History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 24

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 24

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of an average diameter of about forty miles, the products from which were brought to Lower Sandusky for sale or ex- change, and for shipment by way of the river and lake to Buffalo, and thence to New York. The people residing on this circle were chiefly supplied with dry goods, groceries, drugs, salt and leather, and fish by the retail stores in Lower Sandusky, and, in fact, a large retail and barter busi- ness was carried on notwithstanding the absence of all railroads. But the roads, excepting the Maumee and Western Re- serve turnpike, were unimproved earth roads, never good, and much of the year impassable. Consequently the time and expense of hauling heavy articles, such as wheat, corn, and pork, was very consider- able, and of course materially reduced the

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY ,COUNTY.

value of the products at the respective farms where raised. Notwithstanding the bad condition of the roads, however, the farm products, in great quantities, were hauled to Lower Sandusky and trade was lively at certain seasons. A very large proportion of the products brought to the place for transportation came by the roads leading to Bettsville and Rome (Fostoria), and the trade was annually in- creasing, though the only transportation from Lower Sandusky was by water, and this method was of course closed during a considerable portion of the year. While this state of affairs existed, the idea of building plank roads came to be promul- gated and discussed, and indeed it ap- peared to be precisely the system best adapted to the improvement of the roads through the county. The words "plank road" at once awakened the spirit of enter- prise which had slept so long, and the

LOWER SANDUSKY PLANK ROAD COMPANY WAS CHARTERED,

with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars. in shares of fifty dollars each, to build a plank road from the south termination of Front street, in Lower San- dusky, southward along the Sandusky River to the south line of Edward Tindall's land; thence southwesterly to Bettsville, and thence to Rome, in Seneca county, with a branch starting from the south line of Tin- dall's land south to Tiffin.

The stock subscription book of the company, so safely and carefully preserved by its president, James Justice, during his life, and since his death, by his daughters, shows the names of the subscribers and the amount of stock taken by each. The names of subscribers then living in the county and the amount of stock subscribed respectively are as follows :

R. Dickinson, $2,000; S. Birchard, $3,000; J. R. Pease, $2,500; L. Q. Rawson, $2,000; R. P. Buck- land, $1, 500; I. S. Tyler, $500; James Moore, $2,000;

C. Edgarton, $500; James W. Wilson, $500; Daniel Tindall, $1,800; L. B. Otis, $500; P. Brush, $500; D. Betts, $500; F. I. Norton, $200; Kendall & Nims, $1,000; Morgan & Downs, $1,000; Doncyson & Engler, $200; J. Lesher, $200; John Joseph, $100; J. F. R. Sebring, $100; H. Everett, $200; H. E. Clark, $100; J. Millious, $200; G. F. Grund, $50; A. A. Bensack, $50; L. M. Bidwell, 100; C. O. Tillot-

son, $100; J. Kridler & Co., $100; I. VanDoren, jr., $100; E. Leppelman, $100; P. Door, $50; J. F. Hults, $50; S. Lansing, $200; J. Sendelbach, . $50; D. Capper, $50; H. R. Foster, $50; C. Smith, $50; J. Emerson, $500; H. Bowman, $100; J. Justice, $1,500; A. B. Taylor, $500; A. J. Dickinson, $200; M. E. Pierce, $100; P. Beaugrand, $300; H. Rems- burg, $100; J. B. Smith, $500; D. Marten, $50; M. A. Ritter, $200; C. J. Orton, $100; Samuel Thomp- son, $500; John Moore & Vallette, $1,500; Daniel Seaman, $200; A. Coles, $200; Dean & Ballard, $250; L. E. Marsh, $100; S. M. Steward, $100; John Hafford, $100; John Simon, $50; S. N. Russell, $200; J. W. Davis, $100; G. Kisseberth, $50; John Houts, $100; A. Phillips, $50.

The first fifty-three names in the above list were residents of Fremont at the time they subscribed, 1849. They were all men, excepting two, Mariah E. Pierce and Lucy E. Bidwell, both widows, but not of advanced age. The men were in middle age or younger, and were, at the time, active managing members in society and business. Thirty-two years have passed, and of these fifty-three persons, thirty-one are known to be dead.

Thirty-two years ago these stockholders elected five directors, namely, James Jus- tice, LaQ. Rawson, Charles W. Foster, John R. Pease, and James Vallette.

FIRST MEETING OF THE DIRECTORS-WORK BEGUN IN 1849.

At a meeting of the directors of the Lower Sandusky Plank Road Company, held at the office of L. Q. Rawson, in Lower Sandusky, on the 11th day of April, A. D. 1849, present, James Justice, James Vallette, John R. Pease, and LaQ. Rawson, the following proceedings were had, to-wit :

James Justice was elected president, L. Q. Raw- son Secretary, and John R. Pease Treasurer.

It was ordered that the treasurer give bond with

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

Sardis Birchard, his surety, in the penal sum of five thousand dollars.

Ordered also that the stockholders pay an instal- ment of ten per cent. on their subscriptions, on or be- fore the 15th day of June next.

It was also ordered that the president be author- ized to contract for materials for building the road from Lower Sandusky to Rome and Swope's Cor- ners. And the board also ordered, at this meeting, that notice be given to the stockholders of the order for the payment of the instalment aforesaid, by pub- lication in the Lower Sandusky newspapers for thirty days. The record is signed : "James Justice, President of the Lower Sandusky Plank Road Com- pany; L. Q. Rawson, John R. Pease, James Val- lette."

The president lost no time in entering upon the work of constructing the road as directed by the board. Contracts for grading were promptly made and promptly executed, under the vigorous management of President Justice, assisted by Superin- tendent Daniel Tindall. The saw-mills in the vicinity were at once engaged ex- clusively in sawing planks and stringers for the road, and at least one steam saw- mill was erected and operated by . Joshua B. Smith for special purpose of manu- facturing lumber for the road. This mill was erected by the side of the road, in the woods, about three miles north of Swope's Corners, to which point the road was completed about the Ist · of October, 1849, and toll-gates erected.

The branch to Rome was also being rapidly constructed.

On the parts constructed tolls were col- lected before the Ist of January, 1850, to the amount of three hundred and eighty- seven dollars and twenty-six cents.

The road was finished the following year (1850), from Swope's Corners to Tiffin.

From Fremont to the south line of Edward Tindall's land, where the two branches diverged, the distance was five miles, and from there each branch was about thirteen miles long; total length of road built was about thirty-one miles.

It appears by the books that on Sep- tember 30, 1851, there had been paid in- to the treasury of the company on stock, forty-two thousand five hundred dollars; donations made to the amount of two hundred and ninety-five dollars, and tolls collected from October 1, 1849, to Septem- ber 30, 1851, six thousand seven hundred and twenty-two dollars, making a total of receipts of forty-nine thousand five hun- dred and seventeen dollars.

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

Tolls received in the month of May, 1850. . $194 00 1851. . 498 00

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 tolis declined, and the planks and timbers had so decayed that the income would no longer meet the expenses and repairs, and it was surren- dered 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, amount- ing, in the aggregate, to about forty per cent., as appears by the president's books. Although this enterprise was not a finan- cial success for the stockholders, and although it demonstrated that plank roads were not durable, and would need re- building once in about ten years, still this, and one built about the same time from Fremont to Green Spring, were greatly

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

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

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

As was stated in the beginning of the. history of this plank road, the spirit of en- terprise 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 in- vested 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 re- move to some more enterprising locality, and where there were some better pros- pects for increase of business, and of in- crease in the value of real estate.

Prominent among those who had be- come 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 ac- cumulated some money and a good repu- tation as an honest and responsible law- yer. He had been for some time seriously contemplating removal from Lower San- dusky 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 re- main 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 sub- stance, 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 d.d remember the fact. This block was erected on lot number two hundred and forty-three, on Front street, on what had buen the Western House property, and is now a central bus- iness place of great value. It was fortu- nate for the then future of Fremont that General Buckland was induced to remain, as will appear by the more particular his- tory of the city, and by General Buck- land's biography.

Mr. John England, now quite aged, re- siding 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 haul- ing 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, be- fore the plank-road was made ; that then forty bushels of wheat, or twenty-four hun- dred 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

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

one half, while the toll charged for such a load was forty-five cents. The time saved by hauling on the plank more than com- pensated 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 trans- ported by water to the head of navigation in the Sandusky river, and thence distrib- uted 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 busi- ness for about ten years, of which the plank-road was the main artery. The amount of farm products brought to Fre- mont 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 cas ual visitors express surprise, and wonder at the amount of business done in the place. Strangers passing through or stop- ping 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 ship- ping 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, al- though there were a number of other per- sons engaged in buying wheat and com- peting with him, it was usual for him to

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

Though all this system of trade was des- tined 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 in- vention 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 Tole- do, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad, in 1852, by which produce was carried East and West, superseded in large part the carriage of produce by water from Fre- mont. 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 carly in 1860.

THE FORM OF THE ROAD, AND LINE BUILT ON.

The form of the plank-road, when fin- ished, 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 em-

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

beded 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 dif- ficulty 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.

HE Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Rail-

T road 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 Tim- othy 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. Raw- son, L. B. Otis, H. Everett, A. B. Taylor, and R. P. Buckland, of the county of S.indu-ky, and Hezekiah D. Mason, Ed- ward 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 com- panies, under the general law regulating railroad - companies, passed February 1I, 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 incor- poration provided that the capital stock of the company should be two millions of dollars, and that the company were em- powered 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 Welling'on, in Lo- rain county, or at some other point in said counties of Huron and Lorain to be deter- mined by the directors of said company.

The third section of the act of incor- poration provided that the county com- missioners of any county through which

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 exceed- ing one hundred thousand dollars, and to borrow money to pay the sum at any rate of interest not exceeding seven per cent., payable semi-annually 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 pay- ment of the money so borrowed or sub- scribed, 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 inci- dental charges. The fourth section of the act of incorporation, however, pro- vided 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 pro- vided 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 sub- scription might be made, but not other- wise.

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 publ.c

meeting was called and Charles L. Boalt, president of the company, addressed a meeting at the court-house, and endeav- ored, 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 Nor- walk 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

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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 incorpora- tion of the Junction Railroad Company also provided that if the directors of said company and the directors of the Cleve- land, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad Company could not agree upon the terms of junction, then, in that case, the Junc- tion 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 earrest opposition against the interests of Norwalk. Fremont at that tiwe would have been satisfied if the Junction Company would have pledged its faith and promised to construct a rail- road 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 with- out 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, Presi- dent 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 man- ager 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 rail- road through. At a meeting addressed by him at the court house in Fremont, in the summer of 1850, about twenty-five thousand dollars was subscribed on the spot by the citizens individually. The in- fluential friends and advocates of the Tole- do, 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 Sep- tember, 1850, two of the commissioners, namely, Martin Wright and John S. Gard- ner, with Homer Everett, then county auditor, met at the auditor's office. (Hiram Hurd, the other commissioner did not at- tend). The record opens in the follow- ing form :

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History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 24

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