CHAPTER XI.

IMPROVEMENTS.

Maumee and Western Reserve Road—Treaty Providing for Roads—Method of Making—Condition When Completed—The Ohio and Michigan War—Road to Fort Ball.

IMPROVEMENTS.

HAVING in the preceding chapters of this history placed before the readers some remarks touching upon the prehistoric races, the description of the remains of their works as far as found in the county, a brief notice of the Indians found here when the white man first came upon the soil of the county; also remarks to show how we became entitled to the land the people of the county now live upon, and having given also something about the soil, surface, and geology of the county, we might properly proceed to next give an account of the early settlement of the county by the white race. But by the arrangement of subjects best adapted to accomplish thoroughness and completeness in the matter of individual history, the more particular history of early settlements and individual settlers will be found in our township and city histories. Pursuing, then, the general history of the county, it seems not improper to give some history of the improvements of the county, and some account also of the circumstances and incidents which induced them, as well as a notice of the men who were actively instrumental in bringing them about.

Slow, sleepy, and dull as it may look now, when viewed by the side of the thundering locomotive and its immense train, the older inhabitants of the county will still realize the fact that there never has been an improvement which contributed more to invite attention to, and induce settlement in the county, than did the

MAUMEE AND WESTERN RESERVE ROAD.

This road and the men connected with it have a history. The men who projected it and executed the design in building this road, did a great and good work, not only for this county but for all people east and west of the county, in all parts of the country, and they deserve honorable mention in the history of the locality, although, in some measure, their labors of late are rendered perhaps less important than they were, by improvements then unknown and unthought of.

It will be remembered that the title to lands generally was not obtained from the Indians until the treaty made by Duncan McArthur and Lewis Cass, with the Indian tribes, at Maumee, in 1817, September 29. But east and south the Indian title had been acquired; also in part of Michigan: On the 25th of November, 1808, at Brownstown, Michigan, Governor Hull, on behalf of the United States, concluded a treaty with the chiefs and warriors of the Chippewa, Ottawa, Pottawatomie, Wyandot, and Shawnee nations of Indians, which, after reciting that the United States had acquired land north of the Miami of Lake Erie, and lands east and south of that, but not adjoining, and that the lands lying on the eastern side of the Miami River, and between said river and the boundary line established by the treaties of Greenville and Fort Industry, with the exceptions of a few small reservations to the United States, still belong to the Indian nations so that the United States cannot,

140 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

of right, open and maintain a convenient road from the settlements in the State of Ohio to the settlements in the Territory of Michigan, nor extend those settlements so as to connect them. In order, therefore, to promote this object, so desirable and evidently beneficial to the Indian nations, as well as the United States, the parties have agreed to the following articles which, when ratified by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall be perpetually binding.

After the preamble, which is substantially given above, the treaty proceeds in the following language:

ART. 2. The several Nations of Indians aforesaid, in order to promote the object mentioned in the preceding article, and in consideration of the friendship they bear towards the United States, for the liberal and benevolent policy which has been pursued towards them by the Government thereof, do hereby give, grant, and cede unto the United States a tract of land for a road of one hundred and twenty feet in width, from the foot of the rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie to the western line of the Connecticut Reserve, and all the land within one mile of the said road on each side thereof, for the purpose of establishing settlements along the same; also a tract of land for a road, only one hundred and twenty feet in width, to run southwardly from Lower Sandusky to the boundary line established by the treaty of Greenville, with the privilege of taking at all times, such timber and other materials from the adjacent lands as may be necessary for making and keeping in repair the said road, with the bridges that may be required along the same.

ART. 3. It is agreed that the lines embracing the lands given and ceded by the preceding article shall be run in such direction as may be thought most advisable by the President of the United States for the purpose aforesaid.

ART. 4. It is agreed that the said Indian Nations shall retain the privilege of hunting and fishing on the lands given and ceded as above, so long as the same shall remain the property of the United States.

Done at Brownstown, in the Territory of Michigan, this 25th day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the thirty-third.

WILLIAM HULL,

Commissioner.

NEMEKAS, or Little Turtle,

PUCKENESE, or Spark of Fire,

MACQUETEQUET, or Little Bear, Chippewas.

SHEMMANAQUETTE,

WAPEMEME, or White Pigeon,

MACHE.

KEWECHEWAN, Ottawas.

TONDAGANE.

MOGAN, Pottawatomies.

MIERE, or Walk-in-the-Water,

I-YO-NA-YO-TA-HA, or Joe, Wyandots.

SKAHOMAT, or Black Chief,

ADAM BROWN.

MA-KA-TE-WE-KA-SHA, or Black Hoof,

KOI-TA-WAY-PIE, or Colonel Lewis. Shawanees.

It will be noticed that this Brownstown treaty, November 25, 1808, was the first step in the direction of procuring a road through the Black Swamp and on east of the river to the west line of the Connecticut Western Reserve.

While the treaty did not in terms set a time within which the United States should open this road for travel, and thus make it available to emigrants, the Government accepted the donation of valuable land for the purpose. This acceptance raised an implied obligation binding the Government, as the donee, to establish and open the road between the points indicated in the treaty within some reasonable time.

