Sandusky County, Ohio - Chapter 16: Facilities for Transportation, 1909

Chapter 16: Facilities for Transportation

River Navigation - Early Roads Along IndianTrails - Harrison Trail - Colonel Rife's Road From the Portage to Lower Sandusky - Maumee and Western Reserve Road and Its Improvement - Bridges Over the Sandusky River - Other Improved Roads - Number of Miles of State and County Roads - Plank Roads of the Past.

The River

The Sandusky River is the middle one of three large streams which flow into Lake Erie, the Maumee and the Cuyahoga being the others. Fremont is at the head of navigation and in the earlier days, after white settlers came and before the advent of railways, regular lines of boats went up and down _ bringing manufactures and carrying hence agricultural and other products.

As there were no sufficient roads in the earlier days of Lower Sandusky practically all shipments of merchandise and supplies were made by boat.

Along the banks of the river were fine oak forests and at Lower Sandusky as early as 1816 a vessel, the sloop Nautilus, was built, The newspaper, The Clarion, published at Sandusky City, of the date of June 5, 1830, says:

Among the more important vessels built here were the schooners, Home, Cincinnati, Wyandot, Almina Meeker, Ben. Flint, Dan. Tindall, Cornelia Amsden and steamer Fremont: the last sailing vessel built in Fremont was the schooner N. C. West in 1867. The Flint and several others were built near the site of the L. E. W. Railroad Bridge. The

The principal exports in those early days were wheat, corn, oats, staves, ashes, lard, bacon, butter, walnut timber and leather, and the principal imports were salt, groceries and merchandise generally.

The first pork sent from this place east was by J. S. & G. G. Olmsted, about the year 1820, and was marketed at Montreal; it consisted of The cost here was $2,000, for the lot, and it was sold at considerable less.

The first wheat shipped east from Lower Sandusky was a lot of 600 bushels, sent forward by J. S. Olmsted in the year 1830. It cost 40 cents per bushel here, and was sold at Buffalo for 60 cents per bushel. Transportation was then so high that this difference of 20 cents per bushel was consumed in expenses, and the lot produced no profits worthy of attention.

"Its means of communication with Buffalo and other points on the lakes will be apparent, when we mention the facts that four schooners are now being laden with grain at our wharves."

As many as fourteen lake vessels have been in port here at one time loading and discharging freight. Some idea of the shipping on Sandusky River in early days may be had by the following clipping from the Fremont Journal of August 27, 1869, showing the marine news for that week:

For many years the schooners H. D. Root and N. C. West with the barge Fostoria and others, traded between Fremont and Lake Erie ports, being towed up and down the river from 1866 to 1879 by the tug L. Q. Rawson.

Gradually the marine shipping grew less as the railroads were extended and the last of our river fleet, the schooners West and Root, were disposed of and Fremont ceased to be a regular port of entry except for an occasional cargo of lumber.

Among the first passenger and freight steamers trading at Lower Sandusky were the steamers Commerce and Jack Downing. The Commerce was running between Lower Sandusky and Venice in 1840.

In 1851 the steamer Islander began making regular trips between Fremont and Sandusky, stopping at local docks for passengers and freight. The Islander was succeeded on this route in 1855 by the new steamer Island Queen, Captain Orr, master. Later the steamers Bonnie Boat, General Grant, Evening Star, and Reindeer plied the river route and the steamer Young Reindeer in 1877 was the last passenger steamer to make weekly trips to Sandusky.

Many excursions to Sandusky and the Islands were taken on the steamers Island Queen, Bonnie Boat, General Grant, Reindeer, Oliver H. Perry, Islander, and in later years on the steamers B. F. Ferris and R. B. Hayes.

In 1867, the Mary Sutor was running on the river and later the Young Reindeer, Fred, Gem, and several small steam launches formed the pleasure fleet. In 1886 John Smith built the steamer Colonel Bartlet on the east bank of the river and for the next nine years it was used in picnic excursions and fishing trips to the bay.

On the banks of the river and on Pickerel, Raccoon, South and Mud Creeks, many thousand cords of wood, hickory butts, stave bolts, piles and saw-logs were piled during the winter months to be freighted to Sandusky or lake ports at the opening of navigation. Gradually the streams began to fill up as the country be-

The once thought-to-be-endless, but now fast failing supply of timber for shipping purposes gave out about 1890; and save an occasional cargo of lumber from some Michigan port for our local lumber yards in Fremont, there has been little or no freight traffic on the Sandusky River for the past twenty years.

