Area History

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2013. MANSFIELD — In 1934, the United States was hopelessly bound up in the depressing problems of the immediate moment, so the Westinghouse Company came up with a way to get people looking ahead to brighter times by dreaming up the Home of Tomorrow. […]

LOUDONVILLE — By now many in the area are familiar with the story of Charles Follis, and north central Ohio’s role in it. Follis was a Wooster man who became the first black professional football player by signing a contract with the Shelby Blues on Sept. 15, 1904. What you may not know is Follis […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2013. From the documentation of the early 1800s in Richland County, everything seems to be in place for the Legend of Horse Thief Jack to be true.  So was there a Jack? The principal Driskill affiliates were named John, John, Stephen, William and Hugh. Those […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2013. (WARNING: This chapter seeks to take our local legend from off of the Horror/Adventure shelf and move it to History/Non-Fiction by attempting to place Horse Thief Jack into an actual time and location in Richland County. If you have an affectionate place in […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published at Richland Source in 2013. Down by Split Rock and above the cave there is a rocky path that winds straight up the side of the cliff. A few trees hang on there and, with those roots for handholds and a complete absence of sense, a person can […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published in Richland Source in 2013. MANSFIELD — Nothing much ever happened in Shady Grove before Jack came to town. Nothing ever prepared the quiet farming folk to face the jaws of death as they did.  I’m sure that before then, no one ever locked their barn against anything […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was previously published in 2013. The expression they used back then was ‘hot under the collar,’ and it meant somebody was really angry. But it was also 90 degrees in the shade at the end of the summer of 1900, when the mild-mannered folks of Mansfield rose up in a series […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece was previously published at Richland Source in 2013. MANSFIELD — Mansfield, Ohio is just a small city on the edge of the Midwest. In many ways it’s just like any number of places on the map, but it has long been one of the unique crossroads of the U.S., and has a […]

ASHLAND — By the 1960’s, Ashland, Ohio had become known as the “Balloon Capital of the World.” This was thanks to the workers in local companies such as Eagle Rubber Co. (now Hedstrom), General Latex, Mohican Rubber Co., and Ashland Rubber who were producing an average of 8 million balloons per day. All of the […]