History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 22

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > Ohio > Sandusky County > History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882 > Part 22

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

territory included by this line, which was the line mentioned in the proviso above noticed, Ohio had not up to that time exercised any specific jurisdiction. This act specifically required the public officers of the townships and counties bounded by this line to exercise jurisdiction to it, thus enforcing the laws of Ohio over a considerable territory, which for a number Of years had been tacitly subject to the laws of the Territory of Michigan.

On the 12th of February, 1835, the legislative council of Michigan passed an act, the second section of which reads as follows:

And be it further enacted, that if any person residing within this Territory shall accept any office or trust from any State authority other than the government of the United States or the Territory of Michigan, every person so offending shall be fined not exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisoned five years at the discretion of the court before which any conviction may be had.

The act of the General Assembly of Ohio above mentioned, also provided that the Governor should appoint three commis- sioners to run the line and distinctly mark it on trees, and by monuments where trees were not available for the purpose; that is, mark the line which terminated at the northernmost cape of the Maumee Bay.

In the two acts above mentioned may be seen the rising clouds which were soon to culminate in a storm of opposing authorities, and the collision of hostile forces. The acting governor of Michigan, Stevens T. Mason, seeing Ohio preparing to take from Michigan a part of her territory, prepared to execute the laws and defend what he understood to be the rights of the people of Michigan. To do this and to effectually drive off all hostile invaders from the soil in his Territory, he ordered Brigadier-General Brown, under his command, to have in readiness a military force to repel any encroachment upon their Territory, and intimated to the authorities of

148

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

Ohio in plain terms, that the first man who should attempt to run the line ordered by the authorities of the State of Ohio, would be shot without hesitation or compunction.

The citizens of Toledo, then a small village situated on the disputed territory, manifested a disposition to yield to the claims and jurisdiction of Ohio. This disposition on their part raised a spirit of jealousy against them in the minds of the people of Michigan, which led the latter to commit unwarrantable and odious dep- redations upon the citizens of that village.

Numerous instances of violence and kidnapping resulted from the hostility engen- dered by the contest for civil jurisdiction by Ohio over this disputed territory, and to prevent the survey of the line as required by the law of the State. These outrages brought Governor Lucas to the conclusion that the commissioners he had appointed to make the survey would be arrested while performing their duty, and the work prevented unless protected by adequate force. Sincerely believing that the claim of Ohio was legal and just, and feeling it to be his solemn duty to see the laws of the State faithfully executed, though regretting the necessity for force, he resolved to use force, if it must be used, to execute the law and maintain the rights of the State.

The Governor, for the purpose of pro- tecting the commissioners and maintaining the peace, ordered General John Bell, then a brigadier-general of Ohio militia, to raise five hundred men to rendezvous at Lower Sandusky on the aid of April, 1835, and repair immediately to headquarters at Fort Miami, on the Maumee River and there be in readiness for service.

On the 31st of March of that year Governor Lucas, with his staff and the boundary commissioners, arrived at Perrys-

burgh on their way to run the line as directed by the law of Ohio.

General Bell, then in command of the Seventeenth division of Ohio militia, the boundaries of which included the disputed territory, arrived about the same time with near three hundred men, who went into camp at Fort Miami to await orders. This force was the first to report, and was from the vicinity of the expected conflict, being under the command of Colonel Mathias Van Fleet. The Lucas Guards, an independent company of Toledo, formed a part of this force. These were soon after joined by part of a regiment from Sandusky county, under command of Colonel Lewis Jennings; also a part of a regiment from Seneca and Hancock counties under command of Colonel Henry C. Brish, of Tiffin, numbering about three hundred more; all together numbering about six hundred effective men. The last mentioned three hundred men, and the Governor and staff, as well as the surveying party, necessarily had to pass through the Black Swamp, by the Maumee and Western Reserve road, in the spring of the year.

