Fleming's Falls
 

Richland Co., Ohio

 
 

Historical Information

 
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Fleming's Falls

Mansfield Semi-Weekly News:  20 December 1898, Vol. 14, No. 104

 
 
 

Submitted by Amy

 

Fleming's Falls, situate a mile south of Windsor, was for many years a favorite resort for picnics, but since the opening of the Sherman-Heineman park at Mansfield, and the Holtz grove at Ganges, the falls has gone into dis- ... as a place for social gatherings.

Fleming's equals Hemlock Falls in grotesque and rugged beauty, and the volume of water is larger, the falls being at the junction of the Woodhouse run, coming in from the west, and the Vantilburgh run, coming down from the southwest, tributaries of the Blackfork, with which they confluence a mile and a half northeast of the falls.

The farm upon which the falls is situate is now owned by W.C. Haverfield, who married a Miss Fleming.

The first grist-mill in Mifflin Township was built at the falls by John Fleming and was operated by him for a number of years, a gudgeon holes can still be seen in the rocks where the water wheel was placed.  But the floods came and although the mill was built on rocks, the superstructure was washed away.

A grist-mill was built about a half-mile below the falls by a Mr. Kohler, and was known as Kohler mills.  The building is still standing, but it is buhrless and hopperless now.

John Woodhouse utilized the water-power of the north branch of the Fleming run to operate an oil-mill where flax-seed was ground into meal, the oil and meal-cake.  In the winter the mill-dam was used as an ice-pond from which a supply of ice would be taken, stored away and the next summer it would be hauled to Mansfield and sold, Mr. Woodhouse thus becoming the pioneer ice dealer in these parts.

William Fleming, John's brother, was a blacksmith, and had a smithy between the falls and the Mansfield road, and operated a trip-hammer and ran a grind-stone by water power.  He was a genius in his line, as well as a skilled workman, and among his output was tuning-forks for "singing masters".

To reach Fleming's Falls from this city, leave the Mansfield-Windsor road at the Bostdock Cemetery, go east a mile and you can see the woods to the right where the falls is hidden.  There is a better approach, however, from the south, but the distance is farther from a main road.

Fleming's Falls and Spruce Falls are interchangeable terms, meaning the same place, the latter name being often applied to the falls on account of the spruce trees that abound there.  Mrs. Hiram R. Smith has a spruce tree on their lawn, on Park Avenue, which she transplanted from the falls, that locality being within two miles of her childhood home.

Among the old-time settlers and present residents of that locality appear the names of John Fleming, John Woodhouse, William Fleming, Daniel Kohler, John Vantilburgh, Samuel Landis, David Boals, Daniel Hoover, Daniel Mathews, Henry Sites, Joseph Hout, Christian Sunkel, John Hale, et al, some of whom have gone to a better land, but whose children and children's children live at the old places where the days of their childhood were passed.

While the southern part of Mifflin Township cannot claim a natural wonder and attraction like the north does in Fleming's Falls, it has historic interest, for Col. Crawford marched his army (1782) through its confines, 30 years before there was a settlement of white men in that township.

Between Fleming's Falls and Mifflin there is a pre-historic mound composed of drift-rounded boulders, gravel and loam, and northwest of Mifflin is a burying ground of a former age and race.  By exhumation it was learned that the bottom of the graves were laid with stones, the sides walled and the tops covered with large flat stones, somewhat like the vault graves of today.

The village of Windsor, a mile north of the falls, was named after Windsor County, Vermont, from which place Joseph Henry and A.T. Page, the founders of the village, came.

John Hilton owned a good farm west of Windsor, upon which he lived many years.  He was a fiddler and played for dances, near and far.  The Hiltons were highly respectable, and as there were several daughters in the family, their home was a favorite place to gather for terpsichorean amusement.

How families got related by marriage in that neighborhood!  Francis and Raitt, Condon and Hilton, Haverfield and Fleming, Holmes and Hale, Woodhouse and Ray, Vantilburgh and Boals, Hoover and Hursh, Hoover and Sheller, Hout and Eby, Sattler and Sunkel, Kohler and Hersh, Landis and Oberhaltzer, Kohler and Brubaker, Boals and McElroy, Ward and Condon, Palmer and Ward.  In fact, you must be careful to whom and of whom you speak when visiting the falls, for everyone you meet has plenty of uncles and aunts and cousins in that neighborhood.  But as but few other sections can boast of as many respectable, well-to-do people to the same number of inhabitants, there is no occasion to speak in any but terms of praise of the people of Mifflin Township.

There was a "deer-lick" about two miles northwest of Fleming's Falls, where pioneer hunters went to shoot deer.  The land was owned by Jacob Gardiner, son of Archibald Gardiner, a first settler.  Gardiner was one of the best riflemen in the country and killing deer was one of his favorite amusements.

Among the other game that abounded in that region, foxes were quite numerous, and days were set apart for fox-hunts, when the settlers would gather at a given place, choose a captain, encircle a certain territory, close in and capture what foxes they had scarred from their lairs.  This was exciting and enjoyable sport for hunters.

In the Bostdock Cemetery, a mile west of Fleming's Falls, N.O. Smith, the first soldier killed in the war of the rebellion from Richland County, is buried.  Smith was killed in a skirmish in West Virginia, June 29, 1861, and his body was brought home for burial, and his comrades-in-arms contributed to a common fund for a monument, which now marks his grave.

The theme and locality suggests another name -- Col. George Weaver -- who had the contract for building the first county infirmary building and who served his country gallantly and bravely in two wars.  Col. Weaver was sheriff of Richland County from 1859 to 1861.  He was a man of affairs, during the interval between the Mexican and the Civil War, operated the Zerby grist-mills below Lucas.

Col. Ingersoll gave this sentiment at the Indianapolis encampment:  "Cheers for the soldiers living, tears for the soldiers dead."  To this should be supplemented "grave-stone".  A short distance below the Campbell mills, within four miles of the city of Mansfield, lie the remains of 13 American soldiers of the War of 1812, in unmarked graves.  And as we banquet the living, let us also honor the graves of the dead.

-- A.J. Baughman


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