Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/319

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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

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��buying and selling grain and produce, which were sent foi"ward to the lake. A depot was erected at what was then the foot of North Wal- nut street in Mansfield, to which point the road was brought ; another depot or two were soon added b.y the merchants, who found the gi'ain trade an exceptionally good one. The first gi-ain depot is now the fiouring-mill of Grilbert Waugh & Company, while the others sei-ve in various capacities. The fall of 1846, and, in- deed, two or three succeeding years, saw an immense grain trade here. Wagons came in from all parts of the country, often blocking the streets Avhile waiting their turn to be un- loaded.

The warehouse in Plymouth was built on the deep cut. over the track, in the fall of 1846, and was completed in time for the wheat crop, which, Mr. Drennan says, was very large, and was the first crop of wheat shipped in bulk, not in bags or liarrels, from this county. This was in the latter part of August. The price was 45 cents per bushel, the same price paid at Milan, and said to he the lowest price paid for wheat since the opening of the Erie Canal. Owing to the European demand, the price advanced, before all the crop was sold. $1.50 per bushel in Plym- outh and Mansfield.

The cars used then were square box cars, covered with canvass or tarpaulin, and would hold aliout one hundred and forty liushels. They were the only kind used for tln-ee or four years after the road was put in operation. Time wrought improvements here as well as else- where. Mr. Drennan, in speaking of the feel- ings of many persons regarding a railroad then, states that there were in Plymouth Township a good many citizens who, because they were not compensated liberally for the land used in the construction of the road, and not realizing the advance sure t(i follow when the road was opened, determined to resist, and. when the la}'- ing of the iron rails was all that remained to complete the track, they armed themselves and

��prepared to resist the laborers. The contractor, a jolly, fat Irishman, got word of the scheme in some way, and came suddenl}- on the scene with a strong force of workmen able to defend themselves. The citizens chose discretion and abandoned their siege.

The road was in tolerably good running order by 1847 and 1848. A branch, extending from Oxford to Huron, eight miles, was built about this time, but, proving um-emunerative, as other roads were constructed in the State, was, in after years, abandoned. It was chartered Fel> ruary 27, 1846.

The purchase of the Monroeville & Sandusky City Road by the Mansfield & New Haven Road, gave the latter corporation, which had received its charter March 12, 1836 — one year after the former — direct control of a line from Mansfield to the lake. The road, as consol- idated, was fifty-four miles in length, and had a busy traffic. All along this line, at convenient distances, stations for receiving produce and discharging merchandise were established, and, until 1853, the road enjoyed the monopoly of the grain trade of this part of Ohio.

An extension farther south than Mansfield began to be agitated before the road was put in running order. Considerable opposition was, however, exhibited among many classes of citizens, who firmly maintained the opinion that a prosperous railroad town must be a ter- minal point. A charter for a road, known as the Columbus & Lake Erie Railroad, was granted March 12. 1845, and. five or six years after, a road was built between Mansfield and Newark, where it could connect with a road to Columbus, known then as the Ohio Central Rail- road, now part of the Baltimore & Ohio, and which was completed in 1854, so that trans- portation was begun. That part of this road running through this county, south fi*ora Mans- field, was mainly built by Mr. Frederick M. Fitting, now a resident of Jefl!erson Township. He began the work in January. 1850, at Mansfield,

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