USA > Ohio > Erie County > History of Erie County Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 45
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Mr. Olds filled the office of President of the company until his death in De- cember, 1887, upon which event Augustus H. Moss was elected to that posi- tion. The present officers are president, Augustus H. Moss; vice-president, J. O. Moss; secretary and treasurer, Augustus C. Moss; superintendent, Clark Rude; directors, A. H. Moss, Jay O. Moss, A. C. Moss, Horace O. Moss, Clark Rude. The stables and other buildings of the company are situate on Hayes' avenue, at the east end of North Depot street.
SANDUSKY HARBOR.
Sandusky has, undoubtedly the finest land-locked harbor on any of the great lakes. For safety it is unsurpassed, and in natural advantages shows such su-
399
THE CITY OF SANDUSKY.
periority over those cities of the coast that have outstripped Sandusky as to be the marvel of the age why it is thus. When tornadoes and cyclones sweep over the prairies, and pursue their devastating way on either side, this city remains untouched, and the inhabitants almost believe they live a charmed life. With Cedar Point, the peninsula and the surrounding shore there is such an environ- ment as few cities or harbors possess, and had the people been quick to see, and wise to plan, Sandusky Harbor would to- day be alive with masts and smoke- stacks, and Chicago would find a dangerous rival on the shores of Erie.
There were great opportunities in the early days, and at the present time it seems almost incredible that they were not seized and improved. From an old record of that time we learn that "in 1828 there were four hundred and thirty-nine arrivals of vessels. Several steamboats navigated the lake from Buffalo to Detroit, stopping here to receive passengers, and already Sandusky was beginning to be of importance, for it was the only point on the Southern shore where merchandize could be landed for the interior." From an old Ga- cetteer we take the statement that "during all this time Sandusky Bay and sur-
roundings were wholly in their natural condition. Not a dollar had been ex- pended for improvement while the mouths of the rivers, for most part of the time in the business season, were closed up by sand-bars, which, at times, were so firm that loaded wagons could pass over them." Then there came a time that the government put its shoulder to the wheel and said "there must be a better channel," and dredging was begun and carried on until a channel was made from the lighthouse at Cedar Point, to the part of the bay opposite the Baltimore and Ohio docks.
The channel thus made was two hundred feet wide, and sixteen feet deep, and after coming from the light-house it made a sharp elbow opposite the city, and then came in. It is now proposed and will soon be carried out that another channel shall be made, more direct than the old one, whereby the elbow shall be cut off, and a mile and a half of distance saved. This is the great question of the present, and when accomplished the bay will rank with any in our land.
The topography of the coast surrounding the bay has changed so much in fifty years that were one brought to life who was familiar with it at that time, they would scarcely recognize the contour of the shore. In 1821, Peninsula Point, a promontory jutting out toward Cedar Point from the shore this side of Marblehead, was a prominent landmark. The water of the lake flowed into the bay through a narrow strait, not over one hundred rods wide, formed by the two projecting points. One of the oldest inhabitants of the city, Mr. B. F. Dwelle, tells of standing on Peninsula Point with his rifle, and shooting at geese on Cedar Point. At this time the Point in question rose above the water's level fifteen feet in great sand banks where foxes burrowed and raised their young. These banks were just in the rear of the sloping beach, and beyond lay a strip of tall timber land, with a stretch of prairie reaching out to the other
400
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
shore. Then the water began to encroach on the Point, and a marsh " !! formed that threatened to break off the peninsula from the main land.
A crib of rocks and sand at considerable outlay of labor and capital was constructed to save it, but it was useless, and Point and crib went under t . gether, and sand banks and trees were lost to view beneath the rolling waves
At the present time where the bold peninsula reared its head fifteen [ ... above the water, the waves of old Erie lie from six to ten feet in depth. !- 1867 Mr. Dwelle walked across this spot on the ice forty or fifty rods from shors and saw through the transparent ice the remains of the old crib.
Young's Point, still farther to the west is one of the environments of til- bay, and at the beginning of the present century was uninhabited by white men, until Mr. Dwelle's father settled here about 1821. Forty or fifty fam- ilies of the Indians made it their headquarters a part of the year, and gained a livelihood by trapping and hunting. B. F. Dwelle, then a mere boy, caus !!: the fever, and tells of his first money earned by muskrat skins. He remem. bers distinctly coming from Buffalo in a sailing vessel, when his father move.i to the fire-lands, and after seventeen days they reached the lake shore off Cedar Point, where they were put ashore on a kind of raft with a feather bed laid on i :.
