Jacob Newman
In our last sketch, the one on General James Hedges, we indicated that some time we might write of his associate in founding the town of Mansfield. The name he bore was Jacob Newman, of Holland ancestry, though born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, but removed to Franklin County in that commonwealth, close on the Maryland line. He was the eldest of quite a family and the leader thereof, in time chief of his clan and head man of his kindred. He was tall, straight, strong, large-chested and large limbed, a man physically of great power, yet wonderful alertness and activity, a pioneer, one who goes before, removing obstructions, preparing the way for others, a leader of men, more, a leader of leaders, confident of his superiority, calm in his strength yet quiet and unobtrusive. He had married in Pennsylvania and had been bereft of wife. All his children, save one, were left with the kindred of their mother. One son, his name-sake, Jacob, settled near their home and later on in the conflict of the ages, when the mighty contending armies, Union and Confederate in the Civil War, fought the battle of Antietam, the sound of the guns, the flash of the glittering sabers and the movements of men in battle array were plainly heard and seen at the hearth-stone and home of Jacob, the son; in fact the field of Antietam is partly on his farm. One daughter became the wife of Dr. John Free, a learned scholastic man of quiet peculiarities and devotion to books. And of her sons, two attained fair distinction in the army of the Republic as Major and Lieutenant Colonel respectively in an Union regiment. The youngest son, Henry by name, he took with him, moving first into Westmoreland County, Pa., then to Stark County, Ohio, and finally built his cabin, first cabin in the limits of old Richland, on the Rocky Fork of the Mohican near the site of Campbell's mill as now called, two miles or less from Mansfield. Jacob Newman, the pioneer, married again in Franklin County, Pa., and his second wife was the good woman whom in my childhood was loved and revered as my grand-mother. Leaving the cabin home on the Rocky Fork he joined General Hedges and became interested in the site where Mansfield is now. His first home was on the hillside south of the run which springing into existence between the hills of nature formed them to the southwestward, meanders down and through the south side of the original town plat. Afterward a new cabin home was constructed, located almost exactly where now stands the Newman block on the north side of North Park street. There in the cabin on the hillside south of the run, my grand-mother Newman, with her sons Henry, Andrew S. and Joseph were located, and left when Jacob Newman went forth to guide and direct the American soldiery forward to the northwest to meet the British foe, and their more implacable allies the red-skinned savages in the war of 1812. During the expedition Jacob Newman was prostrated with pneumonia, and returning shortly thereafter, died on June 20, 1813. Then it was that my mother, a little girl, was sent for, and she came from the old home in Pennsylvania traveling as far as Canton with a family emigrating into the Western country, and from Canton, mounted on an Indian pony and guided by a woodman, pony and woodman dispatched by her mother to bring her hither. She rode through the great stretches of timber, only a trail through the woods to Mansfield. Few were the settlers and poor, of little value their cabin homes. Great had been the dread of the foe, organized as part of the army of England's King; greater was the dread of the savages. The little band of settlers seriously grieved over their loss in the death of Jacob Newman, and that loss was intensified by the absence of James Hedges, who then was at the front with his general, Wm. Henry Harrison. The death of Jacob Newman marks the beginning of an epoch. His estate was the first administered upon, his will and the record thereof, may be found in the first of the county records touching estates in the county. His widow survived him until the year 1835. His son Henry, born in 1802, the year of Ohio's birth, remained in the old county, became a farmer, but having become quite a large land-holder in Williams County in 1849, removed thither, and there resided until his death in 1893. In the passing years frequent were the visits of Henry Newman to the old county, hardly four months going by in which he did not look in on to the old home and old friends. His memories of the early days were vivid, his conversation touching the past full of interest. Politically his fortunes were with the party of John Quincy Adams, the party of Henry Clay, the party of Harrison, Taylor and Scott. Later a Republican, the part of Lincoln and Grant. His sons, three in number, all were, at the front in the great war of the rebellion. His eldest still lives, named for his grand-father, was a captain in the 44th. Indiana, but at Shiloh was shot and reported dead, so that even his father journeyed to the field of carnage to bring the body of his boy home for burial. But, miracle of miracles, he lived, and yet lives to hail the old flag. His younger boys, Joseph and Andrew, served as lieutenant and captain in the 38th. Ohio. One died on the field of Chicamauga and the other broken down in health survived only some years after the close of the war. The blood of the pioneer coursed the veins of these grandsons. The youngest son of Jacob, the pioneer, was the General Joseph Newman, a sketch of whom we have here before published in these series. He was a brilliant man, born Sept. 25, 1812; an appearance much like his father, tall and straight. He was for two terms prosecuting attorney, a State Senator in the 44th. and 45th. General Assemblies. A Major General of the Ohio Militia. His service in the Senate was with giants, and he was well regarded by all, yet he died July 17, 1847, ere he had filled out five and thirty years of life. Had his life been prolonged, the promise of his usefulness was very great. The other son, Andrew S. Newman, will be well remembered by many of our young people now living as a man of many virtues, of strong individuality, of sterling character, of marked usefulness. His only daughter became the wife of A.C. Cummins, Esq., and his only living descendant is the daughter of Capt. Cummins. On the 3d. day of January, 1872, Andrew S. Newman passed away, and he and his daughter for years have rested, and near by them is the dust of the old pioneer whose life went out in 1813, and the ashes of the wife whose body was buried in 1835. My mother survived all save one brother, Henry, but on the 13th. day of January, 1883, to her the final summons came, and she departed in her 80th. year. My mother, as