From Fremont to the bay is a distance of 174% miles and about Ig miles from there to Sandusky City. The beauties of Sandusky River are of late beginning to be appreciated by the people along its course. Motor boats and launches, of which Fremont boasts of about one hundred and twenty, varying in of speed from 8 to 12 miles an hour carry parties down the river to some of the beautiful spots along its course, which of late years have attracted a large number of persons, many of whom have built cottages or formed clubs at different points.

And, Representative -Citizens An Episode Of Early Navigation

At one of the meetings of The Sandusky County Pioneer and Historic Association Gen. Rk. B. Hayes, in exhibiting a picture of the first steamer that came to Lower Sandusky, known as Walk-in-the-Water, read the following thrilling narrative:

"In 1818 George Anderson, M. D., came to Sandusky and settled there. Desiring his brother, Wesley Anderson, to study medicine with him he sent for him with that purpose in view, but instead of so doing Wesley purchased a schooner and devoted himself to carrying passengers between Sandusky and Buffalo. His continuance in this calling, however, was very short, for on his first trip, while returning from buftalo, his vessel was totally wrecked at Long Point. There were thirty men, seven women and two children on board as passengers, besides the crew; the weather was intensely cold, the night dark and a storm, phenomenal in its violence, was raging. The vessel was blown upon an island and lay there until morning when a cable was rigged from a mast to a tree on land, by means of which every soul except the two children escaped safe to land, one man only being injured. They were compelled to wait on the island for two days when they were removed to land and were transferred to Buffalo by parties procured from that place. One incident is worthy of special mention. In the early morning after the wreck Mr. Anderson saw a bed floating near the shore; drawing it to him, he and all with him were overjoyed to see on it, unharmed, the children whom all had given up as lost."'

Early Roads

Before the organization of the county there were within its territory roads or traveled ways in different portions thereof, generally along the higher grounds and following Indian paths or trails to and from Lower Sandusky. Evidence of these roads may be found in the field notes of the early surveys of the land, references to a few of which are here given, as follows: "Trail to Lower Sandusky;' "A trail probably to Wapokaneta;" "A trail of the Ottawa people; "Road to Fort Meigs:" "Ottawa trail:" "Road east and west from Bloomingville to Croghansville." This was a road

Some of these trails, as the country was being settled, became established roads, opened by order of the county commissioners. An illustration of which is found in the organization of Thompson Township, April 25, 1820. In defining the north boundary line, the record reads as follows: "Begin at the northeast corner of the Seneca reservation, thence north from the Seneca reservation to the present trailed road from Croghansville to Strong's settlement till it shall intersect the fire lands." It is reasonably certain that this "trailed road" included what is now called the Franks Road, running southwardly from the Maumee and Western Reserve Road to the bridge over Green Creek, near the residence of W. F. Huber in Section 19, Greencreek Township, and also the road from this bridge east through Sections 19 to 24, inclusive, of Greencreek Township, but from the last mentioned section the trail through York Township is not so easily traceable.

In April, 1820, when Townsend Township was organized, its south boundary line was made the "road leading from Strong's Settlement to Croghanville." Thus it appears that before 1820 there was a road from Lower Sandusky east to the west line of Huron County.

The first official record of a road ordered located by the county commissioners, of Sandusky County, is of the date of April 25, 1820, as follows:

"Ordered that a road be laid and surveyed commencing on the first rise of ground on the east side of Samuel Baker's house and running the nearest and best route toward Cold Creek Mills, and that Frederick Halley be appointed surveyor; Abraham Townsend, Samuel Markham and Moses Wilson be appointed viewers to locate said road."

The road was accordingly located and designated in the report of the viewers and survevor as "A road leading from Samuel Baker's in Townsend Township, Sandusky Countv, Ohio, in a direct course to the head of Cold Creek, commencing at Samuel Bakers." Commissioner's Journal Vol. I, pages 4 and 5:

Then follows the field notes and plan. Townsend then embraced the Samuel Baker residence, which subsequently was within Green Creek when 'the latter was organized.

"Ordered that there be a county road from Croghansville to Green Creek Bridge in Section No. 16, Range No. 16, East Township No. 5 North, at the expense of the petitioners and Reuben Bristol, Jeremiah Everett and Ruel Loomis be-viewers to attend in the town of Croghansville-on Friday the 18th inst., and proceed to view and lay out said road on the nearest and best 'ground from the town of Croghansville to the bridge on School Section on Green Creek."

