Sandusky County, Ohio - Chapter 17: Facilities for Transportation and Communication, 1909

Chapter 17: Facilities for Transportation and Communication

A Brief Reference to the Past - First Locomotives, Railroads, Telegraphs and Telephones - Steam and Electric Ratlroads in Sandusky County - The Telegraph, Telephone and Express Service - The Ohio Railroad Bubble - Early Mail Facilities and Service - Military Mail Carriers - Dangers Attending the First Matl Carriers - First Mail Routes Established - Present Mail Facilities - The Free Rural Delivery From Fremont.

A Look Backward

When Sandusky County was first settled by the white man there was not a railroad, steamboat or telegraph in the world. When Major Croghan and his gallant comrades defended Fort Stephenson, there were no railroads nor telegraphs in existence, and the first steamboat for practical use was then only six years old. The only roads were Indian paths or trails through the wilderness to and from their village at Lower Sandusky, known as "'the place of the hanging mist."

The locomotive, as we know, dates from 1814, and the first public steam railway in the world, the Stockton and Darlington in England, a distance of thirty-eight miles, was opened by George Stephenson, September 27, 1825, being five years after Sandusky County was organized. The first in the United States sucressfully operated was the Baltimore and Ohio, opened in 1830, from Baltimore to Elhcotts Mills, a distance of fifteen miles. The first in Ohio was the Mad River and Lake Erie, built in 1832, and opened from Sandusky to Bellevue, fifteen miles in 1837.

The first practical use of the telegraph was not demonstrated until 1844, when the famous message, "What hath God Wrought," was transmitted by Morse over the Washington and Baltimore line. The telephone is of more recent discovery and use, the basis of which dates from the discovery by Page in 1837, supplemented by the discoveries of Reis, a German teacher, and by Graham and Bell, about 1860,

Sandusky County is now tranversed by seven lines of steam railways, aggregating about 120 miles of main track and about thirty-five of siding, with fifteen stations and offices. Every township in the county, except Scott, is traversed by some one or more of these lines. There are sixty miles of electric railway now being operated throughout the townships of York, Green Creek, Sandusky, Riley, Townsend, Washington, Madison and Woodville, and the city and township of Fremont.

Over the steam roads there are passing daily in the aggregate, about thirty-five passenger trains, and about thirty trains, receiving and discharging freight at the various stations within the county. On the electric lines there are about one hundred and twenty daily trains or separate cars on trips, moving thereon, through the county carrying passengers.

The Mad River and Lake Erie, as before stated, was the first railroad built in Ohio. As at first constructed and operated, it did not touch Sandusky County, passing as it did through Bellevue on the ast side of the line dividing the counties of Sandusky and Huron. It is an interesting fact that when the first ground was broken for the road at Sandusky, September 7, 1835, Gen. William Henry Harrison was present and cut the first sod. Governor Vance of Ohio was also present assist-

242 HISTORY OF ing in the ceremonies of the occasion. The line was completed to Bellevue, fifteen miles, in 1837, and the first train run there. In 1841 it reached Tiffin and was completed to Dayton in 1851. The company in the meantime had passed through a number of changes before the road became located in Sandusky County, which was indirectly effected by the merging of the company with the Sandusky City and Indiana Railroad Company, which had been chartered in 1851, and whose line of road in 1852 was located through Sandusky County via Clyde; and thereafter the line through Bellevue was abandoned.

An episode of the travel on this road, when it extended to Tiffin only, was related to the writer by Mr. J. B. Higbee of Bellevue, who was among the first conductors on the same. While at Tiffin on one of his trips, he was informed by a messenger connected with the road that he must get ready a whole car for a passenger to Sandusky City. 'The messenger when asked who the passenger was that wanted a car all to himself, replied that he did not know who he was but "he was some big fellow they called by the name of Boz!"

Mr. Higbee described Charles Dickens as pleasant appearing "roast beef eating' English gentleman, and felt honored in having a passenger of such distinction. This, of course, was while Mr. Dickens was on his first visit to this country.

A copper baggage check, No. 713, with the words "Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad Co." stamped thereon is in the possession of Mr. A. R. Corser of Ballville.

The company after passing through many changes, its road finally became and now is a part of the Big Four System. The first passeuger car through Sandusky County over this road was in 1852.

The Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad. The Company to build this railroad was incorporated March 7, 1850. The Sandusky County members of the company were L. Q. Rawson, Frederick Chapman, L. B. Otis,

Homer Everett, A. B. Taylor and Ralph P. Buckland. Sandusky County subscribed $50,000 to the capital stock of the company, and issued bonds upon which the amount was realized. The voters of the county, except those of Woodville and Townsend Townships in April, 1851, by a majority of 400 in a total of 1948 votes authorized the taking of this stock. Among the active and prominent supporters of the road, in addition to the members of the company before named, were Rodolphus Dickinson, Sardis Birchard, John R. Pease, N. P. Birdseye and James Moore. The road was completed and the first passenger train passed over the same on February 7, 1853. On September 1, 1853, the company was consolidated with the Junction Railroad Company (chartered in 1846,) after which the road was called the Cleveland & Toledo Railroad, and passed under that name until April 6, 18609, when it was consolidated with the Lake Shore. After other changes it became, and is now, a part of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad Company. After the consolidation with the Junction before mentioned, the stock increased in value; the amount subscribed by the county was sold and brought an amount

This railroad enters the county in Section Twenty-nine, Township Six, Washington, and runs eastwardly through Lindsey, Fremont and Clyde to Bellevue, a distance of twenty-seven miles.

The Fremont & Indiana Railroad. The Fremont and Indiana Railroad Company, was incorporated April 25, 1853, with L. Q. Rawson, Sardis Birchard, James Justice, John R. Pease and Charles W. Foster, incorporators. The route was to be from Fremont through Fostoria, Findlay, and on through the counties of Hancock, Allen, Auglaize and Darke to the west line of the State of Ohio. Directors were duly chosen, who in turn elected L. Q. Rawson president, Andrew J. Hale secretary and Squire Carlin treasurer of the company.

Beaugrand All, Nburg And Representative Citizens

In 1860 the road was completed to Findlay, but was then overtaken by insolvency, and such proceedings followed as resulted in the sale of the road with its franchises, fixtures and other property, to its creditors, in 1862, for $20,000; which sum was not sufficient to pay the debts of the company. A new company was incorporated January 21, 1862, under the name of the Fremont, Lima & Union Railroad Company. L. Q. Rawson was made president and R. W. B. McLellan secretary and treasurer of the new company.

In 1865 this company and the Lake Erie & Pacific Railroad Company of Indiana were consolidated under the new name of the Lake Erie & Louisville Railroad Company, whose purpose was a through line from Louisville to Fremont, the head of navigation on the Sandusky River, so that heavy freight could be conveyed by water, thence, to Buffalo and New York, and passengers and light freight could pass east and west from Fremont over the Lake Shore railroad. This road was, however, on the 4th day of April, 1871, placed in the hands of L. Q. Rawson, receiver appointed by the U. S. Circuit Court, pending foreclosure proceedings against the same, and on October 18, 1871, was sold to trustees of the holders of the bonds against the company.

The Ohio part of this road was reorganized November 4, 1871, under the name of the Fremont, Lima & Union Railway Company. The Indiana part was organized on November 18, 1871, under the name of Lake Erie & Louisville Railway Company, under which name the two companies were consolidated April 12, 1872. This road as consolidated was placed in the hands of Isadore H. Burgoon, receiver, under foreclosure proceedings, on the 25th day of April, 1874, and managed by him until finally sold at judicial sale in 1877. Mr. Burgoon was superintendant of the road under the management that followed this sale until September, 1879. The road was then. consolidated with other Western roads, and the consolidation became the Lake Erie and Western Railway.

that city, and formed the Sandusky and Fremont Railway Company, for that purpose. Work on the road was begun about July 1, 1880, and the same was made ready for the passage of trains in February, 1881. This was practically an extension of the Lake Erie & Western Railway to Sandusky, which in connection with the L. S. & M. S. Railroad Company is now a part of the Vanderbilt system. This road traverses Sandusky County, through the Townships of Jackson, Ballville, Fremont, Sandusky, Riley and Townsend, a distance of twenty five miles.

Besides the steam railroads before mentioned, that touch Sandusky County, are the following: Toledo, Walhonding Valley and Ohio, a distance of nineteen miles; Wheeling and Lake Erie, twenty-four miles; New York, Chicago and St. Louis, nine miles; and the Columbus and Sandusky Short Line, a distance of three-fourths of a mile.

Electric Lines

The Interurban Electric Railroads are, The Lake Shore Electric, a distance of thirty-three miles; the Sandusky, Fremont and Southern, fourteen miles, and the L. E. B. G. and Napoleon, three miles; and the Fremont Electric Line, running from State Street along Front and Tiffin Streets to Ballville and thence to Oakwood, two miles.

Express Companies

There are five different express companies doing business in Sandusky County over the several lines of steam railways from the different railroad stations; and The Lake Shore Electric Railway has a package express in connection with its passenger service.

