By 1812Blockhouse
William Henry Harrison is perhaps best known as an answer to a trivia question as to which President of the United States has had the shortest term. This is unfortunate, as Harrison had a busy and successful career in military service long before his short tenure in office.
It is also the answer to the question “Which US President first visited Mansfield at some point in his life? On at least two instances, he made a visit here — the second about 28 years after the first.
Born in Virginia, Harrison is often claimed by Ohio to reinforce its “Mother of Presidents” claim. He did settle in Ohio and was elected from here. More…
By 1812Blockhouse
This past Sunday, Mansfield’s remarkable gem, Oak Hill Cottage, opened to visitors for the first time in the 2021 tour season.
Like historic house museums across the United States, 2020 was a year of unknowns and the need to severely limit the number of visitors or close their doors entirely. Across north central Ohio, these opportunities to revisit history are opening again on a limited basis. In Galion, for instance, the landmark Gill House will be welcoming guests again starting in May.
Oak Hill Cottage chose April 11 as their opening date, and the museum will be open from 2 PM to 5 PM on Sunday afternoons. Tours now require appointments and tours are limited to six people. More…
By 1812Blockhouse
It is said that the winter of 1867-1868 was a uniformly cold one, though a late season snowstorm wreaked havoc on the eastern part of the country.
It was during that winter that a man arrived in Mansfield and checked in at the Wiler House hotel. The establishment was frequented by travelers arriving via coach in the city. It had been established about 1820 at the corner of North Main Street and Dickson Avenue, not far from the current Richland Carrousel Park.
When registering, the man put down the name “Ralph Waldo Emerson” in the guest registry. More…
By 1812Blockhouse
As we promised this past weekend in our post featuring Mansfielder Harold Arlin, Play Ball! Mansfield’s Baseball Broadcasting Pioneer, we are celebrating the start of baseball season this week with three stories from our files involving the game. Here is the third of those posts.
This story is a favorite of ours, and one which have published twice on the Fourth of July.
A century and a half ago, local media writers were bemoaning the lack of activities scheduled in Mansfield to celebrate Independence Day, with one exception: a “Base Ball” game between the “fats” and the “lanks.” More…
By 1812Blockhouse
Here’s a trivia question for you – when was the last time that the Ohio State Fair was held outside of Columbus, and where was it held?
You might be able to guess the answer to that question from the title of this post.
Mansfield was home to the Ohio State Fair in 1872 and 1873, one of only 10 cities statewide to ever hold that honor. More…
By: 1812Blockhouse
It’s the latest in our “Everything You Always Wanted To Know About” series — today we look at Mansfield Cemetery, which sits in the city of Mansfield a bit south and east of downtown.
For other entries in this series, click here. More…
Everything You Always Wanted To Know About, Mansfield History
By 1812Blockhouse
Over the last four years, 1812Blockhouse shared over 50 posts in our Landmarks of Mansfield and Landmarks of Richland County series. We have enjoyed focusing on pieces of local history which continue to provide context, a sense of place, and useful space in the early 21st century.
Of course, many pieces of history which could have been preserved have been lost.
One true survivor is a former residence which represents one of the oldest buildings in downtown Mansfield. It sits proudly but somewhat forlornly on the south side of West Fourth Street west of Mulberry Street. When it was built, it would have been one of the largest buildings in town. Today, it presents a remarkable opportunity to preserve a bit of pre-Civil War Mansfield.
We are continuing to doresearch so that we can present a more thorough Landmark of Mansfield post in the future about the house at 103 West Fourth Street. More…
By 1812Blockhouse
Last September, we stopped by North Lake Park in Mansfield to catch a glimpse of work underway on replacement of the historic stone bridge there.
As we shared then, Mansfield City Council approved the replacement in February, which is using a $500,000 OPWC grant to fund a sizable portion of the $707,000 cost.