daughter, wife, mother, was one of the excellent women of the earth, intelligent, industry all through her life was manifested, kindly ways, neighborly, charitable to all, and helpful to the humblest and weakest of her sex. Quick to perceive the right, she was eager to pursue it, and every opportunity for doing substantial good in the community was improved. The sick and feeble were succored, the weak and weary strengthened, and in her the poor always had a friend. In the sketch of Jacob Newman, it seems but the discharge of a loving filial duty to write something of my honored uncles and my revered father and loving mother. The families were families of pioneers in this part of Ohio. They were devoted to their friends and they counted among their friends all those worthy ones, who in the early days, made their homes on the hill-sides and in the valleys of the Mohican. Though a mere lad, well do I recollect the visit of William Henry Harrison to Mansfield and the home of my Uncle James Hedges. The special occasion was a mass meeting of the Whigs, a speech by General Harrison and then the quiet visit over night at the farm house. I can almost now hear the clear tones of that grand old man who shortly thereafter was chosen chief magistrate of the republic. With my brothers I sat in front of my father's house, the same old brick residence which is now standing in the northeast corner fronting the park, while General Harrison spoke from a platform erected at the east end of a one-story building known as the Market House, which latter was south of a line projected east and west and would be a continuation of the south side of Park Avenue West and Park Avenue East. Will you permit me from my memory to describe the central part of Mansfield. That which is now Central Park was an open common, but nearly in the center thereof, east and west, but on the north half thereof, if divided into two equal parts, north and south, was the county court house. It was a red brick building and I think exactly square, the walls on the north and south, east and west being each the equal of the other. The roof was a hipped one on each side, and in the center and crowning it was a cupola with hood-like covering. The court room was on the first floor and the offices on the second. Fifteen years thereafter the form of the court house was all changed; the roof was demolished at each end north and south, a Grecian porch, with Grecian columns sustaining a projecting roof was constructed, thus converting the structure into a Grecian temple. The county offices were placed on the first floor and the court room on the second. A very substantial court house in the modifications was made less substantial and less beautiful. South of the court house a distance equal to the width of Park Avenue but slightly east, was the Market House, with open ends and sides and supporting columns and floor of brick, divided into stalls for the use of butchers and truckers. At the east end of the Market House a stand was erected and on the platform thereof, William Henry Harrison, addressed assembled thousands of the people of Ohio. I can with my memory's eye now see John Meredith, editor of the SHIELD AND BANNER, the predecessor and forerunner of you who are now in the management of the print shop; the same John Meredith who still survives and lives in Shelby, Ohio, perched on the roof of the Market House taking notes and interjecting questions as General Harrison proceeded with his speech. Let me tell you of the buildings of 1840 which stood on the four sides of the square. On the north was the Sturges' store, a two-story brick, and east of it a frame ware house, then east a little frame office, the law office of Jacob Parker and thereafter of C.T. and J. Sherman. Then the Newman House, brick in front and log weather boarded in the rear, and then the Smarts' or the Phoenix Hotel, a frame building of some pretension. On the south side was the North American Hotel, of brick, two stories; nest the small one story home of Deacon Maxwell, then the home, two-story frame, of Deacon Mathias Day; then the residence of John M. May, frame, for this was before the brick was erected; then a little wooden building used as a cabinet shop and occupied by Captain Joseph N. Snyder, and in the southeast angle the Presbyterian Church, a frame, the predecessor of the brick now standing with a gilded ball of copper on the steeple from which extended a lightning-rod grounded at the front of the building. On the east side of the square was the old brick residence of Ellzey Hedges, the corner room of the same used as a country store room; next south was a story and a half frame residence standing where now is the I.O.O.F. building; next a small frame office , the office of James Hedges and on the corner where now is the M.E. Church, a frame office building one story, the office of Dr. Wm. Bushnell, in the window of which was displayed not only drugs, medicines, but curious things of stone and jars containing snakes and reptiles. On south of Park Avenue was the tailor shop of David McCullough and a frame two-story building of Matthew Lind; then the office of James Stewart and the office building and residence, story and a half high, of Samuel R. Curtis, afterward a Major General of the volunteer army. On the west were frame one and two story buildings extending from Park Avenue north to the alley, used as general stores and rooms. South of Park Avenue was the Bowland homestead and store rooms, the same as now, though they have undergone many changes and repairs, and still south were one and two storied dwellings. The streets were of clay, the walks for the most part were gravel pressed down by feet of the men and women passing and repassing. On the square were stumps of the forest trees, and a few locust trees had been planted which in spring time bloomed and shed a sweet perfume. When the mass meeting was practically over General Harrison repaired to the home of James Hedges on the farm. In that plain old house were beside him, James Hedges, Henry Newman and Ellzey Hedges and the evening was employed in social converse until the wee sma' hours of the morning. Four plain men talking together of early events and scenes and successes of the then present growth and greatness of Ohio, and prospectively looking forward to its' greater glory and grandeur, when it, the land of the Buckeye, should take advanced place and position and even out-strip in the race of Commonwealths her old mother, Virginia. This sketch is growing to a prohibited length. Some time again I may write of Ellzey Hedges and Josiah Hedges. The latter lived in Mansfield until about 1820, them removed to the site and founded Tiffin.
From The Richland Shield & Banner, May 25, 1895, Vol. LXXVIII, No. 2