And now we have arrived at the event which makes the mention of this war perti- nent in the history of the Maumee and Western Reserve road, and that lies in the fact that the contest over the north boundary of the State, made it necessary for the troops and officers, the Governor and his staff, and the commissioners, to run the line, and many other distinguished and influential men of the State and from other States, to wallow through thirty-one miles of mud and water, and to realize that it was for land travel the connecting and only way from the East to the rapidly developing region of the Northwest ; and to realize further, that the condition of the road was a shame and a disgrace to the State.

But now that we have gone thus far in

149

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

the mention of the war, let us briefly trace it to the conclusion and then resume the more direct history of the road.

On Sunday, the 26th of April, the sur- veying party which had been engaged in running the line, when resting about a mile south of the line, in what they consider a part of Henry county, in Ohio, at about 12 o'clock noon, were surprised by about fifty of Governor Mason's mounted men, well armed with muskets, under command of General Brown. The commissioners who at the time, had only five armed men with them, who had been employed as a lookout and as hunters for the party, thought it prudent to retire, and so advised the men. Several made good their escape, but nine of the party did not leave the ground in time, and, after being fired upon by the enemy, were taken prisoners and carried away to the interior of Michigan. The names of those who were thus captured are, Colonels Scott, Hawkins, and Gould, Major Robert S. Rice, father of our Congressman-elect, and of our other prominent citizens, William A., Robert S., and A. H. Rice; Captain Samuel Biggerstaff, and Messrs. Ellsworth, Fletcher, Moale, and Reckets. These men were taken by an armed force to Tecumseh, Michigan, brought before a magistrate there for examination, and, though they there denied the jurisdiction of Michigan, six entered bail for their appearance, two were released as not guilty, and one, Fletcher, refused to give bail and was retained in custody.

Governor Lucas, finding it impracticable to run the line without further Legislative aid, disbanded his forces and called an extra session of the General Assembly to meet on the 8th of June, which was held accordingly. That body passed an act to prevent the forcible abduction of citizens of Ohio, and made the crime punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, not

less than three nor more than seven years; it also passed an act to create the county of Lucas out of the north part of Wood county, including the disputed territory north of it, and a portion of the northwest corner of Sandusky county. The General Assembly also provided ample means to enforce the claims of Ohio. It appropropriated three hundred thousand dollars to carry its laws into effect, and authorized the Governor to borrow the money.

It was ascertained by the Adjutant-General of Ohio, Samuel C. Andrews, that not less than twelve thousand men in the State were ready to volunteer to sustain and enforce the claims and laws of Ohio.

The partisans of Michigan continued, during the summer of 1835, to arrest and harass the people on the disputed territory, and the war cloud daily became more and more portentous and threatening.

Before the forces under General Bell had reached the scene of military operations, the President of the United States had sent Hon. Richard Rush, of Philadelphia, and Colonel Howard, of Baltimore, as commissioners to use their influence to stop the warlike demonstrations. These eminent men were accompanied by Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, one of Ohio's most honored public men, and these endeavored to persuade Governor Mason to permit the line to be peaceably surveyed and marked, and then let matters rest as they had been before, until the next session of Congress; but he refused compli- ance with the proposition, while Governor Lucas assented because he considered the Governor of the Territory as a subaltern to the President and subject to his (the President's) control. This reliance on the President's authority it was that induced Governor Lucas to believe he could run the line in peace, and hence he set

150

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

the surveyors at work without a military guard, as above noticed. But no effort for peace was successful in modifying the warlike determination of the Governor of Michigan, and Ohio went on with her preparation, to meet force with superior force.

The war cloud rose higher, became darker, and spread wider until the authorities at Washington began to feel uneasy about the peace of the country. President Jackson, to whom the proceedings and the preparation for hostilities were reported, became strongly impressed with the necessity of interposing a check to the tendency to serious trouble.