This obligation was clearly and definitely recognized by the United States by an act of Congress, approved by the President, December 12, 1811. This act provided that the President should appoint three commissioners to survey and mark the most eligible course for the road, and return an accurate plat of the survey to the President, who, if he should approve the same, should cause the plat and survey to be deposited with the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States; and providing further, that said road should be located, established and constructed pursuant to the treaty held at Brownstown on the 25th day of November, 1808. This act also provided that the commissioners should be paid three dollars and their assistants one dollar and fifty cents per day while employed in the work.

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY - 141

This act appropriated six thousand dollars for the purpose of compensating the commissioners and opening and making the roads.

The act contemplated the survey and making of two roads provided for in the treaty of Brownstown. One from the Miami of Lake Erie to the west line of the Connecticut Western Reserve, and the other from Lower Sandusky southward to the Greenville treaty line.

It is difficult now to ascertain with certainty whether the survey provided for by the act of Congress of 1811 was made, or, if made, at what precise date it was done ; or the line which was reported for the roads, or who were the commissioners under the last mentioned act. There is, however, little doubt that a survey of a line for the Maumee and Western Reserve Road was made some time between 1811 and 1816. We find in an old volume, entitled Land Laws for Ohio, published in 1825, another act of Congress, approved April 16, 1816, which authorizes the Pres. ident of the United States to cause to be made, in such manner as he may deem most proper, an alteration in the road laid out under the authority of an act to authorize the surveying and making of certain roads in the State of Ohio, contemplated by the treaty of Brownstown, so that said road may pass through the reservation at Lower Sandusky, or north thereof not exceeding three miles.

The act of 1816 provided that the necessary expenses incurred in altering said road should be paid out of moneys appropriated for surveying the public lands of the United States. This expression, "altering," clearly implies that a survey had before been made. Probably the alteration was not, in fact, made, nor is the fact material, because Congress, in 1823, in authorizing the State to make the road, did not restrict the State to any survey or particular location of the road which had before been made, but only gave the termini of the road as given in the treaty of Brownstown.

In the meantime, communication between Fort Meigs, on the Maumee, and Fort Stevenson, on the Sandusky River, was carried on by way of the Harrison trail, as it was called, which will be mentioned in another part of this work. About the year 1820, after this county was organized and the lands around Lower Sandusky were coming into market, and the country was attractng settlers, some unsuccessful efforts were made to have Congress construct the road according to the obligations to do so, by fair implication from the terms and spirit of the treaty. These efforts were unavailing, but finally Congress consented to transfer the building of the road to the State of Ohio. This was done at the earnest solicitation, not only of the pioneers who had settled at and about Lower Sandusky, but also the Kentucky Land Company, who had invested in lands in the reservation.

Thereupon, by an act of Congress, approved February 28, 1823, it was provided that the State of Ohio might lay out a road, specifying termini and dimensions, the same as specified in the treaty, and to enable the State to make the road, Congress granted to the State the same quantity of land given by the treaty. But in the meantime the United States had been selling land, regardless of the strip two miles wide for the road, and many of the best tracts along the line had been sold to individual purchasers. On the east portion of the line, especially from the sand ridge and Clyde to Bellevue, a large part of the road land had been thus disposed of, and many of the best tracts west of the Sandusky River were taken in like manner; also much of the reserve of two miles square at Lower Sandusky. For

142 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

the lands thus sold which should have been applied to making the road, the act provided that the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States should pay the State, to be applied to the construction of the road, one dollar and twentyfive cents per acre. The United States also provided in the act that the Government would stop selling these lands as soon as the State reported a survey and location of the road, and provided, also, that the road should be made by the State in four years from the date of the act, and that the lands should not be sold by the State for less than one dollar and twentyfive cents per acre. The lands along the road were by this act to be so taken as to be bounded by sectional lines as run by the United States. The money arising from the sales of these lands was, after building the road, to vest in the State to keep the road in repair.

The reader having traced the original design of this road back to its source, in the treaty of Brownstown, November 25, 1808, should not fail to notice that we owe the right to it to the liberality and kindness of a people we call savages. Having also seen that the United States transferred the work of making the road to the young and growing State of Ohio, February 28, 1823, it is easy to realize that a spirited set of pioneers would not long be barred, and the seekers after homes still further west, as in Michigan and Indiana, barred in, too, by the Black Swamp. They were wide awake and keenly alive to the improvement of the county, and country around them. They foresaw that if Lower Sandusky was ever to he a place of note and thrift, there must be a road connecting the place with the East and West.

The town of Lower Sandusky had in it in 1823-24-25, such men as Jesse S. Olmstead, Josiah Rumery, Nicholas Whittinger, Thomas L. Hawkins, Ammi Williams, Ezra Williams, Moses Nichols, Cyrus Hulburd, Charles B. Fitch, Jeremiah Everett, Jacques Hulburd, Elisha W. Howland, Morris A. Newman, Israel Harrington, and others, all too shrewd, clear of apprehension, and too energetic, not to strive zealously for the contemplated great improvement. The zeal of these early settlers, aided, no doubt, by the influence of the Kentucky Company, who had purchased largely of the reservation, induced the General Assembly of the State to accept the proposition made by the United States, to assume the work of selling the land and making the road.

SURVEY OF THE ROAD.

The General Assembly of the State promptly took up the subject, and, by laws, provided for surveying the line and establishing the road, and also for surveying these lands which were to be sold to raise the money necessary for its construction, and also to contract for the making of the road.