Telegraphs And Telephones

The Western Union Telegraph and Cable Company furnishes facilities for telegraphic communications from every town or place where there is a railroad station in the county, to all parts of the world; and the Postal Telegraph and Cable Company, furnishes like facilities from Fremont and Woodville.

There are telephone lines with stations and exchanges at Fremont, Bellevue, Clyde, Gibsonburg, Woodville, Greenspring, Lindsey and Helena, serving at this time in the aggregate over 8,000 subscribers, in city, village and country places and farms throughout the county, all connecting with long distance lines reaching in every direction to all parts of the Union.

The beginning of this wonderful telephone service in Sandusky County was in 1881, when W. L. Butman and Frank Heim of Fremont, with some Tiffin parties, organized the Fremont Telephone Company, and located in that year the first telephone, in the office of Mr. Butman, the operator, in the Western Union Telegraph Company in Fremont. During the first year fifty-eight telephones were installed. The wires were strung on common poles procured from woods in the country, and along roofs of buildings in the city, as permission could be obtained for the purpose. The office and exchange of the company was on the third floor of the First National Bank Building. In about one year after starting it, the company sold out to the Midland Telephone Company. This company finally sold to the Central Union Telephone Company, which last named company has ever since owned and is now operating the exchange at Fremont.

The Ohio Railroad Project

proper here. The General Assembly of the State of Ohio, March 24, 1837, passed an Act, which became known as the "Plunder Law," a name well deserved. It in substance provided, that every railroad company to the capital stock of which there was subscribed an amount equal to two-thirds of the estimated cost of the road and fixtures, should be entitled to a loan of credit from the State equal to onethird of such estimated cost, to be delivered to the company in negotiable scrip or transferrable certificates of stock of the State of Ohio, bearing interest not exceeding six per cent, and redeemable at periods not exceeding twenty years; and the State should then receive certificates of stock in the company for the amount so paid. The Ohio Railroad Company was chartered in 1836, and authorized to build a road on piles driven in the ground from a suitable point in Ashtabula County through that county and the counties of Cuyahoga, Lorain, Huron, Sandusky, Wood and Lucas, and thence to some point on the Wabash and Erie Canal. The commissioners named for Sandusky County were Jesse S. Olmsted, Jacques Hulburd and Sardis Birchard. The road was to be on piles driven into the ground by a piledriving machine worked by steam and connected with it, was a horizontal buzz-saw to cut off the piles, when thoroughly pounded down to the grade line of the road. On these piles were to be placed the cross ties and timbers for the strap rails of iron. Stock was rapidly subscribed and soon the State issued negotiable scrip to the amount of thirty three and one third thousand dollars. The building of the road was commenced in 1839, and the first pile was driven at a point near the present L .S. & M. S. Railway Station at Fremont, June 19th. The contractors and laborers were paid off in this scrip which was largely issued in fractions of a dollar. It soon became the money or circulating medium of the country along the line of the proposed road. The Lower Sandusky Whig of Judy 11, 1840, says:

"From Lower Sandusky the pile driver has advanced into the very heart of the famed Black Swamps, to the distance of nine miles and is driving from 500 to 600 feet daily.

"The company is receiving proposals for the timber and mason work of the immense bridge across the Sandusky River and Valley; immense it is - being near a

The site of this bridge was about 100 rods below the present State Street bridge. The main work of pile driving was begun at Brooklyn on the west side of the Cuyahoga River, to work westward, and at Manhattan on the Maumee River to work eastward. The work went bravely on with the expectation of soon meeting at Huron. The work was nearing that place from the east and had reached a point between Castalia and Venice from the west about the year 1840, when the crash came, and the whole project utterly collapsed never to be revived, leaving the people with a large amount of worthless railroad money in their pockets, the amount of which is not known, but almost every man in this part of the State had some and many had large amounts of it. The blow came after the repeal of the "Plunder Law" in 1840.

And Representative Citizens Early Mail Facilities

Lower Sandusky would, in the nature of things, be the first place within the region which was to become Sandusky County to be supplied with mail service. A post office was first established here in 1806; but correspondence was carried on between Lower Sandusky and Detroit and perhaps other points, through the medium of letters as early as 1772, and later on during the War of the Revolution. Some of the originals of which letters the writer has seen and perused and copies of which appear in Chapter V of this volume. These letters were probably conveyed by messengers by way of the river and lake to and from this place, in those early days. They were folded in letter form, sealed with red wax and superscribed the place where, directed. Lower Sandusky was then and until the close of the Revolutionary War a trading post, occupied by British traders. As early as 1811, there seems to have been a horseback mail service to Lower Sandusky from southward, for, Judge Lang in his history of Seneca County relates the murder near Fort Seneca on the Sandusky River in 1811, of a mail carrier by the name of Urich Drake on his way on horseback with mail for this place. The murderer or mail robber mounted the horse behind Drake, ostensibly it appears, to be carried across the river; on reaching the opposite bank he drew his knife, and reaching around, with one stroke cut Drake nearly in twain. At first it was thought that the murderer was an Indian, but afterwards it was ascertained that he was a white man. Drake was buried at Lower Sandusky at a spot, in the yard of the present St. John's Lutheran parsonage (1832-1844, the Court House) where a small stone slab, eighteen inches high with the inscription: "1811 U. Drake" marks the grave.

