History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 21

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams
Number of Pages: 1040

USA > Ohio > Sandusky County > History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers > Part 21

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1865-Jacob D. Cox (Republican), 2161; George W. Morgan, (Democrat), 2355-

1867-Rutherford B. Hayes, 2261; Allen G. Thur- man, 2834.

1868-Presidential election, U. S. Grant (Repub- lican), 2443; Horatio Seymour, 2846.

1869-R. B. Hayes (Republican), 2175; George H. Pendleton (Democrat), 2630.

1871- Edward F. Noyes (Republican), 2022; George W. McCook (Democrat), 2610.

1872-Presidential election, U. S. Grant (Repub- lican), 2380; Horace Greeley (Democrat), 2729; blank, 31; O'Conor, 5.

1873-Edward F. Noyes (Republican) 2025; Wil- liam Allen, 2740; G. T. Stewart, 122; Isaac Col- lins, 13.

1875-R. B. Hayes, 2609; William Allen, 3353; T. Odell, I.

*[NOTE .- Compiled by the publishers from Secre- tary of State's reports of 1875, 1876, 1879, and 1880].

*Sandusky, Henry, Paulding, Putnam, and Van Wert were the only counties in the Staie in which no Abolition votes were cast.

I38

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

The following shows the vote for Rep- resentative in Congress from the Tenth District, October, 1880:

Counties.

John B. Rice.

Morgan D. Shaffer.

John Seitz.

D. N. Trobridge.

S. D. Seymour.

Hancock .

2876

2992

Huron.

4495

2909

178

IOI

Sandusky.

3374

3292

138

Seneca .

3967

4635

130

Totals.

18394

17026

619

I21

The vote for President in 1876 is given by townships :

Tilden.

Hayes.

Ballville ..

236

227

York and Bellevue Precinct.

200

323

Green Creek and Stem Precinct Jackson

354

596

159

183

Madison

202

160

Rice

146

Riley

246

131

Sandusky

216

155

Scott ..

170

153

Townsend

162

170

Washington

349

194

Woodville

262

100

Fremont

628

579

Rutherford B. Hayes, Republican. · 3,032

Samuel J. Tilden, Democrat. · 3,330

Peter Cooper, National Greenback 45

G. C. Smith. 2

1879 -- Charles Foster (Republican) 2643; Thomas Ewing (Democrat) 3427; G. T. Stewart (Prohibition) 53; A. S. Piatt (National Greenbacker) 287.

Presidential election; vote given by precincts :

1880

James 'A. Garfield.

Winfield S. Hancock.

James B. Weaver.

Neal Dow.

Ballville.

209

262

Bellevue Precinct

Green Creek.

471 317

Jackson

199

188

Madison

193

255

Rice.

153

Riley

100

269

Sandusky

I57

220

Scott ..

147

202

Townsend

202

170

Washington.

175

378

Woodville

931

275

York ..

225

I37

Fremont-

First Ward.

157

Second Ward.

122

213

Third Ward.

140

203

Fourth Ward ..

207

189

Stem Town Precinct.

I21

Totals

3059 3640

148

Erie. , .

3682

3198

I21

Majority ..

1368

CHAPTER XI.

IMPROVEMENTS.

Maumee and Western Reserve Road-Treaty Providing for Roads-Method of Making-Condition When Completed-The Ohio and Michigan War-Road to Fort Ball.

IMPROVEMENTS.

TJAVING in the preceding chapters of this history placed before the readers some remarks touching upon the pre-his- toric races, the description of the remains of their works as far as found in the county, a brief notice of the Indians found here when the white man first came upon the soil of the county; also remarks to show how we became entitled to the land the people of the county now live upon, and having given also something about the soil, surface, and geology of the county, we might properly proceed to next give an account of the early settlement of the county by the white race. But by the ar- rangement of subjects best adapted to ac- complish thoroughness and completeness in the matter of individual history, the more particular history of early settlements and individual settlers will be found in our township and city histories. Pursuing, then, the general history of the county, it seems not improper to give some history of the improvements of the county, and some account also of the circumstances and incidents which induced them, as well as a notice of the men who were actively instrumental in bringing them about.

Slow, sleepy, and dull as it may look now, when viewed by the side of the thun- dering locomotive and its immense train, the older inhabitants of the county will still realize the fact that there never has been an improvement which contributed more to invite attention to, and induce settlement in the county, than did the

MAUMEE AND WESTERN RESERVE ROAD.