The Morrison State Road

On page 41, Journal 1, is entered at length the bond of Israel Harrington in the sum of $1,000 with Jaques Hulburd and Wiliam Andrews sureties, dated May 20, 1820, as commissioners to locate a State road from the north boundary of Delaware County to Croghansville, Sandusky County. The condition of the bond reads as follows: -

"The condition of the above obligation is such that whereas the above bound Israel Harrington hath been appointed by the Legislature of the state of Ohio a commissioner in connection with Alexander Morrison to lay out and open a state road commencing near the house of William Drake at the northern boundary of Delaware County, from thence the nearest and best way to Croghansville to the head of ship navigation in the county of Sandusky. Now if the said Israel Harrington shall do and perform all and singular the duties required of him by law as commissioner aforesaid in laying out and opening the above named road, and also to expend upon the said road the sum of $1,000, which sum has been appropriated by the Legislature of this state out of the three per cent fund, in the best and most economical manner, and that the s1id Harrington shall on or before the 29th instant enter upon the duties of his appointment, then this obligation to be void,

State Road On West Side Of River

On pages 44,-45 and 46 of this journal is recorded the report of Joseph Vance, surveyor, and Forest Meeker, commissioner, of a state road which reads in part as follows:

"The Board of Commissioners of Sandusky and Seneca Counties. Gentlemen: The undersigned commissioners appointed by a resolution of the Legislature of the state of Ohio to locate and survey a state road through the lands lately purchased by the United States of the Indians north of Delaware County, commencing at Capt. William S. Drake's on the United States military boundary line, making Upper Sandusky, Oakley and Lower Sandusky points to govern in the location of said road, have according to the provisions of the law completed the work assigned us and herewith given you a plat and the field notes thereof as the law requires."

Joseph Vance

Then follow the plat and field notes signed by Vance, surveyor and Meeker as com- No date appears to the document but the last preceding date in the Journal is December 5, 1821. This plan and the field notes show a starting point on the base line 41st parallel; thence by courses and distances to "Lower Sandusky to the public square of the Town." The distance is marked at the Center of the two mile square tract as sixty-two miles and as entering the tract at the southwest corner.

The "public square" referred to then embraced the present public school grounds, excluding the Wilson property, bounded by Park Avenue and Croghan end Garrison Streets. Also the Fabing and Gusdorf homesteads on Park Avenue. This road evidently followed the "Indian path" marked on the map of Ewing, surveyor, 1817, elsewhere found in this volume; and the "Indian path" became afterward known as the "Harrison Trail," by reason of its use by General Harrison as a military road in 1812-13. This military road followed up the west bank of the Sandusky River, passing just west of the site of Tiffin and through Upper Sandusky and Marion and Delaware to Columbus. This was General Harrison's route; and evidences of it can be traced in places to-day. The road was opened by him from 30 to 40 feet through the then unbroken forest. The land for this road from Lower Sandusky to the Greenville treaty line was ceded by the Indians to the United States by what is known as the Brownstown treaty of November 25, 1808, as before mentioned in this volume.

In 1813 a road was opened and bridged from the present site of Port Clinton to Lower Sandusky, by Col. Christopher Rife, of General Harrison's Army, while he was on the peninsula in charge of the army horses left there for keeping during the Canadian Campaign, which resulted in the defeat of the British at the Thames. This road was traveled by a part of the returning army via Lower Sandusky in 1813, after the Battle of the Thames.

The greater part of the present Port Clinton Road is substantially over the same ground. These two army roads formed a continuous route from the portage on the North to Columbus, then Franklinton, the chief headquarters of General Harrison.

The Maumee And Western Reserve Road

This was the first road to traverse the entire county from east to west. Prior thereto communication between Lower Sandusky and the Maumee River was carried on by way of the military route opened by the army of General Harrison. We have seen that the land for this road was ceded to the United States by the Indian nations claiming title to the same, November 25, 1808, at the treaty of Brownstown. After the organization of the county, and when that portion of the same west of the Sandusky River was becoming settled, it became evident to the people of Lower Sandusky, among whom were such men as Jesse S. Olmsted, Josiah Rumery, Nicholas Whitinger, Thomas L. Hawkins, Ami Williams, Ezra Williams, Charles B. Fitch, Jeremiah Everett, Jaques Hulburd, Elisha W. Howland. Morris A. Newman and Israel Harrington, that this road should be opened. Accordingly the sub-

Passing over acts not necessary to be here mentioned, we come to the Act of Congress of February 28, 1823, which provided for the laying out and making the road from the Lower Rapids of the Maumee to the western boundary of the Connecticut Western Reserve in the state of Ohio, agreeably to the provisions of the Brownstown treaty, and authorizing the state of Ohio to construct the same in such manner as the legislature of the state might by law provide - the road to remain forever a public highway. The mile of land on each side as provided in the treaty, was granted to the state to be sold and the proceeds to be used as a fund for making and keeping in repair the road. The state was required to complete the road withing four years.

