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A century ago Fleming Falls was a major tourist attraction of Richland County. Located off Fleming Falls Road, not far from Route 42, the resort area attracted so many visitors in 1913 that there was an Interurban streetcar stop designated nearby just to accommodate tourists. Today the falls and the old original resort lodge are […]

Mansfield made its first major step into the Industrial Age when the Aultman Taylor Company located on North Main Street in 1867 to manufacture farm machinery. During the 20th century most of the A&T complex was appropriated by the Ohio Brass Company. In the 21st century there is very little left on North Main to […]

Never doubt that the seeds you plant today could dramatically impact the world of tomorrow. In this case it was not seeds that were sewn exactly, but seedlings. In April 1954 there were 6,000 pine tree seedlings planted in the fields of Oreweiler Road through the labors of 136 Boy Scouts. The land had been […]

MANSFIELD — City Mills, at the corner of Fifth and Main Streets, sat gray and weathering for a number of years, and slowly the old tobacco advertisement on the south side faded away. It used to say CHEW HONEST SCRAP when the paint was fresh, but at the end of its gray existence — before […]

The Clear Fork River brought the village of Newville to life, and it was also the cause of its end. A close look at the left side of this 1913 photograph shows a covered bridge that crossed the river, depicting how close to Main Street the waters flowed. Every spring the town was in peril, […]

Every four years when the U.S. Presidential election heats up, all that political energy awakens old memories of elections past in Richland County. There was a time when wildly enthusiastic partisans here used to demonstrate the passion they felt for their candidates by engaging in a very old American patriotic tradition: raising a Liberty Pole. […]

MANSFIELD — There were always saloons at the corner of Fifth & Main — until there weren’t. Today it is an urban green space reclaimed from beer taps and shot glasses. When the famous saloon-smashing activist Carry Nation stormed up North Main Street in 1902, she saw this corner as a nothing but a toll […]

There are more and more sightings of bears in Richland County all the time, which is just about right really, because this place was theirs long before we ever showed up. If footprints could mark the land in such a way as to transcend time it would be easy to see that there were bears […]

MANSFIELD — As the north side of Richland Mall is morphing into Avita Health System’s new hospital complex, it is a good time to take a look at how the building appeared more than 40 years ago through the lens of a noted American photographer. Not too different, really. When Avita took over the former […]

MANSFIELD — The Bissman Building was built in 1886. It was located near the railroad tracks because they were in the business of receiving, warehousing, and distributing groceries. So unquestionably their loading dock was a very busy place. This rare image from the 1890s shows how much times have changed since that horse-drawn era, and […]