219 West Fifth St.
Edward W. Wilkinson and his wife, Mary, lived the majority of their married life at 219 West Fifth St., Mansfield, Ohio. A few years after his marriage to Mary Zimmerman in 1867, the couple moved into the house, and they lived there until their deaths, Mary in 1917 and Edward in 1918. Mae Belle, Ed and Mary's second child, lived there her entire life. She never married, was a school teacher for 43 years, and after her retirement from teaching she ran a preschool at the house for many years. She died in 1949. In addition to Edward and Mary, and their children, many other relatives lived at the house. Mary's sister Martha was one of them, she never married and tragically committed suicide in 1877 at the age of 31. When Mary Ann Marshall was born, in 1930, her parents, Robert Morris Marshall and Mary Teresa Wilkinson (granddaughter of Ed and Mary) were living at the house. Nellie the youngest daughter became a widow just before Mae Belle died, and she moved back into the house, living there until her death in 1956, when the house was sold out of the family.
When researching Edward's life I found him living at four different addresses: 142 West Bloom St., 78 West Bloom St., 219 Bloom St, and 219 West Fifth St. These are all the same house,
Ed & Mary’s children and grandchildren on the porch
Edward's picture is on the wall, upper right.
On the left side of the table is a set of spoons, the set is one of the few surviving items from the house.
138 Helen Ave.
Harry and Teresa Wervey Wilkinson moved into this house about 1912. The house stayed in the family until about 1980.
Harry & Teresa’s children on porch; Mary, Fred & Ed.
Fred & Ed in the backyard chickencoop.
Wilkinson Family Farm
In 1817 Samuel Wilkinson, Edward’s grandfather, purchased 360 acres of land in southern Richland county, a few miles northwest of Bellville. The farm stayed in the family until some time after the death, in 1900, of Edward’s aunt, Caroline Collins Wilkinson, who was still living on the farm. It is only a guess that these photos are of the old Wilkinson farm, as there are no buildings from this era that survive today.
Possibly Edward’s wife Mary on left and daughter Mae Belle in center.