History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 24

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > Ohio > Sandusky County > History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882 > Part 24

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).

The total expenditures from the com- mencement of the work to September 30, 1851, was forty-eight thousand eight hundred and forty-five dollars.

Tolls received in the month of May, 1850 $194.00 498.00 “ “ “

1851

“

1852 558.57

“

1853 471.34

“

1854 428.96

“

1855 363.16

The amount for the corresponding month in 1856, 1857, and 1859, cannot be obtained, but the tolls declined, and the planks and timbers had so decayed that the income would no longer meet the expenses and repairs, and it was surrendered up in 1860, and the gates removed.

Many of the subscribers considered what they paid on the stock a donation for the public good, and when they had paid about half the amount subscribed, or less, forfeited their stock; some few never paid anything. Such forfeitures reduced the amount of actually paid up stock, when the road was completed, to thirty-nine thousand dollars, on which amount several dividends were declared, amounting, in the aggregate, to about forty per cent., as appears by the president's books. Although this enterprise was not a financial success for the stockholders, and although it demonstrated that plank roads were not durable, and would need rebuilding once in about ten years, still this, and one built about the same time from Fremont to Green Spring, were greatly

162

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

beneficial to the county, and to the trade of Fremont.

SOME OF THE CONSEQUENCES AND INCIDENTS WHICH RESULTED FROM THE PLANK-ROAD ENTERPRISE.

As was stated in the beginning of the history of this plank road, the spirit of enterprise in Lower Sandusky seemed to have departed from the people. True, it was a good point for retailing merchandise and bartering for products of the land, but there was no faith in the future growth of the place, and little or no capital was invested in real estate or in building, nor, in fact, in any kind of improvement. So gloomy had the prospect of the future growth of the town become, that a number of the most ambitious and enterprising inhabitants had, in fact, determined to remove to some more enterprising locality, and where there were some better prospects for increase of business, and of increase in the value of real estate.

Prominent among those who had become impatient with the slow progress Lower Sandusky had been making for years past, was Ralph P. Buckland, who, by laborious practice of the law, had accumulated some money and a good reputation as an honest and responsible lawyer. He had been for some time seriously contemplating removal from Lower Sandusky to either Cleveland or Toledo, where enterprise and the future looked brighter and more encouraging to those ambitious of fame and fortune. But when he saw this plank-road enterprise started, he at once enlisted in it with means and enthusiasm, and seeing the project supported by the able men of the place such as Rodolphus Dickinson, John R. Pease, Sardis Birchard, and James Justice, of Lower Sandusky, and Charles W. Foster and others of Rome, in Seneca county, he concluded to remain and cast his lot for "weal or woe "

with the people where he was. In con- versation with the writer only a few days since, General Buckland (he has earned the title of General, as may be seen in his biography in this work) said, in substance, that plank-road enterprise is the one thing that induced him to remain in the place. "And," said he, "do you not remember, that the very summer while the plank-road was being built, I built the first brick block ever erected in Fremont?" The interviewer did remember the fact. This block was erected on lot number two hundred and forty-three, on Front street, on what had been the Western House property, and is now a central business place of great value. It was fortunate for the then future of Fremont that General Buckland was induced to remain, as will appear by the more particular history of the city, and by General Buckland's biography.

Mr. John England, now quite aged, residing in the village of Ballville, states that he was in the service of Charles W. Foster as a teamster about seven years; four years of this term of service was spent in hauling on this plank-road between Rome and Lower Sandusky. The reader must bear in mind that Rome is now Fostoria, and Lower Sandusky is now Fremont. Mr. England says that he hauled produce from Rome to Tiffin, and also from Rome to Lower Sandusky, on the earth roads, before the plank-road was made; that then forty bushels of wheat, or twenty- four hundred pounds, was a full average load for a wagon and one span of good horses; fifty bushels, or thirty hundred pounds, was a large load and not often undertaken. After the plank-road was completed, he says he often hauled at one load one hundred and ten bushels of wheat, or a weight of six thousand six hundred pounds, with one span of horses. Thus it will be seen that the cost of transportation was reduced

