History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 26

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And this court, having examined the said final account and report, and found the same in all respects in accordance with law and the order of the court, and that the said receiver has duly paid and delivered all money, credits and property of every kind which came into his possession or control, by virtue of his appointment and office in accordance with the order and direction of the court, and has in all respects well and truly and faithfully discharged all his duties as such receiver, it is hereby ordered that the said final report and account be and the same is hereby approved and confirmed, and the said Isadore H. Burgoon discharged from all further accountability as such receiver. And he is especially commended for the ability and faithfulness with which he has discharged the arduous duties of his office. Approved.

R. P. BUCKLAND AND CALVIN BRICE, Attorneys for Lake Erie & Louisville Railway Company. OTIS, ADAMS & RUSSELL,

Attorneys for Plaintiffs, the Trustees.

This account being confirmed, Mr. Burgoon's duties as receiver were ended. Yet he was to receive further manifestations of approval for his energy and activity. The road was now under the management of Mr. Hodgskin as a representative of the purchasers. A new company was promptly formed after the purchase, in New York city, of which Mr. Hodgskin was president. Mr. Hodgskin, from the time he purchased the road, seemed to appreciate Mr. Burgoon's ability and integrity, and kept him as superintendent of the road until the decease of President Hodgskin, which occurred March, 20, 1879. Soon after the death of Mr. Hodgskin the annual report of the company was made showing, its condition for the year ending December 31, 1878, and

was signed by Charles Foster, as president, under date of March 26, 1879. C. R. Cummings, of Chicago, succeeded Mr. Hodgskin as president, and the directors again chose Mr. Burgoon as superintendent of the road.

The road was now scaled of all its debts, and was represented by one million five hundred thousand dollars of stock. A syndicate, it is said, was formed to purchase in this stock, for good judges affirm that the road at this time was worth at least two millions of dollars. This syndicate probably embraced the holders of large amounts of the stock, and the stock held by those outside this syndicate was quietly purchased at about twenty cents on the dollar, until all was gathered in. Soon after the purchase of the stock had been accomplished, and probably in June 1879, the road seems to have been consolidated with other western lines, and became part of what has since been known as the Lake Erie & Western Railway.

The northern terminus of the Fremont & Indiana Railroad, under all the different names by which it was known, had been at the head of navigation on the Sandusky River in Fremont, and all freight intended for transportation by water was carried down the river and through the Sandusky Bay, past Sandusky City, into Lake Erie, to any desired port on the lakes.

However, after the first consolidation with an Indiana road, and the design was formed to make Louisville the southern terminus of the line, the intention was entertained to extend the road to the lake at some point, but this intention was never executed by that company. When the road was last transferred and took the name of Lake Erie & Western Railway, the new company made proffers to the people of Sandusky to extend their road to that place if sixty thousand dollars were

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raised in that city to donate towards the cost of the extension.

Under an act of the General Assembly of the State, the voters of Sandusky authorized the city to issue sixty thousand dollars of bonds, which were sold, and the sixty thousand dollars procured. The proceeds of these bonds were not paid to the Lake Erie & Western Railway Company,

but a new company, called the Sandusky & Fremont Railway Company, was formed, and proceeded to construct a road between the two cities named. Work was commenced on this road about July 1, 1880, and made ready for trains about the last of February, 1881, and is practically an extension of the Lake Erie & Western Railway.

CHAPTER XVI. COUNTY ROADS.

Macadamized and Gravelled Roads in the County-Date of Building- Persons Prominently Connected with their Construction, and their Cost and Benefits.

T HE man who, seated in a fine carriage, with perhaps wife, or sweetheart, or bride at his side, drives pleasantly along the good roads of today at the rate of from six to ten miles per hour, or the anxious one who has occasion to ride posthaste over the same road for a surgeon or physician, is not very likely to think of, nor thank the men who devised, and toiled, gave their time and money, and contended for the building of the structure which saves him or them from wallowing through the mud and mire which used to be there. The same may be said of the farmer as he, comfortably seated on his great load of produce or building material, jogs comfortably along without stalling, strain, or breakage. But history would not be just without making some specific mention of such improvements and of the men who contended for and executed them. Therefore we mention in our chapter on improvements, the macadamized roads made under the authorities

of the county, and some of the men connected with the construction of them.

