Johnny Appleseed; 4th in series

OHIO'S HISTORICAL MARKERS
Richland County

The third marker on Mansfield's square commemorates Johnny Appleseed and a run he is thought to have made in 1813 from Mansfield to Mt. Vernon for reinforcements when an Indian attack was believed to be imminent.

While Appleseed is often thought of as a fictional character, he was very much a real person; born in Massachusetts in 1774 as John Chapman.  He was a skilled nurseryman who loved apple trees and supplied seeds and tree saplings to pioneers as population growth spread through what is now OH, then known as the eastern edge of the Northwest Territories.

A young Admiral Perry had just defeated the British in the Battle of Lake Erie then and news from explorers like Lewis and Clark was just becoming known when Appleseed ran through the forest for help. 

Appleseed was a vegetarian and wore raggedy clothes.  Some claim he wore a tin hat when he traveled and once escaped horrible weather by sleeping in a hollow tree--with a mother bear.  Sometimes the line between truth and fiction becomes blurry.

Problems between the pioneers and the Indians were quite real then, however.  The infamous Copus massacre had just happened the previous September.

At the time of Appleseed's run there were two blockhouses on the Mansfield square, refuges for local settlers from the violence of the War of 1812 and from Indian attack.  Ohio had become a state just 10 years earlier and 90 per cent of Ohio's area remained heavily forested.

Parts of one of those blockhouses were used in the recent reconstruction of the blockhouse in South Park and Johnny's name is firmly etched in my memory banks as the Johnny Appleseed Squares, the name honored by my square dancing group.

He died in 1845 and is buried in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Somewhere.  There even is some dispute about the year of his death.

But there is no dispute about his devout lifestyle and accomplishments.

THE AGONY OF VICTORY--

Adopted grand daughter Mackenna Curtis-Collins, 12, shorter person, center of the top photo and at right competed in the second cross country race of her career Saturday against teams from Wooster, Galion, and Westerville.

She is gasping her way as she approaches (above) and crosses the finish line (below) for a second place finish in the field of nearly 100 competitors.  That's her coach in the left background witnessing and recording her amazing performance.

In her first race--ever--last week at a Madison invitational, she placed first in her age group.

< Smile >

BUY AMERICAN?  HA!

The sales lady at Macy's summed it up best when she told me, "If everything made outside the United States was removed from this store, it would be virtually empty."

This story began when I was meandering around Cato Fashions in a small, Ontario strip mall with my lady Sue recently.   To amuse myself I began to read the garment tags that confessed their origin:  Bangladesh, Thailand, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Viet Nam, Phillipines....

Finally, I actually stumbled on one blouse that was made in the US of A.

Much to my amazement it was priced smack in the middle of the range of all the rest of the garments--in the low $20s.

Which gave rise to an obvious question:  If whoever manufactured and sold this product can do so competitively, why isn't everything in this store made in the US of A?

I got a blank stare when I posed that question to the young sales lady there.

In the JC Penny store I was looking at lady's jeans.  They were sewn in China--and, finished in Mexico.  A double whammy! 

While we were in Macy's Sue pointed out their up-scale line of womens apparel where I did find a few items made in the US--"from imported fabric".

In Sear's I found an entire line of lady's garments made in the US.  I began to feel a tinge of encouragement.

Then I noticed that same line of clothes on the next rack came from Indonesia.  Again, they all had the same price.

So, what gives? 

I was chagrined when it dawned on me; the stuff made in the US probably was done with illegally, imported labor.

John Sherman; 3rd in series

OHIO'S HISTORICAL MARKERS
in Richland County

Another marker on Mansfield's square stands on the west lawn of the county administration building.  It honors John Sherman, (1823 - 1900), who served as a US Senator, Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State, the last under President William McKinley in 1897.

Sherman is best known as the author of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. 

This law basically encouraged business competition by controlling monopolies.  That law today still forms forms the basis for most antitrust litigation by the US.

One of his older brothers was General William Tecumseh Sherman of Civil War fame.

John Sherman was born in Lancaster, OH and early in life worked as an engineer on canal projects.  Later, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1844.  He moved to Mansfield that year and began practicing law with another older brother, Charles.

In his political career he was a delegate to the 1848 and 1852 Whig National Conventions and served as a US congressman beginning in 1854.  In 1877 president Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Sherman Secretary of the Treasury.

By 1878 Sherman succeeded in reducing the amount of currency in circulation to the exact amount of gold in the US Treasury. 

Imagine that kind of fiscal policy today.

Sherman ran unsuccessfully for US President in 1880 but lost to his campaign manager, James A. Garfield.  He ran twice more in 1884 and 1888, losing both those efforts too.

He served briefly in the office of US Secretary of State and was replaced in that office by President McKinley in 1898 after his disagreements with McKinley over the Spanish-American War.

Sherman died in Washington DC and is buried in the Mansfield cemetery.

MACKENNA CURTIS-COLLINS, 12

Allow me to introduce my adopted grand daughter, and the young lady who recently saved my blog story of the two fellows standing on the fence posts with her nifty photography--when my picture failed.

This photo was done just prior to her first-ever excursion into pageants--at the Blueberry Festival in Lexington recently where she was first runner-up in her age group.

It's hard for me to imagine the winner.

Mackenna is my lady Sue Brooks' grand daughter and is the daughter of Traci Curtis of Lexington.

The First Methodist Church; 2nd in series

OHIO'S HISTORICAL MARKERS
in Richland County

One of the three markers on Mansfield's square celebrates the first religious service in Mansfield.  It is located directly in front of the First United Methodist Church on the northeast corner of Park Ave. East and N. Diamond St.  It also was the first historical marker established in Richland County in 1978.

That church is regarded as the oldest religious congregation in north-central Ohio because the Reverend James Copus preached the first sermon at the "spring" there in 1809--just six years after Ohio became a state.

Services were then moved to the blockhouse on the square in 1811and into an early courthouse also on the square in 1813. The first church building was built in 1820 at the corner of Park Ave East and Adams St and another at the present site in 1870.

Local history enthusiasts will correctly associate Rev. Copus' name with the Copus Massacre where the reverend, several neighbors and three soldiers were killed in Mifflin Township of Ashland County in September 1812.

BUCYRUS BRATWURST FESTIVAL

Above is a very-crowded Friday evening at the festival.  Hard to imagine what Saturday night must look like.

Friends Mark Meinzer and Don Karger (right) enjoy one of a couple of terrific murals painted on downtown buildings--this one on State Route 4 just north of the square on the west side of the street.

The murals themselves are worth a trip to Bucyrus.

A four-piece "jug" band from Cleveland was a hit with the crowd Friday evening.  Of course, some of the folks who enjoy this type of music were themselves a hit with the crowd with their impromptu antics.

The midway had a food vendor featuring Bourbon Chicken sandwiches.  The view below is what it looks like when you consume a couple of those things after telling the cook to "...hold the chicken."

 
Can you tell we had a delightful time?