163

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

One-half, while the tall charged for such a load was forty-five cents. The time saved by hauling on the plank more than compensated for the toll charged. From that time (1850) to the early part of 1860, the salt, and all other articles of merchandise for Rome and the western part of Seneca county, and also for the whole country trading at Lower Sandusky, was transported by water to the head of navigation in the Sandusky river, and thence distributed by wagons to the various trading points. This merchandise furnished loads for many of the returning teams which came in with wheat, corn, and pork, and encouraged and supported a lively business for about ten years, of which the plank-road was the main artery. The amount of farm products brought to Fremont in wagons during the period between 1850 and 1860, and the display of wagons which brought these products for shipment, storage or sale, were such as to make casual visitors express surprise, and wonder at the amount of business done in the place. Strangers passing through or stopping a time on business in the place would see the streets crowded with loaded teams, waiting their turn to be unloaded, and the signs of active trade everywhere about them, and were often heard to remark at that period that Fremont was the liveliest town they had seen in their travels.

Mr. Charles O. Tillotson was, during the larger part of the period above mentioned, engaged in buying and shipping grain at Fremont. He said to the writer a few days ago that it was not an uncommon thing to see four or five hundred two-horse wagons standing in the streets and along the way to the elevators, waiting their turn to unload their wheat; that during the wheat buying season, although there were a number of other persons engaged in buying wheat and competing with him, it was usual for him to

receive from the farm wagons and store away from ten to fourteen thousand bushels in a day. The pork trade at Fremont during the period mentioned was also very large. The trade of the place then employed a large number of vessels to carry this produce to Buffalo.

Though all this system of trade was destined to change; though the plank-road was to decay and be abandoned on the advent of a system of railroads through northwestern Ohio; although the noble horses of flesh and blood, whose food was oats and corn and hay, and which must have rest, was, in the grand march of invention and progress, soon to retire and leave this long and heavy hauling to be done by the iron horse which lives on coal and water, and never tires; still, these plank-roads encouraged our people to stay and strive on in the labor of developing the material resources of the county, and at the same time widely advertised the town and county as good places for business, and our people as active, enterprising and progressive. The completion of the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad, in 1852, by which produce was carried East and West, superseded in large part the carriage of produce by water from Fremont. The building of this railroad will be the next noticed. The finishing of the Fremont, Lima & Union Railroad from Fremont to Fostoria took the carrying of produce and merchandize away from the plank-road, and the latter was abandoned early in 1860.

THE FORM OF THE ROAD, AND LINE BUILT ON.

The form of the plank-road, when finished, was that of a turnpike well graded and ditched. The crown or flat surface of the top of the pike was eighteen feet wide. The plank were eight feet in length and two inches thick, of best white or bur oak, laid crosswise on firm stringers

164

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

embedded in the earth, on one side of the crown, leaving a good earth road for use in dry weather, and for the use of teams in all weather which had to turn out for the team to pass which was entitled to the plank track.

"In several instances," said Mr. England whose name is above mentioned: "I met heavily loaded teams on this plank road

where the side or earth road was so soft that it would not do to turn off the plank, for if I did, I could never pull out. The result was that the team bound by the law of the road to turn out, would unload in part and then turn out to let the other pass, then take the plank again, reload his wagon, and then go on. But such difficulty did not often occur.

CHAPTER XIV.

RAILROAD.

The Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad-Opposition Encountered-County Bonds Issued-Consolidated With the Junction Road-Name Changed to Cleveland & Toledo Road, Afterwards to Lake Shore & Michigan Southern-Benefits of the Road.