The law under and by virtue of which these roads were made, provided that on the application of a majority of land owners whose land would be subjected to a charge for the construction of the road, the county commissioners might appoint three viewers or commissioners, and a surveyor or engineer, to view the route proposed for the road, and if the construction of the road should, in their opinion, be required by the public convenience, they should also report an estimate of the cost of construction, and a description of the land which, in their judgment, should be taxed to pay for the work. They also reported the form of the road and the materials to be used, whether gravel or stone, and the width and thickness to which the material should be laid on. On the filing of this report commissioners might approve the same and order the construction of the road. The commissioners were also

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empowered to issue bonds of the county bearing interest, and sell them to raise the money necessary to carry on the work. To pay the interest and principal of the bonds an assessment was made on the land, to be paid in installments as taxes are paid, and these assessments were charged against the lots and tracts respectively, on the tax duplicate of the county, and collected by the county treasurer and applied to the redemption of the bonds.

This brief outline of the statute governing the construction of free turnpikes in Ohio will serve to help the reader to understand better what follows on the subject.

THE GREENSBURG MACADAMIZED ROAD.

Ever since about 1831 settlers had been locating in the southwestern part of the county. Among the county roads laid out about that time was one from near James Moore's mill, in Ballville township, thence due west on section lines, to near the northwest corner of section ten in Jackson township, where the road angled southward through sections, until it intersected the south line of section eight in the same township, a little west of the southeast corner of the section, and where the village of Millersville now stands. From there the line ran due west through Greensburg on section lines, to the west line of the county, a distance of about fourteen miles and a half from the starting point. To describe the difficulties of travelling and the still greater difficulties of hauling heavy loads over this road, is needless to those who have had experience with roads in new, level, timbered countries. True, the inhabitants had done much in mending and draining the road from time to time, but with all they could do, more than half the way for about half the year, was mud, or if a dry surface was

found it was hard travelling over the rough surface, cut into deep Tuts.

On the 6th of March, 1867, Martin Wright and one hundred and twenty-eight others, owners of land along this road, filed their petition with the county commissioners, asking them to take the necessary proceedings to macadamize this road. The county commissioners at the time were Benjamin Inman, Samuel E. Watters, and Henry Reiling. A bond to pay all expenses of view, survey, etc., in case the report should be against the request of the petitioners, was filed by Martin Wright and Lewis K. Wright, of Scott township. On filing the bond the commissioners appointed William E. Haynes, Charles G. Green, and Hiram Haff, viewers, and Beman Amsden surveyor. These men performed their respective duties, and on the fourth of June, 1867, reported that in their opinion the prayer of the peti- tioners ought to be granted. They also viewed the land to be benefited by the road, and recommended that the road be graded twenty-two feet wide on top, and that twelve feet in width of the twenty-two, be covered with stone to the thickness of one foot. The viewers' and engineer's estimate of the cost of the road, was for grading, one thousand nine hundred and thirty-six dollars, and for macadamizing, twenty-three thousand four hundred and sixty-three dollars and fifty cents; making a total estimated cost of twenty-five thousand three hundred and ninety-nine dollars and fifty cents. The last paragraph of this report is as follows:

We cannot conclude without commending to your favorable consideration the prayers of the petitioners, who are intelligent, prudent men, many of them large land owners and tax payers, and we respectfully, but earnestly recommend that you order the improvement, as provided by law.

WILLIAM E. HAYNES, ┐ Viewers.

C. G. GREENE, HIRAM HAFT, ┘

B. AMSDEN, Engineer.

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There was no remonstrance against the proposed improvement, and no claim for damages by reason of it, as is shown by the commissioners record. The work was promptly begun, bonds for the payment of the costs of construction were issued, and taxes, or rather assessments, levied upon the land to be benefited to meet the payment of the bonds, and Commissioner Inman gave his special attention and much time to directing and superintending the work. There was, as a matter of course, some contention among the land owners, in the apportionment of the burden of assessment each tract should bear. Such contention is almost inseparable from the prosecution of every improvement in town, city or country where there is to be an apportionment of the expenses of the work. But these wranglings have an end, which usually terminates in the dissatisfaction of part of those who have to pay out their money, for a perfectly satisfactory adjustment of such burden is seldom, if ever, arrived at. So blinding is the effect of selfishness on the perceptions of men that it is doubtful whether in such a case all would be satisfied. if the most perfect equity could be made to operate on such an apportionment. Mr. Inman being a resident of Scott township, a land owner to be benefited, as well as one of the county commissioners, and as such, exercising a kind of special supervision over the work, received the chief animadversions of the dissatisfied. But Benjamin Inman was an honest man and bore the unfavorable comments of some of his esteemed neighbors with patience and silence, though with pain and regret, until shame silenced the dissatisfied ones, and time vindicated and made clear his honesty of purpose, as well as sound judgment concerning the work.

The road was finished during the year 1870, at a total cost of forty thousand

three hundred and twenty-one dollars and ninety-one cents, being fourteen thousand nine hundred and twenty-two dollars and forty-one cents more than the estimated cost as returned by the viewers and engineer; the actual cost per mile being a fraction less than two thousand eight hundred dollars.

WILLIAM E. LAY ROAD MACADAMIZED.

On the 4th day of December, 1867, William E. Lay and forty others, constituting a majority of the owners of land to be affected, petitioned the commissioners of the county for the macadamizing or gravelling of the county road, on the following routes: Beginning at the Lake Shore railroad, in Clyde, thence south on the east line of section 23, 26, and 35. in Green Creek township, to the county line between Sandusky and Seneca counties. Bond was given by C. G. Eaton, J. M. Lemmon, and William W. Wales.

The county commissioners, namely, Benjamin Inman, David Fuller, and Henry Reiling, at their December session, 1867, appointed Andrew Smith, Hiram Haff, and John Orwig viewers, and Jeremiah Evans, surveyor. These viewers and the surveyor met according to notice, at the store of Darwin E. Harkness, in the village of Clyde, on the 15th day of January, 1868. They reported on the 3d day of March, 1868, that no claim for damage had been made, and recommended that the improvements be made as prayed for, by macadamizing or gravelling the same; that the road be opened sixty feet wide, top of roadway to be eighteen feet wide and covered with broken stone or gravel. The viewers and surveyor reported their estimate of the cost of the work to be as follows: For grading, eight hundred dollars; for gravelling, three thousand six hundred dollars; making a total of estimated cost of four thousand four hun-

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dred dollars. The length of the road was three miles and a-half.

The road was constructed according to the recommendation of the viewers and engineer, and finished about the beginning of 1870, at a total cost of ten thousand seven hundred and thirty-even dollars and sixteen cents, or at the rate of two thousand nine hundred and sixty-seven dollars per mile.

This William E. Lay road improvement was made under, regulations and proceed- ings like those by which the Greensburg improvement was made, and a repetition of them would be superfluous.

THE FREMONT AND SOUTH CREEK MACADAMIZED ROAD.

On the petition of Charles H. Bell and others for the macadamizing of that part of the State road which lies between the east line of the city of Fremont and Bark Creek, and on filing the proper bond signed by C. H. Bell and J. H. McArdle, on the 9th of December, 1868, the county commissioners, namely: Benjamin Inman, Henry Reiling, and David Fuller, appointed Platt Brush, A. B. Putman, and Jonas Smith, viewers, and Jeremiah Evans, surveyor. These were ordered to meet at A. B. Putman's office, in Fremont, on the 18th of February, 1869, which they did, proceeded to the discharge of their duties, and reported to the commissioners on the 6th day of March following. Their report was in favor of making the improvement, and they reported also that they estimated the cost of the work at nine thousand eight hundred and fifty-two dollars and eighty cents. Like proceedings were had as in the cases of the other im- provements, and the macadamizing of this road was completed to South Creek about 1872, at a total cost of fourteen thousand eight hundred and twenty-six dollars and seventy cents, exceeding the statement by

four thousand nine hundred and seventy- three dollars and ninety cents.

The length of this improvement is three miles and a half, with stone macadamized track nine feet in width, at an actual cost of four thousand four hundred and thirteen dollars per mile, paid for by the land owners benefited.

THE FREMONT AND PORT CLINTON ROAD IMPROVEMENT.

The macadamizing of that part of the road leading from Fremont to Port Clinton which lies between the north boundary of the city of Fremont and the south line of Rice township, was petitioned for by Andrew Engler and others. On May 4, 1874, bond was given, and Oscar Ball, Christian Doncyson, and Barney Donahu were appointed viewers. Their report was favorable, and the work was executed at an actual cost of six thousand and eighty-nine dollars and thirty-five cents. The estimated cost of this improvement was not found on the record of the proceedings, and is therefore not given here, nor is it deemed very material. The proceedings in the matter of this improvement were like those of the others above mentioned. The improvement is an important one, especially on that part of the road through the Whittaker reserve, where the road had been notoriously bad for a great many years.

The reader may notice that in these works the actual cost is far in excess of the amount estimated by the viewers, in every instance, this excess being nearly fifty per cent above the estimate. This shows that estimates are as unreliable in these works as in the estimates for building houses, or any other work men undertake. The experience of persons who have built a house or a barn will confirm the assertion that the only safe way to proceed is to add about fifty per cent to the

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estimate of the carpenter who was consulted as to the cost of the proposed structure. Why this is so we leave to the reader to find out.

The history of these roads is perhaps neither exciting nor attractive to the reader, but it will serve hereafter to mark the time when the people of the county began to realize that it does not pay to travel in deep mud when a little expense will give them a firm, dry wagon way, and that by comfort in travel, and cheapening the expense of transportation of produce and merchandise over the road, the outlay is very soon balanced, and the well-improved road thereafter, by repairing only, will remain a permanent source of economical saving to the community.

These roads are now repaired with money derived from taxes levied on the

property of the entire county, and the par- ticular locality thereby relieved from further special assessments. The aggregate cost of the macadamized roads made by the county commissioners, at this writing (1881), is seventy-one thousand nine hundred and seventy-five dollars and twelve cents. There have been portions of some of the other roads in the county macadamized by appropriations from time to time from the county and township road funds, the cost of which cannot well be ascertained. The people are now quite alive to improvement of roads, and ere long Sandusky county will be a delightful land to drive through, on good roads, and not a tollgate on any of them, excepting the Maumee and Western Reserve turnpike, which is controlled and managed by the State.

CHAPTER XVII. COUNTY BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS.

The First Court-House-How and When Built-Its Removal and What Became of It-Organization of the County Infirmary-Subscription for Public Buildings.

I N Chapter VIII of this history we made some mention of the subscription for building the first courthouse in the county showing that it was built by subscription of individuals, signed under date of April 1, 1823. The subscription showed obligations to pay in cash two hundred and thirty-five dollars; in labor, three hundred and five dollars; in produce, five hundred and fifteen dollars; in material, seven hundred and forty-five dollars-making an aggregate of one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five dollars.

THE COURTHOUSE ORDERED BUILT.

The county commissioners, viz: Giles Thompson, Moses Nichols, and Morris A. Newman, met according to appointment on the 12th day of April, 1823, as the record shows, for the purpose of "investigating the propriety of immediately building a jail or some other public building with the funds subscribed for said purpose, in and for the county of Sandusky." After transacting some other business, such as ordering the trustees of the different townships to direct the supervisors to

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open all county roads through the townships at least sixty feet wide, they made an order that there should be erected a building for public purposes, out of the funds subscribed for that purpose, and a part thereof to be appropriated for a courthouse until other arrangements might be made, on the ground selected and donated for public purposes, and that the building should be of the following dimensions: A good and substantial frame, thirty-six feet long, twenty-four feet wide, twenty feet high, so as to furnish two full stories; a good and sufficient brick chimney at each end, with four fireplaces below and two above; joint- shingle roof, floors well laid, four rooms and a passage below, and one room above, etc. The following is a copy of the concluding order of the session:

Ordered that the Auditor be authorized and instructed to write sundry advertisements comprehending the above order, for the purpose of letting said building to the lowest bidder, on the 10th day of June next, and that one of said advertisements be filed in the office and recorded, and that a draft thereof be attached to each advertisement so published and recorded. The commissioners adjourned until their June meeting.

By order of the commissioners,

THOMAS L. HAWKINS, Auditor and Clerk of said Board.

County Auditor Hawkins issued the notices ordered by the commissioners, which is of record in the words and figures following:

PUBLIC NOTICE

is hereby given to all who may feel interested in the same, that the commissioners of Sandusky county will sell to the lowest bidder who will give bond and approved security for faithful performance, the building of a courthouse in and for the county aforesaid, on the 17th day of July next, comprising the following dimensions: A good and sufficient frame thirty-six feet long and twenty-four feet wide, and twenty feet from the ground sill to the top of the plate, so as to form two full stories high, and the frame to be elevated two feet above the ground with a good, substantial stone wall ; joint- shingle roof; two good and sufficient brick chimneys, with four fireplaces below stairs and two above; the lower story to be divided into four rooms, two at each end, and a passage eight feet wide between them;

stairs to go up in the passage, and to be three and a half feet wide, and not to rise more than seven inches to each step; all the walls and ceilings to be lathed and plastered, except the two small rooms on the one end of said building and a small closet under the stairs; floors to be laid with tongue and groove joints; five windows and two outside doors in the lower story, four inside doors and a door to the stairway; eight windows in the second story, which shall all be left in one room; all windows to be filled with twenty-four lights of eight by ten glass; all doors to be panel work; all joiners' work of every description to be finished off in neat but plain order; all rooms, fireplaces, stairs, passage, windows and doors to be situated agreeable to the underneath plan. A subscription now in the hands of the com- missioners, signed by thirty-four of the most creditable citizens of the town of Sandusky, amounting to eighteen hundred dollars, will be given for the completion of said building, or so far as it may go towards the same. The subscription calls for two hundred and thirty-five dollars in cash, three hundred and five dollars in labor, five hundred and fifteen in produce, and seven hundred and forty-five in materials. All enterprising men and industrious mechanics will do well, considering the depreciation of the times and scarcity of good jobs, by making their terms known on said 17th day of July next.

It is expressly understood that the seats such as is customary is to be finished off in court room, and the frame up and covered and underpinned with said stone wall, on or before the first day of December next.

THOMAS L. HAWKINS, Auditor. Sandusky County, April 26, 1823.

To this notice was appended a front view of the building, presenting seven windows, four above and three below, and one door below; also a draft showing the plan of the courtroom in second story, and the offices, hall, stairway and fireplaces on the ground floor.

Tradition says that when the letting of the job of building the house took place, on the 17th of July, 1823, Cyrus Hulburt's proposal was accepted, but on reflection he declined to complete his contract, and on the 10th of the same month Thomas L. Hawkins entered into a contract to erect the building for two thousand four hundred and fifty dollars. The commissioners, in payment of this sum, assigned to him the subscription list, amounting, as they called it then, to eigh-

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teen hundred dollars, and also agreed to pay him six hundred and fifty dollars in orders on the county treasury.

The building was begun in the fall of 1823; the frame was raised and the chimney partly built, but the work progressed slowly. The location proved unsatisfactory to the subscribers, and the result was that the building, in its unfinished condition, was moved out of the woods to the brow of the hill, a little north and west of where the city hall now stands, and was placed on lands now designated on the plat of the city as in- lots one hundred and three and one hundred and four. The building was moved on rollers, and was drawn from the old site to the new by twenty-four yoke of oxen. The exact date of this removal cannot now be ascertained; but the house was finished off and ready for the holding of court as early as 1830 or before. The commissioners procured the title to lot one hundred and three from Samuel Treat, by deed dated January 13, 1829, and the title to lot one hundred and four from James Birdseye, by deed dated October 9, 1830. There is no doubt, however, but there were contracts for titles before these dates. On the same premises the commissioners shortly after built

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History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 26

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