In the year 1824 an office for the sale of the lands was opened at Perrysburg, under the superintendence of Mr. McNight, who began the sales and also contracted for the making of the road in 1824.

Quintus F. Atkins was the surveyor of the lands, and of the road also; but he had under him a surveyor named Elijah Risdon, whose special duty it was to run the line of the road and stake it out. The act authorizing this survey was passed January 27, 1823, and the line was run in the summer and fall of that year. Our respected fellow-citizen, Hezekiah Remsburg, who resided near the line of the road, on the bank of Muskalonge Creek, remembers well, although then a boy, that Risdon and his surveying party; coming through from the West, were attracted to his father's by the light of an outdoor

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY - 143

brick oven, which his mother was heating quite late in the evening, and called at for refreshments and lodging, which the party received without charge, according to the custom of the generous pioneers of that day.

METHOD OF MAKING THE ROAD.

It should be remembered that the line of this road, from the Maumee (Miami) River to Hamer's Corner, as it was then called, but now Clyde, a distance of near forty miles, ran through an almost unbroken forest of exceedingly dense and heavy growth. The roadway was to be cleared one hundred and twenty feet wide — thirteen feet next the outer lines of the one hundred and twenty feet was, by the contract, 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 of the earth, 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. This sixty for the pike was 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 sometimes shine and make that dry sooner than the south side. Hence we find now that the side road is on the north side of the main or Macadamized pike. The timber from the clearing and grubbing was piled on the outer thirteen feet.

It was no child's play to cut down, grub out, and roll away the immense trees which stood so thick in this one hundred and twenty feet, especially when we consider the fact that these courageous men had to contend, not only with the giant trees and their roots, but also with tormenting flies and mosquitoes, mud and water, and fever and ague; and yet the work was done in spite of all these obstacles, and done on time—that is, substantially—and to the acceptance of Congress, within the four years' limit prescribed by their act of 28th February, 1823.

MENTION OF SOME OF THE CONTRACTORS AND COST OF CLEARING AND TURNPIKING THE ROAD.

Our much respected fellow-citizen, Nathan P. Birdseye, now of Fremont, in a recent interview with the writer, stated that his father, James Birdseye, was one of the early contractors for work on the road. His contract was to make seven miles in all, and also to build the bridge over the Sandusky River at Lower Sandusky. About two miles and a half of his job was west of the river, and the remainder east of it, a part being in York township, and a part between the river and Green Creek. Our informant was then a young man, and worked with his father in the performance of his contracts. He says the first work done on the road was in 1824, (Mr. Birdseye began his in September of that year), and that the whole was cleared and piked up in the year 1827.

Messrs. Fargo & Harmon had a large contract to make this road between Green Creek and Clyde.

Mr. James Birdseye finished the bridge over the Sandusky River in January, 1828, for the contract price of three thousand dollars. It was built of solid, heavy white oak timber of the very best quality procured from land east of Lower Sandusky, about two miles distant. There were no stone piers or abutments, but instead, strong double bents were used. These bents were boarded up with strong plank, and the space between the two walls filled with stone to give weight and solidity to the structure, and to resist the high waters of the river.

144 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

THIS BRIDGE CARRIED AWAY BY A FLOOD.

In February, 1833, occurred the greatest flood ever known on the Sandusky river. The ground was frozen and covered with a deep snow. Several successive days of heavy rain dissolved the snow, and the combined water from the rain and snow, no part of which was absorbed by the earth, was suddenly precipitated into the ice covered river. The large bodies of ice in the upper portion of the stream were soon raised and loosened by the accumulating water, and brought against the still firm ice a little below the city, where it gorged and for a time prevented the water passing; the gorge of broken ice extended a long distance above the bridge. The water rose until in about twenty-four hours after the gorge was formed the ice began to lift the bridge; the great pressure forced a movement of the ice below, and the whole body of ice at and above the bridge moved down stream carrying on its surface the entire structure without parting it except from the shore at each end. The bridge was carried down stream about half way from where it stood and where the present iron bridge stands, and head of the island next below the bridge.

The movement thus far was slow, steady, and majestic, growing slower and slower until the river was again gorged with ice below, and the movement ceased with the bridge intact, though a little curved, and nothing broken. After this second gorging of the ice, the pent up waters turned from the channel above, flowed over the valley, and formed a strong current down Front street, which brought and lodged there great cakes of ice. It was then a river from hill to hill on either side of the channel, and the whole covered with broken ice of more than a foot in thickness. Through the crevices in the broken ice the water went gurgling and roaring for several days. A sudden changein the weather froze this mass together, and the bridge was for weeks, perhaps a month, used as a footbridge to cross the river on. A few boards used as an approach made it a great convenience for the time. All this time a current of water was running quite swiftly down Front street, and canoes and skiffs were used to go from one part of the town to another for a period of about ten days, when the water found an outlet below and the flood subsided. But the bridge remained in the place where the ice left it until the usual spring freshet, which was comparatively moderate, carried it further down and broke it. The bridge was floored with two inch oak plank, sawed at Emmerson's sawmill, which then stood on Green Creek, on the farm now owned by George T. Dana, and about half a mile south of the line of the road. Mr. Birdseye says there were four double bents to support the bridge, besides those at each end. That it was well put together, and of good material, is shown by its tenacious resistance to the forces brought against it. But the engineer had not raised it high enough for such a flood. The bridges built after this one will be noticed in another chapter of this work.

