Esther Shaw
Mrs. Esther Shaw was born in Columbiana County, this state, July 20, 1807, and came to Washington Township, Richland County, in the autumn of 1814, and is, no doubt, the only person living in Richland today whose continuous residence in the county dates back prior to 1815. Mrs. Shaw is familiarly called "Aunt Hetty". She makes her home with relatives at No. 129 North Mulberry Street, Mansfield, and is in excellent health for a lady of her age and the accuracy with which she narrates incidents of the past as well as her quotations of scripture show that her mind is unimpaired. The psalmist said that "the days of our age are three score years and ten", but some are so strong that they come to four score and even more, as "Aunt Hetty" has, for she has lived more than four score years and ten, being now in her 92d. year. The historical associations of Mrs. Shaw's life, and her family lineage and connections are most remarkable. Historically, she was born when Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States, and she came to Richland County when our country was engaged in the war with Great Britain, known as the war of 1812. A few months later the treaty of peace was signed at Ghent. There were no cables and telegraph lines then to carry the news through the sea and over the land with the rapidity of the lightning's flash, as it is carried now, and by the sail and stage means of communication in those days, the news of the signing of the treaty of peace on the 24th. of December, 1814, did not reach Washington for nearly two months, and in the meantime, General Jackson won his decisive battle over the British at New Orleans, Jan. 8, 1815. Peace was not proclaimed until Feb. 18. The next morning (Sept. 20, 1814) after "Aunt Hetty" ate her first meal in Richland County, the "sleepers" of their unfinished log cabin being used as tables, Francis Scott Key gazed in the dawn's early light over the bay at Baltimore and saw that the American flag still waved over Fort McHenry, and in the inspiration of the occasion wrote that immortal ode -- the "Star Spangled Banner" -- which will ever be sung by the American people to voice the patriotic sentiments of their liberty-loving hearts. In 1814 when "Aunt Hetty" came to Richland County to make her home on a Washington Township farm, which is still in the possession of the (Pearce) family, Return Jonathan Meigs was governor of Ohio, and the total vote of the state was but 22,050, and now at the last general election (1897) it is 864,022. And Mansfield, which now boasts of a population of 20,000 people, was then a village of about 20 houses, principally log cabins. Mrs. Shaw is a daughter of Stephen and Mary (Kinney) Pearce, who came to Ohio from New Jersey, and were the parents of 10 children. Mrs. Pearce's mother's maiden name was Mary Williams, who was a lineal descendant, through the Webber family, of William, Prince of Orange, who when he saw his country assailed by enemies from without, and torn by internal dissensions, in high and inspiring language suggested a scheme, which, if accomplished, would have been the noblest subject for epic song to be found in the whole compass of the world's history. The Philippine Islands questions brings his words again to the mind, for, although under different circumstances and purposes, in the "fair isles of Asia" under the Southern Cross, there may spring up a new Columbia and the "schools of a more learned Leyden". Louis Kinney, Mrs. Shaw's grandfather, was the grandson of Louis the XIV, of France, who promoted the industries of his country, but whose desire for conquest and dreams of a French universal monarchy embroiled him in numerous wars; who annexed Alsace and Strausburg to France, won victories in wars with Spain and finally placed his grandson upon the Spanish throne. The Kinneys were prominent in the pioneer times of Richland County. Peter Kinney -- "Aunt Hetty's" uncle -- was the first judge of the common pleas court of the county. Another uncle -- John Kinney -- was a great trader among the Indians. Esther (Irvin) Ernsberger, a granddaughter of Judge Kinney -- owns the old family homestead, near Greentown. "Aunt Hetty" was married to Stephen Shaw, Aug. 23, 1847. Shaw was also a pioneer. He came to Richland County with Gen. Robert Crook's army in Oct., 1812, being then 19 years old. He was a nephew of Michael Beam, for whom Beam's block-house was named. Crook's army remained six weeks in Mansfield, encamped "on the east side of the public square in the woods". While piloting this army to Upper Sandusky, Jacob Newman, one of the founders of Mansfield, contracted a cold, resulting in his death the June following. Stephen Shaw died Feb. 12, 1883. Among the descendants and relatives of the Kinneys in the Black Fork valley, the names of Guthrie, Vanscoyac, Oliver, Tannehill, Davis, Oswalt, Miller, Jones, Irvin, Ernsberger and Glasco families are given, and among the old neighbors of the Pearce families in Washington Township were John Ford, David Stewart, Samuel Douglass, Thomas Pollock, Peter Altgeld, John Charles, Andy Hunter, Solomon Shoup, John M. Swigart, Peter Maglott, Simon Armstrong and Benjamin Dean. Among other noted products and importations, Richland County once had a modern Sampson, Christopher Burns by name, and he married a Miss Sarah Pearce, a cousin of "Aunt Hetty". Burns was over six feet in height and about 225 pounds in weight. While attending the brick-masons in building the Wiler House in 1828, Burns, it is said, performed extraordinary feats of agility and strength. According to a statement made by Judge Coffinberry and corroborated by the late Robert Cairns, Burns, after winning a foot-race, jumped over an iron rod, laid upon the heads of two men. Again, a number of strong men were testing their strength lifting at a wheel of a heavily-loaded six-horse wagon. Burns requested three men to stand on the hub and felloes of one of the hind wheels, which he easily lifted with their added weight. Upon another occasion he leaped over the top of a Pennsylvania covered wagon of the style used from hauling freight in those days. Aaron Kinney, deceased late of Seattle, Wash., was a son of John Kinney, the Indian trader. In his last visit to Ohio, in 1873, Aaron Kinney walked from Newville on the Mohawk Hill, hoping to find the cave containing the reputed treasures of the Mohawks, so frequently spoken of by his father. There is an Indian tradition of silver and lead-mines and salt springs along the forks of the Mohican. One of these salt springs, as stated by Kinney, flowed from under the Mohawk Hill, in Monroe Township, near the farm of the Rev. Grau, the financial agent of Wittenberg College. It is further stated that the Indians, ere they left Greentown, caused this spring to "sink", by the use of quick-silver, or some other means, and that all traces of it have ever since been lost. It is also stated that when the Indians were encamped on what is now the Cline farm, south of Shenandoah, they became short of lead, and that two of their number mounted their ponies and road up the Black fork and that they returned the same day with a quantity of lead in a crude state, but whether it had been stored away up by Ganges, or had been mined in that locality, was matter of conjecture among the white settlers. The Pearce settlement was known in the olden time as "The Beech", on account of the abundance of beech trees in that locality. The Pearce's were strong athletic men in their day, and at musters and other gatherings engaged freely in the sports of the occasions, which sometimes wound up in a rough manner, but the Pearce's did not object to that, for they generally held their own with the best of the crowd. Mrs. Shaw is a member of the Christian church and has the affectionate regards of a large circle of friends. -- A.J. Baughman.
From The Mansfield Semi-Weekly News, August 23, 1898
