400 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE shops of that road in this city. Various parts of the pioneer engine, "The Sandusky," were manufactured in the east and shipped to Sandusky to be put together. The work was successfully accomplished under the direction of Thomas Hogg, the master mechanic, who was at the throttle of the old machine when she clanged over the strap rails to Bellevue in 1835. Later, Mr. Catherman became the master, mechanic himself, and has a vivid recollection not only of the "Sandusky," but of the second engine used on the Mad River road, "The Erie." He claims that "The Sandusky" was both the first engine to be run west of the Allegheny mountains and first one in the world to be equipped with a steam whistle. A few months ago the still bright old gentleman was interviewed by the Sandusky Star-Journal, whose representative drew from him other information which has. real historical value. It seems that when Mr. Catherman was employed in the Mad River shops little side door cars, much resembling the present-day box cars, were used on all the steam roads. To General Overseer Gregg he suggested the idea of building a car with doors on the ends and reversable seats. The idea appealed to Gregg, and Catherman was instructed to "go ahead" ; and from the coaches which he then commenced to build in the Mad River railroad shops have developed the luxurious affairs of today. MODERN SANDUSKY. The present city of Sandusky, with its 30,000 people, is one of the most interesting places in the Western Reserve, whether considered historically, commercially, industrially or as a summer resort. It has been one of the chief outlets for the industries of the interior and an inlet for the varied commerce which for so many years has come over the waters of the Great Lakes. When the so-called Sandusky City road was even more important than -any thoroughfare which led from Cleveland into the interior, Sandusky was also the largest port on Lake Erie. It was early the most important terminal of many wagon roads, and later it became the terminus of the first two railroads built in the state of Ohio. The five lines of railroad which now connect Sandusky with other portions of the central west are the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis, Baltimore & Ohio, Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, Lake Erie & Western and Columbus, Sandusky & Hocking. At present, about forty regular trains arrive and depart from Sandusky every day, and in the summer season many special excursions are run to summer resorts and picturesque points along the lake shore. Pleasure steamers also run to Kelley's, Put-in-Bay, Bass and Pelee Islands, and other beautiful resorts. THE CONFEDERATE MONUMENT. Steam tugs will also take the pleasure seekers from Sandusky to Johnson's Island, north of the city, near the harbor entnance, where may be viewed the old Confederate cemetery in which are buried 206 soldiers of the Southern cause, many of whom took part in the famous conspiracy of Confedenate prisoners confined there during the Civil war. Through the agency of the Daughters of the Confederacy an imposing memorial monument (unveiled in June, 1910) now stands on the grounds. The statue, which faces the south, represents a Confederate soldier slightly bent forward with his right hand over his eyes as if peering into the distance. It was designed and executed by Sir Moses Ezekiel, in Rome, Italy. The idea of erecting a monument was conceived by the women of Robert Patton Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy of Cincinnati. They, in 1908, purchased the cemetery from the late James H. Emrich and Charles F. Dick, of Sandusky, who at close of the war acquired the island quarrying purposes. These women set about HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 401 to raise a fund, assisted by an advisory committee consisting of General Basil W. Duke, of Louisville, Kentucky ; General Marcus J. Wright, of Washington, District of Columbia; Genenal James I. Meets, of Wilmington, North Carolina; General K. M. Van Zandt, of Ft. Worth, Texas ; Colonel Joseph Bryan, of Richmond, Virginia ; Rev. J. William Jones, of Richmond, Virginia ; John T. Mack, of Sandusky, Ohio ; Colonel R. E. Park, of Atlanta, Georgia ; Captain J. T. Leathers, of Louisville, Kentucky, and T. C. Gordon, of Dyersburg, Tennessee. The nucleus of the desired fund was raised by popular subscription, taken in the south, and supplemented from time to time by substantial contributions from northerners. The monument was unveiled and dedicated June 8, 1910, with impressive ceremonies, in which panticipated Governor J. Harmon, of Ohio, and some of the chief executives of the southern states, as well as military characters connected with the former southern cause. KELLEY’S ISLAND Almost directly north of the harbor entrance is Kelley's Island, the original home of grape culture in the Sandusky region. In 1842 one Charles Carpenter, of Elyria, bought a small tract of the island and set out in it some Catawba and Isabella cuttings. He seemed to be the first in this locality to foresee the great future of grape culture, and in 1845 his vineyard had so prospered that thereafter