USA > Ohio > Lucas County > Toledo > A story of early Toledo; historical facts and incidents of the early days of the city and environs > Part 6
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The writer had been chairman of the lecture
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committee of the old association and during the summer of 1864 he made engagements for the win- ter with the lecturers, which he transferred to the new association. The new association elected Chas. A. King, president; Richard Waite, vice-president; William E. Fish, secretary; Charles H. Eddy, treas- urer, and as directors, John Sinclair, John H. Doyle, L. F. Hubbard, James H. Maples, R. A. Wason, Charles B. Roff and F. B. Dodge. Several of these continued in office during the life of the association.
After a year's effort to run the old association it was proposed to turn it over with its library and effects to the new, which was accepted and in 1867 the new association issued the first catalogue of its books. It had 4,600 volumes in the library and a membership of over 500.
In 1873 it transferred all of its property to the Public Library, after the General Assembly had passed the necessary legislation authorizing the City Council to establish a library, and the necessary ac- tion by the Council, when the association turned over to the Public Library 4,878 volumes, a number of engravings, maps, etc., two lots or Forrer Street and $105 in cash.
PREJUDICE .- What at this date would seem to be impossible? Evidence of the condition of an existing prejudice as late as 1863 is found in the fact that in the fall of that year the writer, as chairman of the lecture committee, among the engagements made by him for the following winter was that with Wendell Phillips. On reporting to the trustees of the association the names of the season's lecturers,
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they refused to confirm the engagement with Phil- lips and later absolutely declined to approve an en- gagement with Anne E. Dickinson - Miss Dickin- son's because they did not approve of women lec- turers, Mr. Phillips' because they feared giving of- fense by engaging so radical an abolitionist. The writer declined to cancel his engagements with these two, and in connection with A. W. Gleason, gave the lectures as individuals, and not under the association's asuspices. The audiences were the largest of the season.
AMUSEMENT HALLS .- In the early '50's Morris' Hall was in the third story of the block on the corner of Jefferson and Summit Streets, with an outside stairway leading to the second story, and Stickney Hall on Summit Street, below what was then Oak Street (Jackson Avenue), the latter built mainly of brick taken from the old Stickney resi- dence when it was torn down, and these were the places where minstrel and theatrical perform- ances were had, until White's Hall was built on the site of the present Neuhausel store.
MAYORS .- It will be impossible to give a list of the officers of the city from its organization, but the following is a list of its mayors:
1837, John Berdan; 1838, John Berdan; 1839, Hez D. Mason; 1840-1-2-3, Myron H. Tilden; 1844, George B. Way; 1845-6, Richard Mott; 1847-8, Emery D. Potter; 1849, Daniel O. Morton; 1850, Caleb F. Abbott; 1851, Charles M. Dorr; 1852, Dan- iel McBain, Egbert B. Brown, Ira L. Clark and Mr.
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Brigham; 1853-4-5-6, Charles M. Dorr; 1857-8-9-60-61, Alex. B. Brownlee (Brownlee resigned in '61 and Alex. H. Newcomb filled the vacancy) ; 1862, Alex. H. Newcomb; 1864-5-6, Charles M. Dorr; 1867-8, Charles A. King; 1869-70, William Krauss; 1871-2- 3-4, William W. Jones; 1875-6, Guido Marx; 1877-8, William W. Jones; 1879-80-1-2-3-4, Jacob Romeis; 1885-6, Samuel F. Forbes; 1887-8, J. Kent Hamilton; 1891, V. J. Emmick; 1893, Guy G. Major; 1897 to 1904, Samuel M. Jones; 1904, Robert H. Finch; 1905, Brand Whitlock; 1913, Carl H. Keller; 1916, Charles M. Milroy; 1918, Cornell Schreiber.
In 1852 Morrison R. Waite, afterwards Chief Justice of the United States, was a member of the Toledo City Council from the then Fourth Ward.
THE EARLY PRESS. - James Irvine Brown started the first paper, as elsewhere related, the To- ledo Herald. It was revived under the name of the Toldo Gazette. This was in 1834-5. It collapsed in 1837, and in 1836 the Blade was started, published as a weekly until 1846, when it became a tri-weekly, and in 1848, April 17, it published the first issue of the Daily Blade, and it has published a daily ever since.
The Toledo Reporter appeared in 1841, started as a Democratic paper. In 1843 its name was changed to the Toledo Herald. In May, 1844, it suspended and a job printing establishment took its place.
Gazette No. 2 appeared in 1844, but was short lived.
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In March, 1849, appeared the Toledo Commer- cial-Republican, daily and weekly.
