CHAPTER 1
MANSFIELD, OHIO, BLOOD ON THE FRONTIER"
Formation and Early History
The Ohio frontier time frame spanned from approximately 1720 to the year 1830. Before Ohio became a state, it was known as the Northwest Territory, an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 13, 1787, until March 1, 1803, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio. White immigrants from other areas such as Pennsylvania, the New England states, Virginia and Kentucky inundated the fertile land we now call the "Buckeye State." Although Ohio was an isolated area at first, the Ohio River linked the frontiersmen to civilization and trade, and the canal way systems that cut through Ohio aided in that endeavor as well. The influx of newly arrived settlers caused other changes as well. The federal government developed an Indian policy that basically caused incredible violence in the area before achieving the removal of the Native Americans from the state.
When General James Hedges began the original survey in 1806 in what is now Richland County, Ohio, there were no permanent settlers in the area. Later, in 1807, the first cabin in the area was constructed by Jacob Newman and was erected on section 36, which was about sixty rods (a rod is a measurement of sixteen and a half feet) from the first mill. The mill would later be named "Beams Mill." The cabin occupants included Jacob Newman, a housekeeper and four nieces and nephews. The closest neighbors were twenty-five miles in distance in Wooster, Ohio. Originally, Samuel Martin was said to be the first settler in the area of Mansfield, as he built his cabin there in 1809. Old Sam got himself into some trouble selling whiskey, or firewater, to local Indians and was asked to leave the area. Out moved Samuel Martin, and in came Captain James Cunningham, who became the first settler according to many more history sources. Mansfield was laid out on June 11, 1808, by Jacob Newman, James Hedges and Joseph H. Larwill.
In 1812, an incident took place in Mansfield that was typical of other such tragedies and misunderstandings on the frontier. There was a friendly village of Delaware Indians located twelve miles southeast from Mansfield in the area called Greentown. As a measure of safety, several hundred Indians were collected by the government and taken to Mansfield. The newly arrived group was placed under guard, and while at Mansfield, an Indian boy and girl approached Reverend James Smith to be married in a Christian ceremony. While the guard was absent at the ceremony, an old Indian man and his twelve-year-old daughter escaped. The father was shot through the chest and fell, mortally wounded. He had been thought to be hostile, and after receiving the gunshot he was further wounded by an Indian spy named McCullough. McCullough was from Coshocton, Ohio, and seemed to enjoy the killing of the "savages," or Indians, more than was necessary. He drew his tomahawk and struck the elderly fallen Indian once. The unfortunate fellow was still breathing, so McCullough cursed and placed a foot on the man's neck while striking the second, more fatal, blow to his skull. Sergeant Gilkeson saw the entire episode transpire and ordered McCullough to bury the Indian. He did so but only deep enough so that his ribs were still exposed. Locals said that the ribs could still be seen one to two years after the hasty burial. The fallen Indian's daughter escaped after seeing her father fall to his demise.
Another frightful event in Mansfield history is that of a location called Spook Hollow. Two Native Americans from Greentown came into Mansfield after their village had been destroyed. These young men were known as Seneca John and Quilipetoxe. These two youths visited the William Tavern in Mansfield, and while there, they became intoxicated and quarreled with some local whites. The two Indian youths left, and five whites followed in pursuit, vowing revenge. Nearly one mile east of town, the two unfortunate Indians were caught and shot to death. The whites buried the two boys at the foot of a large maple tree on the edge of a swampy area east of town. This was not a typical sacred burial, as the boys were basically shoved down into the muddy bog-like dirt and left to the darkness. No words of regret or prayer were spoken over them. This place became known as Spook Hollow. Many townspeople would not drive their wagons or even walk past the area after sunset, as it was said that the Indian boys wandered the area seeking retribution for their unsanctified burials and uncalled-for deaths.
Not all immigrants and settlers feared the Native Americans in the area. One such notable resident who befriended the Indians was John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed. John was a very eccentric personality who made his home in the area now known as Mansfield, Ohio. Chapman arrived in the Ohio countryside in about 1800, coming from Pennsylvania. He had acquired some apple seeds from the local mills there and set about planting the seeds at every chance traveling to and from the area. He was quite the businessman and started apple tree nurseries, often entrusting them to managers who would tend them in his absence. At the time of his death, Johnny Appleseed owned more than 1,200 acres of land in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Johnny was of a curious sort, and some locals, both settlers and Indian, did not know how to take him. He was a missionary for the Swedenborgian Church and never married. He had told friends that he believed there would be two female spirits in the afterlife who would take care of him if he would stay single while on the earthly plane!