This road and the men connected with it have a history. The men who pro- jected it and executed the design in build- ing this road, did a great and good work, not only for this county but for all people east and west of the county, in all parts of the country, and they deserve honora- ble mention in the history of the locality, although, in some measure, their labors of late are rendered perhaps less important than they were, by improvements then un- known and unthought of.

It will be remembered that the title to lands generally was not obtained from the Indians until the treaty made by Duncan McArthur and Lewis Cass, with the Indian tribes, at Maumee, in 1817, September 29. But east and south the Indian title had been acquired ; also in part of Michigan. On the 25th of November, 1808, at Browns- town, Michigan, Governor Hull, on behalf of the United States, concluded a treaty with the chiefs and warriors of the Chippe- wa, Ottawa, Pottawatomie, Wyandot, and Shawnee nations of Indians, which, after reciting that the United States had ac- quired land north of the Miami of Lake Erie, and lands east and south of that, but not adjoining, and that the lands lying on the eastern side of the Miami River, and between said river and the boundary line established by the treaties of Green ville and Fort Industry, with the excep- tions of a few small reservations to the United States, still belong to the Indian nations so that the United States cannot,

139

140

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

of right, open and maintain a convenient road from the settlements in the State of Ohio to the settlements in the Territory of Michigan, nor extend those settlements so as to connect them. In order, therefore, to promote this object, so desirable and evidently beneficial to the Indian nations, as well as the United States, the parties have agreed to the following articles which, when ratified by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall be perpetually binding.

After the preamble, which is substantial- ly given above, the treaty proceeds in the following language :

ART. 2. The several Nations of Indians afore- said, in order to promote the object mentioned in the preceding article, and in consideration of the friend- ship they bear towards the United States, for the liberal and benevolent policy which has been pursued towards them by the Government thereof, do liereby give, grant, and cede unto the United States a tract of land for a road of one hundred and twenty feet in width, from the foot of the rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie to the western line of the Connecticut Re- serve, and all the land within one mile of the said road on each side thereof, for the purpose of estab- lishing settlements along the same, also a tract of land for a road, only one hundred and twenty feet in width, to run southwardly froin Lower Sandusky to the boundary line established by the treaty of Greenville, with the privilege of taking at all times, such timber and other materials from the adjacent lands as may be necessary for making and keeping in repair the said road, with the bridges that may be re- quired along the same.

ART. 3. It is agreed that the lines embracing the lands given and ceded by the preceding article shall be run in such direction as may be thought most advisable by the President of the United States for the purpose aforesaid.

ART. 4. It is agreed that the said Indian Nations shall retain the privilege of hunting and fishing on the lands given and ceded as above, so long as the same shall remain the property of the United States.

Done at Brownstown. in the Territory of Michigan, this 25th day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the thirty-third.

WILLIAM HULL, Commissioner.

NE-ME-KAS, or Little Turtle, PUCK-E-NESE, or Spark of Fire, MACQUETEQUET, or Little Bear, SHEMMANAQUETTE,

Chippewas.

WAPE-ME-ME, or White Pigeon, MA-CHE.

KEWECHEWAN, TONDAGANE.

Ottawas.

MOGAN, Pottawatomies.

MIERE, or Walk-in-the-Water,

I-YO-NA-YO-TA-HA, or Joe, SKA-HO-MAT, or Black Chief, ADAM BROWN.

Wyandots.

MA-KA-TE-WE-KA-SHA, or Black Hoof, { Shawanees. KOI-TA-WAY-PIE, or Colonel Lewis.

It will be noticed that this Brownstown treaty, November 25, 1808, was the first step in the direction of procuring a road through the Black Swamp and on east of the river to the west line of the, Connecti- cut Western Reserve.

While the treaty did not in terms set a time within which the United States should open this road for travel, and thus make it available to emigrants, the Government ac- cepted the donation of valuable land for the purpose. This acceptance raised an implied obligation binding the Govern- ment, as the donee, to establish and open the road between the points indicated in the treaty within some reasonable time.

This obligation was clearly and defi- nitely recognized by the United States by an act of Congress, approved by the Presi- dent, December 12, 1811. This act pro- vided that the President should appoint three commissioners to survey and mark the most eligible course for the road, and return an accurate plat of the survey to the President, who, if he should approve the same, should cause the plat and sur- vey to be deposited with the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States; and providing further, that said road should be located, established and constructed pur- suant to the treaty held at Brownstown on the 25th day of November, 1808. This act also provided that the commissioners should be paid three dollars and their as- sistants one dollar and fifty cents per day while employed in the work.

