Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/630

 618

��HISTORY OF HIGHLAND COUNTY.

��he said, to get another wife, which important mission he accomplished in seven years, and then returned and recommenced grubbing up trees, etc. He also built a large brick house, made of bricks of extraordinary large size. He also built the first frame barn in the township.

The house above mentioned was remarkable for its immense cellars, which were all arched with stone. These were not properly constructed, and proved the ruin of the house by spreading the foundations, the walls cracking, and finally falling by piecemeal. It has not been clearly demonstrated whether the fall was great or not, but it fell, and the indications went to show, that Mr. Robinson, in more ways than one, did not build his house upon a "rock." He lost ,his fourth wife in 1842, and in the spring of 1843, returned to England, where he died.

In 1866, the property was sold at public auc- tion, by order of the court, and Gen. James and Wm. Robinson bid it off and now own it.

A few years ago, a Sunday-school picnic from Ashland landed at Windsor Station, and made a raid over the Big Hill, taking in their rounds the ruins, of the fallen castle. On leav- ing the ruinc it was observed by Mr. Robinson that each one of the party was carrying away a brick. He called the party to a halt, and gruflfly inquired, what in thunder they were carrying off' his bricks for.

The spokesman of the party preceded to ex- plain, that they had heard down at Ashland that a rich lord from England had built a won- derful castle here once, that he was something of a Blue Beard in his character, that four wives had mysteriously disappeared, some thought, in the arched vaults of the cellar, etc., etc., and finally that an earthquake had shaken down the house, and buried the vtnfortunate wicked lord in the ruins ; and that with this romance burning in their brains, they were carrying away the brick to keep as a souvenir, and one brick to deposit in the cabinet of curi- osities in the Ashland Academy of Science.

��At this wonderful story, Mr. Robinson's eyes dilated. He at once proceeded, with impressive voice and gesture, to strip this romantic legend of some of its superfluous verbiage, and put things in something like matter-of-fact form, such as would do to go into the history of Richland County. It is needless to say that quite a change came over the spirit of their dreams, and before the party reached the station on their return home, there was not a brick to be found in the hat of one of those boys. The teachers felt pretty badly sold.

In 1862-63, the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad was built, which enters Richland County and Weller Township on the east side of the township, at the crossing of the Black Fork, and running west to the west line of the township, where it makes a sudden curve to the soiith, to Mansfield.

There is a comfortable station-house at the crossing of the Windsor & Olivesburg road, commodious switches and spurs, and convenient accommodations for loading and unloading stock. There is considerable business done in the way of shipping stone, staves, lumber, grain, etc., from this point, though but little enterprise is manifested in building up a town. The old village of Windsor, three-fourths of a mile south, is dwindling away.

The railroad bridge over the Black Fork, one mile east of the station, broke down under a freight train in 1871, and all the train was pre- cipitated into the river. The crash was fearful, but by a wonderful providence, none of the employes were killed or even seriously hurt, though some were pulled out of the water from under the debris. A wrecking train was impro- vised and all hands put to work, and a new bridge built as soon as practicable, which has stood the pressure since.

The first child or children born in the town- ship were Samuel and Mary Stevenson (twins), in 1816, one of whom (Samuel) is still living

�� �� �