While Johnny Appleseed was busy planting apple trees, Richland County, Ohio, was organized in March 1813. It was given its name for the character of its fertile soil. The richness of the soil would soon be stained with the blood from massacres, murders and lynchings in years to come. Many of the early settlers of Richland County arrived from Pennsylvania and were of German and Scots-Irish origin. The first white man believed to have traversed the area now known as Richland County was James Smith. James had been captured by the Indians in Pennsylvania in 1755 and was adopted into their tribe, living with them quietly for three years before escaping. James had successfully run the gauntlet and endured an initiating ceremony, having all the hair plucked from his head except for a small scalp lock. He later escaped and came to Richland County, where he made his home. The first white woman in this region was believed to have been Mary Heckewelder, a daughter of the Moravian missionary John Gottleib Heckewelder. John and his wife, Sarah, were the first white couple in Ohio to be married, in 1780 in Salem.
The city now known as Mansfield was founded in 1808 and located on a fork of the Mohican River. This was a region surrounded by fertile land filled with plentiful game that was desired by the Native Americans and the pioneers alike. Mansfield was named for Jared Mansfield, the U.S. surveyor general, who directed its planning. Predating the city of Mansfield, the village of Mansfield was incorporated in 1828, and in 1857 Mansfield was chartered as a city. Mansfield grew slowly, as in 1817 it had only twenty houses and one store. In regard to elevation, Mansfield is one of the highest cities in the state and lies in the western foothills of the Allegheny Plateau.
As with any fledgling frontier area in early America, Mansfield was troubled by violence, death and bloodshed. The Ohio Lands were the battleground where the Native Americans tried to stop the advancement of civilization on its westward journey. Raids, massacres, disease, starvation and loneliness plagued many settlers in this new wilderness. This caused many souls to travel back east seeking civilization and the protection its population offered. Disease in the frontier ran rampant due to unsanitary living conditions, while epidemics ravaged the population, predating the discovery of antibiotics. Women and children were not spared. Ladies of childbearing age died often due to labor and delivery complications. Children perished at early ages due to common childhood diseases or during outbreaks of cholera and dysentery. Death knows no boundaries, and the rich were affected as much as the poor. No family was left untouched by death.
Death by disease was common in that time, but death was also dealt by violent acts on the frontier. Incidents such as the Copus Massacre and the Zimmer Massacre struck fear in the hearts of the brave pioneers in the Mansfield area. The Copus Massacre occurred on September 15, 1812, and involved local settlers and Indians near present-day Charles Mill Lake. George Shipley, John Tedrick, Robert Warnick and the Reverend James Copus died while protecting the Copus homestead from the attacking Indians. The Zimmer Massacre affected many locals by spreading panic and prompting many to flee to the local blockhouse for protection. Two weeks after the removal of the local Greentown Indians, Martin Ruffner and the Zimmer family, who lived on the Black Fork about five miles north of the site of the burned village, were murdered. Entering the Zimmer cabin on that fateful day, the would-be rescuers found the old gentleman, his wife and his daughter Catharine all dead upon the floor and dreadfully mangled. Martin Ruffner was lying dead in the yard out front. There was evidence that he had made a desperate struggle for his life and those of the Zimmer family. Martin's gun was bent nearly double, and several of his fingers had been cut off by blows from a tomahawk. The struggle had finally ended by his being shot twice through the body. The details of this butchery could never be known for certain, as the prominent actors were all killed and scalped as well.
Blockhouses and forts were a necessity in the frontier days and offered a sense of security to many from the horrors of isolated massacres such as the above-mentioned tragedies. Blockhouses were fortifications that were square, usually two stories and made of solid logs. They usually had portholes that were used for guns to be aimed at would-be attackers. In times of threatened attacks, many townspeople would pile into the blockhouse for safety from the ensuing violence.
One of the earliest blockhouses in Richland County was the Beam blockhouse. It was used as a military post from 1812 to 1814 and was located on the Rocky Fork of the Mohican River. Thirteen soldiers died there during that time frame and are buried on a hill near the fort site. Evening roll calls were a very important part of the day's activities. It is said that at roll call, men and boys present would use fictitious names in addition to the list of actual names. The blockhouse occupants would answer the call in different tones of loud voices to trick eavesdropping Indians into believing that more men were present than actually were. One blockhouse in downtown Mansfield was used as the county's first courthouse, jail and also a church when needed. In 1813, if you were found guilty of public intoxication, you were required to pull stumps out of the blockhouse yard. The events held at the blockhouse clearly outgrew its humble surroundings, and in 1827, the courthouse was constructed, with several architectural details and expansions added at later dates.