T ' HE Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad was the next improvement in this county, and had such great influence in developing its resources and increasing the wealth and business of the people, that it should have a prominent place in this his- tory. The act incorporating this company was passed by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, March 7, 1850. The first section of the act provides that Timothy Baker, Charles L. Boalt, John R. Osborn, George G. Baker, John Gardner, and James Hamilton, jr., of the county of Huron; Frederick Chapman, L. Q. Rawson, L. B. Otis, H. Everett, A. B. Taylor, and R. P. Buckland, of the county of Sandusky, and Hezekiah D. Mason, Edward Bissell, Daniel O. Morton, J. W. Bradbury, and John Fitch, of the county of Lucas, and their associates, successors and assigns be a body corporate and politic, by the name and style of the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad

Company, with perpetual succession and all the usual powers granted to such companies, under the general law regulating railroad companies, passed February it, 1848. This last mentioned general law conferred the right to survey, locate, and appropriate lands necessary for any railroad which might be organized in the State. The second section of the act of incorporation provided that the capital stock of the company should be two millions of dollars, and that the company were empowered to construct a railroad from Toledo, in the county of Lucas, by way of Norwalk, in Huron county, so as to connect with the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati railroad at Wellington, in Lorain county, or at some other point in said counties of Huron and Lorain to be determined by the directors of said company.

The third section of the act of incorporation provided that the county commissioners of any county through which

165

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

the road would pass in whole or in part, might subscribe to the capital stock of the company any sum of money not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars, and to borrow money to pay the sum at any rate of interest not exceeding seven per cent., payable semiannually in advance; and for the final payment of the principal and interest of the sum SO subscribed, the county commissioners were empowered to make, execute and deliver such bonds, notes and instruments of writing as may be necessary or proper to secure the payment of the money so borrowed or subscribed, and to levy and collect annually such taxes as, together with the profits, dividends or tolls arising from said stock, will pay at such time or times as shall be agreed upon, said money so borrowed or subscribed, with the interest and incidental charges. The fourth section of the act of incorporation, however, provided that no subscription should be made by the county commissioners until a vote of the qualified voters of the county should be had in favor of the subscription. The vote was to be taken according to the provisions of the act of February 28, 1846, which was then in force, which provided that county commissioners should give at least twenty days' notice in one or more newspapers printed and in general circulation in the county, to the qualified voters of the county, to vote at the next annual election to be held in the several townships and wards in the county, for or against the subscription, and if a majority of the electors voting at such election for or against such subscription shall be. in favor of the same, such authorized subscription might be made, but not otherwise.

The company was organized and sub- scriptions solicited from the commissioners of the several counties through which the road would pass. In this county a public

meeting was called and Charles L. Boalt, president of the company, addressed a meeting at the courthouse, and endeavored, by stating numerous facts about the effect of railroads on towns and on the rural districts, particularly the beneficial effects of such means of transportation to farmers and farm lands, and produce, to convince our people that it would be to the interest of the whole county to have the road built, and that sufficient private subscriptions were not attainable. The subject was new to the mass of the voters a few years before the Ohio Railroad had swindled a great number of them and they were suspicious that this enterprise was got up for another swindle. Some went so far as to express the belief that if these sharp railroad men once got their hands on the county bonds they would be sold, the money arising from them would go into the pockets of the railroad men, and that would be the last we would hear about building the road. Arguments and suspicions like these rendered it difficult to move the popular mind toward farming the county subscription. But, fortunately, there were a few men in the county whose calmer judgment and better foresight led them to realize the importance of the road, not only to the city of Fremont, but to the people of the whole county.

About this time a rival project, to build a road from Cleveland to Sandusky City, and thence to Lower Sandusky, on such a line as would not necessarily touch Norwalk or Bellevue, was designed. The charter for this latter road was passed March 12, 1846, and was entitled an act to incorporate the "Junction Railroad Company." This company was authorized to construct a railroad, commencing at such point on the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad as the directors might select, either in the county of Cuyahoga or Lorain, and within thirty miles from

166

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

the city of Cleveland, thence to Elyria, in Lorain county, unless the junction with the Cleveland and Columbus road should be made at Elyria, and from thence on the most feasible route to intersect the Mad River & Lake Erie at Bellevue, or at such other point as the directors should choose, and thence to Lower Sandusky (Fremont), and the power was also given to this company to construct the railroad, or a branch of it, from Elyria to Sandusky City, in Erie county, and from thence to Lower Sandusky. The act of incorporation of the Junction Railroad Company also provided that if the directors of said company and the directors of the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad Company could not agree upon the terms of junction, then, in that case, the Junction Railroad should commence at the city of Cleveland.

