Area History

There were three boys in Shelby, Ohio who influenced an entire generation of American kids — and a President of the United States — simply by playing hard in the summertime and doing what 14-year old boys do best: making and dodging trouble. They started out as a little club of boys seen on the […]

Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series which runs each Thursday morning titled the Richland Chronicles Volume 2, by author Paul Lintern. It is set in the summer of 1831 and tells the story of Richland County through the eyes of young people. This is the second in a three-book trilogy. Volume 1 was Amelia Changes […]

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 […]

This article explores the pages of an improvised scrapbook of baseball memorabilia assembled in 1914 by a schoolboy named Leroy K. In order to fully appreciate the magnitude of this spectacular historic artifact it is helpful to have an understanding of two things: First) How much baseball meant to America in 1914; and Second) How […]

Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series which runs each Thursday morning titled the Richland Chronicles Volume 2, by author Paul Lintern. It is set in the summer of 1831 and tells the story of Richland County through the eyes of young people. This is the second in a three-book trilogy. Volume 1 was Amelia Changes […]

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 — The maps of Richland County from 100 years ago showed a little town about halfway between Lexington and Mansfield, but if you followed the map out there to find the town it could have been puzzling. Because it wasn’t really a town. It was simply a designation established on the map by the […]

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 […]

MANSFIELD — Seven-year-old Anna McBride adores history, so much so that one of her favorite outfits to wear is a Caroline Abbott dress. Caroline Abbott is a historical character of the American Girls, representing the War of 1812. “She fell in love with that time period, so she wanted to dress like Caroline and act […]