USA > Ohio > Lucas County > Toledo > A story of early Toledo; historical facts and incidents of the early days of the city and environs > Part 4
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Dr. Walbridge, the first rector of Trinity church, in a letter describing the manner of getting to his church says: "Let us go now and see the church, observing on our way its immediate surrounding. We can reach it from down town by the plank walk on the northwesterly side of Summit st., the only one connecting the two nuclei of residences, which are distinctly separated by a broad unoccupied space extending from Cherry street to Madison street. Near the northwest corner of Cherry street are two frame dwellings, one occupied by Egbert S. Brown, a vestryman of the parish. Passing diagonally across the head of St. Clair street and looking in the direc- tion of that street over the lowland, here and there dotted with bogs, a little more swampy than the rest, we see scarcely a house of any kind short of Ira L. Clarks at the corner of Washington and Michigan
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streets, and Edward Bissel's one story cottage at the corner of Monroe and 11th. Passing on we see neither store nor dwelling on either side of Summit street until ten or twelve rods of Adams street, what was evidently intended for a dwelling, now occupied by a furniture shop, and near it is a small brick build- ing in which is the postoffice. Nearing Adams street is a deep excavation made preparatory to the erec- tion of a hotel, which the boys call Trinity Pond. Nearly opposite is a two story wooden structure standing on log stilts over the head of a deep ravine, the office of the Toledo Blade. Looking towards the river, over ponds of water, enclosed by the filling of Water street, we see here and there a number of storehouses dotting the river front. Or suppose we come from the opposite direction, from the Indiana House, a pretentious edifice with ponderous columns supporting nothing. We first pass a few stores close- ly packed together till arriving midway between Monroe and Jefferson, we come to a high clay bank on which stand a dilapidated structure, called The Jefferson House; beyond that the continuation of the same bank with nothing on it; then Stows' jew- elry store at the corner of Jefferson, crossing which save one wood frame loftily perched we find no building of any kind on either side of Summit street. Going along Adams to near its intersection with St. Clair we came to the churchyard gate.
It was partly from this swamp, as it was called that Toledo got the name of "Frog Town." Frogs were very plentiful, and it was a source of earning spending money for many of the boys of the town on Saturday and during vacations, to capture the frogs and sell the legs to the hotels.
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This swamp, and the fact that the region to the east and south of Toledo, called the black swamp, heavily timbered, but undrained and flooded most of the year, and the sluggish Maumee river, often covered with green scum, except the channel and the boat passages, were responsible for the preval- ence of the ague, which, in those days, no one hop- ed to escape. In June, 1837, some rhymester caused to be published eight or ten verses on the Maumee, the whole of which can be found in Wagoner's His- tory of Lucas County, two verses of which, devoted to the ague, are as follows:
On Maumee, on Maumee, Tis ague in the fall; The fit will shake them so, It rocks the house and all.
There's a funeral every day, Without a hearse or pall; They tuck them in the ground, With breeches, coat and all.
A few years later, and in the Blade of December, 1852, a poetical contribution was published entitled "Summit Street," and having nine verses of eight lines each, the first of which is as follows:
O'er Summit street where'er I cast my eyes, What curious thoughts along my senses creep. Napoleon crossed the Alps; his high emprise Won him a deathless name, but not a step Of all the peaks he crossed, so hard to rise As Summit street, beneath whose lowest deep There is a depth no mortal ever scanned A gloomy deep of mud devoid of sand.
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The remaining verses are devoted to accidents to man, woman and beast in traveling through this cut on Summit street through the Hog's Back, and between the Kingsbury house and Monroe street.
The principal means of transportation was by lake and canal. The "Packet Dock" as it was then called was the front on Swan Creek, between Perry street and Lafayette street. This space was filled with stores supplying the numerous canal boats and their crews, and these were headquarters of the canal men when sober and on duty. The sailors and canal men hated each other intensely and whenever they met there was a free fight and often the clash of arms. Intemperance prevailed in both classes to an alarm- ing extent, and all the incidents of a reckless and riotous population they furnished.
This disposition to fight was not confined to the boat men. The feuds between upper and lower town were many and bitter. They extended to the school children, and whenever on Saturday or a holiday a crowd of upper and lower town boys met it was the surest signal for a free fight resulting in many bloody noses and black eyes, of which the writer furnished an occasional example. Upper town, or what was then called "The Hill" embraced that section west of Monroe street and north of Swan Creek and was thought to be the tough part of the town. In the vicinity of the canal and along Swan Creek, and at the locks and acqueduct were drinking places, boarding houses for the packet men, and many scenes of riot and lawlessness.
