Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/475

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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

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��it the Mansion Honse, kept by liimself. In the winter of 1827-28, there were 270 people, men, women and cliildren, in the town, by act- ual enumeration.

" The early settlers were without transporta- tion for their grain, part of which was worked up into whisky b}' a few small distilleries, and sent by way of Sandusky to Detroit, and sold to the Indians to assist in their civilization. Furs, pelts, gentian, smoked venison hams and rags were taken in trade by Mansfield mer- chants and sent to Pittsburgh in four-horse wagons. Jen-y Jaques, Jim Downs. Tom Cantwell, Sam and John Creigh were the teamsters in those days." IMr. Purdy gives much other valuable history, which will he found elsewhere in its appropriate place.

Mansfield H. Grilkison is responsible for a few items following : Stephen Curran went out one day, near the spring, to make clapboards, and, while he was at work, left his dinner on a stump. Happening to look in the direction of the stump during his labor, he saw a large black bear helping himself to his dinner. Curran, finding he could not scare bruin away by yelling at him, attacked him with his ax. The bear showed fight, but Curran was also plucky, and finally the bear beat a retreat ; but ran directly toward the public square, where he was overtaken by Curran, who seized him by the tail. The Irishman had, in the mean time, been making considerable noise, and quite a crowd had collected. The bear whirled rapidly about, Curran holding to the tail for some time, until, his hold slipping, he was thrown several feet away, and, notwithstanding the crowd, or. very likely, because of it, the bear ran awa}^ down the ravine behind the North American, and escaped.

He says the first show in town was that of a lion, exhibited in a barn on the alley in rear of the former location of the Farmer's Bank, oppo- site the North American. He thinks the first sermon was preached by the Rev. Van Eman, a

��Presb3'terian. on South Main street, where the Lexington road forks. He spoke in the open air, and stood on a platform made entirelj' of round logs. Other logs were lying about for the use of the audience. Jacob Lindley was first Mayor, and John Gr. Peterson first ^larshal of the town.

At a Methodist Episcopal Conference, held in ^Mansfield in 1872, the famous old Methodist and made the statement that he assisted in organizing the first temperance society in Ohio. It was organized in the old log court house on the square, and himself and Rev. James Row- land, then living, were the only surviving mem- bers of that society. He also stated that he organized the first Salibath school ever held in Mansfield. He was at that time (1872), editor of the Oberlin Xeic Era. He must have fol- lowed very closely the Rev. William James (not Jones), who was the first Methodist preacher, and, very likely, the first preacher of any de- nomination in Mansfield. It cannot be cer- tainly ascertained whether it was James or Yan Eman, the Presbyterian preacher. James was gored by a bull belonging to himself and killed.
 * ^ircuit rider, Mr. Harry 0. Sheldon, was present,

Hotel-keeping seems to have been the prin- cipal business in those earh- days. About every other cabin was used at one time or another for a " tavern." A great many people were coming and going, looking at and entering lands, surveying, etc., and nearly all the earliest settlers became tavern-keep- ers. Mr. John Wiler, who is still living, was among the first of these. He came to Mansfield in 1819, a single man. He under- stood baking and brewing, and rented of a Mr. Styers, who lived in the country, near town, the log building then standing on the site of the Wiler House, probabl}' the same building erected by Murphy. Here he started a bake- shop, and after a time started a brewery, or a small establishment down on the flat, which he

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