Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/460

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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

��building was a small log cabin." The above is an extract. The writer must be mistaken, for there is much evidence that the first cabin was not built in 1809, but 1808, and not on the North American corner, and, as before stated, not by George Cofflnbeny. Mansfield H. Gil- kison, who is now living in Mansfield, and who was born in this cabin (the one referred to in the above extract), says it was built in 1810, and was the second cabin in the town.

Mrs. Elizabeth Baughman, who is still liv- ing, and Avho is the daughter of Capt. James Cunningham, one of the earliest pioneers in the county, in a letter to the Shidd and Banner, in 1873, says : " A log cabin was afterward erected on the present site of Mansfield. It stood, I think, near where Mr. Keating now lives, at the northeast corner of the park, and a man (whose name I have forgotten) moved into it ; Init, for selling whisky to the Indians, in violation of law — a Congressional act, I suppose — he had to leave the country. * * * One of the proprietors of the then contemplated town of Mansfield, got father to consent to move into the calkin to board the coming surveying party, and entertain persons who might come to buy town lots, etc. * * * The day following, they removed to the cabin spoken of, which was, as father always claimed, the first house built in Mansfield, and the only one here at that time."

Accoi'ding, then, to Mrs. Baughman's recol- lection, the first cabin was built on the north- east corner of the public square, where stands the old brick dwelling-house belonging to the Hedges family. Mrs. Baughman, however, did not live with her father at the time he occupied this dwelling, for she says in the same letter : " My father was married to Margarett Myers, his present widow, in 1808, and came to this country soon afterward ; but I remained with my grandfather, Michael Stateler, until 1819, then came to this count}', where I have since had my home." It must be considered that James Cunningham, her father, moved into that

��house in October, 1809, and moved out during the next year ; so that he onh' occupied it a short time ; and if his information was given to his daughter years afterward, he might have been mistaken, or she might have misunder- stood him.

That she was mistaken seems evident from the following, taken from the lips of James Cunningham himself, and written down at the time by Bev. James McGaw : " In Octo- ber of the same year (1809), he (James Cun- ningham), moved into the only log cabin then standing in Mansfield, which had been built some months previously b}' one Samuel Martin. This cabin stood on the corner lot of E. P. Sturges — Lot No. 97." It would seem- as if the statement of Mr. Cunningham, which was writ- ten down in his presence, and must, therefore, have been carefully given, ought to be conclu- sive. He was a very earh' settler, was well known to all the pioneers, and a ver}^ intel- ligent man. He was afterwai'd a Captain in the army.

The following is an extract from a letter of Margarett Cunningham, wife of James Cunning- ham, dated January 31, 1873 : "August 23, 1809, we had a daughter born to us in the town of Mansfield, when there was but one log cabin in the place, built by a Mr. Martin for a board- ing-house. Mr. Martin lived in this cabin but a short time, and left abruptl}', having sold whisky to the Indians, contrar}' to law. Some one threatened to prosecute him for the oflTense, and he left."

From this extract is ascertained what became of the first actual settler in the town, and the builder of the first cabin. He was evidently a trader ; whether he kept an3'thing more than whisky is not told ; but he might be called the first merchant in Mansfield ; and this first cabin was also the first boarding-house, the fii'st store and the first dwelling.

The following extract is from a letter of Nancy Shively, written March 3, 1873. She

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