Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/462

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��HISTORY OF lllCIILAND COUNTY.

��however, disputed by M. H. Gilkison, who says the fii'st bhieksinitli was John Fogelsong, who built a shop in the alley connecting" Main and Walnut, below the Wiler House. Mr. Win- ship and Levi Jones boarded with Weldon for a time. Jones was afterward killed by the In- dians, a full account of this being given in another chapter.

John Wallace remained in town liut a short time. He bought and cleared up a farm two miles east, which has since been known as the Wallace farm. J. C. Gilkison was a printer, and started the first printing office. He was also an officer of the militia. He married a daughter of George Coffinberry, and lived for some time in the Cofflnberr}' house on the North American corner, where his son, Mansfield H. Gilkison, who is still living, was born. This son was the first white male child born in the town or county.

Much controA'ersy has arisen in regard to the first child born in Mansfield. The friends of Matilda Cunningham, of whom many are 3'et living, claim that honor for her ; while Mans- field H. Gilkison and his friends are equally persistent and positive that he was the '• very first." That he was the first iiki/c child does not admit of question ; whether he was the first child, each one must judge for himself after reading the testimony. The statements are so conflicting, and the time so far back, that the truth is hard to find. For nearly sixty 3ears this honor was borne l)y Mr. Gilkison, with no one to dispute his title ; Init in an un- fortunate moment, at a pioneer meeting, a new claimant suddenly appeared, and created some feeling among the pioneers and those inter- ested. The following extracts from letters, and such other testimony as is at hand, may be of some assistance in forming a correct conclu- sion :

Gen. H. Brinkei'hoff, in his centennial ad- dress to the pioneers of Richland County, July 4, 187G, sa3-s : '• The first white child born in

��Mansfield was Mansfield H. Gilkison, who is still living and with us to-day. He was born February 2, 1811. in the building on the North American corner. His father was John C. Gil- kison, and his mother a daughter of George Cof- finberry.'

The controvers}' began in 1869. It seems, therefore, that, seventeen years afterward. Gen. Brinkerhoff had not been convinced that he was in error regarding this matter. Mansfield H. Gilkison gives his understanding of this in the following words, an extract from his letter to the Shield and Banner in 1873: "They did so (speaking of Hedges and New- man) and entered three, if not more, quar- ter-sections of land from the Government, one of which Gen. James Hedges selected as his own farm, Jacob Newman taking a quarter-sec- tion for his farm, and upon the third quar- ter-section the}' laid off' the present town of 3Iansfield. A short time after this, a portion of Mr. Newmans lamily came out, and occu- pied the cabin on this farm of 3Ir. Jacob New- man's, immediately south of 3Iansfield.* Shortly after this, the Cunningham family came out and found their way to the Newman cabin ; as yet, upon the site of Mansfield, no cabin had been erected. In this cabin, it is claimed, Ma- tilda Cunningham was born. If this be true, then it is not possible for her to have been born in Mansfield at all. I think, in the fall of 1810, a cabin was erected where the North American now stands, by George Coffinberry, m}^ mother's father, and in this cal)in I was born, the 2d day of Februar}-, 1811, being the first white child born within the limits of the present town of Mansfield. (Jen. James Hedges requested of my parents the privilege of naming the child, saying he would deed to me a town lot, to which request they acceded, and he named me for the town and himself, Mansfield Hedges Gilkison. and deeded to me

•-This was one of the first cabins built. It was on tlie east side of Noith Main stri"et, across the bri(ig(? over Ritters Run, in what is now S lutli Aiidiliuu, jwst outside of the original town plat.

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