COST OF ROAD AND PRICE OF LAND.

The average cost of clearing, grubbing, and throwing up this road was about dollars per mile, exclusive of the cost of bridges; and the contractors in many instances paid for land by the work they performed. The road lands, Mr. Birdseye said, were sold at different prices, ranging from one dollar and twenty-five cents to two dollars and fifty cents per acre, during the time of making the road.

CHARACTER OF THE ROAD WHEN COMPLETED.

When the road was completed according to the original design, in 1827, it was simply a strip one hundred and twenty

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY - 145

feet wide cleared through the woods, with a ridge of loose earth about forty feet in width between the ditches along the sides.

The trees outside of the hundred and twenty feet stood thick and towering on either side, giving at a little distance the appearance of a huge wall about a hundred feet high, and when in foliage almost shutting out the rays of the sun except a little time in the forenoon. Still, this road was a benefit. It was at least a guide through the Black Swamp, which travelers could follow without fear of losing their way, and during the dry seasons of the year was a tolerable road for a few years. It soon became a stage route, and about 1830 a line of four-horse post coaches was established on this road. The attempt, however, to run passenger coaches with regularity was a failure, for the road, then being much travelled through the swamp, was found impassable for coaches more than half the year. Occasionally, in the dry portions of the year, from July to the equinoctial rains, 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, but there was no insurance against being splashed all over with mud, or plunged into it head-foremost by being thrown from his seat. When this conveyance arrived at either end of the line the cart, the driver, and the horses often presented almost an indistinguishable mass of slowly moving mud.

Meantime emigration to the West increased, and the more the road was travelled the worse it became. Some attempts were made now and then by the superintendent to fill up an impassable mud-hole with earth, but such work only made it thicker and deeper. The condition of this road, traversed by emigrants from all sections of the east; the reported failures in carrying the mails according to contract, by reason of its impassability, gave it a National reputation for being, perhaps, the worst road on the continent. The distance from Lower Sandusky to Perrysburgh was thirty-one miles. Hauling stalled teams out of the worst mud-holes had become a regular and well-established employment of the settlers along the route, and in 1834, 1835, and 1836, there were thirty-one taverns between Lower Sandusky and Perrysburgh, which would be a tavern averaging one to every mile of road. Those taverns had two purposes; one was to give the traveller food and shelter for the night, and the other to pull their tired and stalled teams through the worst places with ox teams, and start them forward to the next impassable mud-hole, where they would find another ready to perform a like service. These taverns, be it remembered, were log huts in the woods, on the borders of the road. Our very worthy citizen, John P. Moore, says that one Andrew Craig happened to locate on the road in the vicinity of several of the worst places in the track; that Andrew charged exorbitant prices for pulling out the stalled teams, and for the use of his cabin for emigrants to rest in over night. That it was a common occurrence for Andrew to work all day in getting the team through one or two bad places, and then have the emigrants go back to stay at his house for three successive nights, until they got

146 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

within the jurisdiction of the next tavern. Andrew's charges were never too low to afford him a good income. He was a representative tavern-keeper of the time, on that road.

There was little variation in the condition and management of this road until an event happened which aroused public attention throughout the State to the necessity of its improvement, and that event was what is called

THE OHIO AND MICHIGAN WAR.

While this war, as it was called, was not the direct result of any action of Sandusky county, still: its influence and bearing upon the subsequent improvement of the road had such an importance in the advancement of the county that a brief allusion to it seems proper. Beside this, the prominent part taken in that dispute by citizens of the county makes a notice of its causes and results pertinent to this history.

The convention of delegates which met at Chillicothe in September, 180z, formed a Constitution for the purpose of presenting it to Congress for acceptance, and for then being admitted to the Union as a State. In the seventh article of the sixth section of the instrument as finally agreed upon and accepted by Congress, the convention undertook to set out the boundaries of the State. After minutely and clearly describing the eastern, southern, and western boundary, the section continued in the following words:

On the north by a line drawn east through the southern extreme of Lake Michigan until it shall intersect Lake Erie or the territorial line; thence with the same through Lake Erie to the Pennsylvania line. Provided that said line shall not intersect Lake Erie east of the mouth of the Maumee River; then and in that case it shall, by and with the consent of Congress, be bounded by a line drawn from the southern extreme of Lake Michigan to the northern cape of the Maumee Bay.

It was soon ascertained that an east line drawn from the southern extreme of Lake Michigan would intersect Lake Erie far east of the mouth of the Maumee or Miami River. Ohio, upon ascertaining this fact, solicited Congress to assent to the establishment of her northern boundary according to the proviso contained in the seventh article of the sixth section of her Constitution. The opinions of members of Congress differed on the subject, some holding that the proviso had already been assented to by the adoption of the Constitution; others believed that the assent of Congress was made necessary by the terms of the proviso, and that further action was necessary to establish the boundary beyond all question. In 1815 the Senate of the United States acted on the subject, favoring the claim of Ohio, but the bill was rejected by the House of Representatives. Again, in December, 1834, the Senate passed the same bill and it was again rejected by the House of Representatives. Thus it appears that the State of Ohio had, for a period of nearly thirty years, solicited Congress from time to time to establish beyond a doubt or cavil her northern boundary, without accomplishing the purpose. In the meantime she had exercised civil jurisdiction to the line mentioned in the proviso, and had at great cost constructed the Miami canal, which connected with the Maumee River at Manhattan, which place then, 1834, promised to be what the city of Toledo now is, the chief commercial city of northwestern Ohio. It should be mentioned here, in order to properly understand the cause of dispute, that in 1805 Congress, in organizing the territorial government for the Territory of Michigan, had bounded that Territory on the south, unconditionally, by a line drawn east from the southern extreme of Lake Michigan. This line would leave Toledo, Manhattan, and the mouth of the Maumee River, to the territory of Michigan, and take from Ohio a strip of land