Cedar Point then was a bit of wild land seven miles long sheltering, by i :: long arms, Sandusky bay. It was covered with timber, and a sandy beach edged the shore. There was at that time no large amount of navigation on ti .: lake, and no light-house reared its head on the Point to warn of danger. Aboy: 1840 or 1841 the lighthouse was built and later the range-lights were placed :n the vicinity-one at the mouth of the bay and two inside-forming a series of lights well known to all pilots and navigators on Lake Erie. During the sum- mer season, when fishing and sailing are the pastimes of the hour, it is con- sidered quite the thing to sail to the range-lights, and perhaps, visit the light- house on Cedar Point on the return.
In 1882 B. F. Dwelle leased the Point from its owners, Mrs. Adolf and Mr. Stoll, and proceeded to make improvements upon it with a view to attractin,, pleasure seekers to its shores. The first thing to be done was to built a dock where boats could land their passengers, and then a steamboat began making trips across. After partially clearing a part of the land, a walk was built across from the bay to the lake; a house was erected on the side near the bay, and later bathing houses were put up on the lake shore, and Sanduskians be- gan to enjoy their resort by forming parties and excursions to Cedar Point. Mr. Dwelle expended five thousand dollars on Cedar Point, paying no rental for the first season ; a moderate amount for the second, with the same rate of increase each year for the five of his lease. All this time the resort grew in favor. The steamboat, Hayes, made frequent trips, and the bay was aflutter with white-winged sailing vessels through the summer months. So popular did Cedar Point became that boats could scarcely be supplied to meet the de- mand, and newer and better sailing craft were added to the stock on hand.
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401
THE CITY OF SANDUSKY.
Boat building and renting is now an established business, and although some of the firms own forty or fifty boats, it frequently happens that every boat is out, and the party waiting must give up their sail until another day. With the delightful breeze of the water; the pursuit of pleasure under its many forms, such as fishing, picnicking, gathering pond-lilies and bathing, the summer in Sandusky is a season of continued gaiety and delight. Under a new ar- rangement the Point is now leased to a company of five gentlemen, including its former proprietor, Mr. Dwelle. These men are alive to the possibilities of the place and enter heartily into its development until the Cedar Point of the future will rival any of the resorts of our sea-boards in attractive features. A building is to be erected on the farther shore to combine all the features of amusement and entertainment to be found at the fashionable watering places. The old walk across the Point will be taken up and relaid by a plank walk twelve feet wide ; grounds will be cleared and beautified and the delightful stroll to the lighthouse made more agreeable. This company expect to make an outlay of $20,000 the coming season. The new building will be one hun- dred and fifty feet long by eighty wide.
Those who have travelled and visited the summer watering places come to Sandusky and find here the perfection of a resort. There could be but two features added as an improvement to make it out-rival any that are known, viz., mountain scenery and mineral springs. But when it is remembered that Saratoga has no fishing, no possibilities of sailing and picnicking, and Long Branch lies under a glare of sunlight with little variety to its daily program, then contrast these with Sandusky and its many attractions. First among these we have placed Cedar Point because the aged or infirm, or those with moder- ate purses can all enjoy the bathing, sailing, fishing and sociability of this near delight. Then there are the various islands, each of which is a gem in its way. A steam tug from Sandusky will take a party to Canada's shores or Pelee Island, where the Pelee club owns an elegant club-house with all the acces- sories of such an institution. This is one of the events of the season, and the memory stores it up as a red-letter day. On Pelee Island the dock is lined with blocks of native sand-stone, rich with fossils of by-gone ages, waiting for shipment. A walk through a delightful grove over velvety grass brings the visitor to the club house with its broad piazzas and welcome shade. Then lunch and the trip home in the early evening.
Put-in-Bay, with its noted wine cellars, is sure to attract strangers who have heard of it from afar. Ives wine cellar is a curiosity, in and of itself, and when it is estimated how great the amount of the wine made, really is stored here, the figures seem almost incredible ; 750,000 gallons yearly is the standard amount of this cellar, but the proprietor says it always exceeds these figures, and, with the exception of Heidelberg, Germany, here is found the largest wine cask in the world, containing over fourteen thousand gallons,
402
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
and large enough for a cotillion to form on its head. With its bands of brass it is beautiful to behold.
