Area History

This familiar and loved landmark in Loudonville was built originally by grain magnate AA Taylor in 1851; though it has been known for most of its history by the name of a later owner, as the Graven House. When the remarkable home was built, it stood on 600 acres; but within a few generations it […]

One thing I have learned studying history: old men weren’t always old; and there is no saying what amazing things they witnessed or accomplished when they were young. Here is a great example. There was a table full of old men who met every year of the 1890s in February, to commemorate a day 40 […]

MANSFIELD — A little more than a year ago Dick Baker asked me to sit in on a committee seeking to organize a Richland County Hall of Fame. Baker is a U.S. Navy veteran, a Lexington resident and a historian at heart. He found about 10 like-minded people from the community to share his vision […]

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

It was a century ago when the big news broke in Mansfield: the old empty Baxter Stove plant on Fifth Street was being retooled to make electrical appliances for Westinghouse. As soon as the factory was remodeled to display the familiar W logo, people in town walked down Fifth Street to take a picture of […]

Two boys who grew up in Mansfield in different eras each developed a talent for drawing animals that make people smile; and they each took that art out into the world and touched the lives of millions of people. I’d like to prove this now because I met a young man in Mansfield who told […]

This grainy black and white image of OSR in winter tends to disguise something that might be more obvious if you could use another of your senses when experiencing the scene in this photo: the sense of smell. The Reformatory was heated with coal; the winter winds were heavy with the acrid coal scent; and […]

We have all heard stories of famous prison escapes from the Ohio State Reformatory; and the more famous they are, the more blood and bullets are spent in the narrative. Here’s the OSR prison break story you never hear about; and yet it was, at the time, one of the most famous of all. It […]