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY - 147

about ten miles in width at the west line of Ohio, and running to a point; then the line due east from the southern extreme of Lake Michigan touched Lake Erie.

For many years the country was so wild and had so few settlers that there was no strife and no question about its occupancy or the civil jurisdiction over it, and Ohio in good faith held possession and built the canal through it without hindrance or opposition. After the project for building the canal was formed and the work under way, the then future commercial importance of the mouth of the Maumee River and the Maumee Bay, and this ten miles of territory including them, began to be appreciated.

The repeated failures of Congress to pass the necessary enactment or declaration, especially the last failure in 1834, served to attract attention to the subject and induce a discussion of the question whether Ohio or Michigan owned this strip of valuable territory. To Ohio this question had become one of grave importance. She had spent large sums of money in improvements on it, and it was then clearly seen that in the future development of the Northwest a large commercial city must grow up somewhere near the mouth of the Maumee River. Wearied of importuning Congress, the State itself took action in the matter. February 6, 1835, the Governor of Ohio, Robert Lucas, sent a communication to the General Assembly of the State, recommending the passage of a law "declaring that all the counties bounded on the northern boundary of the State of Ohio, shall extend to and be bounded by a line running from the southern extreme of Lake Michigan to the northern cape of the Maumee Bay." On the 23d day of February, 1835, an act was passed by the General Assembly in accordance with the Governor's recommendation. Over a part of the territory included by this line, which was the line mentioned in the proviso above noticed, Ohio had not up to that time exercised any specific jurisdiction. This act specifically required the public officers of the townships and counties bounded by this line to exercise jurisdiction to it, thus enforcing the laws of Ohio over a considerable territory, which for a number of years had been tacitly subject to the laws of the Territory of Michigan.

On the 12th of February, 1835, the legislative council of Michigan passed an act, the second section of which reads as follows:

And be it further enacted, that if any person residing within this Territory shall accept any office or trust from any State authority other than the government of the United States or the Territory of Michigan, every person so offending shall be fined not exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisoned five years at the discretion of the court before which any conviction may be had.

The act of the General Assembly of Ohio above mentioned, also provided that the Governor should appoint three commissioners to run the line and distinctly mark it on trees, and by monuments where trees were not available for the purpose ; that is, mark the line which terminated at the northernmost cape of the Maumee Bay.

In the two acts above mentioned may be seen the rising clouds which were soon to culminate in a storm of opposing authorities, and the collision of hostile forces. The acting governor of Michigan, Stevens T. Mason, seeing Ohio preparing to take from Michigan a part of her territory, prepared to execute the laws and defend what he understood to be the rights of the people of Michigan. To do this and to effectually drive off all hostile invaders from the soil in his Territory, he ordered Brigadier-General Brown, under his command, to have in readiness a military force to repel any encroachment upon their Territory, and intimated to the authorities of

148 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

Ohio in plain terms, that the first man who should attempt to run the line ordered by the authorities of the State of Ohio, would .be shot without hesitation or compunction.

The citizens of Toledo, then a small village situated on the disputed territory, manifested a disposition to yield to the claims and jurisdiction of Ohio. This disposition on their part raised a spirit of jealousy against them in the minds of the people of Michigan, which led the latter to commit unwarrantable and odious depredations upon the citizens of that village.

Numerous instances of violence and kidnaping resulted from the hostility engendered by the contest for civil jurisdiction by Ohio over this disputed territory, and to prevent the survey of the line as required by the law of the State. These outrages brought Governor Lucas to the conclusion that the commissioners he had appointed to make the survey would be arrested while performing their duty, and the work prevented unless protected by adequate force. Sincerely believing that the claim of Ohio was legal and just, and feeling it to be his solemn duty to see the laws of the State faithfully executed, though regretting the necessity for force, he resolved to use force, if it must be used, to execute the law and maintain the rights of the State.

The Governor, for the purpose of protecting the commissioners and maintaining the peace, ordered General John Bell, then a brigadier-general of Ohio militia, to raise five hundred men to rendezvous at Lower Sandusky on the 23d of April, 1835, and repair immediately to headquarters at Fort Miami, on the Maumee River and there be in readiness for service.

On the 31st of March of that year Governor Lucas, with his staff and the boundary commissioners, arrived at Perrysburgh on their way to run the line as directed by the law of Ohio.