The General Assembly of Ohio took the matter up, and by law of January 27, 1823, provided for surveying the line and laying out the road. Quintus F. Atkins was the surveyor, with Elijah Risdon as assistant, whose special duty was to run and stake the line of the road. This was done in the fall of 1823. The line of this road from the Maumee to what is now Clyde, a distance about forty miles, ran through an almost unbroken forest of dense and heavy growth. The roadway was to be cleared 120 feet wide; thirteen feet next to the outer line was to be cut with stumps as high as ordinary clearings; the next inner seventeen feet was to be cut nearly or quite level with the surface, with a view to have it available for a side road; the inner sixty feet was to be grubbed up clean and thrown up in the form of a turnpike, and placed nearer to the south side of the outer line, leaving greater room for a side road on the north side, where the sun might shine on same to sooner dry it off. The timber from the clearing and grubbing was piled on the outer thirteen feet. The work was completeed substantially within the required time of four years to the acceptance of Congress.

It was then simply a strip 120 feet wide cleared through the woods with a ridge of loose earth about forty feet in width between the side ditches. The trees outside skirting the

238 HISTORY ,OF 120 feet "stood thick and towering on either side, giving at a little distance the appearance of a huge wall about one hundred feet high, and when in foliage almost shutting out the sun's rays, except a little time in the forenoon." Homer Everett in his history says: "It was at least a guide through the Black Swamp which travelers could follow without fear of losing their way, and during the dry season of the year was a tolerable road for a few years. It soon became a stage route, and about 1830 a fine of four-horse post coaches was established on the same. The attempt, however, to run passenger coaches with regularity was a failure, the road being impassable for coaches more than half the year. Occasionally in dry portions of the year the coaches would go through with some regularity. The contractors, however, endeavored to carry the mails through every day. As a conveyance for the mails the hind wheels of a wagon were furnished with a tongue, a large dry goods box made fast to the cart thus improvised, into which the mail pouches were stowed. To this four stout horses were harnessed to plunge and flounder through thirty-one miles of mud and water. If a passenger on this line would pay well for the ride and take his chances to get through he was permitted to mount this box and keep his seat - if he could." Everett continuing: "The more the road was traveled the worse it became. Some attempts were made now and then by the superintendent to fill up an impassable mud hole with earth, but this only made it thicker and deeper. The condition of this road, traversed as it was by emigrants from all sections of the east gave it a National reputation as being, perhaps, the worst road on the continent. The distance from Lower Sandusky to Perrysburg was thirty-one miles. In 1834, 1835 and 1836 there were thirty-one taverns between Lower Sandusky and Perrysburg. These were mostly log houses erected on the borders of the road.

The landlords provided themselves with extra yokes of oxen to be used in relieving teams of emigrants, becoming stuck in mud holes. This grew to be such an important industry that the right of each landlord to the nearest mud hole became a franchise, by mutual consent. It was said that one of these landlords on disposing of his tavern, reserved his mud hole, a paricularly fine one, which it seems he had long cultivated with much care for the profit it yielded; and he subsequently conveyed to a neighbor his "franchise" for a money consideration, THE BRIDGE OF 1828.

The bridge over the Sandusky River, connected with this road as originally made, was constructed by James Birdseye and finished in January, 1828, for the contract price of $3,000. It was built of heavy white oak timbers; there were no stone piers or abutments, but instead strong double bents were used, boarded up with strong planks, and the space between the walls filled with stone to give weight and solidity to the structure and to resist high waters of the river. This bridge was carried away by the great flood of 1833, to be hereafter noticed. That it was well put together in its building was demonstrated by its tenacious resistance to the force brought against it at the time, for so many hours before it yielded. The bridge was not high enough, however, for such a flood.

Improved Roads

In 1836 Rodolphus Dickinson, an able and prominent citizen of Lower Sandusky was chosen a member of the Board of Public Works of Ohio. Through his efforts, supplemented by the aid of the people interested in the improvement the General Assembly of the State, March 14, 1838, passed an act providing for the repairing and macadamizing the same, and appropriating for the purpose $40,000. The United States still having title to the 120 feet over which the road passed, but not to the mile on either side, having already ceded that, passed an act July 7, 1838, ceding to the state of Ohio all right to the same. March 16, 1839, the state appropriated $100,000 to forward the macadamizing of the road. In 1840 the sum of $25,000 more was appropriated. Gen. John Patterson was appointed by the Board of Public Works to superintend the improvement.

