History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 28

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 28

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ent age is, by its unparalleled progress in science, in explorations, in inventions for travel and transportation, and in the march of thought, the organized charities for the relief, maintenance, and comfort of the unfortunate, form the grandest, and at the same time the most beautiful work and proof of our progressive civilization. When one looks at the grand edifices raised by the people of the State, and given as homes for the deaf and dumb, and blind, and those who by birth or acci- dent are deprived of reason, and the like, in the counties, for the poor and infirm, and considers the tender care bestowed upon them, all by kind-hearted and Chris- tian men and women, the contempla- tion fairly forces out the exclamation : "Surely the spirit of Christ is abroad in the earth."

SKETCH OF THE POOR LAWS OF OHIO.

The early settlers of the State were of that class of people, few of whom needed more than temporary relief, which the generous heart of the pioneer promptly furnished, without resort to legal methods. In those communities so thinly populated that the face of a man or woman is of itself a matter of cheer and pleasure when- ever met, neighborly kindness rendered poor laws unnecessary. But as the popu- lation increased and inhabitants began to crowd and cross each other in interest and design, that free heartedness which prevailed among old pioneers subsided, or took another form of manifestation.

On the 5th of March, 1831, the General Assembly passed a law providing for the organization of townships, and for the election of officers thereof. Among the township officers, this law required the election annually of two overseers of the poor. In another act, passed March 14, 1831, and which took effect June 1, 1831, it was provided that when the overseers of the poor of any township in any county

not having a poor-house, should be satis- fied that any person having a legal settle- ment (a residence of one year) in such township, was suffering and ought to be relieved at the expense of such township, they might afford such relief at the ex- pense of the township as in their opinion the necessities of such person might re- quire; and if more than temporary relief was required, then the overseers of the poor should give seven days' notice, by written or printed notices, posted up in at least three public places in the township, of the time and place at which they would attend and receive proposals for the main- tenance of such pauper. The contract for maintenance was by the law limited to one year. This provision, therefore, required an annual advertising and con- tracting for the support of each unfortu- nate. Whatever service the pauper could reasonably perform was done for the ben- efit of the person supporting him or her.

BLACK AND MULATTO PERSONS EXCEPTED.

In the act of March 14, 1831, the sec- ond section reads as follows:

SEC. 2. That nothing in this act shall be so construed as to enable any black or mulatto per- son to gain a legal settlement in this State.

We mention this provision of the statute in a total absence of all admiration or ap- proval of it, but for the purpose of exhibit- ing a fact in history and preserving it as a point from which the progress of civiliza- tion and humanity may be measured. Fifty years ago the people of Ohio drew the color line, and excluded the man "with skins not colored like their own," from the pale of public charity, and turned him out to die like a dog in a fence-corner, or beg his bread from the hand of some individual whose heart had been touched by the spirit of Christ, or by the natural impulse of pity. While we remember that the white people of Ohio, by solemn legislative enactment, denied

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY

and withheld a crust of bread from a starving man on account of his color, in 1831, let the people of Ohio be moderate in their condemnation of other people who resist being governed and ruled by the same race of people in 1877. Until the angel of mercy has blotted our statute with his tears, as he is said to have blotted out Uncle Toby's oath, let us have charity for a more justifiable sin. But God's great work is going forward apace.

John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave, But his soul is marching on.

On the 8th of March, 1831, an act was passed, authorizing the county commis- sioners to purchase sites and erect a county poor-house in their respective counties, and to levy and collect taxes to pay for and maintain the same; but this did not supersede the poor laws requiring townships to support the poor, nor was the law to erect poor-houses compulsory on the commissioners.

An act passed February 8, 1845, abol- ished the office of overseers of the poor, and imposed their duties on the township trustees. Under these statutes the town- ships of Sandusky county gave relief to the poor as from time to time they were required by circumstances, until the time when the commissioners resolved to

BUILD A POOR-HOUSE.

After considering the subject quite earnestly for some time, and calculating the cost of keeping the unfortunates by the township, and looking to the future increase of that class of persons as the population of the county should increase, the commissioners arrived at the conclu- sion that, all things considered, the estab- lishment of a county poor-house, with a farm connected with it, would be for the interest of the people, as well as the com- fort of those whose condition or misfor- tunes in life demanded help. Accordingly,

on the 9th day of June, 1848, the county commissioners, namely, John S. Gardner, Hiram Hurd, and Eleazer Baldwin, ordered that there be levied on the taxable property of the county, to be collected by taxation on the duplicate, the sum of one thousand five hundred dollars, for purchasing a site and erecting a poor-house. At this time Homer Everett was county auditor, and his advice and influence with the commis- sioners were earnestly used in favor of the measure, and there was no dissenting voice on the board. The tax was placed upon the duplicate, as directed, and so far col- lected in the fall of 1848 that on the 16th day of January, 1849, the commissioners purchased of John P. Haynes, and partly paid for, the southwest quarter of section number twenty-five in township five, range fifteen, containing one hundred and sixty acres, and also the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of the same section, containing forty acres, making together a tract of two hundred acres of land, for the agreed price of three thousand dollars. The object in purchasing this tract of land, which is situated about one-half mile east on a direct line outside of the city limits, was that those inmates of the institution who were able might till the land and thus contribute to their own support, according to their ability. The buildings on this land were fitted up and converted into a poor-house. From time to time the build- ings were improved, as was also the farm.

Experiment and observation developed the fact that there were instances of not uncommon occurrence, where men who had some property were without friends who would minister to them, and supply their wants, and that public relief ought to be afforded to such, as well as to those who were destitute of property. Hence, an attempt to soothe the feelings of those who might be compelled to accept relief, by changing the name of the institution,

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

The dreaded poor-house was abolished by an act of the General Assembly, passed March 23, 1850, and thenceforth the name of "county infirmary" was substi- tuted. There probably. were some good reasons for this change of name, but black is black whatever name be given to it, even should the General Assembly pass an act that it shall henceforth be called white. The rose would smell as sweet by any other name and the odor of the skunk would be as strong.

Still, it should be considered that in the early history of the country, in some of the States, the inmates of the poor-house were by law deprived of some of the civil rights enjoyed by other inhabitants of the town, or county, hence the charge of having been in the poor-house carried with it, in a popular sense, a charge of degradation and disgrace. The change of name was, therefore, not only polite, but proper, for it cannot be truly said now that there is a man, woman, or child, kept in a poor-house in Ohio, although many are relieved and maintained in our county infirmaries. It should be recorded that the State never, by law or decision of court, deprived a man of any civil right for being poor.

Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn.

We have already mentioned that the first legislation in Ohio making provision for the poor and unfortunate, denied all public relief to black and mulatto per- sons. This fact shows the deep prejudice entertained by the white people of Ohio against the colored race, in 1831.

The flutter of some angel's wing must have moved the air over the stagnant sea of mercy, and produced a little ripple of humanity, which reached the heart of Ohio, for, on the 14th of March, 1853, the General Assembly added a proviso to the then existing statute, whereby, al-

though black and mulatto persons ' were excluded from infirmaries, the law of exclusion should not be so construed as to prevent the directors of any infirmary, in their discretion, from admitting any black or mulatto person into said in- firmary.

SECOND PURCHASE OF LAND.

The farm, though good and commodi- ous, was not large enough to afford full and profitable employment for all the in- mates, and it was thought good economy, in 1870, to acquire more land. There- fore the commissioners, on the 30th of January, 1870, purchased of F. S. White, and took a conveyance in fee simple for the following described other tracts of land:

The northeast quarter of the southeast quarter, and north part of the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section twenty-five, township five, range fifteen, containing together seventy acres of land, and paid for it the price of four thousand five hundred and fifty dollars.

This last purchased tract is about eighty rods east of the main body of the tract first purchased by the commissioners for poor-house purposes.

The infirmary farm now embraces two hundred and seventy acres of excellent land near the city limits. This land has cost the county an aggregate sum of seven thousand five hundred and fifty dollars.

Improvements in clearing, fencing and draining have, from time to time, been made on the property, which are so mingled with the profits and products of the land, that it is now impracticable to tell the exact cost, or the precise amount of the people's money from taxes which has been expended on the farm. The commissioners have sold a small parcel of the land, and recently the continuation of the Lake Erie & Western Railway from

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Fremont to Sandusky, appropriated land for a track through the farm, leaving now about two hundred and sixty-five acres of the land, the title to which remains in the county. Good judges estimate the land, without the buildings, at one hundred and thirty dollars per acre. The buildings are estimated now to be worth twelve thou- . sand dollars. The infirmary, at the pres- ent time, is of sufficient capacity to re- ceive and accommodate continually sixty- five persons, with a separate building for the insane which has a capacity to keep from five to seven persons.

NUMBER MAINTAINED IN THE INFIRMARY.

A statistical and detailed statement of the names, ages, and the particulars of birth, nationality, and circumstances of the persons who have been received into the institution and cared for by the county, does not seem to be necessary in a work of this kind, nor would such matter be in teresting to our readers. Unfortunately the early reports of the directors do not afford the data for a detailed statement of the infirmary affairs and management, and some of the reports cannot now be readi- ly found. We have, however, been able to find sufficient documents on file, and books from which to glean sufficient facts and figures to give some idea of the av- erage number of persons supported at the infirmary in certain years. These facts will furnish some part of what has been done by che county for the unfortunate portion of men, women, and children.

Beginning with the year 1869, for in- stance, we find the average number of in- mates to be 35; 1870, 42; 1871, 40; 1874, 40 ; 1875, 50; 1876, 56; 1880, 57.

The report for the year 1870 shows that one hundred and thirty transient persons were furnished with temporary relief such as a night's lodging, and supper and break- fast, and then sent on their way to some other place they wished to reach. These

persons do not, by the report, appear to be considered inmates, nor estimated in calculating the average number of those maintained at the institution.

The report for the year 1880 is the most complete and satisfactory of all on file, and furnishes some facts of interest to those who are engaged in works of charity. While the average number of inmates for the year is given at 57, the total for the year is given at 122; the number received was 39; born in the infirmary, 3; deaths in the infirmary, 14; removed to other counties, 5 ; removed to other institutions, 9; children under sixteen years of age, 12; children placed in homes, 3; hope- lessly crippled when received, 1; number of inmates at date of report, September 1, 1880, 53. Idiotic males, 7; females, 3: to- tal, 10. Taken together the reports show that of the inmates there are only about half as many females as males. But no doubt the proportion of females assisted is much larger, for more outside assistance is given to the women at their residences, then to men in like circumstances.

CARE OF THE POOR.

We cannot now state in detail the an- nual expenses for each year which has elapsed since the purchase of the poor- house farm. But it is well to place on record some facts and figures concerning the cost of administering relief, as data for reference and comparison with the fu- ture. We find, by reference to the audi- tor's books, that for the years 1858, 1859, and 1860, the average expenditure of the poor fund for all purposes, was eighteen hundred and sixty-seven dollars per year.

For the two years ending September 10, 1874, the total for all purposes was seven thousand five hundred and thirty-three dollars and sixty-one cents, or at the rate of three thousand seven hundred and sixty-six dollars per year.

For the single year ending September

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21, 1865, the total expenses were five thousand and five dollars.

For the year ending September 2, 1867, the total was four thousand two hundred and thirty-two dollars.

For the year ending September 2, 1872, eight thousand five hundred and ninety- six dollars.

For the year ending September 1, 1873, seven thousand six hundred and forty- three dollars.

For the year ending March 1, 1877, five thousand eight hundred and ninety- five dollars.