General Bell, then in command of the Seventeenth division of Ohio militia, the boundaries of which included the disputed territory, arrived about the same time with near three hundred men, who went into camp at Fort Miami to await orders. This force was the first to report, and was from the vicinity of the expected conflict, being under the command of Colonel Mathias Van Fleet. The Lucas Guards, an independent company of Toledo, formed a part of this force. These were soon after joined by part of a regiment from Sandusky county, under command of Colonel Lewis Jennings; also a part of a regiment from Seneca and Hancock counties under command of Colonel Henry C. Brish, of Tiffin, numbering about three hundred more; all together numbering about six hundred effective men. The last mentioned three hundred men, and the Governor and staff, as well as the surveying party, necessarily had to pass through the Black Swamp, by the Maumee and Western Reserve road, in the spring of the year.

And now we have arrived at the event which makes the mention of this war pertinent in the history of the Maumee and Western Reserve road, and that lies in the fact that the contest over the north boundary of the State, made it necessary for the troops and officers, the Governor and his staff, and the commissioners, to run the line, and many other distinguished. And influential men of the State and from other States, to wallow through thirty-one miles of mud and water, and to realize that it was for land travel the connecting and only way from the East to the rapidly developing region of the Northwest ; and to realize further, that the condition of the road was a shame and a disgrace to the State.

But now that we have gone thus far in

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY - 149

the mention of the war, let us briefly trace it to the conclusion and then resume the more direct history of the road.

On Sunday, the 26th of April, the surveying party which had been engaged in running the line, when resting about a mile south of the line, in what they consider a part of Henry county, in Ohio, at about 12 o'clock noon, were surprised by about fifty of Governor Mason's mounted men, well armed with muskets, under command of General Brown. The commissioners who at the time, had only five armed men with them, who had been employed as a lookout and as hunters for the party, thought it prudent to retire, and so advised the men. Several made good their escape, but nine of the party did not leave the ground in time, and, after being fired upon by the enemy, were taken prisoners and carried away to the interior of Michigan. The names of those who were thus captured are, Colonels Scott, Hawkins, and Gould, Major Robert S. Rice, father of our Congressman elect, and of our other prominent citizens, William A., Robert S., and A. H. Rice ; Captain Samuel Biggerstaff, and Messrs. Ellsworth, Fletcher, Moale, and Reckets. These men were taken by an armed force to Tecumseh, Michigan, brought before a magistrate there for examination, and, though they there denied the jurisdiction of Michigan, six entered bail for their appearance, two were released as not guilty, and one, Fletcher, refused to give bail and was retained in custody.

Governor Lucas, finding it impracticable to run the line without further Legislative aid, disbanded his forces and called an extra session of the General Assembly to meet on the 8th of June, which was held accordingly. That body passed an act to prevent the forcible abduction of citizens of Ohio, and made the crime punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, notless than three nor more than seven years; it also passed an act to create the county of Lucas out of the north part of Wood county, including the disputed territory north of it, and a portion of the northwest corner of Sandusky county. The General Assembly also provided ample means to enforce the claims of Ohio. It appropropriated three hundred thousand dollars to carry its laws into effect, and authorized the Governor to borrow the money.

It was ascertained by the Adjutant-General of Ohio, Samuel C. Andrews, that not less than twelve thousand men in the State were ready to volunteer to sustain and enforce the claims and laws of Ohio.

The partisans of Michigan continued, during the summer of 1835, to arrest and harrass the people on the disputed territory, and the war cloud daily became more and more portentous and threatening.

Before the forces under General Bell had reached the scene of military operations, the President of the United States had sent Hon. Richard Rush, of Philadelphia, and Colonel Howard, of Baltimore, as commissioners to use their influence to stop the warlike demonstrations. These eminent men were accompanied by Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, one of Ohio's most honored public men, and these endeavored to persuade Governor Mason to permit the line to be peaceably surveyed and marked, and then let matters rest. as they had been before, until the next session of Congress; but he refused compliance with the proposition, while Governor Lucas assented because he considered the Governor of the Territory as a subaltern to the President and subject to his (the President's) control. This reliance on the President's authority it was that induced Governor Lucas to believe he could run the line in peace, and hence he set

150 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

the surveyors at work without a military guard, as above noticed. But no effort for peace was successful in modifying the warlike determination of the Governor of Michigan, and Ohio went on with her preparation, to meet force with superior force.

The war cloud rose higher, became darker, and spread wider, until the authorities at Washington began to feel uneasy about the peace of the country. President Jackson, to whom the proceedings and the preparation for hostilities were reported, became strongly impressed with the necessity of interposing a check to the tendency to serious trouble.

Governor Lucas, perceiving the state of mind at Washington, wisely chose the time to make an effort to induce the President to interfere in behalf of peace. For this purpose he sent a deputation to confer with the President on the subject. This deputation consisted of Noah H. Swayne, William Allen, and David T. Disney, all eminent and very influential men, who procured from the President an urgent appeal that no obstruction should be interposed to running the line; that all proceedings begun under the Ohio act of February 23d be discontinued, and that no prosecutions be 'commenced for any violation of it, and that all prosecutions then pending be discontinued. This arrangement or appeal from the President was obtained July 3, 1835. The authorities of Michigan, however, disregarded the President's recommendation, and continued their resistance to running the line, still claiming jurisdiction over the disputed ground; and thus matters stood until the 15th of June, 1836, when Michigan was admitted into the Union and her southern boundary fixed as Ohio had claimed it to be. To console Michigan for what her people thought was wrongfully taken from them, the same act gave her alarge scope of mineral lands about Lake Superior. Thus, by the liberality of Congress, the contending parties were reconciled and made happy.