I deem it proper to say here that this section of the city is now inhabited by a thrifty, temperate, in-
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telligent and law abiding people, for which much credit is due to that splendid man, whose death a few years ago called from the press and the pulpit such words of praise, and such evidences of affection as are bestowed upon the memory of but few men, and deserved by few as he deserved them, the Rev. Father Hannin.
It must not be supposed, however, from this that Toledo was an unsightly site entirely. The high ground westerly and northerly of this morass, now the beautiful residence part of the city, was always attractive. It was covered by magnificent forest trees, many still standing, and its contour and soil, its elevation and extent were peculiarly adapted to the needs of a beautiful city. There is nothing left of the unsightly creek. The great business struc- tures of the city are in the main occupying the ground formerly Mud creek. The streets have been filled in and their grade established so as to enable the magnificent sewer system of the city to be es- tablished at a grade high enough to reach the river and lake and the morals of the population has kept with the cities' growth until certainly they equal the average cities.
Swan creek was crossed by a ferry at a point near Superior street and in 1898 the council appropri- ated $100 to build the ferry with the necessary rope and approaches, and made a contract with a Mr. Crane to operate the ferry for one-half the receipts, it being a toll ferry, and in 1840 the city granted a license to William Consaul to operate a ferry across the Maumee river at the foot of Adams street for which Consaul was to pay the city clerk 50 cents.
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In 1840 building a sidewalk on Monroe street was declared inexpedient by the council on account of the condition of the treasury, and until the Sum- mit street sidewalk was completed which caused the first deficiency in any fund in the city treasury.
In 1830 the council appropriated $80 to defray the expenses of defeating the removal of the county seat to Maumee, and appointed a committee to ex- pend the same, but the county seat was removed, perhaps because the appropriation was not sufficient.
In 1833 there was a warehouse, belonging to William P. and Willard J. Daniels, between Monroe and Jefferson streets. This warehouse was on the water front where the Hog's Back was at least 30 feet above the level of the house, and the earth had been dug away from the bank to allow the building and to fill in the dock in front of it, access to which was by a road commencing at Jefferson street and cut sidewalks down the bank.
CHAPTER VIII. IMPROVED TRANSPORTATION.
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EARLY RAILROADS IN AND ABOUT TO- LEDO .- It is an interesting fact only about 230 miles of steam railroads were completed in the United States when the first projected railroad in this sec- tion took at least the form of a paper railroad. This was as early as 1832. Through the influence of Dan- iel O. Comstock, a member of the legislative council of Michigan, a charter was obtained for a railroad company by the name of Erie and Kalmazoo Rail- road Company, which contemplated a railroad run- ning from Toledo to Adrian and to traverse Lake Michigan by way of Adrian and Kalmazoo. The company was organized in 1835, and in 1836 the road was built to Adrian. It was a strap rail, 2 1-2 inches wide and 5-8 of an inch thick and was spiked to a wooden stringer. When the road was opened in 1836, it was drawn by horses, but later two small lo- comotives were secured. The history of this rail- road would make a volume in itself. By its charter certain banking privileges were granted to it, and the Erie and Kalamazoo bank was an adjunct of it and passed out of existence among the financial troubles which involved the railroad company. In 1837 Edward Bissell was manager. In 1838 Richard Mott was president. In 1839 E. S. Dodd was presi- dent. In October, 1839, the road was placed in the hands of George Crane as receiver and the receiver- ship terminated in 1840. In 1848 the entire capital
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stock was sold under a decree to Washington Hunt of Lockport and George Bliss of Springfield, Mass. In those days the more modern plan of building railroads by placing bonds on the market and find- ing ready buyers had not materialized and the fin- ancial struggles of these energetic pioneers of our locality make a pathetic story.
The tracks of this railroad terminated at first at Monroe and Water streets and its office was on Sum- mit street in a small frame building located where the Bostwick & Braun Co. building now stands, to- wards Perry street. Later the track was extended down Water street to Lagrange, with its depot near Cherry street, which was also the depot of the Cleve- land and Toledo Railroad Company, connected with the East Side by ferry, until both were removed to the middle ground in 1855.