In 1880 its name was changed to the Toledo Telegram and in 1883 changed back to the Commer- cial and its legitimate successor is now the Toledo Times.
STREET RAILWAYS. - While these are of later date than the limits of this history, a few facts are given.
The first street railway company was organized November 20, 1860, and was called the Toledo Street Railroad Company. Its directors were M. R. Waite, C. B. Phillips, William H. Raymond, William Baker, James C. Hall and John T. Newton of To- ledo, and Silas Merchant of Cleveland. On Febru- ary 11, 1861, it received a grant from the City Coun- cil to build and operate a line on Summit Street from the boundary line of Manhattan to Perry Street, across the bridge and up Ottawa and Broad- way to the bridge of the M. L. & M. S. Ry. Co.
The Adams Street Railway Company was or- ganized in April, 1869, and built from Summit to Bancroft on Adams, extended along Collingwood to the junction with Cherry in 1873.
The Monroe Street Railway Company was or- ganized in January, 1873, for a railroad from Sum- mit Street to Auburn Avenue.
The Toledo Union Street Railroad Company organized in 1869 for a line from Summit along Monroe, Ontario, Washington and Dorr Streets to Detroit Avenue. This company and its track, etc.,
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were taken over by the Monroe & Dorr Street Com- pany, organized in 1875.
The Metropolitan Street Railway Company or- ganized in May, 1872, its line on Lagrange Street from Summit Street to Manhattan Road.
The Toledo Central Passenger Railroad in 1875, from North Toledo on Summit to city line, Erie to Cherry and Summit; in 1879 on Superior from Cher- ry to Monroe, Monroe to Erie, Division, Nebraska Avenue to City Park, and later on Field and West- ern Avenues.
POST ROUTES .- In 1839 certain post routes were established with Toledo as the starting point and contracts made as follows:
1. Toledo, via Manhattan, Erie, Monroe, to De- troit, in four-horse post coaches.
2. Toledo, via Defiance, Adrian and Rome, to Jonesville, 67 miles, in railroad cars to Adrian and four-horse coaches the rest of the way.
3. Toledo, via Maumee, Perrysburg, Lower San- dusky, Bellevue, Norwalk, Milan, Elyria, Ohio City, to Cleveland, daily in four-horse coaches.
4. Buffalo, Erie, Cleveland, Sandusky, Toledo, Monroe and Detroit, daily by steamboats. These were maintained until the railroads dispossessed them.
CHAPTER XI Incidents
A few scattering facts are given without much connection or detail:
On February 24, 1838, a report was made to the City Council of the total receipts and expendi- tures of the city for the preceding ten and a half months, showing receipts, $1,889.93, and total ex- penditures, $414.73, leaving a balance in the treas- ury of $1,475.20.
POLITICS .- The first election in Toledo under its charter was hotly contested between Uppertown (Port Lawrence) and Lowertown (Vistula), Lower- town being successful in the election of John Berdan for mayor. In 1837 the question of moving the court- house to Maumee was the dominant question in the county, and Toledo was very much excited over it. On June 11, 1840, General Harrison, then a candi- date for president, attended a great meeting at Fort Meigs and the next day visited Toledo and held a reception at the American House.
GAME .- Judge E. D. Potter came to Toledo in 1835 and in an address in March, 1889, said that he had killed deer in every ward in the city of Toledo. The oak ridge where the old High School stands was a favorite resort for them as it sloped down to the waters of Mud creek. Another was the "Nose," the point where the Oliver House now stands. Prai- rie chicken, patridge, quail, woodcock and snipe were abundant in what is now the business section
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of the city. A panther was killed on the east side of the river in 1832.
MERCHANDISE .- One of the advertisements in 1835, of A. Palmer & Co., showed the range of merchandise in one store. It reads: "Dry goods, groceries, hardware, glassware, china, stoneware, tin and Japanned ware, boots and shoes, guns, flints, percussion caps, nails, window glass, house trim- mings, cow and ox bells, carpenters' tools, liquors and wines, tobacco, cigars, 'dipt candles,' patent medicines, clothing, &c., &c."
1846 THE BANNER YEAR. - In the Toledo Blade of February 6, 1846, it was stated that Toledo had twelve warehouses, two and three stories high, and two more being built; five churches had been built for Congregational, Episcopal, Catholic, Meth- odist and German Reformed Societies. There were schools in the three school districts; a female select school, taught by Miss Jenks, and a select school for both sexes, "under an experienced teacher." The population was given at 2100 on January 1. A year later the Blade claimed a population of nearly 3,000. The principal canal traffic with Cincinnati was by the Doyle & Dickey line of packets which advertised to make daily trips through in 60 hours. In 1846 was the banner year for the number of buildings erected, up to that time.