Having followed this digression to its termination, let us now go back to the subject from which we diverged and return to the history of

THE ROAD.

The dispute with Michigan, which we have briefly mentioned, brought the condition of the Maumee and Western Reserve road, and its future importance, prominently into notice. The militia from Lower Sandusky and the counties south of it; the commissioners appointed to run the line of the State, and their assistants; the peace commissioners sent by the President to the theater of impending conflict; high functionaries of the State, including the Governor and his staff; all were in the discharge of public duties, compelled to plunge and wallow through thirty miles of mud and water in order to reach the objective point of contest. Thus leading men in our own State councils were by actual and disagreeable experience brought to a correct understanding of the condition of the road. True it is, that for some years before the contest with Michigan, the stage drivers, the emigrants, and all others who were compelled to travel the road, out of their wallowings in the mud had sent up oaths and imprecations sufficient to split the skies. But the stage driver had little to do with moving public' opinion of the State, and the emigrant passed on, and the imprecations never reached the ears of the State authority—but the road obtained a frightful reputation all over the country. Now, however, our own people, and our Governor and many of his influential friends, had found to their own discomfort and the shame of the State, the true condition of the road, and had realized its future importance. In

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY - 151

1836 Rodolphus Dickinson, of Lower Sandusky, was, fortunately for the northwestern part of the State, and especially for the town in which he resided, chosen a member of the board of public works of the State. The road was in his division of the works, and thus came under his personal direction and management. He at once put his rare abilities, favored by his public position, into the work of procuring the improvement of the road. In his efforts he was, of course, warmly supported by the localities to be benefited, and such progress was made in moving public opinion in the right direction for the accomplishment of the purpose, that on March 14, 1838, the General Assembly of the State passed an act providing for the repairing and macadamizing the road, and appropriating forty thousand dollars to be expended in the work. This act provided that the work should begin at the western termination of the road, and progress eastwardly from that point through to the eastern termination. It also provided that after a good road bed had been made, and before the stone covering should be put on, gates might be erected and tolls charged upon teams travelling over the repaired portion. Here it should be noticed that the United States had not at the time this act was passed, in any way given the State a title to the one hundred and twenty feet in width of land on which the road was made, but only the land on each side of it, with authority to make the road, and pay for the making out of the proceeds of the sale of the land. Therefore, before the State actually began the expenditure of the appropriation, the act of Congress of July 7,1838, was passed, ceding the title to the road and land which it covered that is the one hundred and twenty feet in width between the termini of the road, to the State of Ohio; since then the State has been the real owner of the road.

Soon after the appropriation of this forty thousand dollars was made and the above mentioned act of Congress passed, the Board of Public Works sent General John Patterson, one of the State engineers, to survey and superintend the work of repairing and macadamizing the road, and too much praise cannot be bestowed on General Patterson, though he is now dead, for the honesty and skill, and the fidelity with which he executed his duties. March 16, 1839, the State appropriated one hundred thousand dollars to forward the macadamizing of the road. The timber originally grubbed out and cut off the road and piled on the sides, had now become dry and was burned off. The roots and stumps had so much decayed that they were easily removed, and the plowing of the ground and scraping up of a good road bed was comparatively easy. Mr. Patterson skillfully laid the grade with a view to the best possible drainage into all the rivers, creeks, and swails, by which the water could be carried away, and where necessary constructed large lateral ditches leading to the north from the road. The new road bed or pike was sixty feet in width, located about ten feet nearer the south line than the north line of the road. This location of the road bed was adopted for the purpose of affording an ample side road on the north side, which, in dry periods, was preferred by teamsters to the stoned road bed, and thus the wear of the stone was made much less than if it bore the wear of all the travel—twenty feet in width of the crown of the road bed was covered with stone, well broken. A prominent feature in the work of General Patterson in designing the improvement of the road, was the capacious, and, in some places, deep side ditches which he caused to be constructed along the sides of the sixty feet road bed, with frequent culverts, by which water was conducted from one ditch

152 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

to the other, under the roadway. The water which had rendered this road such a terror to travellers in very rainy or wet seasons, had a tendency to slowly soak away to the north with the general direction of the rivers and creeks, and hence the ditch on the south side of the road caught the water as it slowly drained in from the south. The system of culverts and large ditches afforded a passage for the water along the road to the nearest point where a natural or artificial channel would carry it towards the lake.

At this day, and in future times, the reader may feel tempted to ask, Why were these dry, commonplace details about the construction of this road set out here as a matter of history? The answer is simple; when completed to some outlet, these ditches almost instantly—though in some instances the water would necessarily run many miles along the road—relieved the lands along them of surface water; especially was this the case with lands south of the road. This, however, is not the full answer. It was thereby demonstrated that the Black Swamp lands could be drained, and that dreadful locality made one of the most productive regions of Ohio, as it now, in fact, is. A new spirit was given to the inhabitants; their land had become valuable, and they could discern, through all their former discouragements, that their part of the county would soon be filled with inhabitants and become rich and prosperous. The result was to draw public attention to a realizing sense of the great benefits to this country to be derived from draining land, and in this view, the location, construction, and improvement of the Maumee and Western Reserve road was not only the first, but the most important public improvement made in the county. The State, through the Board of Public Works, collected the tolls, repaired and managed the road, until the misconduct of a few unfaithful officers and agents aroused public opinion to a belief that our whole system of public improvements, including our canals and roads, were managed to promote plunder and political party ascendancy. So thoroughly disgusted and offended did the people become at the revelations of an investigation into their management, that it was determined to rid the State of the cause of so much expense and corruption. The General Assembly, under the force of this public opinion, on the 8th day of May, 1861, passed an act which provided for

LEASING THE PUBLIC WORKS OF THE STATE.