Judge Israel Harrington an early prominent citizen of Lower Sandusky, a prior resident of Huron County, in a newspaper communication in 1840 writes: "Sometime in the winter of 1812, Jacob B. Varnum, Jr., Indian agent at Lower Sandusky, came to my house (at Bloomingville) to be sworn in as postmaster at that place (Lower Sandusky) myself being the near-

About the time of and during the War of 1812, mail service was provided by military express through Lower Sandusky to Fort Meigs and to army headquarters.

"IT am ordered by the Postmaster General to run the express mail twice a week from Pittsburg to the Head- Quarters of the N. W. Army. * * * I Wish you to urge to General Harrison the necessity of establishing a small post at the Portage or Carrying River with a supply of forage for an express horse to be stationed there. It will be necessary for the safety of the mail to assist it in passing the river in difficult times. and by having a change of horses at that place, the mail can go with more speed. * * * Wherever General Harrison removes or is about to remove his Head Quarters, I should be glad to receive the earliest information of at; that I may send on more horses, if necessary, that the mail may always go to his head quarters, and until I get such information I wish the mail to be carried on in some way or other" (W. R. Hist, Society).

The first appointment of a postmaster of which a record appears was that of Morris A. Newman, July 2, 1814. There was a mail route then from Lower Sandusky down the river by the Whitaker place to Muscallonge Creek; thence up the creek about two miles; thence to Portage River, where Elmore now stands, and thence to Fort Meigs. Indians then still prowled through the woods. About this time a mail carrier by the name of Munger had been attacked by them and _ seriously wounded near Fort Meigs. There was not then an inhabitant on the route after leaving Mrs. Whitaker.

In the fall of 1814 Isaac Knapp and his son Walter carried the mail on this route. In 1818 Jeremiah Everett carried the mail on the same route. From two to three days and often four were required to perform the trip, and then he had to camp out between the Portage River and the Maumee, at night and alone. He told of a fallen hollow sycamore tree which he used as a protection on these occasions, when the state of the roads, or accident prevented him from reaching Portage River on his return trip, which frequently happened. If on foot, the mail, and a blanket made into a pack, were slung upon his shoulders, with bread and meat for the journey, and with a hatchet and knife in his belt, he would set out. If on horseback, which the roads permitted only a part of the year, a more ample out-fit was carried, and grain for the animal. At the sycamore tree, the axe, steel and flint aided to build him a good fire in front, which kept off cold and wolves. The wolf's howl near by was familiar music, and he was waked in the morning, and found a path beaten in the snow around him by the feet of these prowlers. He was always anxious to have a good road from Lower Sandusky to Fort Meigs, and lived to be eminently useful and influential in having one made.

About this time other routes were established, one of which was from Lower Sandusky east by the way of York Cross Roads, now Bellevue, thence along Strong's Ridge to Norwalk. No records can be found showing the receipts of the post office in those early days nor where a building which may have been known as "the post office'"' was located at Lower Sandusky.

How many years Mr. Newman served as postmaster does not appear, but the next postmaster of whom we have an account was Harvey J. Harmon in 1834. He was followed by

S. Olmsted. In 1837 Olmsted was succeeded by Homer Everett, who being elected to the office of sheriff resigned, and in 1838 John Bell was appointed postmaster. Following John

The daily arrival and departure of mails from this office are as follows: Arrivals from the west five mails; from the east three mails; from the north two mails and from the south two mails. Departures for the east four mails; for the west four mails; for the south two mails and for the north two mails;. The first money order at this office was issued by H. R. Shomo, July 4, 1865. The Free City Delivery was inaugurated by Basil Meek, January 1, 1889. The Free Rural Delivery from Fremont was inaugurated by G. A. Gessner in 1899. There are now ten daily rural routes from this office, with 1,100 service mail boes, accommodating in the aggregate a rural population of inhabitants of 4,300 in an area of 124 square miles, including the whole of Sandusky Townships, the greater portions of Ballville and Rice, and large parts of Riley, Washington, Jackson and Green Creek Townships. The mail service as to villages will be presented with village history.