Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/444

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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY

��succeeded him. and he by Wm. Thrift, who built a house on the lot where the Globe House now stands, to accommodate his business. January 22, 1824, a post office was established, and Isaac Hoy was appointed Postmaster : and the mail matter was carried from and to Blount A^ernon and Mansfield. l)y John Bell and Samuel Miller, until 1826. when a line of stages was put on the road that continued to the day of railroads. Previous to the 3ear 1824. the citizens of Jef- ferson Township received their mail at Mans- field, and each letter cost the receiver 25 cents, paid on lifting it. Dr. A. I. Beach succeeded Mr. Hoy, and under him the spelling of Bell- ville was changed to Belleville, using the word hdlc instead of the proper name of its founder — BeU. The latter form was in use till 1872, when, after some discussion in the local paper, the Department, by an order, fixed it as Bellville — the original name. About the time that the post office was received, John Moody, one of the best men that Bellville ever contained, opened a store, and the usual trades and a^'ocations common to a village were well represented. In 1835. thei'e were three stores in the place, each of which served the purpose of a dry- goods, grocery, provision, hardware and hat store, saying nothing of clothing, notions, drugs and medicines. From this time, Bellville was one of the most enterprising towns in Cen- tral Ohio, until Mansfield received a railroad and the patronage of a large constituency — drawn thither to paj' taxes. Even this exer- cised no material check to the Clear Fork village, and, up to the time the railroad was built to it and for years after, it ranked as one of the fore- most trading-points in the county. An act in- corporating the village was passed by the Leg- islature. March 25, 1841. and April 1, following, the first municipal election was held, which re- sulted in choosing the following persons to office : Mayor. James C. Lee ; Clerk, John M. Smith ; Trustees or Council, Benjamin Jackson, James Walsh, Samuel Cutting. T. \. Park, Otis How-

��ard ; A. I. Beach acted as Treasurer. The first schoolhouse was erected on ground which Dr. B. llidenours residence now occupies, at the southwest corner of the public square. The pi'esent school Ijuilding was erected in 1867, on ground purchased of Elias Smith in Ma}-, 1856, at a cost of $325. The lot contains four acres. The Ijuilding is 70x40, has four schoolrooms on the first floor and two in the second ; 200 perch of stone, and 150.000 brick, were used in its construction. Levi H. Strong was the con- tractor, and received $4,300 for the work. The first school commenced in it November 30, 1857. It was taught by A. Gerhart. The town hall was built in 1877-78, and cost about $6,000. In the winter of 1877, the Town Council agi- tated the question of building a jail. A plan of combining a town hall, jail and township house was finally conceived, and a petition was sent to the Legislature for this authority, sub- ject to the vote of the township. A bill passed the General Assemlil}-, and at an election, at which the rural and town population contended fiercely, the affirmative carried. The band stand was erected in July and August, and dedicated September 11, 1879. The population of the village, in 1870, was over seven hundred, and in 1879, over eleven hundred.

In 1843—44, when it became certain that Rich- land County would be divided, the leading citi- zens of Bellville petitioned largely for the erec- tion of a county out of the southern part of Richland and the northern part of Knox, making Bellville the county seat ; it is needless to say without success. The first fair in the county was held in Bellville in 1850. The next year, it was held in Mansfield, agreeable to an understanding between interested parties in l)oth places ; and the succeeding one was to have been held in Bellville, but it remained in Mansfield. In 1860, another agricultural society' was organized, and three ver}' successful fairs were held, but it went down under the pressure of the rebellion.

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