442 - HISTORY OF TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY
CHAPTER VII.
MARINE INCIDENTS.
THE unwritten history of all settlements which came to permanent communities, is rife with incidents involving experience of various kinds, which, when set forth in words, are invested with deep interest. Volumes in space have been devoted to such narration. The Maumee Valley is not an exception to this rule. The memories of the pioneers were ever stocked with material of engrossing interest, but a small portion of which was ever made available to following generations. Here and there partial record was made, but the mass has passed away with the store-house of memory, the only receptacle which ever contained them.
Among the incidents of local interest pertinent here, is one occurring in September, 1822. At that time Major Coleman I. Keeler (one of the most prominent of the earlier settlers in Port Lawrence Township), with his daughter Grace, aged 16, took passage from Sandusky by the Schooner Eclipse, Captain Jones, bound for Detroit. By request, they were put ashore on Middle Bass Island, to take a small boat for home. Having engaged Captain Anderson Martin and his son, with a small craft, for such purpose, they started for the Maumee River. When some 20 miles out, they were overtaken by one of the most furious storms then known on the Lake; but fortunately they made West Sister Island, where they succeeded in landing. While themselves safe, their little vessel soon went to pieces, leaving them on an uninhabited Island, without food, the means of obtaining such, or the means for getting away. Day after day of fasting brought them to the dire necessity of seeking continued life by eating snails and snakes. Providentially, they had an old axe, with which the men sat to work to dig out the trunk of a bass-wood tree, barely large enough to carry Captain Martin and his son, who set out therein for Middle Bass Island, which they fortunately reached in safety. At once, with a sail-boat, they started for the relief of Major Keeler and daughter, who were found still alive, but greatly emaciated from hunger, having for six days subsisted wholly on snakes and snails which they were fortunate enough to gather on the island. A safe passage was given them to their home, where they soon recovered from the terrible effects of their extraordinary experience.
Major Keeler lived many years after the incident here narrated. The daughter, Miss Grace, who shared with him the trials of shipwreck and impending starvation, was subsequently married with William Hollister, who, with his brother John, came to the Maumee Valley in 1816, settling at Perrysburg at the very outset of that Town. He was engaged in trade, chiefly with the Indians, which was profitable. Subsequently lie went to Buffalo, N. Y., where he was for some years in active business, and died of' apoplexy, May 25, 1848. After his death, Mrs. Hollister became the wife of Mr. - Greene, a lawyer in New York, and died about 1873.
The first serious Lake disaster in this region was the loss of the Schooner Sylph, Captain Harry Haskin, in May, 1824. She sailed from Sandusky about noon of' May 12th for Detroit, with two barrels of whisky, a few wooden dishes, and three passengers, beside the Captain's brother, Charles Haskin. A severe storm from the Northwest arose in the afternoon. Nothing was heard of the vessel until the 14th, when two men reached Sandusky in a skiff, with the intelligence that the Sylph had been wrecked on North Bass Island, and all on board lost. The bodies of four persons had been found and buried, viz.: Harry and Charles Haskin ; a man supposed to be a Mr. Roberts, of Florence, Huron (now Erie) County, the owner of the wooden ware ; and a small child of a Mrs. Hunter, who went on board at Sandusky. The bodies of the Haskins were taken to Sandusky and buried. Harry was 23, and Charles 17 years old-both promising young men. The wreck was subsequently found by the family of Mr. Martin, a resident of North Bass Island, the morning after the vessel left Sandusky. The body of Mrs. Hunter was not found.
May 1,1826, the Canadian Schooner Surprise, Captain McCall, found the Schooner Morning Star, of Sandusky (whence she sailed April 22d for the Maumee River), floating near the Canadian shore, with nobody on board. The Vessel cleared from Maumee for Sandusky April 28th, having on board Captain John Costello, Thos. Goodwin and John Furnay, of Sandusky, a boy named Webber, and a woman. That night she was wrecked on a reef of rocks near Middle Bass Island, and was abandoned. Captain Costello and Goodwin returned in a boat to the wreck, but it was gone and adrift. They attempted to reach it, and were never again heard from. Both left families. Furnay, the woman and the boy were without shelter or food, except the leeks and roots they dug, for six days, when Captain David Wilkison, with the
MARINE INCIDENTS. - 443
Schooner Guerriere, found and rescued them from death, he having sought shelter under the Island.
The first case of collision of Steamboats on the Lakes occurred between the Niagara, Captain W. T. Pease, and the Pioneer, Captain Geo. Miles, on the night of October 31, 1826, near Grand River, Lake Erie, when they met while under full headway. The Pioneer was somewhat injured.
The Schooner Guerriere, Captain R. Pember, then belonging to John Hollister, Perrysburg, was wrecked near Middle Sister Island, May 29, 1832. A passenger lost his wife and four children.
Among the disastrous calamities occurring on Lake Erie was the burning of the steamer G. P. Griffith, on the night of the 17th of June, 1850, a short distance from Chagrin River, and two or three miles from Fairport, Ohio. She was on her way up the Lake from Buffalo, with 256 deck or steerage and 40 to 45 cabin passengers, and a crew of about 30, making a total of about 330 persons on board. Of the passengers only about 40 were saved, with not a woman among them. Included with the lost were Captain C. C. Roby, his wife, his wife's mother and two children, of Perrysburg; H. Palmer, telegraph operator at Toledo ; Alice Champion, Toledo, and Richard Mann, wheelsman, Sandusky. D. R. Stebbins, engineer and part owner, was among the saved, as was a Mr. Hinckley, of Huron, Ohio. Mr. Stebbins then resided at Maumee City, and subsequently lived for many years at Toledo, where be died several years since.