Governor Lucas, perceiving the state of mind at Washington, wisely chose the time to make an effort to induce the President to interfere in behalf of peace. For this purpose he sent a deputation to confer with the President on the subject. This deputation consisted of Noah H. Swayne, William Allen, and David T. Disney, all eminent and very influential men, who procured from the President an urgent appeal that no obstruction should be interposed to running the line; that all proceedings begun under the Ohio act of February 23rd be discontinued, and that no prosecutions be commenced for any violation of it, and that all prosecutions then pending be discontinued. This ar- rangement or appeal from the President was obtained July 3, 1835. The authorities of Michigan, however, disregarded the President's recommendation, and continued their resistance to running the line, still claiming jurisdiction over the disputed ground; and thus matters stood until the 15th of June, 1836, when Michigan was admitted into the Union and her southern boundary fixed as Ohio had claimed it to be. To console Michigan for what her people thought was wrongfully taken from them, the same act gave her a

large scope of mineral lands about Lake Superior. Thus, by the liberality of Con- gress, the contending parties were reconciled and made happy.

Having followed this digression to its termination, let us now go back to the subject from which we diverged and return to the history of

THE ROAD.

The dispute with Michigan, which we have briefly mentioned, brought the condi- tion of the Maumee and Western Reserve road, and its future importance, prominently into notice. The militia from Lower Sandusky and the counties south of it; the commissioners appointed to run the line of the State; and their assistants; the peace commissioners sent by the President to the theater of impending conflict; high functionaries of the State, including the Governor and his staff; all were in the dis- charge of public duties, compelled to plunge and wallow through thirty miles of mud and water in order to reach ,the objective point of contest. Thus leading men in our own State councils were by actual and disagreeable experience brought to a correct understanding of the condition of the road. True it is, that for some years before the contest with Michigan, the stage drivers, the emigrants, and all others who were compelled to travel the road, out of their wallowings in the mud had sent up oaths and imprecations sufficient to split the skies. But the stage driver had little to do with moving public opinion of the State, and the emigrant passed on, and the imprecations never reached the ears of the State authority but the road obtained a frightful reputation all over the country. Now, however, our own people, and our Governor and many of his influential friends, had found to their own discomfort and the shame of the State, the true condition of the road, and had realized its future importance. In

151

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

1836 Rodolphus Dickinson, of Lower Sandusky, was, fortunately for the northwestern part of the State, and especially for the town in which he resided, chosen a member of the board of public works of the State. The road was in his division of the works, and thus came under his personal direction and management. He at once put his rare abilities, favored by his public position, into the work of procuring the improvement of the road. In his efforts he was, of course, warmly supported by the localities to be benefited, and such progress was made in moving public opinion in the right direction for the accomplishment of the purpose, that on March 14, 1838, the General Assembly of the State passed an act providing for the repairing and macadamizing the road, and appropriating forty thousand dollars to be expended in the work. This act provided that the work should begin at the western termination of the road, and progress eastwardly from that point through to the eastern termination. It also provided that after a good roadbed had been made, and before the stone covering should be put on, gates might be erected and tolls charged upon teams travelling over the repaired portion. Here it should be noticed that the United States had not at the time this act was passed, in any way given the State a title to the one hundred and twenty feet in width of land on which the road was made, but only the land on each side of it, with authority to make the road, and pay for the making out of the proceeds of the sale of the land. Therefore, before the State actually began the expenditure of the appropriation, the act of Congress of July 7, 1838, was passed, ceding the title to the road and land which it covered, that is the one hundred and twenty feet in width between the termini of the road, to the State of Ohio; since then the State has been the real owner of the road.