141

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

This act appropriated six thousand dol- lars for the purpose of compensating the commissioners and opening and making the roads.

The act contemplated the survey and making of two roads provided for in the treaty of Brownstown. One from the Miami of Lake Erie to the west line of the 'Connecticut Western Reserve, and the other from Lower Sandusky southward to the Greenville treaty line.

It is difficult now to ascertain with cer- tainty whether the survey provided for by the act of Congress of 1811 was made, or, if made, at what precise date it was done ; or the line which was reported for the roads, or who were the commissioners un- der the last-mentioned act. There is, however, little doubt that a survey of a line for the Maumee and Western Reserve Road was made some time between 181I and 1816. We find in an old volume, entitled Land Laws for Ohio, published in 1825, another act of Congress, approved April 16, 1816, which authorizes the Pres- ident of the United States to cause to be made, in such manner as he may deem most proper, an alteration in the road laid out under the authority of an act to au- thorize the surveying and making of cer- tain roads in the State of Ohio, contem- plated by the treaty of Brownstown, so that said road may pass through the reser- vation at Lower Sandusky, or north there- of not exceeding three miles.

The act of 1816 provided that the nec- essary expenses incurred in altering said road should be paid out of moneys appro- priated for surveying the public lands of the United States. This expression, "alter- ing," clearly implies that a survey had be- fore been made. Probably the alteration was not, in fact, made, nor is the fact ma- terial, because Congress, in 1823, in au- thorizing the State to make the road, did not restrict the State to any survey or par-

ticular location of the road which had be- fore been made, but only gave the termini of the road as given in the treaty of Brownstown.

In the meantime, communication be- tween Fort Meigs, on the Maumee, and Fort Stevenson, on the Sandusky River, was carried on by way of the Harrison trail, as it was called, which will be men- tioned in another part of this work. About the year 1820, after this county was organized and the lands around Lower Sandusky were coming into market, and the country was attracting settlers, some unsuccessful efforts were made to have Congress construct the road according to the obligations to do so, by fair implica- tion from the terms and spirit of the treaty. These efforts were unavailing, but finally Congress consented to transfer the build- ing of the road to the State of Ohio. This was done at the earnest solicitation, not only of the pioneers who had settled at and about Lower Sandusky, but also the Kentucky Land Company, who had in- vested in lands in the reservation.

Thereupon, by an act of Congress, ap- proved February 28, 1823, it was provided that the State of Ohio might lay out a road, specifying termini and dimensions, the same as specified in the treaty, and to enable the State to make the road, Con- gress granted to the State the same quan- tity of land given by the treaty. But in the meantime the United States had been selling land, regardless of the strip two miles wide for the road, and many of the best tracts along the line had been sold to individual purchasers. On the east portion of the line, especially from the sand ridge and Clyde to Bellevue, a large part of the road land had been thus dis- posed of, and many of the best tracts west of the Sandusky River were taken in like manner; also much of the reserve of two miles square at Lower Sandusky. For

142

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

the lands thus sold which should have been applied to making the road, the act provided that the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States should pay the State, to be applied to the construction of the road, one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. The United States also provided in the act that the Government would stop sell- ing these lands as soon as the State re- ported a survey and location of the road, and provided, also, that the road should be made by the State in four years from the date of the act, and that the lands should not be sold by the State for less than one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. The lands along the road were by this act to be so taken as to be bounded by sectional lines as run by the United States. The money arising from the sales of these lands was, after building the road, to vest in the State to keep the road in repair.

The reader having traced the original design of this road back to its source, in the treaty of Brownstown, November 25, 1808, should not fail to notice that we owe the right to it to the liberality and kind- ness of a people we call savages. Hav- ing also seen that the United States transferred the work of making the road to the young and growing State of Ohio, February 28, 1823, it is easy to realize that a spirited set of pioneers would not long be barred, and the seekers after homes still further west, as in Michigan and In- diana, barred in, too, by the Black Swamp. They were wide-awake and keenly alive to the improvement of the county, and coun- try around them. They foresaw that if Lower Sandusky was ever to be a place of note and thrift, there must be a road connecting the place with the East and West.

The town of Lower Sandusky had in it in 1823-24-25, such men as Jesse S. Olm- stead, Josiah Rumery, Nicholas Whittinger,

Thomas L. Hawkins, Ammi Williams, Ezra Williams, Moses Nichols, Cyrus Hul- burd, Charles B. Fitch, Jeremiah Everett, Jacques Hulburd, Elisha W. Howland, Morris A. Newman, Israel Harrington, and others, all too shrewd, clear of appre- hension, and too energetic, not to strive zealously for the contemplated great im- provement. The zeal of these early set- tlers, aided, no doubt, by the influence of the Kentucky Company, who had pur- chased largely of the reservation, induced the General Assembly of the State to ac- cept the proposition made by the United States, to assume the work of selling the land and making the road.

SURVEY OF THE ROAD.

The General Assembly of the State promptly took up the subject, and, by laws, provided for surveying the line and establishing the road, and also for survey- ·ing these lands which were to be sold to raise the money necessary for its construc- tion, and also to contract for the making of the road.

In the year 1824 an office for the sale of the lands was opened at Perrysburg, under the superintendence of Mr. Mc- Night, who began the sales and also con- tracted for the making of the road in 1824.

Quintus F. Atkins was the surveyor of the lands, and of the road also; but he had under him a surveyor named Elijah Risdon, whose special duty it was to run the line of the road and stake it out. The act authorizing this survey was passed January 27, 1823, and the line was run in the summer and fall of that year. Our respected fellow-citizen, Hezekiah Remsburg, who resided near the line of the road, on the bank of Muskalonge Creek, remembers well, although then a boy, that Risdon and his surveying party, coming through from the West, were attracted to · his father's by the light of an out-door

I43

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

brick oven, which his mother was heating quite late in the evening, and called at for refreshments and lodging, which the party received without charge, according to thecustom of the generous pioneers of that day.

METHOD OF MAKING THE ROAD.

It should be remembered that the line of this road, from the Maumee (Miami) River to Hamer's Corner, as it was then called, but now Clyde, a distance of near forty miles, ran through an almost unbroken forest of exceedingly dense and heavy growth. The roadway was to be cleared one hundred and twenty feet wide - thirteen feet next the outer lines of the one hundred and twenty feet was, by the contract, to be cut with stumps as high as ordinary clearings; the next inner seventeen- feet was to be cut nearly or quite level with the surface of the earth, with a view to have it available for a side road; the inner sixty feet was to be grubbed up clean, and thrown up in the form of a turnpike. This sixty for the pike was placed nearer to the south side of the outer line, leaving greater room for a side road on the north side, where the sun might sometimes shine and make that dry sooner than the south side. Hence we find now that the side road is on the north side of the main or Macadamized pike. The timber from the clearing and grubbing was piled on the outer thirteen feet.

It was no child's play to cut down, grub out, and roll away the immense trees which stood so thick in this one hundred and twenty feet, especially when we con- sider the fact that these courageous men had to contend, not only with the giant trees and their roots, but also with tor- menting flies and mosquitoes, mud and water, and fever and ague; and yet the work was done in spite of all these obsta-

cles, and done on time-that is, substan- tially-and to the acceptance of Congress, within the four years' limit prescribed by their act of 28th February, 1823.

MENTION OF SOME OF THE CONTRACTORS AND COST OF CLEARING AND TURNPIK- ING THE ROAD.

Our much respected fellow-citizen, Na- than P. Birdseye, now of Fremont, in a recent interview with the writer, stated that his father, James Birdseye, was one of the early contractors for work on the road. His contract was to make seven miles in all, and also to build the bridge over the Sandusky River at Lower San- dusky. About two miles and a half of his job was west of the river, and the remain- der east of it, a part being in York town- ship, and a part between the river and Green Creek. Our informant was then a young man, and worked with his father in the performance of his contracts. He says the first work done on the road was in 1824, (Mr. Birdseye began his in Sep- tember of that year), and that the whole was cleared and piked up in the year 1827.

Messrs. Fargo & Harmon had a large contract to make this road between Green Creek and Clyde.

Mr. James Birdseye finished the bridge over the Sandusky River in January, 1828, for the contract price of three thousand dollars. It was built of solid, heavy white oak timber of the very best quality pro- cured from land east of Lower Sandusky, about two miles distant. There were no stone piers or abutments, but instead, strong double bents were used. These bents were boarded up with strong plank, and the space between the two walls filled with stone to give weight and solidity to the structure, and to resist the high waters of the river.