For the year ending March 1, 1878, seven thousand one hundred and thirty- three dollars.

For the year ending March 1, 1879, seven thousand six hundred and thirteen dollars.

For the year ending March 1, 1880, the total is about double that of the preceding year, and amounted to fourteen thousand and sixty dollars.

For the year ending March 1, 1881, the aggregate expenditures amounted to four- teen thousand two hundred and thirty-five dollars.

Of this sum of expenditures for the year ending March 1, 1881, seven thou- sand two hundred and ninety-three dollars were spent in giving relief to necessitous persons outside of the county infirmary. Thus we see that more than half the total expenditures go for what is called in the report, outside relief.

TRAMPS CAUSE INCREASED EXPENDITURE.

Following quickly after the financial panic of 1873 came the suspension of bus- iness in almost all its various departments, especially in the different branches of manufacturing and their dependent indus- tries. The water was turned from the wheels of the great factories, the spindle ceased to revolve, and the inside of great

mills for the production of fabrics for clothing, were silent receiving-vaults for dead industry there. The great engines which furnished the driving power for ma- chine shops ceased to puff and pulsate, the fires went out, and the boiler and the driving-wheel stood cold and motionless ; the mines were closed, and the fires went out in the furnaces, and silence reigned in and around them. In short, the great manufacturing industries, on the employ- ment in which so large a portion of our people depended for bread, were suddenly paralyzed. The workers in coal and wood, and cotton and brass, and iron and steel, had their bread and raiment, as it were, snatched from their hands by the terrible revulsion. Hundreds of thousands of workingmen were thus sudden !. thrown out of employment, without food, without money, without property or other means to procure the necessaries of life. There were three things which they could do: starve, seek other and new employment which they knew nothing about, or appeal to the charity of their fellow men.

Some were assisted to live by acquaint- ances, neighbors, and relatives, and many by organized charitable institutions and kind-hearted strangers. Still, there was a vast army who took the road to find em- ployment, and beg for bread until they found it. Some time in the year 1877 these travelling seekers after employment became rather numerous in Sandusky county. At first they were well treated, relieved by our kind-hearted people, and some found employment among our farm- ers and in other pursuits. This wave of labor-seekers rolled from East to West, and touched every city, town, hamlet, and house in its course. In time the really idle, vicious vagabonds of the cities and towns saw their opportunity to travel with- out expense, and plunderas they went along by joining in the march and adopting the

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

habits of the travellers. These vicious re- cruits tramped from place to place and house to house, and obtaining victuals and 'clothes without work became a regular pur- suit, and the vagabonds had their system- atic communications, with cabalistic signs and ceremonies, by which they knew each other, and one could tell by marks upon · the door, fence or gate-post where another visited, and whether the visit was success- ful, and also the character and circum- stances of the occupants of the house.

Although the men who first started out in search of employment and bread were honest men and deserving of charity, and succeeded in obtaining it, when it became a regular occupation, and the scoundrels and vagabonds who adopted it began to develop their real characters by the com- mission of thefts, outrages, and crimes, the name became odious. The name formerly was applied to all travelling workmen who went from one place to another seeking employment, and was in no way disgrace- ful, but the name in 1879 and 1880 be- came the synonym of all that was vile and criminal. Numerous instances of theft, ar- son, and outrages upon unprotected women committed by tramps, were put before the public by telegraph and print, until the States were stirred to legislation for the suppression of their business. The Gen- eral Assembly of Ohio passed an act on the 5th of May, 1877, to take effect July 1, 1877, to punish vagrancy, and therein declared that a male person physically able to perform manual labor, who had not made reasonable effort to procure em- ployment, or who had refused to labor at reasonable prices, who is found in a state of vagrancy, or practicing common beg- ging, shall be fined not more than fifty dollars, and be sentenced to hard labor in the jail of the county until the fine and costs of prosecution are paid ; and, for his labor, such convict shall receive credit

upon such fine and costs at the rate of seventy-five cents per day. This law was never very effective, nor very rigidly en- forced.

The city of Fremont, in 1878, built a lodging house for tramps, and also an en- closure where they could be put at work breaking stone for the public. But the expenses of this establishment were borne by the infirmary directors, and this, with the temporary relief to such tramps as could not work, greatly increased the ex- penditures of the infirmary fund for the years ending March 1, 1880, and March I, 1881. Although the additional ex- penses for the relief of tramps in part occurred before 1880, the increased ex- penditures did not, in the regular course of business, appear in the reports until the years mentioned.

While the report of 1881 shows that the average daily number of inmates in the infirmary was only fifty-seven, the same report shows that relief was given to one hundred and thirty persons outside of it.

COST OF SUSTAINING THE INFIRMARY.

It is difficult to arrive at the exact cost of maintaining each person in the infir- mary, but it may be approximated by taking the report of March 1, 1881, and estimating the present value of the land and buildings devoted to the purpose, and stated thus:

Total value of lands at forty six thousand three hundred and forty dollars.

Interest on value of farm for the year. $2780 00 Add total expense account for the year. 14235 00

Total expenses $17015 00 Deduct amount used for outside relief 7293 00

$9722 00

Deduct for furnace and other improve- ments, say . 500 00

Cost of supporting average number of fifty- seven inmates $9222 00

The average cost is therefore within a few cents of one hundred and sixty-two dollars per year, or three dollars and seven cents per week for cach inmate.

CHAPTER XVIII. TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.

Soil-Surface-Timber.

L OOKING at the county as it appears now, covered with fields and mead- ows, orchards and woodland, yielding rich support to vegetable and animal life, all contributing to and culminating in the support of an intelligent and orderly pop- ulation of men, women, and children, in the full tide of plenty and prosperity, and enjoying all the delights of social life, it is difficult to realize that this region was once the bottom of an ocean. Yet science says it was so, and spreads out before the mind many and convincing facts to prove the assertion. The granite boulders which are found thickly scattered in various parts of the county, testify that they have been transported from some granite shore, and rounded into the form we find them by some of nature's forces. They bear no relation to any strata of rock found in the vicinity, but correspond with rock found in the highlands in the Northern and Western mountains. The best solu- tion of the presence of the boulders, is that vast glaciers were formed in some remote period of unnumbered years, on the sides of the granite mountains North and West of this locality. That the action of frost and water had first detached large. and small pieces from the mountain side, and they had tumbled down to where the action of the waves rolled them against each other until the sharper angles were worn away. Then, in the colder seasons, these huge masses of stone were grappled by the frost, in icy holdings, and when the glacier was full-formed the whole mass was by its own gravity precipitated down the

mountain side into the deep waters, when it floated away to a southern shore, or shallow water, where it grounded and dis- solved, leaving at the bottom its mass of debris. This debris consisted not only of the loosed stone, but also of the finely ground particles which had been worn from them, which were left to the action of the waters, washed from place to place to finally settle in the deeper and therefore calmer portions of the sea, and formed the clay beds so fre- quently met with in this part of the State. The coarser particles were not held in so- lution, but like the sand we see on the shores of our present lakes, were with pebbles washed to the shore lines and left as the water subsided.

Another proof of the assertion that this region was submerged is found in the rocks of the period. When uncovered these rocks show stria, or grooves, in parallel direc- tions, which geologists trace directly to the action of glaciers, icebergs, and water.

Still another proof may be seen in the sea shells (mollusca), which are found in the lime rock at the highest point on Kelley's Island, in Lake Erie.

By some process of nature the waters, as generally stated in Genesis, subsided, whether by upheaval of some part of the earth, or by the depression of another part, is matter of speculation which does not properly form a part of this work. The subsidence of the water was slow, and the geological survey of Ohio, especially the district including the Maumee Valley, re- veals several distinct shore lines of the re-

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History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 28

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