Area History

MANSFIELD — It was a hot summer for news in Mansfield in 1990. A passerby was shot and killed downtown when he tried to intervene during the armed robbery of two armored vehicle guards outside a bank. There was a violent strike that ended with a riot outside a local factory. There were raids on […]

BUTLER — Joan Walsh, of Butler, has dozens of memories from her childhood at Malabar Farm. The 74-year-old woman remembers spending hours at the Lucas-based farm and even traveled to Texas as a young girl when the farm’s owner, Louie Bromfield attempted a version of Malabar Farm in Wichita County, Texas. The project was short-lived, […]

The Square in Mansfield is a pretty tame place today: manicured, mowed, planted and watered, carefully honed to public park perfection. It has taken 200 years for the place to reach this state of polish. It started out as an anonymous five-acre plot in the vast reaches of an endless wilderness; the square shape of […]

Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series which runs each Thursday morning titled the Richland Chronicles, by author Paul Lintern. It is set in the 1860s and tells the story of Richland County through the eyes of young people. The books are available from Lintern for $25 a set, tax and shipping included. Each book is about […]

One of Mansfield’s most lovely parks is the one reserved for quiet times and delicate feelings, as is most appropriate. The ornate gates to the Mansfield Cemetery were built in 1897 when horse-drawn vehicles easily passed through the graceful arches. Within about 20 years, however, the traffic going through this entrance had changed to motor […]

One of the most vital functions of the historian is to provide us opportunity to see how far we have come from the troubling past.  Historians can offer proof that humans and communities and societies actually do evolve.  Historians supply evidence for optimism. If the world seems hopelessly petty and brutal in the headlines of […]

The autumn of 1994 was a significant season for Malabar Farm State Park.  That was the time when thousands of people came to watch hard working timber framers put up the beams of the big iconic barn at Malabar.  That was also the year a sign was erected in the field west of the State […]

The hills of Richland County may seem an unlikely place to encounter a Hindu deity from India, yet if it were not for the farmers of India—who awakened a love lying dormant in the heart of a Richland County native—it’s not likely that we would be enjoying Malabar Farm State Park today.  When young Louis […]

Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series which runs each Thursday morning titled the Richland Chronicles, by author Paul Lintern. It is set in the 1860s and tells the story of Richland County through the eyes of young people. The books are available from Lintern for $25 a set, tax and shipping included. Each book is about […]