AN UNDERESTIMATE .- In April, 1839, the city council authorized the street commissioner to take immediate measures to fill up, drain or other-
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wise improve the low and marshy grounds in the city provided the expense thereof did not exceed $500. It is estimated now that the sewers and grad- ing and work necessary to accomplish this has cost in the neighborhood of $2,500,000.
ABSENCE OF BIOGRAPHY .- An attempt was made to give some account of the lives of the men most instrumental in the early growth of the city. It was found to be impracticable. It would lengthen the narrative beyond its original scope. It would necessarily result in favoritism and discrimination. It was deemed best to omit all biographical and obit- uary notices. To confine all personal mention to those who were connected with the laying out of the town and the earliest settlers. This is less to be re- gretted here because it has been so thoroughly done in Clark Waggoner's history of Lucas county to which access is readily had.
THE PROFESSIONS .- A comprehensive chap- ter on the judiciary, including the bench and bar, prepared by the writer and contained in Mr. Wag- goner's history, with a number of personal biogra- phies of lawyers and judges was brought down to the year 1888. A similar chapter on the medical profes- sion prepared by Doctors Chapman and Rowsey, is found in the same book. It is not the purpose of this narrative to include matters so easily reached, nor those events, not intimately connected with the early history of the city-its birth and infancy. Its magnificent manhood will be splendid theme for the future in the hands of some competent and enthusi- astic citizen.
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CEMETERIES .- It will probably be a great surprise to people living in the vicinity to learn that the first cemetery in Toledo was near the crossing of Madison and Seventeenth streets, where about two acres were set apart for that purpose by Dexter Fish- er, in the year 1830 and abandoned about 1840. Next a small piece of ground at the crossing of Lagrange and Bancroft streets, abandoned in 1838. Then the proprietors of Port Lawrence set apart a lot on the corner of Lenk (City Park avenue) and Dorr streets, for burial purposes in 1838, which the city accepted and passed resolution for fencing and dividing it into lots, but it was later sold for taxes and passed into private ownership and devoted to the residence pur- poses for the living. In 1839 eight acres were pur- chased from B. F. Stickney, whereon Forest ceme- tery was started, and is now located, many additions having been, from time to time, added.
TOWNSHIP VALUATION AND RATE OF TAXATION .- In 1837 the total valuation of proper- ty in Port Lawrence township for taxation was $484,- 307, of which $315,659 was on town lots and the tax levy fixed by the county and state for each $100 was as follows:
State and canal purposes, 321/2 cents; county and school purposes, 50 cents; road purposes, 30 cents; township purposes, 10 cents.
Sanford L. Collins was treasurer of the county.
In 1838 the number of lots in Port Lawrence and Vistula divisions of Toledo still taxed in the names of the proprietors were in the main as follows:
Port Lawrence: Edward Bissell, 40; Frederick
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Bissell, 30; Charles Butler, 70; Stephen B. Comstock, 30; William Oliver, 45; Smith & Macy, 10.
Vistula: Edward Bissell, 330; Frederick Bissell, 35; Charles Butler, 75; Pierre M. Irving, 19; Smith & Macy, 80; Benj. F. Stickney, 104. Mr. Irving was a nephew of Washington Irving.
FLOODS .- In 1832 the breaking up of the river and the flood washed away the pioneer town of "Or- leans of the North," located on the low ground in front of Fort Meigs. In 1847, 1849 and 1855, were years of flood. That of 1849 carried away the bridge at Maumee and the Swan creek bridge at Toledo. In 1855 the middle ground and Water street were submerged and part of the Cherry street bridge car- ried away.
February 11, 1881, was the most serious in the re- sults but the water in the flood of 1883 was the high- est.
THE CHANGES IN THE RESIDENCE SEC- TIONS .- Perhaps a brief statement of the residence parts of the city and its changes may be interesting. In the early '50s, and until the vacant low ground between Cherry and Monroe streets began to be oc- cupied, the residences were mainly in the vicinity of Lagrange street in lower town and Monroe street in upper town; then what might be designated as the fashionable, or desirable residence district was cent- ered around Madison, St. Clair and Superior streets. William Baker lived where the Boody house now is; Daniel O. Morton opposite where the Fifty Associ- ates Building (the former Produce Exchange) is;
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Calvin Baker where the Drummond block (National Bank of Commerce) is, and on Superior street be- tween Madison and Jefferson, including the corners on Jefferson, were what were considered the best residences in the city, occupied among others by Matthew Shoemaker, John Cummings, Robert Cum- mings, John B. Ketcham, jr., A. W. Gleason, John B. Carson, Frank I. King, Perry Crabbs, John E. Hunt, James B. Steedman and Governor James My- ers.