Just across from Put-in-Bay is Gibraltar, the summer home of Jay Cooke. It is built of native stone upon a rocky, jutting point of land, and its name is peculiarly fitting to it. Here, through the heated term, it has been the custom for Mr. Cooke to invite eight or ten clergymen at a time to spend a week or two in bodily recuperation, and many a jaded man has had occasion to thank the owner for the first real rest of his life. North Bass, Middle Bass, Catawba and Kelley's Island, have each their attractive features ; and to those who do not enjoy the water, there are delightful drives into neighboring townships. All that is needed to bring thousands every summer to Sandusky, where hun- dreds now come, is a wider knowledge of its advantages, which may be enu- merated under the heads of cheapness, beauty, health, social delight, bathing, fishing and sailing.
The business of the harbor is by no means to be overlooked as an item of prosperity. During the year 1887 the following entries were made of dutiable articles in their natural state :
Cattle
32
Value $398
20
Amount. $79 60
Pigs
2
4
20
80
Horses
2
215
20
43 00
Corn (bu)
21
5
5
2 10
Pills (England)
21
50
10 50
Smoked or frozen fish (lbs)
1, 109,44I
5,547 23
Butter (lbs)
794
31 76
Potatoes (bu)
169
2 48
Lumber
51 20
Vegetables
54
$5,769 21
There were entered commodities free of duty :
Fresh fish, 3,024,984 lbs
37,211 00
Furs undressed
98 00
Green hides
30 00
House goods
175 00
Fine wool and other commodities
11,054 00
Round timber
4,220 00 .
Sand
50 00
$52,838 00
$5,767 21
$58,605 21
. Investments in fisheries, etc
$300,000 00
Value of fish handled annually in this port
$1,000,000 00
Received from Canadian fisheries (lbs).
4,137.435
Foreign entries of vessels.
606
Foreign clearances ..
585
Foreign entries of merchandise
595
Domestic entry of vessels
1,725
Domestic clearances
1,740
No.
Per cent.
403
THE CITY OF SANDUSKY.
In addition to the above are entries from the district islands. The district lies between Vermillion River on the east and Portage River on the west.
SANDUSKY'S FISH TRADE.
It is always interesting to trace the rise and progress of a large industry and note the steps by which it has grown to its vast proportions. This is certainly true of the fish business of Sandusky, O., which is still comparatively young, but of world-wide notoriety. To read of its early start, seems like a page of ro- mance, and merely a thread of identity connects the primitive trade of its first beginning with the large interests of to-day. Sandusky ranks among the first of the fresh water fish-markets of the world. In quality, quantity, and the mercantile value of its fisheries, it is unsurpassed by any other city on lake or river.
Fishing began first in the bay, while Sandusky was but a mere village, and for many years there was no market for the fish caught. These were mostly catfish, caught with hook and line, and they were exchanged for household commodities through the firms of Hollister & Co., and William Townsend.
The population of the neighboring region must have salt and flour, and such necessities, and others needed leather for their shoes, and a few grocer- ies; so the exchange was effected. Large covered wagons, drawn by four or six horses, and loaded with maple sugar, flour, geese feathers, etc., drove into town, and passed the night in the large yard opposite the present I. B. and W. R. R. depot. In these wagons were all the conveniences for primitive housekeeping, such as bed, frying-pan, coffee pot, etc. This was the first de- mand for catfish, which were scalded, salted, packed and kept on hand by the two dealers mentioned. There was no hotel, and but little money in Sandusky at that time, and the barter was carried on in produce exchange. At that time the business yearly, in fish, amounted to less than five hundred dollars a year. To contrast this with the present business, that aggregates about $600,- 000 per annum, shows the marvelous strides made in the course of a single lifetime.
Fish are classified by dealers into two general divisions, viz. : hard and soft. To the former belong pickerel, black bass, muscalonge and whitefish To the latter : perch, catfish, bass, pike. These terms have no reference to the quality, flavor or fibre of the fish, but relates simply to their marketable value. This has greatly changed in the course of years. Herring, formerly considered the most worthless of all fish, and absolutely without any value, as also sturgeon, that were constantly thrown away when caught, are now the most profitable fish in the trade. Last year, 1887, the catch of herring sent from Sandusky was valued at more than $240,000.
