Charles Rhule
Lexington. Charles Rhule, who lives west of Lexington, is among the few persons, living or dead, who were born in Richland County at a period so remote as 1814. He first saw the light in a rude cabin of the primitive type in Perry Township, Dec. 16, 1814, and but few were ever ushered into the world under less auspices circumstances. His father would have made his advent there two years sooner, but he was drafted into the army in the war of 1812. Being mustered out he began the erection of a cabin at the designated place and it had no fire-place when Mr. Rhule was born and this will illustrate the fortitude of pioneer women and the asperities incident to pioneer days. The cabin was reared in a wild weird spot and deer, wolves and bear roamed in unfettered freedom through the vast expanse of somber forest. Mr. Rhule often saw the Indians pass the cabin when en route to Mt. Vernon to trade their furs, but they had not the savage instinct of the race to reek their hands in the blood of the invaders of their realm. His father hauled grain to Mansfield and sold it to John Wiler. He often went with his father and he recollects when there were but two houses north of the City Mill. Mr. Rhule helped clear up the farm where he was born and in 1840 located at his present home. He was the fifth of a family of 17 children and it is noteworthy that his mother was born in Pennsylvania in 1781 and died in Missouri in 1881, having rounded out a century of life. Mr. Rhule has a vivid memory of pioneer life and he regrets that man's vandal hands has destroyed the beauties of nature at whose shrine he fondly worships. He is yet remarkably alert.
From Mansfield Semi-Weekly News, October 18, 1898
It is noteworthy that Charles Rhule, who lives two miles northwest of Lexington, is one of the few yet living of the brave athletic men who blazed the way through the trackless primitive wilds of Richland county and he is probably the only person living who was born in the same county at a period so remote as Dec. 14, 1814, and few were ever ushered into the world under more adverse circumstances. He first saw the light in a log cabin of the rude primitive type a few miles south of here in Perry township. The chimney was not yet built in the cabin, the family having been necessitated to move into it before it was finished and the storm fiend howled in, loud sep--chral tones as it swept through the naked branches of the huge trees that environed their lonely abode. It beat the earth in its awful fury and the cabin shook and the snow and bleak howling blasts crept through the crevices and though his birth was under such inauspicious circumstances, Mr. Rhule developed into a remarkably strong and athletic man. The smoke of no other cabin could be seen curling through the dense foliage of the vast gloomy expanse of forest in which many wild animals had their lair and contended fiercely with the lone pioneer for the sovereignty of that now beautiful region. Mr. Rhule when a small boy, often saw Indians passing enroute to Mt. Vernon to trade their furs. But these Indians had not the savage instinct of the race to reek their hands in the blood of the white invaders of their realm. He was captain of a military company nearly seventy years ago and few men of his age are so active as he. There will be no more Americas to subdue from the primitive savagery of nature and Mr. Rhule and his co-pioneers are of a type which the world will never see again. Their names and deeds should be recorded on history's pages and not be lost in fading tradition.
From Mansfield News, November 5, 1901