Business drove the residence section to the vi- cinity of Cherry, Walnut, and Superior between Cherry and Elm streets, and fine residences were built and occupied by M. D. Carrington, now St. John's college; Peter F. Berdan, T. B. Casey (Geo. E. Pomeroy's home), John R. Osborn, Joseph K. Secor, Frederick Eaton, V. W. Granger, Jesse S. Nor- ton and others. Down the river on Summit street followed as the most desirable place to live and ele- gant residences were built and occupied by Chief Justice Waite, Joseph K. Secor, William Baker, S. H. Keeler, M. S. Hubbell, Frederic Prentice, Abenr L. Backus, Horace S. Walbridge, C. H. Coy, Edward Bissell, W. A. Ewing, David Smith, Emery D. Potter, John S. Bailey, Charles A. King, C. B. Phillips and others. The building of the railroads down Water street and the location of the coal docks along the river, drove the people away from this section. Mad- ison street, for many years, was considered the finest residence street in the city, which is now going the way of its predecessors and giving way to business. Where is it now? I leave the reader to choose be- tween the hundreds of answers that will be made to that conundrum.
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PLANKING SUMMIT STREET .- June 21, 1851, the council provided for planking Summit street from Jefferson street to Adams street the en- tire width and from Adams street to Cherry street twenty-four feet wide, but in September, 1851, the planking between Madison street and Cherry street was indefinitely postponed by resolution. In 1853 it was decided to pave Summit street with boulders from Jefferson street to Cherry street.
BRIDGES .- In 1823 Joseph Prentice built a bridge across Swan creek about where Superior street now reaches it. It was carried away by a flood in 1836 and as elsewhere stated it was succeeded by a ferry. A bridge over Swan creek at Perry street was built at an early date, by whom or under what authority is not definitely known, but old residents speak of it as being there as late as 1835.
A short digression from the period covered by this narrative may be excused. The question of bridging the Maumee river has always been the source of contest and generally of a bitter and acrim- onious character. A company was organized in 1864 to build a bridge across the river at Cherry street; the Board of Trade of the city denounced it as dangerous to navigation, embarrassing to com- mercial prosperity, especially the depots, elevators, warehouses, etc. The railroad companies united in opposition as did the several transportation lines by water, and many of the prominent business firms. The fight was taken up by the newspapers, and final- ly the Board of Public Works, having granted per- mission the bridge was built and traffic over it began
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in September, 1855. It was a private enterprise, and in 1872 the city passed resolutions for its purchase. This precipitated another contest with injunction suits and a final compromise which resulted in the purchase by the city. The bridge was destroyed by the flood of 1882-3, and in 1884 a new bridge was built, which was maintained until the present con- crete bridge took its place.
A Horticultural Society was organized at a very early date. It had its meetings in Hunker's ice cream parlors, which in the early fifties and for many years later, was the meeting place for Toledo society and all of its entertainments. Among the of- ficers of the society in 1850 and 1852 were Jesup W. Scott, Thomas M. Cooley, Dr. Ezra Bliss, Thomas Dunlap, Charles Perigo, Matthew Johnson, Charles W. Hill. It was still in active life until the war of the rebellion, when in 1863 it held its last annual meeting, that we have any record of.
The first telegraph line, "The Lake Erie Tele- graph Line," opened for business in Toledo, Febru- ary 14, 1848, and between that and July 1, 1848, the lines were broken or out of order 31 days.
Although of a later date than is included in this chronicle, the first telephone in Toledo was Jan- uary 20, 1878, connecting the Western Union Tele- graph Company with William Gates ticket office in the Boody House.
MILITARY .- The first military company in the city was the Lucas Guards, organized in 1835, in con- nection with the impending war with Michigan over the boundary question. It ceased to exist after that question was settled.
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"The Toledo Guards" was formed in 1838, with Charles W. Hill as captain, Coleman Keeler and Henry Allen as fifers and Mayor Bryham as drum- mer. This company was maintained for many years, and after several reorganizations existed at the be- ginning of the civil war in 1861.
CHIEF JUSTICE WAITE AS COUNCILMAN. -On August 11, 1852, Councilman M. R. Waite in- troduced in the council "An ordinance requiring all places in which liquors were sold to be closed on Sunday," which was passed unanimously on suspen- sion of the rules. Mr. Waite was councilman of the Fourth ward.
What was the vision of the future that brought so many men here in the year between 1830 and 1840 and caused so many minds to center on this area of ten miles on the river front?
