Commemorative historical and biographical record of Wood County, Ohio : its past and present : early settlement and development biographies and portraits of early settlers and representative citizens, etc. V. 1, Part 41

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.) cn; J.H. Beers & Co. cn
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1060

USA > Ohio > Wood County > Commemorative historical and biographical record of Wood County, Ohio : its past and present : early settlement and development biographies and portraits of early settlers and representative citizens, etc. V. 1 > Part 41

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Hundreds of stories relating to these days are still told. Hosmer pictures the determined character of the old lake captains of the Maumee more than once, and Capt. David Wilkinson particularly. In the fall of the year 1840, Capt. Wilkinson's steamboat, "Commodore Perry." was lying at the Perrysburg dock, the Captain was sick, and his crew were either sick or scat- tered. The Captain was a great admirer of Commodore Perry, and always made it a point to attend celebrations of Perry's victory over the British fleet at Put-in-Bay. In that year the great naval triumph was celebrated in grand style at Erie, Penn. Sick as was Wilkinson, he was bound to attend the celebration, and insisted npon Shibnah Spink taking charge of the boat for the trip. A raw crew was collected, the Captain was carried to the boat and placed on a cot in his room, and the trip was made success- inlly, though not without many difficulties which seemed almost insurmountable. Those who knew him were not surprised at his making the trip. for all obstacles were forced to yield when he determined upon a line of action.

The story of the " Queen Mab, " as associated with the old "Exchange Hotel," is a familiar one to the people of Perrysburg. Inside the bar was a small trap door in the floor known to but few persons. Beneath was a walled cellar deep and dark which was reached by a step ladder. This umknown vault was once stored full of the highest grades of imported liquors. How they came there, where from and when, outsiders did not know. About that time a fellow named Jack Olney frequented the Manmee a good deal. Jack was a New Yorker, a confirmed cripple, yet a jolly, openhanded sort of a fellow, a favorite with sporting men. Jack owned a little pleasure craft called " Queen Mab." She was ship-rigged in every appointment, painted black, and as handsome as a bird and a good sailer. Jack fre- quented the river, bay, and lake as far as Detroit

and Malden, and often indulged his friends in a pleasure ride on the "Queen Mab," treating them with the most generous hospitality. But the report leaked out after the "Queen " had gone, that she was a sly little smuggler, false lined and equipped for the business, yet so care- fully as to leave no ground for suspicion. So in- significant a craft of course received no attention from the custom officer who was stationed then at Miami, and the dark-mantled little "Queen " had no trouble in taking on a valuable cargo at Malden in the night and making her way unsus- pected to any of the lake or river ports. Whether she ever landed a cargo on the island in the Maumee in front of Perrysburg, which afterward found its way to the dark cellar, is at best only a surmise. Bensman and Thurber, the original proprietors of the house, who were favorites on the "Queen," are gone; the cellar walls have long since tumbled in, but the impressions of our chronicler are that Jack Olney could tell how that cellar came to be stored with the best im- ported high grade liquors, and that there never was a gayer smuggler than the little " Queen Mab."

Among the stories of wrecks by winds, or col- lisions, or fires, that of the schooner . Eclipse," in September, 1822; of the schooner " Sylph," in May, 1824; that of the schooner "Surprise," April 28 or 29, 1826; that of the schooner "Guerriere ," May 29, 1832; and that of the steamer "G. P. Griffith," June 17, 1850, con- cern the marine of the Maumee, either in owner- ship or personnel of people lost. In 1826, Capt. David Wilkinson commanded the "Guer- riere" and rescued the survivors of the wrecked "Surprise." In 1832, the "Guerriere" was sailed by R. Pember for John Hollister, the owner. When lost on Middle Sister Island, May 29, 1832, it was Capt. Pember who saved most of the crew and passengers, a woman and her four children being lost. In 1850, Charles C. Robey was captain of the " G. P. Griffith." He, his wife, mother-in-law and two children, all of Perrysburg, were drowned, and about 300 passen- gers perished in the waters of Lake Erie. Most of the crew, too, were lost, so that, all in all, the burning of the steamer, in sight of Fairport. Ohio, that 17th of June, 1850, was a calamity as appalling then as the burning of a great ocean liner would be to-day.