he made its development the chief business of his life. Within a few years he had over an acre planted to well-bearing vines and he had begun the manufacture of. wine himself, his first output being two small casks. Others set out grape vines until now the whole island is almost one vineyard. On Kelley's Island are the noted wine cellars containing the largest cask in the world, with the exception of the Heidelberg giant in Germany. But scientists find Kelley's Island a place for study, since remarkable evidences of glacial Vol. VOL. I-26 action in the country are here. Illustrations of the deep and fantastic grooves made by glaciers, which bore down from the north, are here presented. PUT-IN-BAY. Northwest of Kelley's Island across a narrow channel is Put-in-Bay, where in early time history was made as well as wine. It would be unnecessary to tell few visitors to this point that it was the scene of the great Perry naval action of 1813. On the other hand, few are aware that the western line of the Western Reserve divides the waters of this little harbor. Put-in-Bay also has its Mammoth Cave, which is reached after a descent of sixty feet underground. A lofty cavern is then entered, where rests a crystal lake. Thence a circular tunnel 600 feet in length leads to a second huge cave, with its beautiful and weird formations of stalagmites and stalactites. Putin-Bay is now the home of the State Fish Hatchery. GIBRALTAR AND JAY COOKE'S HOME. Directly across the channel from Put-inBay is Gibraltar, which was the magnificent summer home of Jay Cooke. The house of Jay Cooke was built of native stone in 1889 and rose majestically from a rocky point of land. It is illustrative of the character of the great financier that this summer palace was not monopolized by his family and hosts of wealthy friends, but largely devoted to the comfort and rest of broken-down clergymen. Each year he invited eight or ten exhausted ministers to this beautiful place for rest and recreation. This is now the home of his son,' Rev. Henry E., an Episcopal priest, who has inherited his father's fine tastes and genial manner. Like the father, he loves to have his family about him, and loves to share his home with others. Until recently he was the rector of Christ church at Warren. He is at present doing special work for the diocese. Pelee Island, the northernmost and largest 402 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE of the group, .stretches from near the mouth of Sandusky bay two-thirds of the distance across the upper end of Lake Erie, and is also a favorite resort of Sandusky's pleasure seekers. Here are club and boat houses. Various interesting evidences of fossil life are found in its limestone deposits. Between Pelee and Put-in-Bay islands lie Bass and Catawba. SANDUSKY HARBOR AND CEDAR POINT. A railroad has been built along the water front of the city known as the Pier road which connects the business center and the docks. Sandusky harbor is picturesque and thoroughly improved for purposes of navigation and commerce. It embraces nearly forty-five square miles, and is almost land-locked. The most prominent peninsula at its entrance is Cedar Point, which is a stretch of wild land seven miles long, originally covered with thick timber and presenting some of the most beautiful natural beaches on Lake Erie. In 1882 B. F. Dwelle leased the Point from its owner and commenced to improve it. Subsequent improvements make it very attractive. In 1905 the management was incorporated as the Cedar Point Resort Company, with a capital of $1,000,000. Even more magnificent improvements are designed than have taken place. Although not wide, the opening of the harbor into Lake Erie is easily discernible by the mariner and from whatever direction the wind may come vessels are naturally protected. The channel for large vessels is eighteen feet in depth and is sufficient for the passage of almost any steam craft on the lakes. More than two miles of docks have been constructed on the water front of this naturally magnificent harbor, adding to its completeness as an agency in the building up of the vessel interests and the commerce of the Great Lakes at this point. The harbor improvements, commencing in 1840 with the building of the old light house, have continued, almost without interruption, ever since. From the East Battery, at the e treme end of the old city of Sandusky, to the western extremity of the present corporation there is scarcely a foot of water front that is not improved by a substantial wharf, while great warehouses for the storage of ore, lumber, coal and fish are almost numbenless. THE FISH BUSINESS. At least a dozen large steam vessels and a number of small sail boats are engaged in the fishery business. Although the business is not what it was thirty years ago, nine hundred men in Sandusky make their living through it and more than one and one-half million dollars is invested therein. It originated in 1853, being established by some Connecticut people who first set pound nets in Sandusky harbor, being convinced that white fish and herring could be caught as well at this locality as near Detroit. The fishing industry was at its height during the years from 1870 