On July 4, 1835, the proprietors of Port Lawrence passed a resolution that each proprietor should take and pay $1000 of the stock of the railroad company for each 1-10 of the interest which he holds in the original plat of Port Lawrence. These were William Oliver, 5-16; M. T. Williams, 4-16; Isaac S. Smith, J. D. Macy, Hiram Pratt, William F. P. Taylor, Edward Bissell, Andrew Palmers and the firm of Raymond & Lynde, each 1-16.
In the Toledo Blade of May 16, 1837, is an ad- vertisement with a picture of the small engine and one car with four wheels and which read as follows:
"TO IMIGRANTS AND TRAVELERS .- The Erie and Kalamazoo railroad is now in full operation between Toledo and Adrian. During the ensuing season trains of cars will run daily to Adrian, there
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connecting with a line of stages for the west, Michi- igan City, Chicago and Wisconsin territory. Emi- grants and others destined for Indiana, Illinois and Western Michigan will save two days and the cor- responding expense by taking this route in prefer- ence to the more lengthened, tedious and expensive route herefore traveled. All baggage at the risk of the owners.
EDWARD BISSELL, W. P. DANIELS, GEORGE CRANE,
Commissioners Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad Company.
Buffalo, Detroit and other papers on the lakes will publish this notice to the amount of $5 and send their bills to the agent."
In the effort of the state of Michigan to over- come the loss of Toledo as a lake port, she provided for a loan of $5,000,000 towards internal improve- ments, including the Southern railroad from Mon- roe, to traverse the southern tier of counties to Lake Michigan at New Buffalo. The building of the Northern Indiana from the Michigan and Indiana state line to Chicago, the building by the owners of the Erie and Kalamazoo of the Palmyra and Jack- sonburg line in 1838 (now the Jackson branch of the New York Central system), and the final consolida- tion of these roads in 1855 and the proceedings by which they became a part of the great New York Central system, need not be detailed more complete- ly than what follows:
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THE EARLY EASTERN RAILROADS .- Two companies were organized in 1850 as rival lines, one the Toledo Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad Com- pany constructed its line from Toledo to Cleveland via Fremont, Norwalk and Oberlin, and the first train over it arrived at Tőledo December 30, 1852. The other was called the Junction Railroad Company, its line contemplated running from Cleveland via Elyria, Sandusky, Port Clinton, Milbury, Perrysburg, Maumee City, to Swanton, Lucas county, Ohio; where it was designed to connect with the Air Line branch of the Michigan, Southern and Northern In- diana, and then make a cut-off and diversion of trade via Sandusky. Work was prosecuted on the construction until 1852, when it was consolidated with the first named company and formed the Cleve- land and Toledo railroad. This is now the Sandusky division of the New York Central.
Very much earlier, however, on March 8, 1836, there was a charter granted to a corporation known as "The Ohio Railroad Company," to build a rail- road from the Pennsylvania line to the Maumee river, Manhattan being its proposed western terminal point by way of Cleveland, Sandusky and Fremont. This charter had the advantage of what was after- wards called "The Plunner Law," by which the state was pledged to furnish its bonds to the extent of one-half of whatever railroad, turnpike and canal companies received on stock subscriptions for their work, and also was given, as in the case of the Erie and Kalamazoo, certain banking privileges. In March, 1842, the engineer reported that the super- structure was completed from the Maumee river to
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Lower Sandusky (Fremont), but the scheme finally collapsed in 1848. The history of its efforts, schemes and failures, however interesting need not be re- counted. Its projectors are named under the head- ing Manhattan.
In 1868 the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company was formed by consolidation of the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana; the Cleveland and Toledo; Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula (Cleveland and Erie); Buffalo and Erie (Erie to Buffalo), with others, making a line from Chicago to Buffalo, and by purchase Toledo to De- troit, etc.
In a recent pamphlet issued by the New York Central lines, it is said that one Nehemiah Allen, a Quaker, first suggested a railroad along the shore of Lake Erie from Toledo to Buffalo, and was thought to be crazy to suppose that a railroad could com- pete with water traffic; that Mr. Allen was a resident of Toledo, a real estate agent and a prominent citi- zen.
A map issued by the Toledo Commerce Club, showing the number of railroads, steam and electric, entering Toledo, makes it unnecessary to enumer- ate them here. They number 21 steam railroads and nine electric interurban lines running in all direc- tions, making Toledo one of the largest railroad cen- ters in the United States.