Two great industries have sprung up in connection with the fish trade --- salting and freezing. The latter is. the newer and more recent. The first fish
404
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
were frozen in 1867 as an experiment. It was a success. Year by year this has increased until during the past year 3,715,000 pounds were frozen. To visit the fish houses and see the operation of preparing for and freezing this vast amount of fish, is one of the most interesting sights imaginable. Sheet iron pans a few inches in depth by two feet long and a foot wide, are used for this purpose. Into these, with their noses all one way are laid the herring, or fish to be frozen, and this pan is packed in large wooden boxes with salt and ice interspersed. When the box is full (and each box holds half a ton), the lid is put on, and these boxes are set in a row around the warehouse. This is called the process of sharp freezing, and at the end of six hours they are frozen as hard as ice. They are then taken from the pans and packed in storing rooms from floor to ceiling until the rooms are solid with frozen fish, whose noses all point one way. These storing rooms are about sixteen feet square, and kept at a steady, freezing temperature. When the fish are shipped they are packed in wooden boxes and sent off in refrigerator cars.
In 1851 J. Spencer, with that foresight peculiar to New Englanders, came to Sandusky from Westbrook, Conn., to engage in the fish business. He brought the first pound ever used here, and drove the stakes in the bay. At this time whitefish were unknown in this locality, and no one had thought it possible to fish in the lake. Spencer would come in the spring, remain two months and then go back to Connecticut. All his nets were made there by women and brought here and joined together. In 1852 he persuaded Captain Kize, of Sandusky, to go in the business with him, and the latter having just been appointed to take care of the light-house at Marblehead, urged the exper- iment of trying a pound there. Not to lose too heavily, Mr. Spencer bought a second-hand shad net in Connecticut for fifteen dollars, to which they put lead- ers and heart, and put it out there, and the experiment resulted in a season's catch that amounted to $1,800.
The largest catch in the fall of 1887 was said to be 1,200 tons on the 6th and 7th of November, whereby all hands were kept at work day and night. A large amount of the fish brought to Sandusky come on steamboats that run to the different islands. The Eagle brings as many as three hundred boxes per . day, and other vessels are laden in proportion.
There was a change inaugurated this year in the prices paid for fish. whereby one-eighth of a cent was added each month. In December two and one-half cents were paid, in January two and three-eighths cents, etc., et Dealers at a distance, in order to take advantage of this rate, made it a rule : . crowd their orders upon the latter part of the month, and thus escape the added fraction. The demand for salt fish was never better than during 18 .: Over 3,000,000 pounds were packed and shipped, amounting in dollars an . cents to more than $100,000 in salt fish alone.
From reliable statistics the following figures give some idea of the business
.
-
405
THE CITY OF SANDUSKY.
Capital invested, $500,000; nets operated, 558; fishermen employed, 325; other employees, 200. Fish caught are in the following quantity: Herring, 11,914,- 500 pounds ; saugers, 980,000 pounds ; whitefish, 567,950 pounds; hard fish, 508,620 pounds; perch, 352,165 pounds; catfish, 151,560 pounds ; sturgeon, 550,000 pounds. The value as follows: Herring. $238,280; saugers, $19,606; white, $37,656; hard, $30,517; perch, $5,281; cat, $9,693; sturgeon, $27,500. Of the total receipts, 4,000,000 pounds came from Canadian waters. There are eight firms engaged in scale-fish and two in sturgeon. The latter was for many years considered worthless and thrown away as a monster of the finny tribe, but in 1867 Siemon Schacht began the caviare business in a small way. This opened a market for sturgeon for which the fishermen were paid twelve and a half cents for the female, while the males were thrown away. Then Mr. Schacht began smoking and packing sturgeon meat. By degrees other parts of the fish were utilized for fish oil and isinglass, until now every stur- geon brings one dollar each. This fish is rapidly decreasing, although the firm Fruechtnicht & Neilson received two hundred and twenty-five tons of sturgeon, from which they produced nine hundred kegs of caviare. The senior member of this firm is in Germany at present, that being the market for caviare, and from that country it is shipped back again as an imported article.
There are ten firms engaged in the fish business in Sandusky. Of these eight deal in scale fish, and two in sturgeon-the firm of Fruechtnicht & Neil- son, also Paysen & Co. Of the former trade are Adolph & Zollinger, Arend Brothers, Hosmer & Co., Lay Brothers, Henry Lay, H. C. Post & Co., Siemon Schacht, A. J. Stoll.