to 1885, the "star" catch of this period being 1,200 tons of herring in one day. About this time fishermen commenced to introduce the so-called gill nets, which they drew across the waters of the bay and lake, and as they gradually decreased the size of the meshes it was not many years before the natural supply showed signs of exhaustion. This reckless and almost criminal waste of natural wealth is in line with the wholesale destruction of forests throughout the United States, and in both cases more or less fruitless attempts have been made to conserve these natural sources of wealth which at one time seemed inexhaustible. As far as Sandusky is locally concerned, the result has been that the catch of fish at that point is today only about one-fourth of what it was twenty-five or thirty years ago. Countless other industries, however, of strictly manufacturing nature, have sprung up to take the place, are so varied and have increased to such enormous proportions, that the decline of the former has had little effect on the general prosperity of the city. HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 403 COAL, LUMBER AND IRON ORE. Sandusky is now perhaps the oldest shipping point for coal and ore on the Great Lakes. The bulk of its manufactures, however, is transported through its great system of railroads. According to the latest estimates, the value of these productions exceeds twenty millions of dollars annually. In this list of manufactures, wood leads in importance, both in the amount of capital invested and the number of men employed. During the open season of lake navigation Sandusky harbor is crowded with great vessels heavily laden with lumber from the forests of the northwest. From it is made office furniture, sashes, doors, blinds and various ornaments for the exterior of buildings. A large number of wood-workers in Sandusky are also engaged in the manufacture of casks, barrels and other packages reuired by brewers and wine merchants. The wine industry is considered by many almost as important as the manufacture of wood in its various forms. The luscious grapes which go into the city's score of wineries are raised to a great extent on the islands of the bay and in the vicinity of the city itself. It is so thoroughly a local industry that the traveler cannot but note that the smallest land owner in Sandusky or vicinity hardly ever fails to plant his little patch of grape vines and contribute his part to the great whole. The Schmidt Junior Brothers Wine Company commenced business in September, 1902, with a capital of $300,000. The Sweet Valley Wine Company, one of the oldest establishments of the kind in Sandusky, was formed in 1887 and has now a capital of $150,000. Among the other important wineries which have made Sandusky famous can also be mentioned those conducted by Engles & Krudwig, organized in 1894, and capitalized at $150,000, and the Hummel Wine Company, capitalized for $100,000. Two immense breweries at Sandusky are conducted by the Cleveland & Sandusky Brewing Company, which was organized in 1898. MISCELLANEOUS MANUFACTORIES. THE WINE INDUSTRY. Besides the industries mentioned, the manufacture of glass although new, has assumed importance, both in the production of window glass and bottles. Among the leaders in the industry is the Enterprise Glass Company, which was founded in 1907 and has a capital of $200,000. In Sandusky, as in other large cities, a number of concerns are devoted to the manufacture of motor cars and their parts, among these are mentioned the Ohio Motor Car Company, founded in 1897, and the Roberts Motor Company, established in 1907, as well as the Schultz Auto Works, which was founded at a still more recent date, and now employs S00 hands. Sandusky is headquarters for a large and growing industry in the manufacture of cement, the most recent enterprise in this line and the largest being conducted by the Lake Shore Portland Cement Company with a capital of one and one-half million dollars. This business was founded in 1909. The Castalia Portland Cement Company is also in active operation, the stock of this concern being held mostly in Pittsburg. The main factory of the American Crayon Company is located in Sandusky and represents one of the largest establishments of this kind in the country ; it is capitalized for $500,000. The manufacture of straw board and paper is a leading industry, and is chiefly represented by the Hinde & Dauch Paper Company. The Jarecki Chemical Company, which has been in business for nearly twenty years, is engaged in the manufacture of fertilizers from waste fish products. The workers in metals are less numerous than any other branch of industry, but their production is considered among the most important. The oldest plant identified with this line is that operated by the Sandusky. Tool Company, which was established in May, 1869. Tnere are also factories for the manufacture of 404 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE gas and gasoline engines, valves and other machine specialties, as well as general foundry and machine shops ; in short, there is scarcely a specialty in the line of manufactures which is not represented in the Sandusky establishments and its $20,000,000 output. SANDUSKY BANKS. The banks of Sandusky are of the substantial nature expected in a. city of its size and importance. The Third National Exchange is the oldest, and the strongest. It commenced business October 10, 1872, and is capitalized at $300,000. As Sandusky was one of the most patriotic cities on the great lakes, she eagerly took advantage of the National Bank act, one of the most important of the war measures for the maintenance of the Uuion cause. In reality, her First National Bank was the second institution of its kind in the United States to apply for a charter under the provisions of that act, its only predecessor being the First National, of Washington, which, of course, enjoyed the advantage of "being upon the ground." On account of the delay in making out and transmitting the necessary papers, however,) the charter of the Sandusky institution appears as No. 16 among the archives of the treasury department. The local pioneer was the Bank of Sandusky, a private house organized in 1834. In 1837 Augustus H. Truman and Horace O. Moss founded a bank, and conducted it for many years under the name of Moss Brothers. Their institution was really the predecessor of the First National. The Second National Bank of Sandusky received its charter in May, 1863.. The Third. National was organized in 1872, and upon the expiration of its charter in 1892, was succeeded by the Third National Exchange. The Citizens' National bank was founded in 1884, incorporated as the Citizens' Banking Company in 1898, and is capitalized at $100,000. The Commercial National bank, founded in 1902, has a capital of $150,000, and the American Banking Company (1904), $100,000. THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. Banks are a necessity to the conduct and progress of a city's business and industrial activities ; and the municipality of today places a vigorous and wide-awake Chamben of Commerce in the same class. The local organization was preceded for a few months by the Sandusky Business Men's Association, the Chamber of Commerce succeeding it in July, 1899. It would be far easier to tell what this representative body of men has not done for Sandusky, than to describe what it has accomplished for the industrial and civic good of he city, but the first list would be so short and the second so long. PRESS OR SANDUSKY. The most effective and persistent exploiters of Sandusky, are its papers the Register and Star-Journal. The Sandusky Register was founded in 1822 by David Campbell, a New England printer who had made . an ineffectual attempt to establish the Illuminator in the preceding year. He did, however, succeed in founding the Clarion, the first issue of which appeared April 22, 1822. This proved to be the father of the Register. Mr. Campbell continued the Clarion until 1844, when he ventured to put forth the Daily Sanduskian. Some years after it had become an acknowledeged journalistic success, he sold the paper to Earl Bill and Clark Waggoner. The former became widely known, in later years, particularly as clenk of the United States district court for the northern district of Ohio, while Mr. Waggoner acquired national fame as a journalist. He was editor of the Toledo Blade and Commercial. Bill & Waggoner were succeeded by Henry D. Cooke and H. D. Cooke & Company, who changed the name of the paper to the Commercial Register and continued its publication for twelve years. Then Mr. Cooke became editor of the Ohio HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 405 State Journal, while Mr.Waggoner served his editoral connection with the Register to 'commence his brilliant career on the Blade. Bill & Johnson were the next proprietors, assuming control in 1855, and the paper changed hands several times prior to 1869, when Isaac F. Mack bought a half interest in the business. In 187o he became sole proprietor and changed the name to The Register. His brother, John T. Mack, became a one-half owner in 1874, and for thirty-five years the Sandusky Register was published under the name of I. F. Mack & Brother. Mr. and Mrs. I. F. Mack and Mr. and Mrs. John. D. Mack are among Sandusky's most devoted. and influential citizens. On April 1, 1909, the business was incorporated as the Register Publishing Company, with a capital of $100,000 and the following officers : John T. Mack, president and manager; Mrs. John T. Mack, vice-president ; Egbert H. Mack, secretary, and John D. Mack, treasurer. In May, 1869, the .Register was changed from an evening to a morning paper, its Sunday edition first appearing in 1882. It has vigorously and ably supported Republicanism since the organization of the party. The Sandusky Journal was founded August 16, 1866, by Addison Kinney and Frank B. Colver, and in 1887 was consolidated with the Sandusky Local (established in 1882). The Star appeared in 1898, and in the following year the Alvord & Peters Company was established as a printing corporation. In 1900 the latter punchased the Star, into which the Journal was merged in 1904. Under the keen and energetic management of the Alvord & Peters Company the Star-Journal has been developed into a strong and prosperous publication. Ground has already been purchased for the