The agitation of the project to build a road from Toledo to Cleveland by way of Fremont and Norwalk, had the effect to put the Junction Company into active rivalry and earnest opposition against the interests of Norwalk. Fremont at that time would have been satisfied if the Junction Company would have pledged its faith and promised to construct a railroad from Sandusky City to that point. A delegation was sent, and a consultation had with the authorities of the Junction Company, but no satisfactory arrangement was offered, and the consultation was without effect, except to satisfy the leading railroad advocates of Fremont that the Junction Company intended to ignore both Norwalk and Fremont, and build their road across the Sandusky Bay to Port Clinton, and thence direct to Toledo.

Charles L. Boalt, of Norwalk, President of the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad Company, assisted by the strong men of Norwalk and Fremont, became the financial manager of his road, while

Ex-Supreme Judge Ebenezer Lane, of Sandusky City, assisted by the strong men of that place, became the financial manager of the Junction road.

These two managers were brothers-in-law, and each worked with untiring zeal for the interests of his own locality. Both were able men. Boalt, however, was the younger man, and though not a large man, he was by nature endowed with a remarkable capacity to endure mental and physical labor, and he certainly put them all into intense service in working his railroad through. At a meeting addressed by him at the courthouse in Fremont, in the summer of 1850, about twenty-five thousand dollars was subscribed on the spot by the citizens individually. The influential friends and advocates of the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad then set themselves about persuading the county commissioners to give the requisite notice for a vote on the question of a county subscription. The application was so far successful that on the 11th day of September, 1850, two of the commissioners, namely, Martin Wright and John S. Gardner, with Homer Everett, then county auditor, met at the auditor's office. (Hiram Hurd, the other commissioner did not attend). The record opens in the following form :

AUDITOR'S OFFICE, September 11, 1850. Be it remembered, that on this 11th day of September, in the year 1850, the commissioners of Sandusky county, upon application, met for the purpose of considering the propriety of giving notice for a vote of the people of said county in favor of or against subscription to the capital stock of the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad Company.

The result of the meeting was that notice was ordered to be given to the voters of the county to vote for or against subscription at the next annual election, to be held on the 8th day of October, 1851.

The notice specified that the voters

167

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

were to authorize the commissioners to subscribe one hundred thousand dollars. The vote was taken, and there was a majority against the subscription, and the question was decided adversely to the subscription. The line of the road was located, and did not pass through either Woodville or Townsend township, the voters of which naturally felt averse to being taxed for an improvement which would confer no special benefit on them. Besides this, many of the people of Townsend township did their trading at Sandusky City, and were more interested in the advancement of that place than that of Fremont, and it was suspected at the time that Sandusky City influence and argument had something to do in influencing the votes of. these townships, and both townships voted heavily against the subscription. As to procuring individual subscriptions sufficient to do Sandusky county's fair proportion of the amount necessary to build the road, that had been tried and seemed to be an impossibility. The success of the road by this adverse vote was put under a cloud, and many of its friends were discouraged, while others of the never-give-up sort, among whom the indefatigable president, Boalt, was a leader, did not for a moment despair of final success, nor abate their zeal and work in behalf of building the road. The efforts of these persevering men resulted in the passage of an act by the General Assembly of the State, January 20, 1851, authorizing a vote of the county on the question of subscription, excepting the townships of Woodville and Townsend, which townships should not be taxed to pay for the stock.

At the next regular session of the com- missioners, March 4, 1851, the board, then consisting of Messrs. Martin Wright, Hiram Hurd, and Michael Reed (who succeeded Mr. Gardner), ordered that notice

be given to the voters of the county, ex- cepting those in Woodville and Townsend townships, to vote for or against a county subscription of fifty thousand dollars to the capital stock of Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad Company, at the then next ensuing annual April election.

The question of subscription now became the absorbing topic in the public mind, throughout that portion of the county on which the responsibility was placed, by the amended law of January 20, 1851. At that time the political parties were the Democratic against the Whig party, and the former was largely in the majority. R. P. Buckland was then a practicing lawyer and a prominent and influential man, and was also the acknowledged leader and champion of the Whig party. On the other side, Homer Everett was also a lawyer and then held the office of county auditor by the suffrage of the Democratic Party. Both were in favor of the proposition to subscribe the stock. The county commissioners were all ardent Dem- ocrats, and not very decided in their views on the question at issue, but like wise pol- iticians, expressed no convictions or opin- ions on the measure. The friends of the measure very wisely concluded that it would not advance their cause to permit the proposition to assume the form of a political party issue, which some of the opposition were striving to give it. It was finally determined to hold a series of meetings at schoolhouses in the different townships in which the people were to vote, and have addresses made to convince the voters, especially the farmers, that the construction of the road would benefit them in a pecuniary point of view. An arrangement was thereupon made that these meetings should be attended and addressed by Ralph P. Buckland and Homer Everett jointly, and that both should give assurance that the question

168

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

had no relation to party politics, and the two gentlemen very willingly volunteered in the service without pay and at their own expense. Numerous meetings and consultations were appointed and advertised, at which the time was equally divided between the two speakers, and various arguments were by them offered, such as the increased price of wheat, pork, eggs, butter, etc., which would result from cheap and rapid transportation by the railroad, and the resulting increase in the value of their lands. The speakers also offered to answer as well as they could any questions about the matter in discussion which anyone in the meeting would ask. Some of the questions asked and some of the objections to building the road were really curious, and if propounded today would bring out only laughter from old and young in response. Some would ask how the building of the road would operate on the prices of horses and oats? Would not the railroad destroy the occupation of teaming, and thereby throw a great number of men and horses out of employment. Another objection was raised by certain hotelkeepers and land owners residing along the Maumee and Western Reserve turnpike. These claimed that not only would the occupation of hauling by wagon be destroyed, but that all the emigration which afforded these their chief income, would be diverted; that it would be very unjust to the State; that travel on the turnpike would cease, no tolls would be collected, and the road on which the State had spent such large sums of money would grow up to grass and be abandoned and so the State be made a great loser by the railroad. The speakers answered all these questions in a friendly and respectful way, as well as they could, and pressed on in their work. Particular mention of two meetings will serve to illustrate the spirit and the persistence with which this

railroad campaign was carried by those who opposed as well as those who worked for the road. One was t Van Waggoner's schoolhouse, as it was called, a little north of what is since called Winters' Station, in Jackson township. That township was not touched by the line of the road, and of course not so directly benefited by its construction as some other townships. Nord came to the friends of the road that opposition to it had sprung up in that township and neighborhood, and that the vote of the township would probably go against the county subscription.

Sardis Birchard, who had influence and many personal friends and acquaintances there, volunteered to go with the speakers to that meeting. In the evening Messrs. Birchard, Buckland, and Everett, and John R. Pease, started on horseback from Fremont, and reached the schoolhouse a little after eight o'clock. They found there from thirty to fifty voters. Addresses were made, and then a free consultation over the subject took place, in which Mr. Birchard did effective work in telling the voters what he had seen of the effect of railroads in other localities, and in answering questions. This consultation became so animated and interesting that the meeting did not disperse until after twelve o'clock; and when Mr. Birchard and the speakers reached Fremont, on their return, it was after two o'clock, A. M. Another meeting was appointed for the speakers at the schoolhouse at Gale Town, a little hamlet about three miles southward from Hamer's Corner, now Clyde.

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 24

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: