History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 27

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 27

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estimate of the carpenter who was con- sulted 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 pro- duce and merchandise over the road, the outlay is very soon balanced, and the well-improved road thereafter, by re- pairing 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 fur- ther special assessments. The aggregate cost of the macadamized roads made by the county commissioners, at this writing (1881), is seventy-one thousand nine hun- dred and seventy-five dollars and twelve cents. There have been portions of some of the other roads in the county macad- amized by appropriations from time to time from the county and township road funds, the cost of which cannot well be ascer- tained. The people are now quite alive to improvement of roads, and ere long San- dusky county will be a delightful land to drive through, on good roads, and not a toll-gate 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.

TN Chapter VIII of this history we made some mention of the subscription for building the first court-house in the county -showing that it was built by subscription of individuals, signed under date of April 1, 1823. The subscription showed oblii- gations 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 hun- dred and forty-five dollars-making an ag- gregate of one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five dollars.

THE COURT-HOUSE 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 "investi- gating the propriety of immediately build- ing a jail or some other public building with the funds subscribed for said pur- pose, in and for the county of Sandusky." After transacting some other business, such as ordering the trustees of the differ- ent townships to direct the supervisors to

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

open all county roads through the town- ships at least sixty feet wide, they made an order that there should be erected a build- ing for public purposes, out of the funds subscribed for that purpose, and a part thereof to be appropriated for a court-house 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 fire-places 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 instruct- ed to write sundry advertisements comprehending the above order, for the purpose of letting said building to the lowest bidder, on the roth day of June next, and that one of said advertisements be filed in the office and recorded, and that a draft thereof be at- tached to each advertisement so published and re- corded. 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 no- ices ordered by the commissioners, which is of record in the words and figures fol- lowing :

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 court-house in and for the county afore- said, 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 fire-places 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, fire-places, 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 credit- able citizens of the town of Sandusky, amounting to eighteen hundred dollars, will be given for the com- pletion of said building, or so far as it may go to- wards 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 ma- terials. All enterprising men and industrious me- chanics 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 court-room in second story, and the offices, hall, stairway and fire-places 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 Hul- burt's proposal was accepted, but on re- flection he declined to complete his con- tract, and on the 20th of the same month Thomas L. Hawkins entered into a con- tract to erect the building for two thou- sand 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 chim- ney partly built, but the work progressed slowly. The location proved unsatisfac- tory to the subscribers, and the result . was that the building, in its unfinished con- dition, 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 ascer- tained; but the house was finished off and ready for the holding of court as early as 1830 or before. The commissioners pro- cured 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 con- tracts for titles before these dates. On the same premises the commissioners shortly after built

THE FIRST JAIL

was erected about 1832, by Elisha W. Howland, under contract with the county commissioners. The walls, and ceilings, and floor of this building were composed of hewn timbers eighteen inches square, laid one upon another and bolted through with iron bolts. The windows were se- cured by iron grating of perpendicular bars one inch square, about three inches apart, and passing through horizontal flat bars about one inch thick, and with a space between them of about three inches. All these bars were deeply inserted into the timbers at the sides, and above and

below the open space cut for the windows. This jail was completed about the year 1832. The court-house was completed earlier, probably about 1826.

THESE BUILDINGS

were used for their respective purposes -- the one for the administration of justice and the county offices, the other for the confinement of criminals, until the year 1843, when another and better court-house and a better jail were built by the county.

In the old jail above described, Sperry was incarcerated for the murder of his wife; in this old court-house he was tried, condemned, and sentenced to be hung.

The same jail confined Thompson for the murder of a young lady at Bellevue.

In this old jail Sperry committed sui- cide, in the presence of Thompson, to es- cape the gallows.

The walls of this old court-house echoed the arguments of attorneys Hiram R. Pet- tibone, Peter Yates, Asa Calkins, Nathan_ iel B. Eddy, Homer Everett, L. B. Otis, C. L. Boalt, E. B. Sadler, Brice J. Bartlett, W. W. Culver, and fairly shook with the crashing voice of Cooper K. Watson, in his prime, when he prosecuted Sperry with wonderful powers of eloquence and logic.

These buildings served their purposes well, until the increasing population and legal business of the county required more room and structures more secure from de- struction by fire.

Soon after the erection of the brick court-house the lots on which the old court- house and jail were situated were sold by the commissioners.

The deed conveys the lots numbers one hundred and three and one hundred and four to John Karshner for the sum of eight hundred and ten dollars, and bears date January 13, 1845, and the county commissioners who executed the convey-

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ance were: Paul Tew, John S. Gardner, and James Rose.

On the 14th day of March, A. D. 1845, John Karshner conveyed the same lots, for the same amount of consideration, to Daniel Schock, David Deal, John Stahl, John Heberling, and Frederick Grund, as trustees of "The United German Evan- gelical Lutheran, and German Evangelical Reformed St. John's Church, of Fremont." Rev. Henry Lang, pastor of the church, took possession of the buildings soon after the sale. The jail was used for a stable, the court room was converted into a place of worship, while the room below served as a residence for the worthy pastor and his family many years. The two societies separated, and the property is now owned exclusively by the Lutheran Church of Fremont, and the whole building is used as a parsonage of the church.

The jail was taken down several years ago, but the old first frame court-house is still standing, with all its timbers strong and sound.

THOUGHTS ABOUT THE OLD COURT-HOUSE.

On the judge's seat in this old court- house sat John C. Wright, and as one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the State under the old constitution, heard and determined causes with wonderful promptness and marked ability. It was here that Judge Wright heard a divorce case, the cause alleged being cruel treat- ment of the wife by the husband. The testimony showed a chronic habit of in- dulging bad temper by both parties, but the wife, who sought the divorce, was the greater and more talented scold of the two. Judge Wright patiently heard the evidence and arguments in the case. As soon as the arguments were closed, the judge, in his sharp, ringing voice began, and said: "This is a petition for divorce on the ground of extreme cruelty. The

proof shows that the parties have been about equally cruel toward each other, and taking the evidence all into consideration, the Court is satisfied that in this case two people have been joined in the holy bonds of wedlock who are possessed of very un- happy tempers, but if bad temper should be held to be sufficient cause for divorce, we fear that few matrimonial contracts in Ohio would stand the test. The divorce is therefore refused." More such decisions are needed to preserve the sanctity of the marriage relation in more recent times.

In this old court-house Judge Ebenezer Lane sat and announced decisions as learned and sound as any since his day. In the old court room Brice J. Bartlett, Nathaniel B. Eddy, Lucius B. Otis, and Homer Everett first appeared in the practice of the law. The old house has served for a time as the temple of justice, then as a temple for illustrating God's mercy to man, and finally as the abode of a pious, peaceful, and happy family.

THE SECOND COURT-HOUSE AND JAIL.

The county, in 1840, had so increased in inhabitants and business that the old court-house, twenty-four by thirty-six feet in dimensions, no longer afforded room for the proper and convenient transaction of the public business, nor a safe reposi- tory for the public records. Hence public opinion urged the county commissioners to the construction of a safer and more commodious building. It appears by the journal of the county commissioners, that the public desire put them in motion to- wards this object in March or April, 1840. The first recorded action of the commis- sioners is found in their journal under date of April 3, 1840, when they met at the auditor's office with Nathaniel B. Eddy, then county auditor. They met, as the journal entry shows, and not having completed their view and location of a

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site for the court-house, adjourned until the next morning. The next journal entry shows that on the 4th of April, 1840, the commissioners met pursuant to adjourn- ment, and having completed the survey and location of a site for a court-house, adjourned without delay. The commis- sioners then were: Paul Tew, of Townsend · township; Jonas Smith, of Ballville town- ship; and John Bell, of Sandusky town- ship.

The commissioners, at their meeting under date of June 2, 1840, after having published for proposals, met, and opened and examined offers filed, and after having them under advisement accepted the pro- posal of Isaac Knapp, to build the court- house and jail, for the sum of fourteen thousand five hundred and fifty dollars.

On the 4th day of June, 1840, the county commissioners ordered a levy on all taxable property of the county, of one mill and a half on the dollar valuation, for court house and jail purposes, to be held exclusively for those purposes and no other.

PLAN OF THE HOUSE.

The contract between the commission- ers and Mr. Knapp, and the plans and specifications of the building, were not made matter of record, and cannot now be found, but the following items respect- ing the materials, form, and dimensions of the building as erected by Mr. Knapp, are gathered from those who are familiar with the court-house before any alteration was made.

The length of the building east and west, was fully sixty-seven feet; the breadth north and south, was fully forty-five feet.

The basement was the jail, built of large blocks of cut limestone, with a wide hall along the north basement wall, and the south side partitioned by thick walls of cut limestone into cells for prisoners. These walls were all of unusual thickness,

and the cells closed by doors made of strong iron bars. The floor of the jail was of very heavy limestone flagging, and the ceiling of the same material. Both floors, that is, first and second floors above the jail, were of sandstone flagging laid in mortar, on heavy timbers placed near to- gether.

The height of the wall from the eave- trough to the ground was forty-five feet; the roof, what mechanics denominate quar- ter-pitch, covered with pine shingles, with belfry a little east of the centre. The style was plain Grecian, with a porch on the front, or eastern gable end, supported by four fluted columns of wood-work, about eight feet deep, floored with dressed limestone flagging. A flight of steps, ex- tending north and south, and in front centre about thirty feet, led from the pavement to the porch, which was eleva- ted about four feet above the sidewalk.

The exact time when the building was completed, or when it was first used, is now, after the lapse of forty years, rather difficult to find. But certain facts of record serve to show a near approximation to the time the building was completed, so far as Mr. Knapp's contract had to do with it. For instance, at a meeting of the commissioners, under date of December 5, 1843, they ordered, as appears by their journal, that as soon as the new court- house should be finished, the auditor should let, to the lowest bidder, a contract for finishing and furnishing the inside of the clerk's office, according to plans and specifications furnished by the clerk. This entry indicates very clearly that the court- house was not completed at the date of the order, December 5, 1843. But under date of August 1, 1844, we find an entry in the commissioners' journal, reciting that a large number of taxpayers, being convinced that Isaac Knapp had lost largely in building the court-house and

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jail for the county, asked the com- missioners to make him an extra allow- ance, to cover his losses, and they then ordered an allowance of two thousand dollars, to be paid out of the county treasury. This indicates that the job had been completed before the time this extra allowance had been made, and leads to the conclusion that the spring term of the court of common pleas, of the year 1844, was held in the new court-house.

The building was intended to be safe against fire, but the stone floors were found to be objectionable, especially for the court room, on account of the noise produced by walking on the stone flagging. The stone floor in the court room, after a few years use was removed, and a wooden floor, with manilla carpet, put down, which was a great improvement. Soon after, the stone floors in the offices were removed, for reasons of health, and wood floors substituted for them, but the stone floor in the hall is yet kept in use as it was originally laid. The jail, made with so much care and cost, was, in a few years, found to be so damp and unhealthy that it was repeatedly reported by the grand jury to be a nuisance, and finally the com- missioners built a jail on the rear of the court-house lot, above ground, with means of ventilation, which is now occupied for the purpose.

COURT-HOUSE ENLARGED.

On the 10th of September, 1870, the court room was again found too small for the convenient transaction of busi- ness, and the commissioners on that date contracted with D. L. June & Son to extend the building westward a distance of forty feet, with dimensions of width and height, and style of work, to correspond with the main building. The June con- tract was only for the mason work, and the agreed price was eight thousand nine hun- dred dollars.

After D. L. June & Son had finished the extension of the court-house, the com- missioners contracted with Jacob Myers for doing the joiner work of the enlarged court room, who completed the work in the fall of 1871, at a cost of about one thousand five hundred dollars. The court room was completed and occupied by the court in the fall of 1871. Hitherto the court room and offices had been warmed by stoves in each of the separate rooms and apartments. About this time two im- portant ideas came over the county au- thorities in the way of progressive means of economy and safety. One was the heating of the court-house by steam, and the other that of providing fire-proof and burglar-proof vaults for the preservation of the county records in the offices of the clerk, auditor, recorder, and probate judge; also a capacious time-lock burglar-proof safe for the county treasury.

STEAM HEATING APPARATUS.

On the 6th of September, 1871, the commissioners contracted with Sales A. June, of Fremont, to put into the court- house a boiler and furnace in the base- ment, with a tank and heater sufficient to furnish steam to warm the court-house; and with Davis & Shaw, of Toledo, to furnish pipe and coils sufficient to warm the halls, offices, and the court room in the house. They contracted to pay Sales A. June, for his work, the sum of six hun- dred dollars. The amount to be paid Davis & Shaw, for their work and materials, was two thousand seven hundred dollars. The steam heating apparatus was com- pleted and used for the purpose of warm- ing early in the winter of 1871-72, and has ever since worked satisfactorily, and is likely to be long continued in use.

From the completion of the court-house to the year 1880, the county clerk's office had been kept on the first or lower floor of the court-house, in the northeast room.

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

This arrangement was inconvenient, es- pecially during sessions of the court, for to get access to the files and records of the office the clerk must leave the court room and descend the stone stairway. After the election of the present efficient and experienced clerk, Basil Meek, he sug- . gested an improved arrangement o the clerk's office, by removing it up stairs on the same floor as the court room, and adjoining it in the rear. This was done in 1880; and now the attorneys and all concerned feel gratified with the improve- ment. A new fire-proof vault was con- structed up stairs in the new office, for the preservation of the court records, and there is now a sense of convenience and safety in the well-arranged clerk's office.

We have thus traced the building of the second court-house in the county to its present condition; and if the reader shall be impressed that the account is tedi- ous in unimportant and uninteresting de- tails, we suggest that as time passes, and when the county in its multiplied wealth and population shall, in the progress of events, build a more commodious and ele- gant structure in which to transact the business of an advanced generation, the particulars we have given will become more and more curious and interesting.

The difference in cost, convenience, safe- ty, and elegance, between the first simple framed court-house, we have described, and this second one we have given an account of will not be a tithe of the difference be- tween the present building and the next one the people will erect for the same pur- poses.

THE COUNTY INFIRMARY.

Order is heaven's first law, and this confess'd, Some must be richer, greater than the rest. Pope's Essay on Man.

The Lord said when on earth in the flesh,

For the poor always you have with you.

In these utterances we see that the poet-

philosopher simply and beautifully ampli- fies what the Divine Master of humanity had tersely uttered centuries before the poet lived. The utterances are both true, and both enunciate, not only what was and still is true, but what is always to be true. The word poor is applied to many objects, as our language is now framed, but no doubt in the quotations âbove given the word was used to signify per- sons who were destitute of money and property, and needed the assistance of others to obtain the proper means of sub- sistence, and would seem to embrace all who are found in that condition, whether by loss or lack of property, or by the mental or physical inability to acquire their own proper subsistence. When we con- sider the number of imbecile, and deaf and dumb, and blind from birth, born into this breathing world, how many men and women, once able to do their full share of productive labor, are disabled by the lapse of time, and decay of their powers. When we observe how many who are well endowed with will, and brain, and muscle, and who have worked well to maintain, improve, and ornament the great fabric of civilized society, are by fire and flood, cyclone and earthquake, and war, and all the minor accidents to which property, and life, and limb, and reason are subject, on sea and on land, society may well settle down to the conclusion that "the poor will be al- ways with us," and that Christ in this, as on all other subjects he spoke of, uttered a truth which will not fail. The same Christ who uttered the truth referred to, also taught the universal brotherhood of man, with the sublime doctrine of love toward all. Under the influence of such teachings, the human heart individually, as well as in the aggregate of communities and States, has been moved up higher in the scale of charity and good will towards men, Marked and wonderful as the pres-

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History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 27

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