Comparisons. - In 1838, the merchants of Perrysburg paid on freight from New York City at the rate of $22 a ton, via the Erie canal and lake boats, while from Perrysburg to Chicago a sum of $to extra was charged. The fall rates

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were very much higher, being no less than $4 for a package the size of a barrel between Buffalo and Chicago. The insurance was $12.50 a ton between these points, and between Perrysburg and Chicago $8. 34 a ton. The completion of the Michigan Southern Railroad to Chicago, in 1852, changed all this, brought Perrysburg within a few hours' ride of the Gateway to the West, and made traveling a luxury rather than an affliction. In 1841 Toledo began to take the lead of Perrys- burg in marine interests; in 1842 seven steam- boats were gathered under one management to run between Buffalo and Toledo, and, within a few years, the new town on the site of Fort In- dustry took precedence in everything except beauty of location. Perrysburg, of course, did not lose all her marine interests; for, until recent years, ship building was carried on, and several large boats were launched from her yards each year.

Railroads. - In 1832 the Ohio Legislature granted charters to twelve railroad companies, but of the number the Mad River & Lake Erie was the only one constructed. In 1839 this road was completed to Bellevue from Sandusky, and in 1844 to Dayton, Ohio. In 1832, when the name Toledo began to mean the village on each bank of the Maumee, below the Rapids, the idea of railroads running through the Black Swamp took possession of the leading spirits among the people, and Toledo would, in their mind's eye, become the great terminal of many systems. There were 232. 54 miles of railroad completed in Wood county down to the close of 1893, of which the B. & O. had 24.46 miles; the Bowling Green, 21.21; the Columbus, Findlay & North- ern, 1.06; the C., H. V. & T., 35. 38; the Dayton & Michigan, 37.34; the L. S. & M. S., 15.51; the T. & O. C. main line, 41.40, and Western line, 40.87 ; the Toledo, St. Louis & Kansas City, 2.09, and the Toledo, Walhonding Valley & Ohio, 13.42.

The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad begins its history with the charter granted by Michigan, in 1832, to the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Co. Its history, so far as it relates to Wood county, begins in 1850. when the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad was undertaken, which was completed to Toledo, December 20, 1852, and through service to Chicago inaugurated February 7. 1853. The Junction Railroad Co. began paralleling the T., N. & C. in 1850, via Per- rysburg and Maumee, and pushed forward the work as far as grading and building piers for the proposed bridge at Perrysburg. In 1853 the en- terprise fell into the ownership of what is now

the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Co., and work ceased along the line, though subse- quent efforts were made to have the road com- pleted. The vote of Perrysburg, in May, 1851, on the question of subscribing $50,000 to thie Junction Railroad Co. was 98 pro and I contra -- the odd fellow being a German laborer who had his own ideas on such subscriptions. In June, W. V. Way was elected a director; B. F. Hollis- ter and John C. Spink being among the directors elected October 25, 1850. The Cleveland and Toledo company constructed a bridge at Toledo in 1855. The line between Cleveland and Buf- falo was completed in 1853 by three corporations known as the Buffalo & Erie, the Erie & North- east and the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Companies. In 1853 the Erie & Northwest was consolidated with the other two roads, and its six- foot gauge made to correspond with the four- foot-ten-inch gauge of the two roads forming that link in the present trunk line. The Erie Gauge war resulted. In 1869 the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Co. was formed as owner in fact of all the lines named, together with the proprietary roads known as the Toledo & De- troit, the White Pigeon & Kalamazoo, the Jones- ville & Lansing, and the lines running to Oil City, Pennsylvania.

The Ohio Railroad Company, organized at Painesville April 25, 1836, was granted $249,000 by the State, and large sums of money from the people along its proposed line, from the Pennsyl- vania boundary to Manhattan, on the Maumee. 177 miles. At Maumee the crossing of the river would be made so as to connect with the pro- posed Manhattan & Detroit Railroad. Under the plans of the projectors, the superstructure from the Maumee to Fremont (twenty-nine miles) was completed in March, 1842: but here the work ended, and the sum of $237,220, or $11, 780 less than the State contributed, was lost.

The Pittsburg & Bellefontaine Railroad was a reality so far as bonds and good will were con- cerned. The Act authorizing Wood county to subscribe $100,000 to this road was observed by the commissioners April 23, 1839, when they subscribed for one thousand $100 shares and ap- pointed an agent to borrow the money. As told in the transactions of the conunissioners, this agent's report and his resignation were received and accepted, and the end of the enterprise was at hand. There is no report of the cancellation of the subscription, or of any further dealing with the bonds.

The Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad Company may be said to have become the owner

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of Wood county's first north and south road. The Dayton & Michigan Railroad Co. was chartered in Ohio, March 5, 1851, to build a road from Dayton, Ohio, through Wood county, via Lima and Toledo, to the Michigan line in the direction of Detroit. On June 17, 1859, the road was completed to Tontogany. On August 18, 1859, the road was completed to Toledo, the cost of construction and equipment being $6,903, 190.92. T. J. S. Smith was then president, Matthew Shoemaker, superintendent, and Preserved Smith, treasurer. Ten days after the date given. its first freight was received at Toledo, being ten cars of staves consigned to P. H. Brickhead & Co. On May 1, 1863, the D. & M. was con- solidated with the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Day- ton road. Down to 1880, a rate as high as ten cents a mile, and as low as two and one-fourth cents a mile, was charged for passenger service. The frieght rates ranged from seven to twenty cents a ton for one mile to one and four cents a a ton a mile, for through freight. The main line from Toledo to Cincinnati is 202.3 miles in length; Dayton to Ironton, 164. 1 miles; Dayton to Delphos, 94.9 miles; Tontogany to North Baltimore, 19.4 miles; Cincinnati to Middletown, 13.9 miles; Hamilton to Indianapolis, 99 miles; and Desher to Findlay, 18. 1 miles, or 611. 7 miles of single track.

The Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railway was conceived in 1867, to remedy the delays in travel between Cincinnati and Toledo. via the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati and the Cleveland and Toledo Railroads. At a meet- ing held in Columbus in 1867. Gen. Robinson, of Hardin county, presiding, with Fred R. Miller, of Wood county, secretary, it was resolved to continue the Columbus & Hocking Valley Rail- road, then in operation northward. At a meet- ing held the same year in Toledo, the authority to seek charters for four companies was given; C. C. Waite, a son of Chief Justice M. R. Waite, was appointed chief engineer, and by December 13. 1867, he reported the survey of a line, 1233 miles in length, from Toledo, via New Rochester, Freeport, West Millgrove, Fostoria, Springville. Upper Sandusky, Marion, Middleton, Bellepoint, White Sulphur Springs, and Dublin, to Colum- bus. This line was not adopted. Within a year or two the " West Line," [27] miles long, was surveyed through Bowling Green and Marys- ville, while the .. East Line." 123.7 miles in length, was surveyed almost over the route of the survey of 1867. In March, 1873, the choice of rontes was submitted to the Toledo council, and that body selected the eastern survey. In May.

1873. Toledo, which had donated $200, 000 to- ward the construction of the East Line, voted a similar sum toward the construction of a road over the western survey. Work was begun under the charter of May 28, 1872, to the Columbus & Toledo Co., and to the other road, on each line, but the supreme court declared its donations un- constitutional, and this judginent caused the ces- sation of work on the .. West Line," while the "East Line" builders pushed forward their enter- prise, and on December 5. 1876, saw the road completed. On January 10. 1877. the first through passenger train, over that road. rolled through Wood county en route to Columbus.

The Toledo & Woodville Railroad was a local enterprise of 1869, suggested to Toledoans by the greed of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern. which down to that date commanded Toledo's commercial aspirations east of the river, and op- posed them in many ways. This terminal road was to extend 223 miles southeast to Woodville, in Sandusky county, and offer to the new roads an easy entrance into the city. A sum of $450, - 000 was voted by the citizens toward the con- struction. J. H. Sargent surveyed the line, and April 10, 1870, J. Edwin Conant was awarded the contract for construction; but he surrendered such contract, and May 4. 1871, the directors contracted with the Baltimore & Ohio, the To- ledo & Michigan, and the Mansfield, Coldwater & Lake Michigan Companies to pay for right of way and depot grounds, and bridge the Maumee, the city giving $420,000 in bonds, if the work were completed within eighteen months. The companies named contracted with the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company to iron the road, build depots, machine shops, and equip the little sys- tem. On June 11, 1872, the trustees, displeased with the slow procedure, accepted a contract from the Pennsylvania Company. On May 1, 1873, the road was open for traffic, and Feb- ruary 2, 1874. a train of twenty-seven cars left Toledo for Philadelphia. In 1878, the trustees sold the road to the Pennsylvania Company for $225,000, without conditions. It may be called a terminal road, since the great Pennsylvania Company, and the C., II. V. & Toledo use it in entering from the south; the Detroit & Canada Southern, the Toledo. Ann Arbor & North Mich- igan, and the Ohio & Michigan, in entering from the north. It is not now known by its original name. The Toledo & State Line road, built in 1872-73, was merged into the Pennsylvania sys- tem, and now forms a part of that road.

The Ohio Central Company is the. new name of the Atlantic & Lake Erie Railroad Company,

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incorporated in June, 1869, to build a railroad from Toledo, via Fostoria, Bucyrus, Mt. Gilead, New Lexington and Athens, to Columbus. What work was done under that charter became the property of the reorganized company-the Ohio Central Railroad Company -- in 1879, when the Sunday Creek Valley road was absorbed. In 1880, the branch fromn Corning to Shawnee, in Perry county, was completed and accepted by the new company, so that by the new year of 1881, 148 miles of road, from Bush's Station to Toledo, and sixty-five miles from Corning to Columbus, were in operation. Froin September 29, 1883, to April 15, 1885, the company's af- fairs were in the hands of a receiver. Then the bondholders became owners, and reorganized as the Toledo & Ohio Central Railway Company. In August, 1886, the company leased a portion of the Kanawha & Ohio Railroad, and entered on that prosperous business career which has made it not only a great international coal-road, but also a great freight and passenger road between Central and Northern Ohio. On January 30, 1883, the last spike in the Toledo and Indian- . apolis road, between Toledo and Findlay, was driven. On January 27, the first hand-car rolled into Bowling Green, and three days later passen- ger trains brought invited guests to the barbecue at Allentown, or Cygnet, in Bloom township, tendered by E. Shinabarger, the owner of the new village, in recognition of the completion of the road. The gross earnings for the year ending August 3!, 1895, amounted to $1, 903,990.04, and the net earnings to $190,740.23.

The Toledo, St. Louis & Kansas City, known as "The Clover Leaf," is the new name of the Toledo, Delphos & Burlington Railway. The company, organized in May, 1879, as the legal name of the consolidated companies, known as the Toledo, Delphos & Indianapolis Railway Com- pany, organized in 1872; the Toledo & Maumee Narrow Gauge, incorporated the same year; the Delphos & Kokomo, and the Delphos, Bluffton & Frankfort, incorporated in 1877.

The project of building the Toledo, Thornton & St. Louis Railroad was discussed in January, 1872, before a meeting held at Bowling Green, Dr. T. M. Cook, E. Reed, S. L. Boughton and E. A. Barton being the principal speakers.

In 1880 the Dayton, Covington & Toledo was absorbed, and in March, 1881, the Dayton & Southeastern. The last named company's line from Dayton to Gallipolis, 144 iniles, was con- structed, in fact, by the T. D. & B .; in 188! the branch, from Lebanon to the junction, with the Cincinnati Northern, was built, and, same

year, a branch from Wellston to Ironton was commenced. The extension of the Swan Creek road to Hamilton street, Toledo, where it con- nects with the T., St. L. &. K. C., was an indi- vidual rather than a corporate enterprise. George Laskey, who resided at Grand Rapids until his removal to Toledo, in 1877, was one of the found- ers of the T., St. L. & K. C. system. It was a narrow-guage road connecting Grand Rapids with Toledo, and, until and since its absorption by the "Clover Leaf, "the principal aid to Grand Rapids' trade and commerce.

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad .- The beginnings of this historic railroad were made July 4, 1828. by no less a personage than Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. The nucleus of this present immense system was for many years the only means of rapid transit between the Forks of the Ohio and Balti- more. In later years the road was gradually ex- tended westward, after the design of its founders, and in our own times, by new lines and consolida- tion of short roads, pushed forward its iron bands to the Gateway of the West, becoming, under the Garretts, a trunk line connecting Lake Michi- gan with the Chesapeake-the old city of Mary- land with the new and precocious city of Illinois. Early in 1872 the work of construction between Newark (Ohio) and Chicago was entered upon, and this extension of 365 miles completed, the road was opened for traffic to Baltimore, 83! miles, in November, 1874. The Pittsburg & Western, leased for some years by the Baltimore & Ohio Company, became the property of the company in 1891, and, with the new road from Akron to Chicago Junction, is used as the short line between Chicago and Baltimore -- the old line via Bellaire and Grafton being 858. 8 miles, or 27.8 miles longer than the road via Akron and Pittsburg. The total length of the four great divisions of this system is 2,052.98 miles, to which may be added 614.68 miles of second, third and fourth track, and 756.74 miles of side track, or a total of 3.424. 35. The rolling stock embraces 896 locomotives, 689 passenger coaches and 27, 589 freight cars. At Chicago its terminal facilities are represented by the great depot and yards known as the Grand Central Depot, a mod- ern palace on Harrison street, near the business center, while at Washington and Baltimore its terminals hold even as close a relation to the hearts of these cities. The main line through Wood county (twenty-four miles in length within this county) was constructed under the charter of 1872. On this division all through trains over the old and new roads run, affording unusual ad- vantages to the southern half of the county. The

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road may be credited with founding the thriving towns of North Baltimore and Bloomdale, and the villages of Welker, Bairdstown, Denver and Hoytville; for without it, enterprising men would scarcely seek, on their sites, safe places for the in- vestiment of capital. The exhibit of the Balti- more & Ohio at the World's Fair was in itself a history in iron and wood, showing the quaint be- giunings of the road in contrast with its present magnificence in extent and equipment. The gen- eral superintendent makes headquarters at Chi- cago, Ill., while the general passenger agent- Charles O. Scull-has his office in Baltimore, the birthplace of the road.