144

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

THIS BRIDGE CARRIED AWAY BY A FLOOD.

In February, 1833, occurred the great- est flood ever known on the Sandusky river. The ground was frozen and cov- ered with a deep snow. Several successive days of heavy rain dissolved the snow, and the combined water from the rain and snow, no part of which was absorbed by the earth, was suddenly precipitated into the ice-covered river. The large bodies of ice in the upper portion of the stream were soon raised and loosened by the ac- cumulating water, and brought against the still firm ice a little below the city, where it gorged and for a time prevented the water passing; the gorge of broken ice extended a long distance above the bridge. The water rose until in about twenty-four hours after the gorge was formed the ice began to lift the bridge; the great pressure forced a movement of the ice below, and the whole body of ice at and above the bridge moved down stream carrying on its surface the entire structure without parting it except from the shore at each end. The bridge was carried down stream about half way from where it stood and where the present iron bridge stands, and head of the island next below the bridge.

The movement thus far was slow, steady, and majestic, growing slower and slower until the river was again gorged with ice below, and the movement ceased with the bridge intact, though a little curved, and nothing broken. After this second gorging of the ice, the pent up waters turned from the channel above, flowed over the valley, and formed a strong current down Front street, which brought and lodged there great cakes of ice. It was then a river from hill to hill on either side of the channel, and the whole cov- ered with broken ice of more than a foot in thickness. Through the crevices in the broken ice the water went gurgling and roaring for several days. A sudden change

in the weather froze this mass together, and the bridge was for weeks, perhaps a month, used as a foot-bridge to cross the river on. A few boards used as an ap- proach made it a great convenience for the time. All this time a current of water was running quite swiftly down Front street, and canoes and skiffs were used to go from one part of the town to another for a period of about ten days, when the water found an outlet below and the flood subsided. But the bridge remained in the place where the ice left it until the usual spring freshet, which was com- paratively moderate, carried it further down and broke it. The bridge was floored with two-inch oak plank, sawed at Emmerson's saw-mill, which then stood on Green Creek, on the farm now owned by George T. Dana, and about half a mile south of the line of the road. Mr. Birds- eye says there were four double bents to support the bridge, besides those at each end. That it was well put together, and of good material, is shown by its tenacious resistance to the forces brought against it. But the engineer had not raised it high enough for such a flood. The bridges built after this one will be noticed in an- other chapter of this work.

COST OF ROAD AND PRICE OF LAND.

The average cost of clearing, grubbing, and throwing up this road was about - - dollars per mile, exclusive of the cost of bridges; and the contractors in many in- stances paid for land by the work they performed. The road lands, Mr. Birdseye said, were sold at different prices, ranging from one dollar and twenty-five cents to two dollars and fifty cents per acre, during the time of making the road.

CHARACTER OF THE ROAD WHEN COM- PLETED.

When the road was completed accord- ing to the original design, in 1827, it was simply a strip one hundred and twenty

145

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

feet wide cleared through the woods, with a ridge of loose earth about forty feet in width between the ditches along the sides.

The trees outside of the hundred and twenty feet stood thick and towering on either side, giving at a little distance the appearance of a huge wall about a hun- · dred feet high, and when in foliage almost shutting out the rays of the sun except a little time in the forenoon. Still, this road was a benefit. It was at least a guide through the Black Swamp, which travel lers could follow without fear of losing their way, and during the dry seasons of the year was a tolerable road for a few years. It soon became a stage route, and about 1830 a line of four-horse post coaches was established on this road. The attempt, however, to run passenger coaches with regularity was a failure, for the road, then being much travelled through the swamp, was found impassable for coaches more than half the year. Occasionally, in the dry portions of the year, from July to the equinoctial rains, the coaches would go through with some regularity. The contractors, however, endeavored to carry the mails through every day. As a con- veyance for the mails the hind wheels of a wagon were furnished with a tongue, a large dry goods box made fast to the cart thus improvised, into which the mail pouches were stowed. To this four stout horses were harnessed to plunge and flounder through thirty-one miles of mud and water. If a passenger on this line would pay well for the ride and take his chances to get through, he was permitted to mount this box and keep his seat if he could, but there was no insurance against being splashed all over with mud, or plunged into it head-foremost by being thrown from his seat. When this convey- ance arrived at either end of the line the cart, the driver, and the horses often pre-

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History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 21

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams Number of Pages: 1040

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams
Number of Pages: 1040