This was accomplished, and the lease included the transfer of the management of the Maumee and Western Reserve road to the lessees, who took charge of it in the year 1861.

The lessees, of course, managed the road in a way to produce for them the greatest amount of net profit, and like tenants generally, became negligent in making the repairs provided for in the lease. They collected the tolls with the utmost rigor, but failed to renew the road with a covering of stone when the same was worn out, until the people along the line became so dissatisfied, that they demanded from the General Assembly a repair of the road by the lessees, or a forfeiture of the lease. This dissatisfaction resulted in an act passed March 30, 1868, withdrawing the road from the charge of the lessees and offering the care and management of it to the county commissioners of the counties respectively through which it passed; each county to have jurisdiction over that portion within its own limits.

The county commissioners of Wood and Sandusky counties, after consultation, declined to take charge of the road, because the lessees had permitted it to become so much out of repair. Much talk of suing the lessees by the State for

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY - 153

breach of the lease, then ensued; finally, the matter was adjusted by the lessees putting on about three thousand dollars in repairs and giving up the road to the charge of the State about June 1, 1870, and ever since the road has remained in charge of the board of public works of the State.

The following is the mention of some of the men of the county prominently instrumental in procuring the construction and maintenance of the road:

We have already mentioned the names of the settlers at Lower Sandusky, who, in 1821 and 1822 and '23 began to agitate the public mind on the subject of having the road constructed. Among these, Jeremiah Everett was conspicuous, for, although the acts of Congress of 1823, giving the State charge of the clearing and making the road, and the sale of land granted by the Indians for the purpose, and the act of the General Assembly of Ohio accepting the trust, had been passed by the concurrent efforts of Mr. Everett and other citizens of Lower Sandusky, Sandusky county did not have a representative at Columbus to represent there the local interests of the vicinity until the year 1825. In this year Jeremiah Everett was elected to the House of Representatives of the State, and took his seat as a member on the first Monday in December of that year. Important legislative acts were passed during that session, concerning the road and the sale of the road lands, and his exertions and influence were highly serviceable in hastening on the work. He was elected again in 1835, and did much to produce that public sentiment which finally impelled the State to appropriate money to repair and macadamize the road as provided by the act of 1838.

Rodolphus Dickinson, from the time the question was first agitated, was an ardent advocate for the improvement of the road. When, however, he was made a member of the board of public works in 1836, his influence became more potent on the public mind, and probably no one man did more to have the road improved, and to induce the State to appropriate money for the purpose in a season of great financial depression, than Mr. Dickinson.

McKnight, of Perrysburg, Wood county, was the first superintendent of the road, and commissioner, in 1824, to sell the road lands. He officiated until his death, which occurred January 1 1, 1831, by accidental shooting. Mr. McKnight travelled on the ice in 1820, from what is now Sandusky City to a place then called Orleans, afterwards called Fort Meigs, and now the town of Perrysburg, on the Maumee River. He was clerk of the court in Wood county, an active, well esteemed business man, and has descendants of much respectability now residing near Perrysburg.

John Bell, of Lower Sandusky, succeeded Mr. McKnight, who continued to sell the land until all was sold, and superintended the road under the direction of the State authorities, until the road was placed in charge of General Patterson, State engineer, about the last of the year 1838. General Bell, however, closed out the sale of the road lands, and made an acceptable report of his administration, settled his accounts with the State, and the office was discontinued some time in 1840.

THE ROAD TO FORT BALL.

Although the treaty of Brownstown, A. D. 1808, which provided for the construction of the Maumee and Western Reserve road, provided also for a road, or rather ceded to the United States a tract of land for a "road only," one hundred and twenty feet in width, to run southwardly from Lower Sandusky to the boundary line established by the treaty of Greenville, little attention seems to have been

154 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

paid to the construction of this road, either by the United States or the State of Ohio, for no legislation by either can be found upon searching the indexes of legislation of that time or since. But about the years 1827 and 1828, a road southward from Lower Sandusky was cleared through the woods, on a straight line from Wolf Creek south until it struck the bank of the river a few miles below Fort Ball, and then followed the river to Fort Ball, which was at that time an important post next south of Lower Sandusky. Previous to opening this road the traveled track meandered the river all the way between the two places. This old road, which was traversed by portions of General Harrison's army in the War of 1812, was not only crooked and greatly

increased the distance to Fort Ball, but crossed a deep ravine at Old Fort Seneca, the steep hills on either side of which were a terror to all teamsters who were compelled to travel that way. The new road was straight from Wolf Creek to a point above Fort Seneca, and was located so far west of it as to avoid the hills and shorten the distance materially. From the best information now to be had, it is believed that the expense of clearing out and improving this road was borne by the counties of Seneca and Sandusky. Whether this information be accurate or not, the fact remains that the opening of this road was the second and a very important improvement, in the way to and from the country south of Lower Sandusky, and greatly facilitated its trade.