As construction techniques advanced, the buildings required in an expanding town grew as well. Town Square in Mansfield was the center of much goings-on. Political parties would meet here, social gatherings took place and band concerts were heard. The square was the center of it all! In the 1800s, the square was the public commons, which also included a livestock area that eventually needed fencing to keep the pigs out and the square from smelling like a barnyard. Mansfield grew out from the square in all four directions.
One of the most atrocious crimes in the county took place on October 3, 1840. Samuel Bushong, a newly arrived settler from Pennsylvania, attended an election locally. He appeared to act normal that day and was in decent spirits. In the evening, he returned home and, before he retired, stated that he intended to go to Mansfield the next day. Before daylight the next morning, Samuel and his wife rose to prepare for his departure, and in the preparation for the breakfast meal, his wife had to roast coffee in a skillet on coals before the open fireplace. While she was thus employed, Bushong went to the woodpile out in the side yard and brought the axe into the house on the pretense of whetting it. While his unassuming wife was in a stooping position over the skillet, he struck her with the axe, splitting her head open and filling the skillet with her brains and blood. Her death was instantaneous. Samuel then went up the cabin stairs and made a murderous assault upon his two girls and two boys. He first attacked his daughters as they lie sleeping. The blows with the axe were fatal. Quickly, he advanced into the boys' room, but they succeeded in wrenching the axe from him. The boys still received serious injuries. The girls were ages twenty-two and fifteen and passed from this earth that early fall morning.
After murdering most of his family, Samuel Bushong took to the woods but was soon apprehended and threatened with a lynching. He was arraigned before Squire Heath and was bound over to the court of common pleas without bond to be put in the county jail. In a conversation with the constable, Bushong stated that with his family's current financial condition, he thought "we'd be better off dead." Bushong requested that the constable not handcuff him when taking him to jail. The constable and prisoner made the trip to Mansfield in a single buggy, but when they got near Mansfield, the prisoner tried to escape. The constable at once covered him with his gun and said, "Bushong, you gave me your word as a brother Free Mason that if I would leave you un-handcuffed you would not attempt to get away, and now I give you my word as a Mason that if you repeat the attempt I will give you the content of this revolver." The prisoner agreed and made no further effort to get away from the officer.
Samuel Bushong's trial before the court of common pleas lasted six days. A plea of insanity was entered for the prisoner, and the jury, after twelve hours of deliberation, returned a verdict of not guilty. Soon after his acquittal, Bushong left the county, and it was rumored that he died a few years later in the West. His surviving children, the two sons, soon returned to the East. It is claimed that the crimes of a country are as much a part of its history as are its deeds of heroism. That was indeed a dark day in Mansfield's history.
Due to the hardiness and perseverance of the pioneers, Richland County continued its growth, and the villages became towns and cities. Trees were felled and sturdy cabins were constructed. Roads were built, and the horse and carriage gave way to the automobile and locomotive. Printing presses and telegraph lines aided in the development of communication, tying people to one another and to the developing United States of America. With the new inventions, improved communications and increased travel, there also came increased crime and lawlessness. Saloons and brothels dotted the city landscape and countryside. Crime flourished in many areas, and law-abiding citizens feared for their lives. Horse thievery, robbery and assaults grew as steadily as wealth and population boomed. The first state prison was constricted in Columbus in 1813 and received its first tenants in 1815. The criminal justice system in Ohio was beginning a new chapter.
CHAPTER 2
THE CIVIL WAR
Camp Mordecai Bartley, Death and Disease
You could not say from what world they come, or to what world they go.
Major General Joshua Chamberlain spoke those words several years after the American Civil War came to its bloody conclusion. How true Chamberlain's words ring to those who research the paranormal! This war was the bloodiest ever fought in American history, with over 600,000 soldiers perishing. There are many reasons, according to paranormal researchers, why the soul or spirit remains earthbound after the death of the natural body. A sudden death is one reason for a haunting or paranormal activity to occur. Violent and unexpected deaths of the young rank high as well. It is said that sometimes the ghostly form stays behind to give a message of hope or warning to those of us among the living.
Many men who enlisted early on in the American Civil War believed that the war would be over in several months. Instead, it began in April 1861 and ended four years later in April 1865. Men who enlisted or volunteered were usually prepared for battle in Civil War training camps. They learned how to load, use and clean weapons. The men participated in drills, learned survival skills and sharpened their killer instincts. These soldiers would not only be judges of others' lives but also act as executioner in many instances. Enlisting in the Federal army and learning how to kill fellow Americans was difficult for many men and especially challenging to some soldiers with strict religious views. Men who enlisted in the state of Ohio helped to determine the outcome of the Civil War. Ohio supplied many of the North's leading generals and hundreds of thousands of recruits for the war effort.
