Frederick Hable
Last week I said I would tell you the story of this son of the Fatherland who became an early settler in Mansfield and who was kind to John Jacob Foos. He was the owner of the middle lot in the block of lots fronting on Main Street and lying between the Vonhof alley and Fourth Street, a lot sixty feet in front of Main Street and one hundred and eighty feet deep. It was on this lot he had his little bake and brew shop. He was unmarried and so far as is known had no relative by blood anywhere. He was a kind, considerate man, and John Jacob Foos long lived with him. He was the owner of other valuable property. One day -- for several days Frederick Hable did not make his appearance and, when Foos came on to the street, in his German tongue he called out that Fred would not eat. -- Fred was cold -- come and see Fred. And some who understood the meaning of the crazed old man Foos went and looked, and true it was that Frederick Hable had passed away. Foos had made every effort to keep him warm and to have him partake of food, but the spirit of Fred Hable had taken its flight and only the poor body of clay remained. Hable was buried and it is a shame and a mistake that no tomb-stone marks his grave. As I before said, no kith or kin were found and his estate escheated to the state of Ohio. Some legislation was had by which the state of Ohio, common foster mother of us, gave to Mansfield his estate and it was sold and the proceeds were covered into the school funds of Mansfield, and so the first contribution aside from the first school squares donated by the founder of Mansfield for school houses, to the school fund, came from the estate of Frederick Hable. There have been some other donations since, but this of the Hable estate was substantial and of value. I have some years ago suggested that something should be done to note the fact, in our history, and perpetuate the name. There may be a Hable School house of Hable fund set apart, but may I ask the boys and girls of Mansfield to do something in honor of this old man of the olden days? Twould be well, if nothing more, if the board of education would set apart some day in the coming autumn and declare it a holiday for school children, and see Mrs. J.H. cook, now well advanced in years, and have her tell the story, for from a woman's lips, a woman who well knew Frederick Hable in the heyday of her youth they would learn it all. And out of the movement might come a suitable stone to mark his grave and so perpetuate the name of the man whose savings first were applied to the building of our schools.
From The Richland Shield & Banner, July 6, 1895, Vol. LXXVII, No. 8