USA > Ohio > Sandusky County > History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers > Part 30
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The bridge over Mud Creek, near Frank Fought's, was completed and paid for January 5, 1877, at a cost, for the iron su- perstructure, of six hundred and seventy- five dollars.
On the 30th of July, 1877, another iron bridge over Mud Creek, near the res- idence of Noah Snyder, in Washington township, was completed and paid for, at a cost, for the iron superstructure, of six hundred and five dollars.
December 18, 1877, an iron bridge was erected over Mud Creek, near the resi- dence of Luther Winchell, in Scott town- ship, at a cost, for the iron superstructure, of five hundred and fifty-two dollars.
The Portage River bridge, on the Mau- mee and Western Reserve turnpike, in Woodville township, was finished in No- vember, 1878, under a joint contract be- tween the State and county commissioners, on one part, and the Bridge Company on the other part. The county contributed over half the costs, and paid towards the structure over two thousand dollars.
The bridge over Green Creek, near Mr. Huber's residence, in Green Creek town- ship, was completed and paid for by the county alone, August 15, 1879, by Com- missioners John Morrison, Martin Lon- genbach, and Herman Sandwish, under contract with the Smith Bridge Company, of Toledo, at a cost for the superstructure alone of eight hundred and sixteen dol- lars
The bridge over Muskalunge Creek, in Sandusky township, on the Port Clinton road, is a combination of wood and iron, constructed by the Smith Bridge Com- pany, of Toledo, finished and paid for August 16, 1879. and is thought to be a good and durable structure for the place.
The exact cost of this bridge is not ascer- tained.
The foregoing mention of the date of the introduction of iron bridges into the county, will enable future observers to de- termine the relative economy between building the superstructure of bridges on our county roads of wood and of iron. The comparative cost with comparative durabil- ity of the two materials, will, in time, settle the question with mathematical certainty. The present outlook indicates that timber for such purposes will, a few years hence, be much higher in price, and more dif- ficult to obtain, while on the other hand the rapidly extending discoveries of seem- ingly exhaustless deposits of iron, and the daily improvements for mining and manufacturing it, indicate that not many years hence iron will be almost as cheap as wood, and with its far greater durability of the metal as a material for the super- structure of all our bridges, will settle the question in favor of iron superstructures for the purpose.
IRON BRIDGE OVER SANDUSKY RIVER.
The bridge built over the Sandusky River, in Fremont, on the line of the Maumee and Western Reserve Road, by Cyrus Williams, as master mechanic, un- der the employment of Rodolphus Dick- inson, Member of the Board of Public Works, in 1841-42, was, as has been men- tioned, a wooden structure. The sup- porting trestle-work erected across the Sandusky Valley, built by the Ohio Rail- road Company, which failed in 1840, fur- nished the timber for the bridge. This bridge was of good material, and was well roofed with pine shingles. The roof was renewed once during the time it stood, which was near thirty-five years. At the end of this period it was pronounced un- safe by engineers, and the Board of Pub- lic Works was importuned to construct a new bridge. The board had not suffi-
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cient money at its disposal to rebuild it, and an appropriation by the State was petitioned tor. But there were objections, and consequent delay. Meanwhile the old bridge, though condemned and much slandered, continued to do duty while agitation for a new bridge continued.
STATE APPROPRIATION FOR THE BRIDGE.
After being urged for two previous se's- sions, the General Assembly, by the per- sistent and wise efforts of Hon. Benjamin Inman, then our representative, passed an act on the 27th day of February, 1877, en- titled "An act to aid the Board of Public Works to build a bridge on the line of the Western Reserve and Maumee road, over the Sandusky River.
The preamble to the act, in substance, set forth that the bridge over the San- dusky River, on the line of the Western Reserve and Maumee road, one of the public works of the State, a wood struc- ture built by the State over thirty-five years ago, is now unsafe and so far decayed that the Board of Public Works say it will be an injudicious expenditure of money to repair the same; therefore,
SECTION 1 .- Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That the sum of nine thousand dollars be and hereby is appropriated out of any moneys paid into the State treasury by the lessees of the public works, and also the sum of nine hundred dollars that the lessees have paid into the State treas- ury for the repair of said bridge.
SEC. 2 .- That the sums thus appropriated shall be expended by said Board of Public Works in erecting such iron bridge of such plan and dimensions as they may deem best for the interest of the State; and the fund hereby appropriated by the State shall be drawn from the treasury from time to time accor- ding to law.
SEC. 3 .- That there shall not be any money drawn out of the State treasury for the building of said bridge until the county commissioners of San- dusky county shall enter into bond to complete said bridge, after the sums above mentioned have been expended by the Board of Public Works. Said bond shall be made payable to the State of Ohio, and de- posited in the office of the Secretary of State.
SEC. 4 .- This act shall take effect and be in force rom and after its passage.
On the 16th of March next after the passage of this act, the county commis- sioners, namely, Martin Longanbach, Wil- liam F. Sandwish, and John Morrison, were in regular session, when, on motion of Mr. Longanbach, it was resolved that the bond required by the above act be filed. To this all the commissioners agreed, and recorded their votes in the affirmative. This bond was so framed as to bind the county to complete the bridge after the expenditure of the nine thousand nine hundred dollars appropriated by the act.
The reader may notice that the act ap- propriates nine thousand dollars of money paid into the State treasury by the lessees of the public works, and nine hundred dollars which the lessees had paid into the State treasury, for the repair of the bridge. How this sum of nine hundred dollars came to be thus separately mentioned in the appropriation, perhaps ought to be ex- plained. The reader may remember that, prior to the date of this appropriation, the State had leased all her public works, which, of course, included the Maumee and Western Reserve road. The lessees paid an annual rent into the State treasury for the use of the works, and out of this fund the nine thousand dollars mentioned in the appropriation bill was to be paid. These lessees, like all other lessees, so managed the Maumee and Western Re- serve road as to clear a nice little sum from the tolls upon it; this saving, how- ever, was made the greater by neglecting to repair the road and permitting it to run down. They were bound by the terms of the lease to keep the road in repair, and seeing this neglect, the people along the road began to clamor for the State to com- pel the lessees to repair the road. The State authorities were convinced finally that in the management of the road the lessees had violated their contract, and
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were about to force a forfeiture of the lease and put the Board of Public Works in authority over it, and sue the lessees for damages for breach of the conditions of the lease. A compromise was, how- ever, effected, by which the lessees agreed to put a covering of stone on parts of the road most worn, and to put a new roof on the old bridge, or pay nine hundred dol- lars into the treasury in lieu of the roofing, as the State should elect, and then surren- der their lease so far as this road was con- cerned, and let the State take charge of it. When it was determined to build a new bridge, the authorities elected to have the nine hundred dollars paid into the treasury, and apply the amount towards the erection of the new structure; this will explain how this peculiarity in the appropriation act was induced.
WORK BEGUN.
The filing of the bond by the commis- sioners secured the immediate application of the nine thousand nine hundred dollars appropriated by the State. A conference between the county commissioners and the Board of Public Works soon resulted in a plan of the bridge and an estimate of the cost. The letting of the mason work took place June 22, 1877, and the con- tract was awarded to John P. Elderkin, for four thousand six hundred and fifty-one dollars and forty cents. The contract for the iron superstructure was awarded to the King Bridge Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, for the sum of fourteen thousand nine hundred and seventy-five dollars and five cents.
The work was pushed rapidly during the summer and autumn of 1877, and the bridge was formally opened for travel on the 25th of December of the same year in which it was begun. The total cost, in- cluding engineering and all incidental ex- penses, was twenty thousand three hundred and fifty-seven dollars and seventy-six
cents, of which the county paid ten thou- sand four hundred and fifty-seven dollars and seventy-six cents. The bridge is three hundred and twenty and one-half feet in length, resting on two abutments and three piers. The width affords two tracks, or ways, on each of which teams can pass each other. The structure is convenient, capacious and durable, at the same time presenting an ornament to the city of Fre- mont which is a monument testifying to the merit and enterprise of the people of the county, and especially to Hon. Benja- min Inman and the county commissioners named.
The passage of this bridge appropria- · tion bill, through the persistent urgency of Mr. Inman, was his last act in public life. In the election for representative in the county he was opposed by Daniel L. June, whose friends claimed for him greater ability to get the bill through, while Mr. Inman's friends claimed equal ability for him, and the matter entered in this form largely into the canvass. Therefore, Mr. Inman felt under.special obligations to procure the passage of the law. During the session of 1877 his health failed, but he remained in his seat and worked and waited for his bill to pass, when prudence would have bid him home for rest. As soon as the bill was passed he hastened home, and soon after died amidst all the tender cares and affectionate surroundings which a devoted wife and loving children could bestow. His death was much re- gretted by the people of the county.
REMARKS ON THE DRAINAGE OF THE WET LANDS IN THE COUNTY, WHEN BEGUN, BY WHOM, AND THE RESULT.
And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered into one place and let the dry land appear, and it was so .- Genesis i. 9.
This was commanded and was done on the second day. Science, as illustrated by geologists and accepted by enlightened
HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
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theologians, gives us to understand that this second day was a very long one, that it was in fact an indefinite period of time, so vast that the finite mind can nei- ther count or comprehend the number of years. Hugh Miller, in his Testimony of the Rocks, and other geologists give us some idea of the progressive steps in the formation, and how, in obedience to the command quoted at the beginning of this subject, the dry land was by the process and forces of nature, slowly but surely made to appear, and was finally prepared for the abode of man. Now, without any feeling of irreverence or wish to express any such feeling, it may here be said in support of the conclusions of geology as to the slow- ness of the process, that notwithstanding the great antiquity of the order quoted, it is a fact that the west part of Sandusky county, called in early times the Black Swamp, was not all dry land in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine. Yet that there was such a command, and that it was executed as as- serted at the close of the verse, "and it was so," must be true, for man could not fish from the banks of the waters nor con- struct floats to fish from without land, nor could he capture his living in the forests. And as fishing and hunting are claimed to have been his earliest pursuits, we con- clude that the formation of land preceded the existence of man. There need be no strife of argument about the when and the how of the matter under consideration. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Waiving all argument and speculation, however, it is very clear that the Black Swamp, or a great part of it at least, could not be tilled so as to produce bread and meat, or at least the larger por- tion of it could not, without draining.
The first settlers in the western part of the county selected their lands along the streams where the banks afforded a strip
of dry land, which, when cleared of the timber, could be tilled without artificial drainage. But the structure of the surface and nature of the soil were such, that generally a little way from the bank ar- tificial drainage necessarily preceded til- lage. It must be confessed that the pio- neer residents of the county were slow, indeed, to adopt the system of draining even the surface of their wheat fields in a proper manner to insure a good crop. When, however, a few German and Eng- lish farmers located in the county, they brought with them the habit of more thor- ough drainage of their wheat fields, as practiced in the countries from which they came. The increase of the quantity and the certainty of the crop under this treat- ment soon demonstrated to all observers that it paid, and paid well, to keep the surface water from standing on their wheat fields. At first this was effected on the better class of land by plowing into nar- row lands with deep furrows between, into which the water settled and was thence absorbed by the earth without covering so much surface. This arrangement, with a deep furrow entirely around the field, con- necting with the dead furrows between the plowed strips, was found to be a great help to the crop.
