumber for their cabins, the}' made preparations to erect a saw-mill. This saw- mill was not finished, however, until the spring of 1809, and was the first mill of any kind in the county. It was not until the spring of 1808, that an addition was made to the settlement — then Michael Newman came — a brother of Jacol)'s. He brought his wife with him from (,'anton, and went into that little cabin with one room. ITpon his arrival (^atharine Bru- })aker returned to her home, and Michael Newman's wife became the housekeeper. The location of this first cabin was upon the right bank of the creek, back several hundred yards from it, near the present dwelling of H. L. (loudy. a few feet west of his barn. The spring is a short distance west of the site of the cabin. The saw-mill they erected stood almost on the exact spot where Goudy's mill now stands.

The spring of 1808 opens Avith six settlers in this little cabin. People may now wonder how so many could be accommodated, and it must be remembered that, in addition to these, Gen. Hedges and his employes were frequently there a day or two, so that without doubt, eight or ten people or more were often crowded into this cal)in. During this summer the men worked upon the mill race, and put in crops of corn and wheat in the clearings they had made during the winter. In the foil of this year Jacob Newman brought his son Henry, from Canton, and he constituted the seventh perma- nent occupant. This was not enough, however;

��the cal)in must have looked very empty and cheerless to Jacob Newman; for he went back to Pennsylvania and married again, bringing his bride out, on horseback probably, to occupy and render cheerful the vacant places in that cabin, which now contained but eight people.

It is not remembered whether the Brubaker boys remained at the Newman cabin during the winter of 1808-9. but Michael, his wife and others, occupied it, and Gen. Hedges made it his headquarters.

In the spring of 1809 the saw-mill was in operation, and the}' probably had an addition to their settlement during this 3'ear. A family by the name of Fountaine came, and erected a cabin near the Newmans. Other pioneers were b}' this time coming in along the Black Fork, a few miles further east. The Copus and Zimmer families, Martin Ruffner. Samuel Lewis, Henry McCart, James Cunningham, Mr. Schaffer, Arch- iljald Gardner and Andrew Craig, arrived and settled near the Indian village of Greentown, in Green Township, now Ashland County.

The saw-mill erected by the Newmans was a rude log affair, and had all the business it could do from the start. It worked very slowly.

In the spring of 1810. Michael Newman moved out of Jacob Newman's cabin and into the one erected near, by Moses Fountaine, the latter having moved away, probably east to his former home.

About this time the Newmans saw the neces- sit}' and l)egan the erection of a grist-mill. Thus the first grist-mill in the county was established; and a mill is yet in operation on its site, though nearly all evidences of the first mill have dis- appeared.

There is little doul)t that James Hedges and Jacob Newman thought, when Mr. Newman entered his land on the Rocky Fork, that it was near the center of the territory which they knew would soon be erected into a county, and they desired to make their fortunes by establishing a county seat. With this in view

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