Built in 1898 and having survived two world wars and service to generations of Mansfielders, the original double arched deck bridge was 44 feet long and 19 feet in width. The arches have been failing in recent years, and the span has been rated as deficient by state officials. It is estimated that 300 cars on average cross the bridge each day. More…
By 1812Blockhouse
Over the last two centuries, Richland County has produced a remarkable set of individuals who have led lives of discovery. In the nineteenth century, that included men and women who traveled west where they were engaged in the exploration of areas of the country that were not then well known to Americans.
Once such individual was Olin Dunbar Wheeler.
Wheeler was born on May 1, 1852 in Mansfield to a Methodist minister and his wife; he had a twin sister, Ellen, who died when she was six weeks old. Orin excelled in schooling, and in 1874 graduated with a degree in civil engineering from Cornell University. More…
By: 1812Blockhouse
The competition was fierce early last century as Columbus, Alliance, Marietta, Toledo, Fostoria, Marion, and Mansfield vied for the prize – host city for the 1914 Ohio State Corn Show. At the 1913 show in Lima, the winner was announced, and Mansfield was chosen.
Amazingly, both the 1913 and 1914 Corn Shows took place in the dead of winter – mid to late January. Still, thousands attended such events. More…
By 1812Blockhouse
This post first ran in March, 2020. We’re still looking for details!
Timing sometimes comes into play here at 1812Blockhouse. This weekend, the serendipity was startling and a wee bit mysterious.
On Sunday, we ran our latest post in the Landmarks of Mansfield series, this one focusing on the beautiful Mansfield Savings Bank Building at the corner of Fourth and Main. That same afternoon, an 1812 reader — in fact, the sister of the Publisher of 1812Blockhouse — happened to be looking through a box of family photographs which were interspersed with paper “ephemera,” that is, announcements and news clippings and, as it turns out, postcards. More…
Special to 1812Blockhouse
A Mansfield-born brand is taking a bold step into a new beverage category.
Stewart’s Spiked Seltzer, a line of low-calorie hard seltzers developed and distributed by Stewarts Enterprises Inc (SEI), launched in February in the Northeast, followed by a national rollout. The sugar malt brew-based seltzer offering will include 3 traditional flavor profiles: Root Beer, Orange Cream, and Black Cherry, plus the new Raspberry Lime, with view to expand later in the year.
With hard seltzer enjoying a cultural moment as well as being one of the fastest growing beverage segments in the US, Stewart’s Spiked pays homage to classic Americana by bringing nostalgia to a modern market. It is the all new American hard seltzer, rooted in good times and inspired by the iconic flavors that were first crafted almost a century ago. More…
By 1812Blockhouse
On February 21, 1940, 80 years ago today, the Federal Communications Commission authorized radio station WMAN to expand its broadcasting from daylight hours to a 6 AM to Midnight schedule.
Eight decades later, the station is still going strong.
Today, we share “Everything You Always Wanted To Know” about Mansfield’s long-time news and sports source at 1400 AM: More…
Everything You Always Wanted To Know About, Featured, Local Media, Mansfield History
By 1812Blockhouse
The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Building, Park Avenue West’s Grand Old Lady, is both a local and statewide survivor. Since it opened in 1889, it has served veterans and the community well. Today it houses an extraordinary museum , provides character and dignity to Mansfield’s principal thoroughfare, and is a remarkable connection to what is arguably the most important conflict in American history.
In the years following the Civil War, the Ohio General Assembly passed laws which facilitated the financing and construction of buildings and monuments to serve and commemorate veterans of that conflict and earlier wars. Some cities, such as Sidney and Toledo, began local efforts even earlier. In total, 14 such structures were erected across the state. More…
Downtown, Landmarks, Landmarks of Mansfield, Mansfield History
By 1812Blockhouse.
One hundred years ago this past November, women voted in a US Presidential election for the first time.
The road to the point was a long and difficult one. Some of the leading proponents of women’s suffrage are now well-known names from history — Susan B. Anthony in the United States, Emmeline Pankrust in England, and others.
One activist for women’s suffrage was certainly just as vocal and, at an important point in her crusade, was a visitor to Mansfield.
It was in July, 1912 when Rosalie Gardner Jones and her friend, Mrs. Elizabeth Freeman, made it to Richland County. More…