On March 20, 1848, the city subscribed for $25,- 000 of stock of the Toledo Plank Road Company. This company built a part of the roads contemplated, struggled for 10 or 12 years and then failed. The works of the company helped to develop the terri-
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tory, and the city probably received a sufficient re- turn for its $25,000, but it lost its stock. In 1851, March 5, the city voted a subscripton to the Dayton and Michigan railroad, now part of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton. In 1869 the city issued $450,- 000 of bonds to build a road to Woodville, which was built, and, without giving its history or the reasons for its sale, it was later sold to the Pennsylvania Company without limitations or conditions for $225,- 000.
RIVER, LAKE AND CANAL TRAFFIC .- It will be impossible to give anything like a complete list of boats, sail and steam, built on the Maumee river or making Toledo one of their ports. Prob- ably among the first schooners trading on the river was The Leopard, a 28-ton craft owned by Capt. John T. Baldwin, heretofore mentioned. He came here first with the craft in 1818. At that time Mr. Baldwin located his family at Orleans, a name then given to Fort Meigs. As hereinbefore shown, they afterwards moved back to Portage county until February, 1823, when the family moved her and oc- cupied the old log warehouse in Port Lawrence.
It is related by those who knew that one Capt. Jacob Wilkinson, owner and captain of the schooner Black Snake, sailed the Maumee river as early as 1815. His nephew, David Wilkinson, was on board and he afterwards became very prominent in lake and river navigation. Between 1810 and 1846 there were 20 schooners, 12 steamboats and three propel- lors built at Perrysburg and Maumee and three at Toledo.
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As early as 1824 the custom house records show that between 1822 and 1824 there were 28 sail ves- sels of different kinds doing business on the Maumee river as part of their usual trips. In the Toledo Blade of April 25, 1838, was the following announcement: "THE STEAMBOAT SUN, C. K. Bennett, Master. "Will make her trips this season as follows: Will leave Manhattan every morning at 7 o'clock, Toledo at 8, Maumee City and Perrysburg at 10:30, Toledo at 2 p. m. and Maumee and Perrysburg at 5 o'clock and arrive at Manhattan at 7 p. m. April 25, 1838."
During this same year the steamboat Andrew Jackson made two trips a day between Perrysburg and Manhattan, and the following year, 1839, a daily line from Detroit, consisting of the steamers Erie and Newberry, was installed, making stops at Toledo, Manhattan, Monroe, etc. During the following years the lake traffic increased with great rapidity. Up to 1844 there were 115 steamers built on the lakes, sail- ing vessels increased in number and size. The junc- tion at Toledo of the canals and the lake, with the enormous volume of freight destined for the east, especially grain and pork, stimulated the lake traffic until for a time both the lake and the canal traffic were put out of business by the railroads.
In 1838 the Wabash and Erie canal was being built through Lucas county, but the canal was not opened until 1843, when the first boat from La- Fayette arrived, and a great public celebration was had, with speeches by Hez. D. Mason, George B. Way, Myron H. Tildon, Benj. F. Stickney, John Fitch, Herman Walbridge and others. A fleet of canalboats from Lafayette arrived April 16 to 18,
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1844, carrying 471,922 pounds of lard, 415,098 pounds of bacon, 41,949 barrels of ashes, 3,983 bushels of wheat, 1,445 barrels of pork, 860 barrels of flour and other miscellaneous articles.
The Miami and Erie canal gave Toledo the first canal boat from Cincinnati on June 27, 1845. On June 28, 1847, the packet boat Empire left Dayton for Toledo and arrived on the 30th. Among the pas- sengers were Governor of Ohio William Webb, ex- Governor Thomas Corwin, Robert C. Schenck and other distinguished citizens. The trip occupied 48 hours.
The canal tolls in Toledo in 1847 amounted to $63,869. The number of boats in commission, 417. The number of clearances by canal boats in 1848 was 3,753; aggregate tonnage, 142,071,204 pounds. Tolls paid, $117,220.25.
The number of canal boats, the tonnage and the tolls increased rapidly for a number of years, and in- deed up to about 1855.
RAILROAD COMPETITION .- Enter now the railroads as competitors for this business, and the effect of that locally: About the year 1848, what is known on the early government maps as Lower Island, but generally known as the "Middle Ground," belonged to the proprietors of Oliver division. There were 30 acres of the Middle Ground, mostly marsh and about 14 acres of upland and the whole was of- fered at $70 an acre on conditions that a depot should be located there in two years. This was finally ac- cepted after continued negotiation by the Erie and Kalamazoo Company, by its then owners and the re-
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sult was that in 1855 the railroads moved there, and built the docks, Island house, station bridge, etc. The upland is where the present union depot is located and the railroad bridge across the river was built.