Soon after the appropriation of this forty thousand dollars was made and the above mentioned act of Congress passed, the Board of Public Works sent General John Patterson, one of the State engineers, to survey and superintend the work of repairing and macadamizing the road, and too much praise cannot be bestowed on General Patterson, though he is now dead, for the honesty and skill, and the fidelity with which he executed his duties. March 16, 1839, the State appropriated one hundred thousand dollars to forward the macadamizing of the road. The timber originally grubbed out and cut off the road and piled on the sides, had now become dry and was burned off. The roots and stumps had so much decayed that they were easily removed, and the plowing of the ground and scraping up of a good road bed was comparatively easy. Mr. Patterson skillfully laid the grade with a view to the best possible drainage into all the rivers, creeks, and swails, by which the water could be carried away, and where necessary con- structed large lateral ditches leading to the north from the road. The new roadbed or pike was sixty feet in width, located about ten feet nearer the south line than the north line of the road. This location of the road bed was adopted for the purpose of affording an ample side road on the north side, which, in dry periods, was preferred by teamsters to the stoned road bed, and thus the wear of the stone was made much less than if it bore the wear of all the travel-twenty feet in width of the crown of the road bed was covered with stone, well broken. A prominent feature in the work of General Patterson in designing the improvement of the road, was the capacious, and, in some places, deep side ditches which he caused to be constructed along the sides of the sixty feet road bed, with frequent culverts, by which water was conducted from one ditch

152

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

to the other, under the roadway. The water which had rendered this road such a terror to travelers in very rainy or wet seasons, had a tendency to slowly soak away to the north with the general direction of the rivers and creeks, and hence the ditch on the south side of the road caught the water as it slowly drained in from the south. The system of culverts and large ditches afforded a passage for the water along the road to the nearest point where a natural or artificial channel would carry it towards the lake.

At this day, and in future times, the reader may feel tempted to ask, Why were these dry, commonplace details about the construction of this road set out here as a matter of history? The answer is simple; when completed to some outlet, these ditches almost instantly-though in some instances the water would necessarily run many miles along the road-relieved the lands along them of surface water; especially was this the case with lands south of the road. This, however, is not the full answer. It was thereby demonstrated that the Black Swamp lands could be drained, and that dreadful locality made one of the most productive regions of Ohio, as it now, in fact, is. A new spirit was given to the inhabitants; their land had become valuable, and they could discern, through all their former discouragements, that their part of the county would soon be filled with inhabitants and become rich and prosperous. The result was to draw public attention to a realizing sense of the great benefits to this country to be derived from draining land, and in this view, the location, construction, and improvement of the Maumee and Western Reserve road was not only the first, but the most important public improvement made in the county. The State, through the Board of Public Works, collected the tolls, repaired and managed the road, until

the misconduct of a few unfaithful officers and agents aroused public opinion to a belief that our whole system of public im- provements, including our canals and roads, were managed to promote plunder and political party ascendancy. So thoroughly disgusted and offended did the people become at the revelations of an investigation into their management, that it was determined to rid the State of the cause of so much expense and corruption. The General Assembly, under the force of this public opinion, on the 8th day of May, 1861, passed an act which provided for

LEASING THE PUBLIC WORKS OF THE STATE.

This was accomplished, and the lease included the transfer of the management of the Maumee and Western Reserve road to the lessees, who took charge of it in the year 1861.

The lessees, of course, managed the road in a way to produce for them the greatest amount of net profit, and like tenants generally, became negligent in making the repairs provided for in the lease. They collected the tolls with the utmost rigor, but failed to renew the road with a covering of stone when the same was worn out, until the people along the line became so dissatisfied, that they demanded from the General Assembly a repair of the road by the lessees, or a forfeiture of the lease. This dissatisfaction resulted in an act passed March 30, 1868, withdrawing the road from the charge of the lessees and offering the care and management of it to the county commissioners of the counties respectively through which it passed; each county to have jurisdiction over that portion within its own limits.

The county commissioners of Wood and Sandusky counties, after consultation, declined to take charge of the road, because the lessees had permitted it to become so much out of repair. Much talk of suing the lessees by the State for

153

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

breach of the lease, then ensued; finally, the matter was adjusted by the lessees putting on about three thousand dollars in repairs and giving up the road to the charge of the State about June 1, 1870, and ever since the road has remained in charge of the board of public works of the State.

