History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 65

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Fifth. Dickinson and Birchard's addition to the town of Lower Sandusky, including the lots along the turnpike, on the hill, on the west side of the river, dedicated September 6, 1840, by Rodolphus Dickinson, Sardis Birchard, and Richard Sears.

These are the chief surveys made in the town, though a number of others have since been made. To mention them all would be tedious. These several surveys made it expedient to re-number the whole city, which has been done, and each added plat has been numbered in the same series. The whole of two miles square is platted and numbered, either in in- or out lots.

CHAPTER XXVI. FREMONT-BUSINESS PROGRESS.

Mercantile, Manufacturing, and Banking-Business Directory.

T HE mercantile history proper of Fremont begins in 1817 with the arrival here of a large stock of dry goods, groceries, hardware, crockery, liquors and wines, shipped from Albany, New York, to J. S. & G. G. Olmsted. This miscellaneous assortment was one of no small proportions for a country store, the invoice amounting to no less than twenty-seven thousand dollars, and the transportation on the same being four thousand four hundred dollars. Even in those days it required men with something besides heavy bones and brawn, elements of endurance, strengthened by hardships, and a spirit of enterprise to build up towns and populate the surrounding wilderness. Capital, then as now, was the principal motive power. The firm also brought with them a number of carpenters to erect a store building, and several coopers to make barrels to be used in the river fisheries. Pine lumber for building material was brought here from Buffalo by water. Immediately on the arrival of men and material, the construction of a commodious frame building was commenced on tract number six, as it was called, about on the present site of I. E. Amsden's saw-mill office. It was two stories in height, and presented a front of sixty feet towards the Sandusky River. Dormer windows jutted out above, and under them were projecting beams with pulley- blocks and tackle for raising goods. The lower story was divided

into two departments, one used for a general salesroom and the other for a warehouse in which to store away the pro-

duce received in barter for the necessary household wares and luxuries for the pioneers and villagers. The dimensions of the structure were thirty by sixty feet. It was considered a mammoth building, and the stock of merchandise, which soon piled high the counters and shelves, was greater than any other between Detroit and Cleveland, and Urbana and the lake. For a number of years the store was in truth a commercial emporium. The following prices, at that time demanded for goods, which, in comparison, now bring but a pittance, may be read with interest: Brown sheeting, three-fourths of a yard wide, fifty cents per yard; calico, from fifty to seventy-five cents per yard; satinet at two dollars and a half per yard. In articles of consumption there is not so much difference in the figures, for coffee sold at thirty-eight cents, tea for one dollar and one dollar and a half, and tobacco at fifty cents. Ponder sold for one dollar, and lead for twenty-five cents per pound respectively. Under such circumstances, to make it pay, every shot had to count. In contrast to these prices, but still to our own advantage, whiskey, which of like quality would now cost from two to four dollars per gallon, then was easily purchased at seventy-five cents. It is curious what changes are brought about by the advance of civilization. Refined loaf sugar was the only article of that nature imported, as .the sugar maple forests well supplied the inhabitants with this staple article, and also took the place of molasses and syrups. Probably the first manufacturing

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done by the Indians was the converting of the sap of the maple into a portable pro- duction-sugar. They exchanged this for the storekeeper's gew-gaws. It was put up in boxes made of birch bark, holding from thirty to fifty pounds, and the package called, in the musical language of the noble red man, a "mocock." These "mococks" formed a prime article of exportation, as well as for local consumption. Foreign brown sugar, or that made from the cane, was not sold in the village until 1828 or 1829. At this early time (1817) the rivers and woods abounded in valuable fur-bearing animals, and it would seem from the following figures that the occupation of a trapper and hunter might then have been followed to exceeding great ad-vantage. Soon after opening business the Olmsted firm received in trade and shipped during one season, twenty thousand muskrat pelts, worth twenty-five cents each; eight thousand coon skins, worth fifty cents each; one hundred and fifty otter skins, worth five dollars each; and two hundred bear skins, worth five dollars each.

The first wheat shipped East from this city, then the village of Lower Sandusky, was a lot of six hundred bushels, sent forward by J. S. Olmsted in the year 1830. It was bought at the vice of forty cents per bushel, and sold in Buffalo at sixty cents per bushel. The high rates of transportation consumed all the profits. In 1820 the lust cargo of pork, to the amount of one hundred and fifty barrels, was shipped to Montreal by the firm of J. S. & G. G. Olmsted, where it was sold at a considerable loss. These latter statements of shipments and prices of goods will give some idea of the mercantile business at an early day in Sandusky county.

While the Olmsteds, as related, were the first merchants here, in the true sense of the teem, they were not the earliest

traders. Before the war of 1812, Mr. James Whittaker had traded to some extent with the Indians, bartering with them a few goods for their own peculiar use. Hugh Patterson, a Scotchman, who had been a partner in these transactions with Mr. Whittaker, soon after the date last mentioned kept a store at Muncietown, on the east side of the river and about two miles from this city. There was one other trader, by name Augustus Texier, who kept a small stock of cheap goods in the village, and managed to gain a livelihood thereby. David Gallagher, another of the early merchants, came here before the war of 1812, and was employed for a number of years as an assistant commissary at Fort Stephenson. He was afterwards connected with the Olmsteds, both as a clerk and a partner.

In 1823 Dr. L. Brown was selling general merchandise in a frame building where Mrs. Tyler's block now stands. Richard Sears, a young man and accredited as having been one of the beaux of the village, was a merchant at the same date, and afterwards on the same site. In 1831, removing his stock from a frame structure on the present site of the Heffner block, he formed a co- partnership with J. S. Olmsted, who in the meantime had dissolved partnership with his brother, and having left his original store house on the river bank below, was selling general merchandise on the northwest corner of Front and State streets. The firm name was Olmsted & Sears. Four years the partnership continued, dissolving on Mr. Sears engaging in business by himself. Mr. Olmsted, soon after this dissolution, removed to the old Harrington block, and from thence, in 1840, to a building standing on a portion of the lot now occupied by the Fabing & Hime block.

John W. Tyler was another of the taller storekeepers, and Esbon Rusted,

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between 1820 and 1825, kept a general store, with drugs, on the southeast corner of Front and State streets. Isadore Beaugrand and George Grant were his clerks. Rodolphus Dickinson, Sardis Birchard, and Esbon Husted, in 1831, began the dry goods business on the same site, under the firm name of R. Dickinson & Co. From 1841 to 1844 the firm of Cutter & Heywood sold dry goods and bought grain there. Among the other pioneer trades-men, still well remembered by the older citizens, was Judge Knapp, who sold groceries in the old Knapp building, on the present site of White's block. In 1836 or 1837, John M. Smith commenced selling dry goods where Dryfoos Brothers & Bach now hold forth. Eddy & Wilkes succeeded him. Where the First National Bank is at present, John Bell and Merritt L. Harman kept a general store of dry goods, groceries, hardware, etc., between the years 1830 and 1840. John P. Haynes, J. K. Glen, and Austin B. Taylor were three more of the old merchants com- mencing here early in the thirties.

Richard Sears opened a store on the corner .of Front and Croghan streets shortly after dissolving with the Olmsteds. He made a fortune trading with the Indians, and in 1827 sold out to Sardis Birchard and left for Buffalo. Mr. Birchard's long and successful business life is traced in a biography elsewhere in this volume. Like his predecessor, he had a large trade with the Indians.

The first pork was shipped from this place in 1820 by the Olmsteds, and was marketed at Montreal. It consisted of one hundred and fifty barrels. The cost here was two thousand dollars for the lot. The venture cost the firm considerable loss, but pork afterwards became an important and profitable commodity of trade. The first wheat was shipped from here in 1830, by J. S. Olmsted, and consisted

of a lot of six hundred bushels. Mr. Olmsted's first venture in wheat was little more successful than the pork speculation of ten years previous. Forty cents per bushel was paid at the warehouse here and sixty cents the price received in Buffalo. Transportation was then so high that the margin of twenty cents per bushel was con- sumed. But the trade in pork and wheat from 1830 to 1850 was enormous. Every day the streets were filled with teams of four and six horses drawing great wagons with high wheels, making it almost impossible to pass through town. About 1840 staves were in general demand, and stave wagons with high racks crowded among the produce wagons, altogether presenting a bewildering spectacle of busy life and business activity. Those scenes will never be repeated in this country. A vast network of railroads gives to every community the means of rapid transporta- tion, and consequently a steady market for all productions. Lower Sandusky and Milan were the main produce markets west of Cleveland. Both at the time were small villages. One is now a deserted town, the other a prosperous. city, made prosperous chiefly by the good, fortune of securing early railroad facilities.

The largest store (one for general mer- chandise of all descriptions,) that ever existed in Fremont, was started in 1846, by two enterprising merchants from Elyria, H. K. Kendall, and O. L. Nims. The former, the elder member of the firm, never resided here, the business being carried on by Mr. Nims, then a young man twenty-six years of age. Possessing remarkable business qualifications, an exemplary character, and a winning disposition, he soon built up a trade that extended around for a radius of fifty miles into the counties of Erie, Huron, Wyandot, Seneca, Hancock, Ottawa, Lucas and Wood. The building occupied by this

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firm was then owned by F. I. Norton. It was a frame structure of two stories in height, and faced on Front street. The salesroom covered the space now occupied by Rice's dry goods store and Strong's clothing establishment, being forty feet in width and extended back into the warehouse that was soon afterwards added. This warehouse, at right angles from the original main building, extended in the rear of the old Lesher bakery building and Betts' corner store, and opened on Croghan street. It was user for produce, wool, and pork. The largest number of clerks employed, and the largest number ever employed by a single mercantile firm in Fremont, was twenty-one. Mr. Kendall died a few years after starting in business, and Mr. Nims remained sole proprietor until 1853, when Henry Zeigler and C. B. King removed their stock of goods from Findlay, where they had been in business a short time, and entered into partnership with Nims, under the firm name of O. L. Nims & Co. In March, 1854, this store, known as "Headquarters," together with Lesher's bakery and Betts' store, was entirely destroyed by fire. Mr. Nims immediately purchased the ground on the northeast corner of Front and Croghan streets, and removing the shaky frame tenements that covered it, he erected the brick building now owned by F. S. White. In the corner storeroom the old "Head-quarters" store was opened anew by Henry Zeigler, David Garvin, and Michael Zeigler, under the firm name of Zeigler, Garvin & Zeigler, in the fall of 1854. Michael Zeigler died the same autumn, and soon after C. B. King resumed a partnership interest, the style being C. B. King & Co. Several changes were made from that time on to 1866, the firm name being successively as follows: King, Zeigler & Co .; D. Garvin & Co .; Clark & Zeigler; D. Gatlin & Co. Under the latter style

Garvin and Zeigler continued partners until 1875. At that date David Wagner, of Ottawa, Ohio, purchased Garvin's interest, and until 1878 business was transacted under the style of Wagner & Zeigler, when the latter sold out and Wagner be-came sole owner. Besides those already mentioned, a number of others, at present business men of Fremont, were clerks in the old "Headquarters," that is, S. P. Meng, H. R. Shomo, William A. Rice, and Daniel Altaffer, who are mentioned under their respective business heads.

In 1847 David Betts, who had clerked for J. K. Glen for six or seven years, rented the room formerly occupied by his employer on Shomo's corner, and moving in a stock of goods, continued doing business on that site until June 7, 1849, when the building was destroyed by fire. The following month Mr. Betts purchased of Frederick Wilks, the corner lot now occupied by the Dryfoos block, and refitting the old building, made a new start that fall. The large fire of March, 1854, that destroyed the headquarters establishment and Lesher's bakery also burned out Mr. Betts. He rebuilt the same year, and, with D. W. Krebs as a partner, engaged again in business under the firm name of D. Betts & Co. In 1856 the stock was sold to Edgerron & Wilcox, who discontinued the year after; when I). Betts & Co. repurchased the whole interest. The next change was made in 1862, by Mr. Betts, who sold his interest to Krebs, Sargent & Price. Krebs & Boardman were the successors a year after.

The dry goods store of William A. & C. F. Rice was started at its present site some time in the fifties by P. C. Dean. In 1859 Dean sold out to William A. Rice. Alfred Rice, who was a partner for several years, closed out his interest in 1877.

Condit Bros. was the firm title of the

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original proprietors of the dry goods establishment of their present successors, William W. Brandt & Co. In 1867 William Brandt went into business with the first company, the Co. icing added. Brandt & Condit, succeeded William W. Brandt, following as stile proprietor, and continuing as such until the present co-partners were admitted.

The present extensive clothing-house of Dryfoos, Bro. & Bach, consisting of Isaac and S. Dryfoos and S. Bach, was started by Isaac & M. Dryfoos, in 1852, on Front street near the corner of Garrison street. After a few years they removed to a room in Birchard block, where they continued doing business till 1873, when the block, now partly occupied by them, was purchased, and the stock transferred to the corner sales- room. M. Dryfoos sold out his interest in 1880.

The merchant tailoring establishment of Philip Gottron and Charles Augustus, located on Croghan street, was started three years since. The firm name is Gottron & Augustus.

The first exclusive drug and book store, an offshoot from the general country store for dry goods, boots and shoes, drugs, hardware and jewelry, was started in a room of the old headquarters building on the present site of Lesher's grocery, in 1840, by C. G. McCulloch. In 1847 C. R. McCulloch succeeded his brother and two years after removed his stock to the site of the store room now occupied by him, where he was ever since remained in business. Stephen Buckland was a partner for a few years.

On the dissolution of the partnership of C. R. McCulloch & Stephen Buckland, the latter, in 1856, went into rival drug business in the room now occupied by him and his son, Ralph P. Buckland, jr. The firm, until 1859, was Wooster & Buckland, when

Wooster retired, and Buckland's sons entered into partnership with their father.

The Thomas & Grund drug house was established by Dr. E. Dillon & Son in 1860. Lantnan & Thomas purchased the business in 1868, and in 1872 Thomas, Grund & Long succeeded. On the death of the latter member of the firm some few years since, the title was changed to Thomas & Grund.

Dr. L. B. Myers entered into the drug business in this city in 1876. His son, Kelley Myer?, was a partner during a portion of the time. Previous to the above date, Dr. Myers was engaged with Strausmeyer and Kelley in the grocery business on Front street.

The cigar and tobacco store of Charles Barth was started by his predecessor in the business, P. Poss, in 1856, who commenced the manufacture and sale of cigars in a small frame building, where Burley's restaurant now stands. No changes were made in the firm until 1877, when Mr. Poss removed to Chattanooga and the present proprietor took possession. The store was moved to where it now is, on the block being opened for occupancy,

Where White & Haynes' office now stands the shop of the first harness-maker for Fremont, H. R. Foster, was started. J. C. Montgomery succeeded him, and in 1845 John Kridle, became a partner. In 1847 James Kridler, the present leading harness dealer and manufacturer, purchased the interest of Montgomery, and with his brother continued in business under the firm name of J. & J. Kridler, in the old frame building covering the land now occupied by the Thompson & Corn-'my hardware store. When the frame structure was moved further south on the street they removed their business with it. Mr. McNeal was a partner for a few years. In 1859 James Kridler bought in all the interest. For five years he carried on his

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business in the low brick building formerly occupied by the First National Bank, and then moved, in the early part of September, 1881, to the post office building.

In 1835, when the country closely sur- rounding the village of Lower Sandusky was still the veritable "howling wilderness" spoken of in the Indian and early settler romances, Edward Leppelman located in an old, yellow frame building that stood on the present site of Mrs. Heifer's block on Front street, and opened out a scanty stock of clocks, jewelry and groceries. As a watch- maker he also repaired the stationary and portable time-pieces of the worthy villagers and backwoodsmen. Business in the three branches increased, and in the course of a few years he removed to a one-story frame structure, standing on the site of John Horn's grocery. The next removal, was to the first frame building erected in Fremont, and occupied before the removal first as a hotel by Harrington, and immediately preceding Leppelman's advent by J. K. Glenn. Edward Leppelman here remained in the jewelry business until he was succeeded by his son, Lewis Leppelman, the present proprietor. The old frame building was entirely destroyed by fire in February, 1857, and on a brick block being erected in its place, the business was resumed. It is now the largest jewelry house in the county; business, both wholesale and retail, being carried on, and an organ and sewing machine store con- nected with the main salesroom.

The first regular hardware store started in Fremont was opened on the pike by George Camfield and James Mitchell in the year 1850. After several changes they removed to the store-room occupied by the present successors of the old firm. The first change in the firm was occasioned by the withdrawal of Mitchell, and Lewis Camfield taking his interest. Camfield,

Brother & Company succeeded this firm, and on the successive deaths of the two senior partners, George and Lewis Camfield, the company has changed to the title of Hedrick & Bristol (Fred Hedrick and E. A. Bristol).

The corporation of Thompson & Co. hardware dealers, was formed in March, 1877, the being composed of Charles Thompson, John T. Thompson, John P. Bell, Robert Lucas, and Edward C. Gast. The original house, of which this firm has been the outgrowth, was started by Oliver Fusselman, on the east side of the river, in 1859. In 1860, Fusselman having in the mean time removed to the present location, Charles Thompson purchased the business, taking in as partners Orin England and John T. Thompson, in 1865. Charles A. Norton was a partner a few years. England and he retired in order, the latter in 1876.

Philip Dort is the oldest of the boot and shoe merchants in Fremont. He commenced in 1841, on the east side of the river, and continued there a number of years, until he removed his stock and the tools of his trade to a store-room on the northeast corner of Front and Garrison streets. The present store is on Front street, just south of the First National Bank. His sons, Fred, Lewis, and Henry, are partners.

In 1867 H. R. Shomo, immediately after the expiration of his term as post-master, opened a boot and shoe store and has continued in the business since that date, occupying for the last twelve years his present site.

The boot and shoe store owned and conducted by S. P. Meng, and now located on the northeast corner of Croghan and Front streets, was started in 1862, under the firm name of S. P. Meng & Co. A. Hoot was his partner until 1868. The original firm having dissolved, in

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1870 Mr. Meng again opened up a boot and shoe store under the style of Meng, Altaffer & Co. This continued for two years, when Mr. Meng bought out the en-tire interest.

A. Hoot, the early partner of S. P. Meng, is at this date engaged in the boot and shoe business in Buckland's new block, on Front street.

Perry Close is the oldest representative grocer of the city, having followed that business entirely since 1850, when he commenced with a stock in the room at present occupied by John Horn. Mr. Close has had no partners, with the exception of his son, Clarence Close, which partnership was dissolved a year ago. A glassware department is connected with the grocery proper.

Pork packing, as a regular business, was commenced by Andrew Morehouse, in 1846 or 1847. For a number of years he carried on the trade on the southeast corner of Front and Garrison streets. He then removed to some buildings erected on Front street, near the railroad bridge, and continued there for l en or twelve years.

In 1859 Mr. A. Gusdorf entered into the pork packing business in the ware-houses where Rice & Co., and Strong are at present. Two years after he removed to the building still occupied by the firm, just north of the gas factory. The firm members are M. Gusdorf, A. Gusdorf, and S. M. Gusdorf, under the style of Gusdorf Brothers.

Jacob Bauman is extensively engaged in the same business.

ARDENT SPIRITS.

The business of whiskey distillation, commenced at a very early date in Fremont, was entirely discontinued before the year 1838, and has never since been revived. The earliest distiller was William R. Coates, who came here from New Orleans, and about the year 1820

erected a great hewn-log building on the old Glenn farm, between the spring that still wells up there and the Edgerton property. He carried on quite an extensive distilling business, keeping two sets of hands at work, one for the day, and one for the night. The whiskey was barreled and shipped by boats to eastern markets. It was not the pure, unadulterated article; the proprietor was intent on making money, and used a good deal of water to dilute, then drugs to strengthen the weakened extract. Coates, when he came here, was considered very well off financially, and was coining money with the distillery, but he became entangled in a series of lawsuits in relation to his mill property above Ballville, which consider- ably embarrassed him, and he at length discontinued distilling, and left the country. Weed & Wilder afterwards occupied the vacated buildings, but after a few years the business ceased altogether, and the buildings were left to gradually rot and crumble away.

Ammi and Ezra Williams began op- erations in 1825, in a log building standing where Ammi Williams, jr., now resides. Nothing now remains of the structure or the apparatus of the still, the last vestige-a great, heavy, black-walnut trough, into which the still swill was poured-having been chopped for firewood only two years since. Ammi Williams, sr., died suddenly in 1826. In the following year Ezra Williams, having completed a building at the foot of the east side-hill on the south side of State street, moved his still therein, and continued operations.

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History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 65

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