The Bowling Green & Tontogany Railroad. and the Bowling Green & North Baltimore Rail- road are referred to in the chapter on Bowling Green.

The Toledo & Maumee Valley Railroad Com-

pany was organized by Parks Foster, W. A. Taylor, Thomas II. Tracey, A. K. Detweiler and others, to build a road from Toledo to Perrys- burg. The road, eight miles in length, was com- pleted in August, 1894 (in forty days), eight miles from the Toledo city limits to Perrysburg. Early in 1895 this company widened the bridge at Perrysburg, so that this road will connect with the company's road to Maumee, making a belt road. Proposed extensions of this electric sys- tem are seriously entertained, and it would not be surprising to learn, within a few years, that all the important towns and villages of the county were connected with the county seat by electric railways. [Since the writing of the above the road has been extended to Bowling Green, completed October, 1896, and is in operation under the name of The Toledo, Bowling Green and Fremont Electric Railroad. ]

CHAPTER XXIV.

[BY FRANK W. DUNN.]

PUBLIC LANDS-INDIAN TREATIES -- LAND SURVEYS AND SALES IN THE WESTERN TERRITORY -- THE " SEVEN RANGES"-FIRST AND LATER SURVEYS WITHIN WHAT IS NOW WOOD COUNTY -FIRST GRANT MADE BY CONGRESS FOR LANDS LYING WITHIN PRESENT LIMITS OF WOOD 1 COUNTY-TOWN OF PERRYSBURG-PUBLIC SALE OF LANDS AT WOOSTER-SUNDRY ACTS OF CONGRESS RELATING TO PUBLIC LANDS-LAND GRANTS-MILITARY BOUNTY LANDS-CANAL LANDS-SWAMP LANDS-SCHOOL LANDS-MISCELLANEOUS GRANTS-CONCLUSION.

B UT little is known, comparatively, outside of official sources about the history of the public lands of the United States. In this chapter, for which no higher rank is claimed than that of a compilation, only a few of the more important matters can be noted; yet sufficient, perhaps, to enable the general reader to obtain a greater knowledge of the original history of the lands in this portion of the Na- tional domain, which have, within the memory of men yet living, been subdued and trans- formed from a dense wilderness of forest, into pleasant farm homes and villages.

The public lands of the United States were acquired by treaty, cessions by States, conquest or purchase. Under the treaty of peace of Sep- tember 3, 1783, closing the war of the Revolu- tion, Great Britain recognized the United States, as sovereign and independent, and relinquished

all proprietary and territorial rights of the same. During the period of government of the United States, under the Articles of Confed- eration. the Western lands, which included the · entire territory east of the Mississippi river and north of the Ohio river, and west of Pennsylva- nia, became the subject of much heated discus- sion among the thirteen original States, each claiming the right to control, to sell and dispose of such of the lands as it claimed to own. Many of the claims conflicted, on account of overlap- ping boundaries, as defined in the grants from Great Britain, to the different colonies and to in- dividuals; but this difficulty was finally adjusted, by deeds of cession from the several States to the National Government. When the Govern- ment was subsequently organized, the title to the nnappropriated public kids became vested in it, as the successor of the Government, under the Con-

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federation. At this time the Mississippi river was the western boundary of the United States.

Within a few months after the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States, and after the cession of Western land, by the States of New York and Virginia, the Con- gress of the Confederation immediately began to take steps toward the organization of the Western Territory. A committee of three members, con- sisting of Thomas Jefferson, Mr. Chase, and Mr. Howell, submitted to Congress resolutions em- bodying a plan for the temporary government of this Territory. These resolutions provide that the lands ceded, or to be ceded, by individual States to the United States, when the same shall have been bought of the Indian inhabitants, and of- fered for sale by the United States, shall be formed into additional States.

Indian Treaties. - The several treaties, al- ready referred to at length, were, in the earlier instances, treaties of occupancy, and, in the later cases, treaties of cession. They were written for this chapter; but, as Mr. Evers had also sum- marized them in connection with the military movements against the Indians, they are omitted here.

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Commemorative historical and biographical record of Wood County, Ohio : its past and present : early settlement and development biographies and portraits of early settlers and representative citizens, etc. V. 1, Part 41

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.) cn; J.H. Beers & Co. cn Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 1060

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.) cn; J.H. Beers & Co. cn
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1060