The following is the mention of some of the men of the county prominently in- strumental in procuring the construction and maintenance of the road:

We have already mentioned the names of the settlers at Lower Sandusky, who, in 1821 and 1822 and '23 began to agitate the public mind on the subject of having the road constructed. Among these, Jeremiah Everett was conspicuous, for, although the acts of Congress of 1823, giving the State charge of the clearing and making the road, and the sale of land granted by the Indians for the purpose, and the act of the General Assembly of Ohio accepting the trust, had been passed by the concurrent efforts of Mr. Everett and other citizens of Lower Sandusky, Sandusky county did not have a representative at Columbus to represent there the local interests of the vicinity until the year 1825. In this year Jeremiah Everett was elected to the House of Representatives of the State, and took his seat as a member on the first Monday in December of that year. Important legislative acts were passed during that session, concerning the road and the sale of the road lands, and his exertions and influence were highly serviceable in hastening on the work. He was elected again in 1835, and did much to produce that public sentiment which finally impelled the State to appropriate money to repair and macadamize the road as provided by the act of 1838.

Rodolphus Dickinson, from the time the question was first agitated, was an

ardent advocate for the improvement of the road. When, however, he was made a member of the board of public works in 1836, his influence became more potent on the public mind, and probably no one man did more to have the road improved, and to induce the State to appropriate money for the purpose in a season of great financial depression, than Mr. Dickinson.

McKnight, of Perrysburg, Wood County, was the first superintendent of the road, and commissioner, in 1824, to sell the road lands. He officiated until his death, which occurred January 11, 1831, by accidental shooting. Mr. McKnight travelled on the ice in 1820, from what is now Sandusky City to a place then called Orleans, afterwards called Fort Meigs, and now the town of Perrysburg, on the Maumee River. He was clerk of the court in Wood county, an active, well esteemed business man, and has descendants of much respectability now residing near Perrysburg.

John Bell, of Lower Sandusky, succeeded Mr. McKnight, who continued to sell the land until all was sold, and superintended the road under the direction of the State authorities, until the road was placed in charge of General Patterson, State engineer, about the last of the year 1838. General Bell, however, closed out the sale of the road lands, and made an acceptable report of his administration, settled his accounts with the State, and the office was discontinued some time in 1840.

THE ROAD TO FORT BALL.

Although the treaty of Brownstown, A. D. 1808, which provided for the construction of the Maumee and Western Reserve road, provided also for a road, or rather ceded to the United States a tract of land for a "road only," one hundred and twenty feet in width, to run southwardly from Lower Sandusky to the boundary line established by the treaty of Greenville, little attention seems to have been

154

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

paid to the construction of this road, either by the United States or the State of Ohio, for no legislation by either can be found upon searching the indexes of legislation of that time or since. But about the years 1827 and 1828, a road southward from Lower Sandusky was cleared through the woods, on a straight line from Wolf Creek south until it struck the bank of the river a few miles below Fort Ball, and then followed the river to Fort Ball, which was at that time an im- portant post next south of Lower Sandusky. Previous to opening this road the travelled track meandered the river all the way between the two places. This old road, which was traversed by portions of General Harrison's army in the War of 1812, was not only crooked and greatly

increased the distance to Fort Ball, but crossed a deep ravine at Old Fort Seneca, the steep hills on either side of which were a terror to all teamsters who were compelled to travel that way. The new road was straight from Wolf Creek to a point above Fort Seneca, and was located so far west of it as to avoid the hills and shorten the distance materially. From the best information now to be had, it is believed that the expense of clearing out and improving this road was borne, by the counties of Seneca and Sandusky. Whether this information be accurate or not, the fact remains that the opening of this road was the second and a very important improvement, in the way to and from the country south of Lower Sandusky, and greatly facilitated its trade.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 22

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: