USA > Ohio > Wyandot County > Past and present of Wyandot County, Ohio; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievemen, Vol. I > Part 27
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The Pennsylvania was erected by A. Sell,* at the southeast corner of Hicks and Sandusky avenues. He conducted it up to April, 1849, when Christian Huber took charge and changed its name to the Union. There on the opening of the Ohio and Indiana railroad (now the Pennsylvania) the passenger trains used to stop, and if we are not greatly mistaken the ticket office was conducted by Curtis Berry, Jr., in the hotel. Not long after, the new depot was built where the present stock yards are located. L. Doolittle followed Huber in chargeof the hotel, changing its name to the Exchange. Later the name was changed to the Commercial by a subsequent landlord. Nearly twenty-five years ago it was sold and removed to the east end of the block and renamed the White Swan. It still survives and is now known as the Cottage. It bears the distinction of being the oldest and least changed of public houses.
The American was built by W. W. Bates on the site of the present Reber. It has been successively known as the Warpole, Hudson, and Reber, and is now one of the principal hotels. It ranks first in longest continuous service. It has experienced many changes since first built, known many pro-
*Old timers remember A. Sell as the John Sell so familiar to all in later years. C. Huber in his advertisement, dated April 5, '49, on taking over the hotel from Sell, speaks of him as A. Sell.
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prietors, and has been damaged by fire. The above are the principal hostelries in the village between 1845-50.
Never were there more phases of industry pursued within a given territory, nor as much competition in all lines. Every man was a workman. . There was work for all. It was a period of pioneer activity crudely armed for its task. A period when each community manufactured its own clothing, performing all the operations necessary from the sheep's back to the wearer; from hides to boots and shoes and the various uses the product subserved; from the forest to completed struct- ures, the furnishings therein, and its uses and application in the varied lines of industrial endeavor, from the quarry and clay pit to foundation and superstructure ; from the hemp and flax field to home spun linens and linsey.
It was an age of teeming activity, of small beginnings, in- dividual endeavor and infant industries. Conditions were such that the pioneer drew from nature's storehouse the ma- terial he needed and fashioned it to his need. Indeed a too benevolent government had, as it were, called its beneficiaries to the reservation's borders and had said in effect, now go, the best man wins.
At this day, it would seem that the reservation was to the pioneer a land of never ending, inexhaustible plenty. One looks in vain for progress on conservation lines. That was too new an idea to find root in pioneer makeup. He had no con- ception of the wise checks and balances existing between the animal and vegetable kingdoms. No conception of the econ- omy of nature in her storage of water in swale, and on low- land. The exhaustion of one factor in nature's economy thereby causing the extinction of some other factor with the removal of necessary checks and balances was beyond his com- prehension. A law of nature he did not understand. With him it was, appropriate and enjoy. Nature will take care of the future.
In draining swale and lowland, no substitute was pro- vided to fill their places in seasons of shortage of rainfall. The burden of the usefulness of one factor removed was thus laid on the shoulders of some other factor that could not re- spond under changed conditions. Instead of conserving the water of swale and lowland in pond and artificial lake, the pioneer and his successors sought to get rid of it as a useless quantity, until now in times like our Easter season of 1913,
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the rainfall goes off in rushing floods, bearing death and de- struction in its wake.
The reservation forest was a wonderful storehouse in itself. Material for the home builder, ash, oak, poplar, walnut and cherry, for the cabinet maker; hickory, ash, oak, and poplar for the wagon and carriage factory; staves and hoop poles for the cooper; hickory and ash for the handle factory ; ties for the railroad; charcoal for the forge; bark for the tan- ner; lumber and logs for export; fuel for all, both for indus- trial and domestic use. Yea, what not!
The destruction was complete. The sturdy lord of the forest and the sapling all must go. The fuel burner would have naught but the best and millions of feet of the finest tim- ber were thus sacrificed. Not content with its exhaustion through the varied legitimate uses made of it, large areas were wantonly felled and burned. While this destruction was at its height the home builder on western prairies was con- sidering the problem from the opposite point of view-to lessen the severity of summer sun and winter's storms, to in- crease the rainfall, and furnish them and their successors in years to come, the material that now cost them excessively to supply. Here in the mad rush for a few paltry dollars, they were robbing their descendants for generations to come and doubling again and again the cost of provision. There can be no question of the merit in the proposal to draw from other lands part of our lumber supply and thus conserve our own forests, instead of exhausting them to become importers at exorbitant rates when defenseless against them.
Means of transportation, distance from centers of produc- tion, necessity most of all, demanded that most products be produced at home. There was no forge coal available and charcoal must be produced for the blacksmith's forge. Leather must be produced and the forest must provide the bark for the tanneries. Hemp and flax must be grown and sheep reared to provide the material for the carding and webb mills and the country-made linens and linsey-woolsey.
Lumber for the builder and the factor must be produced, hence mills must be built. Power to run the mills was neces- sary and again Dame Nature furnished it from probably the best water power stream in Ohio, while the forest furnished the fuel to the exceptional steam mill.
JOHN OWEN, SR. The man who built the old Mission Church at Upper Sandusky
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It was thus in all lines of industry on the reservation. No need was unsupplied. The village had its brickyards, its card- ing and fulling mill run with power supplied by the old time tread mill; its tanneries, several at a time; its cabinet shops with turning lathes run by horsepower ; its carriage and wagon shops, the product of which crossed the plains during the gold excitement in '49 and again in '57 ; its cooper shops, its old time ashery where ashes commanded a price per bushel and potash was manufactured and shipped away by the barrel. This was located a short distance north of the Fort Ferree spring and owned by George Saltsman, Sr. Then there was the old- time distillery, located where Walborn's mill stands, years prior to the Watson M'Kee plant, at the east end of Finley.
The water power of the Sandusky was largely utilized in pioneer days. Mills were frequent on its banks, a very small per cent of its course being without its dam. The old time upright saw reigned supreme-and logs were cut with stubb end that had to be cleft with the ax to release the lumber. Out in the timber were the clapboard and split lath industries that supplied country and village with their product. Later the shaved shingle took the place of the clapboard, both to be later displaced by the sawed product.
But a new era was close at hand. One with new and im- proved machinery, and combined capital that was to work out a complete revolution. It came gradually but surely. The wagon shop discontinued, the old time hand-made hub for the machine product that came in sets of four, strung on a stick- this was followed by the fellow and spoke bundle, and as in this, so in all lines of industry, finally ending in the competi- tion of the large factor with local industries.
Among early physicians resident were Joseph Mason, David Watson, Orin Ferris, Wm. Kiskadden, Isaac Ayers, James M'Connell. Dr. Mason built the residence north of the Reynolds house, so long the home of Wm. B. Hitchcock, and had his office within it. Dr. Watson went through life on crutches, performing the hard service of a pioneer physi- cian, with honor to himself. He had but one limb.
Dr. M'Connell's early residence and office were on inlot 175. The building now occupied by George Saltsman's shoe store was the residence, occupying now the south one-third of the frontage of said lot.
Vol. I-19
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Dr. Ferris built the north part of the Reynolds house, making it his residence and office. Dr. Isaac Ayers semi-re- tired, limited his practice among special friends. He died in 1847 and was buried in the village cemetery north of the old council house, but was later disinterred and removed to the Old Mission. Dr. Kiskadden, associated with Dr. Ferris, opened the principal drug store in the village, later buying out his partner, conducting the business himself. The above named, with the exception of Ferris and Kiskadden, were residents in 1845. The latter came shortly after.
The first brick building on Sandusky avenue was the res- idence of Hon. Robt. M'Kelly on inlot 143, now occupied by the Gottfried hardware, Simonis cafe, and Artz Bros. dry goods store. From probably the only old papers of the years 48, 49, 50, now extant, we glean the following:
January, 1849, Hon. Robt. M'Kelly and David Ayers were delegates to a railroad convention at Salem, Ohio. On their return they reported Upper Sandusky as sure to be made a point on the Pennsylvania & Ohio railroad. In 1849 the Masons and Odd Fellows used the third or attic story of the old jail for lodge purposes. The exodus to the California gold fields began in April, 1849, the same year the cholera raged in this country. Those who went from here were Andrew, Purdy, Swan, and Wm. M'Elvain, W. T. Giles, Dr. J. H. Drumm, J. G. Jones, Daniel Walker, Col. A. Lyle, Robert Taggart, Jonathon Ayers and Wm. Bearringer. Wm. M'Elvain and Daniel Walker died of cholera in Missouri, and Colonel Lyle, who had gone on account of his health, died of consumption far out on the plains. J. Ayers went by the Panama route, the others overland.
The newspapers published between 1845-50 were the Wyandot Telegraph, founded by John Schrenk, February, 1845 ; Wyandot Pioneer, by W. T. Giles, founded October 20, 1846, and Wyandot Tribune, by J. S. Fouke, founded July 18, '48. The Pioneer was democratic, the others whig.
An ordinance known as No. 10, was passed by the village council, W. W. Bates, mayor, J. Juvenall, clerk, authoriz- ing the sale at public auction of inlots 112, 124, 128 and 161, the property of the village, at the door of the courthouse, August 12, 1848. Terms, one-third cash in hand, balance in two equal installments with interest from date.
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June 1, 1849, the postoffice was removed from near where Hart's barber shop now is, west and opposite the courthouse. Josiah Smith was the postmaster. His time table was as follows:
Southern mail closes at 1 P. M .; eastern mail closes at 10 A. M .; northern mail closes at 9 P. M. All by stage.
The old time circus and animal show had found Upper Sandusky on the map as early as 1848, for we find that Welch- Delevan & Nathan's National Circus; Rockwell & Co., circus; and Raymond & Co., menagerie, all billed to show in the Indian village that year. ,
Henry Gamble, charged with murder, broke jail May 24, 1849, and departed for parts unknown. One hundred dollars were offered for his capture, fifty dollars for information where he may be found.
Walker & Garrett advertise, 1848, New Orleans sugar six- pence per lb. ; molasses, 50c per gal .; coffee, 8c; butter, 121/2c.
A meeting of the stockholders of the Lower Sandusky Tiffin & Fort Ball Plank Road Co., was called to meet at Fort Seneca, Tuesday, June 15, to elect five directors to man- age the affairs of said company. This was signed among others by Jos. M'Cutchen and R. M'Kelly.
An exhibit of the receipts and expenditures of Wyandot county for the year ending June 1, 1849, shows the following :
To balance in Treasury on last settlement .... $ 295.48 Total cash receipts during the year 4,123.085
$4,418.565
Total amount expended during the year .....
3,682.04
Amount remaining in Treasury including $166 of notes on the banks of Sandusky, Wooster and Norwalk $ 736.525
Bridge tax collected $111.22 Bridge tax expended 111.22
That part of Fifth street north from Church street to its junction with the Tiffin road, was petitioned for and granted by the county commissioners at their June session, 1849.
Notice was given by publication April 28, 1849, of a peti- tion to be presented at the June meeting of the county com- missioners praying for an alteration in the county road lead- ing from Upper Sandusky to the east line of the county and
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generally known as the Hicks street road, commencing at the east end of the Hicks street bridge, etc .- recalls to the mem- ory of the old pioneer that the outlet to the east from town was on Hicks and by Hicks street bridge. Said bridge was located south of the present railroad bridge and just north of the bend of the Sandusky. The east end of said bridge was higher than the west end. There was a good ford over the river at the bend. The bridge was carried away by high water and never rebuilt, a new one on Wyandot avenue taking its place.
EARLY SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS
By A. H. Owen
The earliest school on the reservation was the Indian Mis- sion school, founded by the Rev. James B. Finley, resident missionary among the Wyandots, 1819-1827. Through his efforts seven chiefs united in an address to the Methodist con- ference held at Lebanon, Ohio, in August, 1821, requesting the establishment of a Mission school among them at Upper San- dusky. In furtherance of the project they set aside a section of land conveniently located and promised to furnish it with pupils and agreed to admit white children on even terms with Indian children. They stipulated that the teacher must be a preacher who could teach and baptize their children and marry their people.
The signers of the address were: Between-the-Logs, Mon- oncue, De-un-quat, John Hicks, An-dau-you-ah, De-an- dough-so, Ta-hu-waugh-ta-ro-de.
In compliance the conference chose Rev. James B. Finley for the work. Miss Harriet Stubbs of Dayton, a relative of Judge M'Clain's, volunteered to accompany Finley to assist in organizing the school. Owing to lack of a suitable build- ing, little more than a beginning could be made that season. The school started with six pupils, all they could accommo- date in the missionary's home. John Stewart, the colored preacher, taught a class of twelve at the big spring. On the opening of Spring Miss Stubbs increased her class to ten.
During the winter Rev. Finley and his help had employed their time in collecting and preparing the material for a double log building, 48x32. This was to be the boarding house
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for the children who should come from a distance, of whom, when conditions were in shape, there were many. The build- ing was completed in September and the school was opened in October with all the pupils they could accommodate. It was necessary to use the boarding house both for housing and schooling the pupils during the following winter. During that time they collected and prepared the material for the Mission schoolhouse and began its construction early in the following spring.
It was a one-story frame and was completed in the sum- mer of 1823 and opened for school purposes early in the fall. This building remained on its original site until some time in the late fifties, when the owner of the land removed it a short distance south and utilized it for a sheep shed and other pur- poses. The old site may be located by means of a pile of brick and refuse now overgrown with grass. It stood on the crown of the high bluff overlooking the old ford below.
While this school owed its origin to missionary effort on the part of the Methodist church, it was subject to oversight and annual appropriation toward its support by the United States Government. Government agents visited the Mission periodically and reported as fully to the War department re- garding the school as of other matters. Rev. Finley was re- quired to report periodically per blank provided him, such information as the government required. The school was for the benefit of both resident and non-resident pupils, those from a distance being housed and boarded at the Mission house. There were pupils in attendance from Wyandot fam- ilies living in Canada and Michigan.
The school was under the control of a board of trustees whose duty it was to arrange matters of difference between parents and teachers, secure the attendance of pupils resident and non-resident and such other matters as the necessities of the schools called for. The original membership of their board was: Between-the-logs, John Hicks, Mononcue, Peacock and Grey Eyes. The last named remained a member until the close of the school on the sale of the reservation.
Our building being large and commodious we expect to be able to accommodate not only the resident youth of our town, but as many of non-residents as may be desirous of attending our schools.
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Terms: The schools for the first term of four months will be free to all resident youths between the ages of five and twenty-one. For non-residents a tuition fee of one dollar per month will be charged on their entering the highest depart- ment, and seventy-five cents per month in all others. By order of the board, October 18, 1854.
CHESTER R. MOTT, Sec'y.
The first Monday in December, 1854, occurred on the 4th. Hence the opening of the Union schools of Upper Sandusky dates from December 4, 1854. The corps of teachers we be- lieve was as follows:
Frederick Mott, superintendent; Elizabeth Mott, gram- mar; Rebecca Zimmerman, secondary ; Delia Chaffee, primary.
The new building was 40x50 and contained four rooms, two above and two below. This building was built by virtue of a law enacted, authorizing the issue of bonds on the credit of the corporation for school purposes. In accord therewith bonds were issued to the amount of $4,000. Subsequent to 1866 a two-room addition was made in front of the old build- ing. Later still a separate building was built to the south, near the original structure. Next followed a brick school building on North Fifth street for the convenience of pupils in the north part of the village.
The years 1882-3 mark the erection of the new high school building in the northwest part of town, at a cost of $50,000, complete. With its completion the original building was abandoned-the annex to the south only being used. Some- where near 1890 the new South building was completed and the old site on the bluff in the east part of town was abandoned and sold. In 1910 the new First Ward school was built. Judge Frederick Mott, the first superintendent of Upper Sandusky schools, was a resident of Des Moines, Iowa, in November, 1911, aged eighty-four years. The rest of that pioneer corps have passed to the great beyond. Some of the early superin- tendents prior to 1864 were Messrs. Holton, Cummins, Har- rison and Finch.
That ye old pedagogue was not a back number but a real live wire is evidenced by the following notice which appeared in the Wyandot Tribune, July 25, 1848 :
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NOTICE.
The friends of education and especially the teachers of common schools in Wyandot and adjoining counties are earn- estly solicited to attend a public meeting to be held at the courthouse in Upper Sandusky on the 25th day of August next, at 12 o'clock, noon, for the purpose of forming a teach- ers' association, to become auxiliary to the state association. The objects of such associations are to secure to the public better teachers by affording them a cheap and efficient method of information upon the improved methods of teaching and various branches that are taught in our common schools.
A TEACHER.
UPPER SANDUSKY, July 25, 1848.
In response to this notice the first meeting of the Wyandot County Teachers' Association was held in the courthouse at Upper Sandusky, then the old Indian council house, on Fri- day, August 25, 1848. Rev. Charles Thayer, chairman, and C. P. Culver, secretary. After the adoption of several reso- lutions they adjourned to meet at the same place on Saturday, September 5, 1848, at 1 P. M.
Down at the village, the Wyandots had their village school for little children, the teacher being paid on the sub- scription plan. The Mission school was too far away for lit- tle folks to travel during severe weather. Probably the ear- liest school after the Wyandots left was held in a log cabin on the corner of inlot 109, northwest corner of Fourth and John- son, the teacher a Miss Sarah Ladd, a sister-in-law of Wm. Walker's. Gen. I. M. Kirby is now probably the only sur- viving pupil of that pioneer school.
There was another cabin, I was told when a small lad, that was used as a schoolhouse, the outlines of the foundation being pointed out to me. This was located on the edge of the bluff adjoining the north line of Johnson street. It may have been the Indian village school. Another pioneer school kept by a Mr. Hall was held in a log cabin on the southeast corner of Fourth and Walker. John A. Morrison, a pioneer teacher of Tymochtee township, was one of the earliest subscription school teachers in the village. While recorder of the county he continued his school with the help of a lady assistant. This school was where Mrs. Christian Merrick lives on North Fifth
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street near Bigelow. Mrs. Martha E. Hedges, deceased, told the writer some of the boys went to Morrison to learn to make pen spread eagles, and she to spell and make courtesies. A Miss Sarah Hughes acted as his assistant at one time, and in the summer of 1854 conducted a school of her own on the second floor of a frame building that stood on the alley corner where Frank Myers conducts his grocery and provision store.
Rev. Charles Thayer conducted a school in the front room of the Widman residence on West Johnson street. We were a pupil and remember well the backless puncheon benches, too high for our feet to reach the floor, on which we sat aside and astride or laid at full length when the tired body demanded. Miss Mary Harper taught a select school in a small frame on Fifth street where George Schwilk is now rebuilding a res- idence. Miss Delia Chaffee was one of the best known and beloved of old time teachers. She conducted a school in the old Methodist church where the Masonic temple now stands, and also in one of the rooms of the old jail building.
Chas. Culver followed Miss Sarah Ladd in the log school- house-in charge of the village school. He taught several terms with general satisfaction, the latter terms being con- ducted in the old Indian council house. He used the upstairs for a dwelling, and his wife assisted in support of the house- hold by teaching all kinds of fancy work, from samplers to wax work. Following him in the council house was Chas. Ferris, who like Mr. Culver, taught several terms. Among other early teachers may be mentioned J. V. S. Hoyt, Jennie Jackson, a gentleman by the name of Chambers, another by the name of Mason and a Miss Wigton.
The union schools of Upper Sandusky first opened in the new four-room brick building at the foot of Johnson street, December 4, 1854. The council house burned in October or November, 1851. Between the burning and the building of the union school building there is an interval of time not easy to bridge over with a consecutive account of school privileges. The village schools were conducted in rooms wherever they could be obtained. We are not certain but some of the schools above mentioned may have been village schools of that inter- val of time.
The following is an exact copy of a notice published in the Wyandot Pioneer by the board of education, October 18, 1845. It will be of interest as it is probably the only copy
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extant, and will locate a date no history of the country has heretofore been able to give.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN UPPER SANDUSKY
The board of education of the town of Upper Sandusky, have determined on opening the public schools for said town in their new building on the first Monday in December next, upon the "Union System."
For their superintendent the board have secured the serv- ices of the gentleman who is a graduate of "Brown Uni- versity," Providence, Rhode Island, and who has had the ex- perience of three years as principal of a popular academy in the state of Vermont. A competent number of efficient assist- ant teachers will be employed and our school will probably embrace four departments.
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