And Representative Citizens

wide, and located about ten feet nearer to south than the north line of the road for the purpose of giving an ample side road on the north side. Twenty feet in width of the crown of the roadbed was covered with well broken stone. General Patterson laid the grade with the view to the best possible drainage and adjacent lands.

Capacious ditches were constructed along the sides of the road bed with frequent culverts by which the surface water was gathered and conducted under the road-way to natural or artificial channels into the streams running toward the lake. It was really the inauguration of land drainage in the Black Swamp region, and demonstrated that it could be drained and made one of the most productive regions of Ohio, which it now in fact is. It was not only the first, but perhaps the most important public improvement in the county in its results to the inhabitants as to their health and public welfare. The improvement was completed in 1842.

The Covered Bridge

This bridge, connected with the improvement, was constructed in 1841-42, and was a wooden structure of the best materials and roofed with pine shingles; the roof was renewed once during the thirty-five years of the bridge's existence. It was built under the supervision of Mr. Dickinson, and continued in use, though condemned in later years, until superseded by the present iron structure in 1877.

The road was managed by the Board of Publice Works until its management under Act of May 8, 1861, was transferred to lessees. In 1870 the state re-took charge of the road and the same was thereafter managed by the Board of Public Works until 1888, when by Act of the Legislature complete control of the road was transferred to the counties through which it passed, whereby it became a free public highway within the county like all other improved roads, on and after April 14, 1888, the date of acceptance of the road by the Sandusky County commissioners.

Greensburg Road

River in Ballville Township, by way of the present village of Millersville and Greensburg to the west line of the county, a distance of about fifteen miles. The greater portion of this road, for more than half the year round, was very muddy, and when the dry season came it was left cut into deep ruts, so that travel over it was at all times difficult.

On the petition of Martin Wright, and 128 other land owners along the road, dated March 6, 1867, the county commissioners took the first steps toward macadamizing the road. William E. Haynes, Charles G. Greene and Hiram Haff were appointed viewers, and Beaman Amsden, surveyor. June 4th, following, a favorable report was made recommending the improvement. The cost was estimated at $25,399.50. The road was to be graded twenty-two feet wide on top, twelve feet of which in width to be covered with stone one foot in thickness. There was no claim for drainages by reason of the road. The work was promptly commenced, and was finished during the year 1870, at a total cost of a little over $40,000.

Other roads were about this time improved after the same manner, among which were the Lay Road from Clyde south about four miles; the Fremont and South Creek Road about four miles, and later the Fremont and Port Clinton Road for about four miles.

Roads continued to be opened and improved until now there are within the county about eight hundred and seventy-five miles of highway, exclusive of city and village streets, nearly one-half of which has been improved by graveling or stoning, mostly by the latter material, an abundant supply of which is near at hand in home quarries. The sum of $50,000 and more annually is being expended in road improvements within the county.

Plank Roads

The Lower Sandusky Plank Road Company was organized in 1849 with James Justice, president, and L. Rawson, _ secretary. Among the stockholders and promoters of the enterprise were such men as R. Dickinson, Sardis Birchard, James Justice, James W. Wilson, Platt Brush, John R. Pease, Chester Edgerton, James Moore, John Moore, James Vallette, Morgan & Downs, L. B. Otis, and

240 HISTORY other prominent citizens. The plank road ran from the south termination of Front Street in Lower Sandusky southward along the Sandusky River to the south line of Edward Tindall's land; thence southwesterly to Bettsville, and thence to Fostoria, with a branch starting from Tindall's land to Tiffin, a total length of about thirty-one miles, and was completed in 1851, at a cost of about $50,000.00.

The form of the road was that of a turnpike, graded and ditched, with the top of the pike eighteen feet in width. Oak plank two inches thick and eight feet long were laid crosswise on firm stringers inbedded in the earth on one side of the pike, leaving a good earth road for use in dry weather, and for the use of teams in all weather which had to turn out for teams to pass that were entitled to the plank road. A line from Fremont to Greenspring was built about the same time. These roads while they lasted were a public benefit and greatly facilitated the moving of grain and other products, lessening the cost of transportation by the increased quantities that teams could haul fully fifty per cent. But the completion of the Fremont, Lima & Union Railroad from Fremont to Fostoria, by which the transportation of produce and merchandise was largely diverted from the plank roads, and the natural decay of the timber and planks composing the roads, and also the decline in toll receipts led to their final abandonment in the early sixties.