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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

��payment was demanded, these subsci'ibers re- fused to pay until the shops should be located according to agreement. This was not done, and litigation ensued in consequence.

Under provisions of the act of May 4, 1869, the city of Toledo contracted with this and the Toledo, Tiffin & Eastern Railroad Company, to build the Toledo & Woodville Railroad, and, March 18, 1873, leased the same to the said companies for the term of 999 years. The Pennsylvania Company, having secured a lease of this line, came into possession of a line directly from Mansfield to Toledo, and have since operated this line as a feeder to their gi'eat trunk road. The road was completed to Tiffin in June, 1 873 ; beyond Tiffin it was also graded, tied and the rails laid for ten or twelve miles, but was never used, the labor and expend- iture of money beyond Tiffin being thrown away.

Much litigation and trouble for a few citizens of Mansfield, who were prominently connected with this road, has ensued ; and the benefits to the cit}'. if they have been anything, are tar behind the popular expectation.

Mansfield has now a system of railroads that places her among the most important of the cities of the State for manufacturing and whole- saling purposes.

Telegraphy began to awaken the world about the same time railroads appeared. Even before railroads came into the West, several lines, gen- erally short, and often experimental, were occa- sionally used. Not until after the railroad had become a fixed fact, however, did any permanent results appear.

The first telegraph office in Mansfield was opened November 30, 1849. Mr. Samuel Hoyt, now an operator in Crestline, was in charge of the office. There was but one wire, and that, he says, was built along the mud road from Cleveland to Cincinnati. This telegraph line was known as the ''Cleveland & Cincinnati Telegi-aph Company." Mr. J. H. Wade, now a

��wealthy citizen of Cleveland, and a man long and intimately associated with the early days of telegraphy, was President of the Company, and was one of its chief originators. The route of the line was from Cleveland through Medina, Wooster, Ashland, Mansfield, Bellville, Mount A^ernon, Granville, Newark (a branch went from Newark to Zanesville), Hebron, Columbus,Wash- ington and Wilmington to Cincinnati. These places were the onl}^ offices on the line.

In 1851, the same Company Iniilt a line along the Cleveland, Columbus, & Cincinnati Railroad, and also along the railroad from Newark through Mansfield to Sandusky City. This last-named line was the second in this county, and was opened, Mr. Wade wTites, for business earty in 1852. Mr. Hoyt thinks it was not opened till 1853. Prior to the erection of any of the lines running north and south across the State, a line from Buffalo. N. Y., to Detroit, Mich., had been opened (in 1847) as far as Cleveland, and the next spring extended to Detroit. At Sandusky City a junc- tion was made, in 1852, with the line along the Sandusky & Newark Railway, and the citizens of Mansfield could send Eastern dispatches by that line (which soon came to be the important one) instead of the old Cleveland & Cincinnati line, that followed the common highway to Cleveland.

When the first line was built through this county, Mr. \\^ade came to Mansfield, and, by dint of personal efforts, secured several sub- scribers to the stock of the Company. Each share was valued at $50. Hugh McFall, Chas. Sherman, and other influential citizens took stock in the enterprise, none of them having very sanguine hopes of realizing anything from the investment. They desired to aid any enter- prise that favored the advancement of the town.

The office in Mansfield was located up-stairs in Mr. James Purdy's building, one door south of the bank corner. Mr. Hoyt was placed in charge of the office, and, on the day mentioned (Novem-

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