The canal had three connections with the river, one at Manhattan, one at Maumee and the one at Toledo at the junction of the canal with Swan creek, and this was the only one that was used to any ex- tent. The canal from the locks to Manhattan never had any use and there never was any good excuse for it, and in 1870 it was abandoned. The Maumee connection was of no value and it was abandoned. The "Packetdock," so-called, was the land fronting on Swan creek between Perry and Washington streets, which was entirely occupied by stores sup- plying the canal boats, and having a large control of that trade. The elevator and grain warehouses on Water street from Monroe to Adams, about 15 in number, received the grain and other products brought down by these canal boats and in turn load- ed them into vessels for the east.
The Wabash railway, planned in 1852, and built in 1853 to 1855, reached much of the section supply- ing the canal, but finally extended to the grain fields of the southwest. It acquired certain parts of the middle grounds by both purchase and lease, includ- ing a large frontage on the river. It also purchased lands adjoining and also fronting on the river further south.
On this middle ground property large elevators were built, both by the railroad companies and priv- ate corporations where the different railroads from all directions could run the cars directly into them
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for unloading and where vessels of any draft which plied the lakes at that time could lay alongside of them for direct loading.
The competition for a while was sharp, well fought, but the canal business died first, and the lake business was put to sleep, and was comatose for a number of years except as owned and operated by the railroad companies.
The railway companies put on steamboat lines to aid in the quick transportation, which was becom- ing a persistent demand of dealers. The Wabash line, the Erie line, and the New York Central line consisted of about 30 steamboats and steam propel- lers plying between Toledo and ports on the lakes.
The immense grain business handled by the railroads with Toledo as its transfer point from rail to lake, led to the building of these elevators to such an extent that in 1888 there were 12 in number, with a grain capacity of 7,250,000 bushels and a daily re- ceipt and shipment of 1,240,000 bushels.
It is not the purpose of this paper to give in de- tail the present condition of Toledo, its trade com- merce, manufactures, etc., but a history of its start and some facts indicating its early conditions. We content ourselves here with the following statement of the exports and imports of the city for the year 1851 of the articles named:
EXPORTS.
Corn, bu. 2,775.149
Wheat, bu. 1,639,744
Oats, bu. 64,441
Flour, bbls. 242,677
Pork, bbls. 38,658
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Spirits, casks 21,934
Ashes, bbls. 4,847
Black walnut lumber, ft. 2,134,073
Staves, number 2,504,804
Merchandise, lbs. 403,513
Butter, kegs 3,119
Eggs, bbls. 568
Wool, bales. 2,839
Total value exports-$7,915,344.00.
It will be noticed that there were practically no manufactured articles exported which were made here.
IMPORTS.
Merchandise, tons 23,260
Barley, bu. 27,505
Beer and ale, bbls. 1,354
Whitefish and trout.
10,490
Salt
102,030
Salt bags .
79,080
Lumber, ft.
11,837,747
Shingles, number
6,277,000
Lath 2,569,715
Total value imports-$23,034,367.00.
These figures are given to show the growth of Toledo from 1850 with its population of a little over 3,000 to 1860 with a population of over 13,000, with its growth seriously retarded by the cholera seasons of 1852 to 1854. It was building-performing the athletics that were to make it strong when it reached municipal manhood.
REVIVAL OF LAKE COMMERCE .- As al- ready stated, the railroad companies established ex-
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tensive lines of steamers for lake connections with their lines of railroad. The lumber business fur- nished a large traffic from northern Michigan ports.
Four important coal-carrying railroads - the Hocking Valley, the Toledo & Ohio Central, the Wheeling & Lake Erie, and the Waldhonding Valley branch of the Pennsylvania-brought and bring im- mense quantities of coal from the Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia coal fields to Toledo for shipment to the northwest by water. The building of the straight channel connecting the river with the lake, and deepening it so that the heaviest draught boats could reach the coal and ore docks of these railroads, the unequaled harbor furnished by the estuary of the lake at this point and its advantage as an iron ore distributing point demanded and brought into its traffic the largest steam craft on the lakes. The shipment of bituminous coal from Toledo by lake now amounts to many million tons per annum, while the receipts of ore alone from the same points in the northwest to which the coal is shipped exceeds .. million tons. The steamers carrying this traffic are from 450 to 600 feet in length and with an ore ca- pacity of 8,000 to 10,000 tons each.
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