Area History

Editor’s Note Richland Source has a collaborative content agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share stories across our sites. This story was originally published on April 9, 2022. KELLEYS ISLAND — Summer is just around the corner, and what better way to beat the heat than a trip to Kelleys Island? A short ferry […]

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2015. It’s easy to guess that in 1896, when the Intermediate Penitentiary opened in Mansfield, people around here had never seen anything like it … or people in Ohio and the entire Midwest for that matter. For the next 30 years the place became something […]

Editor’s Note This story was originally published on March 21, 2022 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.   Although the two men had remarkably different life experiences, Ulysses S. Grant and John Brown share a deep connection with Ohio. […]

MOUNT VERNON — Delaware County Sheriff T. B. Williams crept through the woods in the falling light, his deputies moving near him quietly in a line. Following the reports of local residents, the lawmen were gathered in Scioto Township, just past the transfer station that powered the interurban train line. They moved slowly through the […]

FREDERICKTOWN — My recent columns about the Fredericktown train derailment in 1912 prompted long time reader Aaron James to delve into his collection of local images, where he turned up some interesting shots of the area in question. Two shots are postcards from around the same period as the real photo postcard of the trainwreck, […]

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on Richland Source on 2015. LUCAS — If you had arrived at Malabar Farm in the 1950s and pulled up in front of the Big House, the first thing you would have noticed — after the frantic greeting committee of ecstatic dogs — was a statue next to the […]

CENTERBURG — A book, a movie, and some of Hollywood’s biggest stars have all combined to help tell the tragic story of Bat 21, what some have called the largest rescue operation of the Vietnam War. This year marks the 50th anniversary of that event, which touched a worldwide audience. The story revolves around Lt. Col. […]

Editor’s Note This story was originally published on Jan. 18, 2022 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.   Many interesting natural objects can be found while out hiking, walking along a streambed, or digging on your property. Fossils, animal bones […]

Editor’s Note: This story originally published on Richland Source in 2015. BELLVILLE — The Jefferson Grange 251 of the Patrons of Husbandry built this hall on Church Street for their meetings in 1907. But they had organized as far back as 1874 in order to promote the economic and political well being of the community and […]

FREDERICKTOWN — There’s a time and place for everything: College! It was a frosty winter night around 1990. I was walking along the railroad tracks in Fredericktown to get some fresh air after an interesting evening of experiencing … um … let’s just say a certain illicit substance that made Howard Stern’s face on TV […]