From these furrows, where sufficient fall could be found, sometimes you would see a deep furrow traced away from the field, forming an outlet for the whole field, but much of the land was so level and so widely surrounded with other level land, that this plan could not be put in opera- tion without trespassing on a neighboring farm. Neighbors could not always agree; in fact, in a mixed settlement of Germans, English, and Yankees, they seldom would agree or sacrifice a jot or tittle of their own for another. But the water must be drained away or the labor of the farmer would be lost. If Mr. Mean owned a
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quarter section, including the banks of a creek into which the wet land back of him might all be drained, Mr. Poor, who had taken second choice land in the rear of Mr. Mean, would ask in vain for the privilege of cutting a small ditch across Means' land that he might raise his bread or get a reward for his labor. If some Jonathan Spikes, from the land of the ter- rible Yankees, had a piece of dry land through which, only, the waters could be taken off the land of Mr. Vonslaughter- laugh, Mr. Spike would never let a ditch be made through his land to accommo- date a foreigner, or if he could be brought to consent, he would demand four times what he should, even though the ditch would be a benefit to his own land. If Mr. Johnson owned a piece of wet land near Mr. Jones, and wanted to get the water off by draining through Jones' land, he could not obtain it because, perhaps, Johnson, ten years before, threw a club at Jones' yellow dog to drive him out of the road and keep himself from being bitten. Standing water, stagnant water, and stink- ing water were destroying crops and breed- ing disease and pestilence in the land, and yet such is the perversity of men's nature, that they would not, even for their own benefit, abate the nuisance. Finally a remedy was given by law.
On the 24th of March, 1859, the Gen- eral Assembly of the State of Ohio passed an act to provide for locating, establishing, and constructing ditches, drains, and water courses. This act authorized county com- missioners throughout the State to lo- cate, establish, and construct ditches, drains, and water courses in their re- spective counties, and it was the first law enacted in Ohio. It is a little re- markable that such a law was not put in force at an earlier period in the settlement of the State.
Our State Constitution of 1852, jealous-
ly guarded the citizens of Ohio in their rights of property, by incorporating in it by clear language, " Private property shall ever be held inviolate, but subservient to the public welfare."
It appears, that in 1859 some statesman discovered that draining away stagnant pools of water, and thus preventing mala- rial and deadly diseases, would be subserv- ing the public welfare, and justify the ex- ercise of the right of eminent domain; that is, take the land of a private citizen sufficient for a ditch or drain, to promote the public health. Hence the act of 1859 conferred upon county commission- ers, the right to enter upon and appropri- ate the land of any person for a ditch, drain, or water course, whenever, in their opinion, the same would be conducive to the public health, convenience, or welfare.
With this law in force Mr. Jones could no longer deny Mr. Johnson the right to have a drain over his land, if Mr. John- son's swail or pond could be found injuri- ous to the public welfare. True, Mr. Jones had to be paid for the land, but he could no longer refuse to sell it, nor put on it a price so high as to forbid the improvement. Three impartial landhold- ers fixed the value of the land to be taken, also the amount of damages, if any, to his premises over and above the mere value of the land taken. Ditching was by this law made practicable, and judicious county commissioners could make it effective in the improvement of the county.
THE FIRST COUNTY DITCH CONSTRUCTED.
According to the records in the office ot the county auditor, which, no doubt, present the truth, the first application for a ditch under the first ditch law of the State was made by William Driftmire, an enterprising and determined German, who had settled on wet land in Madison township.
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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
On the tenth day of September, 1859, William Driftmire, with a number of others, he, however, being prime mover and principal petitioner, filed a petition, under the act above mentioned, in the county auditor's office, praying for the es- tablishment and construction of a ditch on the following route: Commencing in · Madison township eighty rods north from the southeast corner of section twelve, thence north along the township line road on the west side of the centre of said road to a swail called Wolf Creek, about one mile and a half.
This swail or creek, which was to be the terminus of the ditch, entered the land of C. H. Damschroeder, also of Eber- hard Myers. These men claimed that Driftmire's ditch would greatly increase the collection of water in the swail, and subject their lands, now dry, to overflow and consequent injury. Litigation fol- lowed by Eberhard Myers and C. H. Dam- schroeder on one side, and the county commissioners on the other. The case was taken to the probate court-John Bell, judge; a jury of twelve good men was selected, who viewed the premises and heard testimony and the arguments of counsel, and after due deliberation re- turned a verdict, and finding that Eber- hard Myers and C. H. Damschroeder would sustain no damage by reason of the construction of the ditch. The case was taken on error to the Court of Common Pleas, where it was decided that persons owning land below the terminus of the ditch, could not, under the statute, claim damages, nor prevent the construction of a ditch.
This decision, whether right or wrong, had a salutary effect on the utility of the ditch law, for, if it had been held that an increase of the flow of water in any swail, creek, or outlet, in which a ditch should terminate, would be good cause for re-
straining the construction, very few ditches could be made. The natural tendency of all draining and ditching is to increase the flow of water in the natural channels, at least for a time.
The result of this litigation was a cost bill for the plaintiffs, Myers and Dam- schroeder to pay, of one hundred and eight dollars. The total cost of constructing the ditch, aside from the cost of litigation, was one hundred and eighty-six dollars. From this time on parties were rather careful how they entered into litigation against the construction of ditches, al- though there were a few cases where projects were started under the law, in which perpetual injunctions were after- wards granted for irregular proceedings, or where the object was simply to make some man's land more convenient or valuable without any bearing or benefit to be con- ferred on the public welfare. The ditch law was modified and amended from time to time, as practice under it developed defects in its provisions, and under its improved provisions ditching in the county has gone steadily on without much litigation, although not without some controversy before the county commissioners, to the present time. The whole number of ditches established in the county previous to July 18, 1881, is two hundred and seventy.
A minute description of each ditch and its cost, and the contentions arising from the constructions, would swell our history beyond proper limits, without be- ing interesting to the general reader.
INTRODUCTION OF DITCHING.
Probably, if the beneficial consequences be made the criterion of decision, there has been no improvement introduced into the county so beneficial and at the same time so remunerative in a pecuniary point of view as ditching and draining. The improved statutory enactments provided
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for not only ditching but also for clearing out obstructions to natural water courses, and thus facilitating the passage of the surface water from the swamps and swails, to the rivers and thence to the bays and the lake into which they empty. The re- sult of this surface draining in the in- creased productiveness of the soil, cannot now be easily calculated or given in figures. But that there has been a vast increase, not only in the product of the land per acre in all kinds of cereal crops, but great addition to the acreage of good farming land in the county, is plain and undeniable. These added acres of good land are not merely an addition of the value of the reclaimed land to the wealth of the county, but they are exhaustless mines of wealth out of which skill and industry will bring perpetual supplies of food more valuable than gold or silver.
IMPROVED SYSTEM OF DITCHING.
The object of the ditch law, so called, under which the system of ditching has hitherto been prosecuted, was to drain the
water from the surface of the land. This was done, as has been said, to effect two purposes, one of which was to promote the public health by removing the stag- nant waters by which malarial diseases were produced; another was to adapt the surface of the country to the more easy construction of good roads. These are both matters of a public nature. In carry- ing out the plan to serve these purposes, lands of many persons were incidentally drained and greatly benefited; but the ditches were laid out and constructed with the single purpose of drawing off the sur- face water. The county commissioners are now, however, pursuing a different plan. In a recent conversation with Mr. Brian O'Connor, one of the commissioners, he informed us that the board was now mak- ing their ditches much deeper than form- erly. The reason given by Mr. O'Connor for this change of plan, is that the old or first ditches were generally too shallow to admit of complete tiling or underdraining of the lands along and in the vicinity of the ditches.
CHAPTER XX.
SANDUSKY COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
TT has been often said, and will bear repeating to each generation of men, as they succeed each other, that he who makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, is a benefactor to mankind. The enlightened mind readily consents to the truth of this assertion. But it is equally true that he who invents
the method of extracting from the earth six heads of wheat where five grew before, or of obtaining four pounds of meat from the same space of earth which before pro- duced only three, or from the area raises ten pounds of wool, or cotton, or sugar where before only eight pounds were pro- duced, is equally a bene factor to the hu-
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