CHAPTER XXIII.
pg. 281

Richland County During Her Tutelage|
- Divided Into Two Townships
- The Earliest Settlers
- Voters
- Officers and Matters Worth Remembering

     IN pursuance of our purpose, as expressed on page 26, we devote a few pages of our history to the earliest matters of record on our journals in regard to Richland county.  The Commissioners of Knox, on the 8th of June, 1809, declared the entire county of Richland a separate township, which shall be called and known by the name of Madison.  At the present time a township of this name exists, and Mansfield, the flourishing county seat of Richland, stands therein.  At the election of 1809, that whole region polled but 17 votes, and in the year following there were but 19 votes.  The vote in October, 1811, for Representative, stood, Jeremiah R. Munson 14, Wm. Gass 3; Sheriff, Ichabod Nye, 17; Commissioner, John Kerr, 17; Coroner, Dr. Timothy Burr, 17.  The Judges of election in 1810 were James Corpus, Wm. Gardner, John Foglesong; Clerks, John C. Gilkison, James Cunningham.  In 1811, Winn Winship and John C. Gilkison, clerks, certify as to the full vote of Richland.  Among the names of these early settlers will be found several with whom our readers were acquainted in the olden time; we give them - Moses Adzet, George Ackley, the Baughmans, Jacob and John Coon, Andrew Craig, Thomas Coulter, James Black, Hugh and James Cunningham, John Crossen, the Gilkisons, the Gardners, the Hulls, Moses Fountain, the Lewisses, the McClures, the Murphys, the Newmans, Pearces, Olivers, Wm. Lockard, Jacob Shaffer, Joshua Rush, Sam. Martin, the Slaters, Zimmermans, John Wallace, Joseph Middleton, James Hedges and Rollin Weldon.
     The first Justices of the Peace were Archibald Gardner, elected in May, 1809; Henry McCart, in 1810; George Coffinbery and Peter Kinney, in 1812; James McClure and Andrew Coffinbery, in 1814.  The whole return on the tax duplicate, in 1811, was 73 horses, 124 cattle and one stallion, valued at $150, and taxed at $35.
     A rib is taken out of the side of Richland on the 7th of January, 1812, as the following entry on the Journal of the Commissioners explains:  "Ordered, that Madison township be divided as follows, to wit:  The division line of the township should be one mile east of the center of the 17th range, in the lower township, and shall be known and designated by the name of Greene."  Brief entry that - is it not, for the formation of a township within the lines of which we now find the better part of Ashland county and some of the best lands in Richland.  Whether it was named after the Rev. John Green, who had just been licensed to marry, "this deponent saith not," as the books show not, but we presume, as our people were eminently patriotic, that it was named after General Nathaniel Greene, one of the heroes of our revolutionary war.  The Mohican river passes through this township on its way to the Gulf of Mexico via the Walhonding, Muskingum, Ohio and Mississippi rivers.  In the olden time men did navigate this route, if we are to put implicit confidence in traditions of the dead past.  We have a work published several score years ago which asserts that "it is navigable (except being obstructed by dams) most seasons of the year."  Beaver dams, it is presumed, or some other dams, usually obstruct.  The Judges at the first election were Melzar Tanneyhill, Isaac Pierce, Samuel Lewis, and the clerks Peter Kenny and Thomas Coulter.  Melzar Tanneyhill received a $6 county order for listing this township.  At the election Apr. 6, 1812, at the house of Abraham Baughman, jr., Philip Seymour, Henry Seymour and Martin Rufner, whose adventures with Indians have since been so widely known, were among the voters.  John Murphy, Henry Naugh, John Pool.  Wm. Slater, John Totten and Ebenezer Rice were other voters.  Among the settlers, in 1814, were Josiah L. Hill, Trew Petee, Wm. Brown, John Shehan, Ahira Hill, Asa Brown, Jeremiah Conine, Lewis Crossen, Stephen Vanscoyos, Noah Custard, David Hill, Moses Jones, Silvester Fisher, John Crossen, H. W. Cotton, Lewis Pierce and Adam Crossen.  The poll-book for the township of Greene, in the county of Knox, Oct. 13, 1812, "shows 41 others, but the names of Seymour and Rufner are lacking.  The 14th of March, 1812, Knox Common Pleas Court allowed Greene township three Justices.  Perryville was the principal business point, and the Browns W. & A. were the first merchants, and for many years the leading business men.
     On the 10th of April, 1812, a petition of citizens of Richland was presented to the Commissioners of Knox for "a road beginning at the house of James McClure in said county, and run the nearest way to a mill seat belonging to Amoriah Watson; the same be granted, and Jacob Newman, George Coffinbery and Wm. Gass were appointed Viewers, and W. Y. Farquhar Surveyor of the same."
     In February, 1813, Thomas Coulter, Wm. Gass and Peter Kinney were elected Associate Judges by the Legislature.  Winn Winship, the first Clerk of the Court of Richland county, wrote and excellent hand, and was a quick business man.  Several of his certificates are on file in our Clerk's office, containing election returns, &c., with a hole cut through a piece of paper showing a wafer, the county having no seal.  The entire vote of Richland, Oct. 12, 1813, for Representative was: Wm. Gass, 31; Sam. Kratzer, 14.
     Mansfield was determined upon as the seat of justice of the county, Apr. 2d, 1809, by Jno. Heckewelder, John M. Connell and Moses Ross, Commissioners.  Winn Winship was the first Postmaster at the town; and among the early tavern keepers known to our citizens was Capt. Sam. Williams.  Jabez Beers was appointed lister of this county in 1812.  Until after the war of 1812, there was not much improvement in the county.  A very large proportion of the early settlers were from Knox, and throughout our history the people have been quite intimate, and lived together upon the most friendly terms.
     We have much material that we would like to present; but as the history of our sister county and its affairs do not, from the period to which we have carried this sketch, properly belong to our enterprise, we close by giving a view of the Mansfield Female Seminary, whereof Rev. C. S. Doolittle, A. M., and J. Lindly, A.M., are Principals; and inasmuch as the former is a native of Knox, and a son of one of our old teachers, it will not be thought out of place to say that here young ladies can acquire an accomplished education upon very reasonable terms.

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