In amount of business done, perhaps this list should be headed by the firm of H. C. Post & Co., and A. J. Stoll, but it is known that several of these firms do more than $100,000 worth of business yearly.
H. C. Post & Company. The first regular business in packing and export- ing fish from Sandusky in large quantities began about 1856. At that time the firm of Jackson & Post commenced business in a little building fourteen by sixteen on the corner of the dock near their present spacious quarters. For this building they paid a rental of one dollar a week for the time they occupied it, which was but a portion of the year. Their rent at the present time is about one thousand dollars a year.
In this small way they began by buying fish from fishermen, mostly from Spencer & Kize, at Marblehead. At that time their trade scarcely amounted to $5,000 per annum.
In 1860 Canadians began bringing fish from other waters in pound-boats or sharpies. The firm changed to Post & Lewis, and has since become, and now is known as that of H. C. Post & Co. The first experiment in freezing fish took place in 1867 and was a decided success. Since that time an enor- mous industry has been added to the old method of salting and packing, 52
406
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
until now this firm alone handles the fish caught in one hundred and forty pounds.
Herring, formerly considered worthless, is now the principal article of trade, and is exported by this firm in immense quantities to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington.
In the year 1876 the steam tug Louise was built by Beemiller, Schatt, and the engineer, and after two or three years was bought by H. C. Post & Co. to run to Canada for fish. This firm also run the City of Dresden, for the same purpose. They bought a farm of eighty acres on Point Pelee, where they have built a house for dressing fish that measures forty by ninety, also a boarding- house for their employees, and ice-houses and boats. This gives them the con- trol of the point, which with the shore of the mainland under their control. gives them more than fifteen miles of fishing waters. They catch in April, May, June, and July, and sell fresh or salt. From September till the lake is frozen they export them, fresh, salt, or frozen, and through the season employ from seventy-five to one hundred men. They have ten freezing rooms sixteen feet square, and the fish purchased by them this fall amounted to sixty thou- sand dollars, while their spring trade will be at least twenty thousand dollars more. H. C. Post has been a leader in the business from the first, and emi nently successful, and to visit his packing-house and storing-rooms convinces the observer that in the course of a single life-time, by the use of ordinary means, an industry may grow from a child to a giant. The sales from this firm for 1887 amounted to 6,795,700 pounds of fish-an enormous quantity when the mind fully grasps it.
A. J. Stoll .- In 1877 A. J. Stoll bought from L. Anthony his present com- modious place at the foot of Columbus avenue, formerly occupied by O'Hagan & Anthony. He proceeded to fit up the building for the business of salting, freezing and packing fish, with rooms for freezing and preserving, storing, etc. With a frontage of one hundred feet and a depth of two hundred, he has a capacity for storing four hundred and fifty tons. Their most profitable busi- ness is in handling and exporting fresh and frozen fish. Salting is not con- sidered profitable, and only the surplus is thus used.
Mr. Stoll handles the fish from seventy-five pounds, employs during the busy season one hundred and twenty-five men, has his ice-houses capable of holding a year's supply of ice, and carries on a large and successful business. He buys fish from the south shores of Lake Erie, the islands of the lake and the shores of Canada. His business has trebled itself in ten years, and he is known as one of the most prosperous men in the trade. During the fall he ships mostly to Buffalo, New York, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. During the entire year he supplys towns in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, New York, and Pennsylvania.
Adolf & Zollinger .- In 1856 Ferdinand Geiersdorf started this business
a& Stoll.
407
THE CITY OF SANDUSKY.
and continued in it for many years. He died in 1870, and two years later Mr. Adolf took charge of it. In 1880 it became the firm of Adolf & Zollinger. It is one of the most prosperous houses in the trade in Sandusky, and has a capacity for storing four hundred tons of frozen fish and an unlimited quantity of salt fish. It controls seventy-five pounds and employs about seventy-five men. In 1887 its business amounted to $75,000.
Henry Lay & Co .- The firm of Henry Lay & Co. was established almost a quarter of a century ago by A. Biemiller, who, at that time, occupied a little building fourteen by sixteen, and began fish business in a small way. He continued in the business until 1880 or 1881, when Henry Lay went into part- nership with him, and the firm became Biemiller & Co. Six months later Mr. Biemiller died and Henry Lay became proprietor, and the firm was changed to Henry Lay & Co.
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