In 1837 Benjamin F. Wade, afterwards United States senator from Ohio, coming on a steamer from Cleveland to Toledo, met a man on his way here to sell river tract 6, now a part of the Twelfth ward, through which Walbridge avenue runs, and not wait- ing to arrive, closed a bargain to purchase the tract for $25,000. This tract was granted by the govern- ment to one George L. Ford, a captain of a privateer vessel in the war of 1812. He was captured by the British, imprisoned at Plymouth, England, for a number of years. After his release, he was lost at sea while commanding a ship sailing from Philadel- phia to Mexico. Wade's deed was from Emmeline Ford, the alleged daughter of Geo. L. Forty years later, after the tract was platted and sold and hun-
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dreds of families, with churches and stores and homes built on it, the title was attacked by grantees of relatives of Ford, on the ground that Emmeline was not Ford's daughter; that he was never married, and Emmeline was born after Ford had been im- prisoned at Plymouth more than a year, and there resulted a most romantic and unique litigation, which would make an interesting novel, the result of which, however, was to confirm the title bought by Wade and hence the title of the occupants by showing the marriage of Ford and the legitimacy of Emmeline.
Wade had this same vision of the future when he made the hasty purchase on the steamboat trip. What was it? They were farsighted men. They saw a great chain of lakes forming an inland sea with over three thousand miles of coast line. By the Treaty of Ghent in 1815, between this country and Great Britain and its amendment in 1817, this great inland sea, with Great Britain's colony on one side and the United States on the other, was to be a neutral zone, where neither warships or war appli- ances were to be maintained, but where peace seem- ed likely to be permanent. It was at the head of the great inland sea, connected by navigable rivers, that this future city was located. They saw that the con- templated canals from the west and the south had to terminate at some point near the mouth of the Mau- mee river to reach the lakes. They saw that the time would come when by canal and railroad the great products of the surrounding territory would have to reach the lake transportation at this point. Those things that made cities and drew population
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in their days, they knew would have to exist here. Limited as their vision was, judged from the results of the three-quarters of a century since, it was a broad vision for its day. The vision broadened as the years rolled on, and a prophet came to the land when Jesup W. Scott wrote a pamphlet entitled, "The Future Great City," in which the limitations of vision, at least to him, disappeared.
The people never lost this vision entirely. They kept looking to the east for the rising of the sun of prosperity, and while for a long time the sky was cloudy and the atmosphere chilly and damp, they caught glimpses of it often enough to keep their faith, until at last it broke through the clouds and in a glorious reward, justified the faith of the pioneers.
Someone will have the agreeable work of sup- plementing this narrative of the pioneer days and their hardships by giving an account of the magnifi- cent and beautiful city as well as the great com- mercial city, the dreams of the pioneers, now being fulfilled, but with a future more full of promise.
CHAPTER 12. MOUND BUILDERS. TURKEY FOOT ROCK & ETC.
INCIDENTS, NOTES AND LATER HIS- TORY .- In Judge Doyle's historical manuscript re- corded in the foregoing pages he states his purpose is to produce in one document the most important facts in the earliest development of this territory. He has left the later matter open to be recorded by others and the publishers of the work has taken ad- vantage of this privilege to record some more re- cent facts of value, as well as to append a few inci- dents and notes of earlier times, not touched upon by the able paper of Judge Doyle.
THE MOUND BUILDERS ABOUT TOLEDO. Evidence of the work of the Mound Builders with- in the environs of Toledo is worthy of more than a passing notice. All trace of these earthworks have been obliterated, but there were two circular burial mounds located on the west side of the Maumee river, and a few rods west of where now runs the river road towards Maumee and at a point where this road intersects West Meyer Street. One mound was a few rods south of where said street intersects the river road and the other north of West Meyer street. Both were examined some years ago under the direction of the late Capt. C. W. Everett, and two or three skeletons and a few implements were found. A third small circular mound was in Ottawa park "marked by a clump of trees on the crest of
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the hill, west of the lower bridge" as located by one writer. The fourth and most pretentious mound was on the east bank of the Maumee directly south of the east end of Fassett street bridge. It was also circular in form and rested on the bank of the river. It was the only earth works within Toledo or this immediate section surveyed by Squire and Davis in 1848 for the Smithsonian Institute, when they made their inspection and surveys of the Ohio pre-historic mounds and published in "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valleys." It enclosed about three acres. Charles Whittlesey in his writing says, the bluff here was about 35 feet high and the walls meas- uring from the bottom of the ditches were from three to four feet high and that in places there was a double wall. He also says this was a fort or work of defense and, that it was the most western of a cor- don of defense works along Lake Erie. Several skeletons were excavated in this mound, but were thought to be later Indian burials.
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