erection of a large five-story building, to cost $50,000 and be occupied entirely by the newspaper and printing plant. The large German element of Sandusky is well represented by the Demokrat, which includes a weekly issue founded in 1856; and semi-weekly, first put forth in 1861. MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENTS. All of Sandusky's municipal departments are well organized and a credit to the city. Its service for fire protection dates back to 1830, when the town of five hundred people was divided into two districts and the bucket brigade composed the department. Its first hand engine came in 1835. But Sandusky had to be protected against the acts of its bad men before its fire department was born ; consequently it had a police marshal as early as 1825. Its modern system of water supply was inaugurated by the completion of the city works in 1879, at a cost of $375,000. Since that year the capacity of the works has kept pace with the increasing demands of the city. Its pure and adequate supply is drawn from Sandusky Bay, through an intake pipe 1,800 feet long. From the crib the water is pumped into a huge reservoir ; thence to a stand-pipe 180 feet high, from which it is forced into the city mains. SANDUSKY'S PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. The public school system of Sandusky includes a large High School, located on the south side of Washington park, which was erected in 1867, and the Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Eight, Ninth and Tenth ward schools. The first official records of the local system commence with 1838, when John F. Campbell, city superintendent, appointed Lucas S. Beecher, S. B. Caldwell and Moorse Farwell as school directors. The teaching appears, to have been conducted in different Protestant churches until 1844, when the city commenced to erect school buildings. The schools were first graded in 1848, during the administration of Superintendent NI. F. Cowdery. There are now (1910) nearly 3,000 pupils attending the Sandusky public schools, of whom more than 450 attend the high school. The enrollment of the high school is double what it was seven years ago, having increased much faster than the population of the city. German and Latin are taught but no other foreign lan- 406 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE guages. Formerly all the students took four years of science before graduating, but part of this is now optional in some courses. Laboratory and field work are emphasized, the school being very favorably located for both short and long excursions. On each long excursion the student's attention is directed to physiography or geology, as well as animals and plants. The museum is better than in most Ohio colleges, or perhaps any other Ohio high school. It includes all branches "of natural history. The foreign bird collection is the best in the state. Besides the use of it, made by the high school and occasionally classes from other schools, it is four times a year thrown open to the public (on Sunday afternoons) and many specimens displayed which, at other times, are stowed away in drawers and cupboards. EARLY SCHOOLS-TEACHERS' INSTITUTE. The first school teacher in Sandusky was Sallie Stimpson. In 1818 she taught in a log cabin which stood on Wayne street. A house was built the same year (1820), and standing on the ground where the Episcopal church is, was used as a school and a church. In 1828 a stone building was begun for an academy and for other purposes. It was not finished until 1834 and then only one room was done off. This was used by Miss Mills for her select school and by the Congregational Church. From 1838 to 1868 this building was used as a Court House. Schools were organized under state laws in 1838. The men who served as superintendents from 1843 were M. F. Cowdery, T. F. Hildreth, C. R. Dean, U. T. Curran, Alston Ellis, Henry &icon'', C. C. Miller, E. J. Shives and H. B. Williams. The first class to graduate was composed of four girls, Emma Bouton, Helen Norris, Sarah Root and Martha Root. The first teachers' institution on the Reserve was held at Sandusky in 1845. SANDUSKY BUSINESS COLLEGE. Although the Sandusky Business College is no part of the public system it has so fairly established itself as a general educator that mention of it is here made. As it was organized in 1865, it has long since passed beyond the experimental stage. THE PUBLIC LIBRARY. The Public Library of some 15,000 volumes is directly traced to the efforts of the women of Sandusky. They organized a library association in March, 1870, and conducted a reading room in the high school building until 1886. The Masonic Temple then provided them with quarters for a time. In the meantime they had formed a library building association, which was incorporated in 1896, and in 1901 with the assistance of Mn. Carnegie, they had the satisfaction of presenting to the public the fine blue limestone building which now stands as the Public Library. The Carnegie. Library of Sandusky is still managed by a board of women. They purchased the lots on which it is built and Mrs. J. O. Moss then president of the board obtained from Mr. Carnegie the money to erect the building. The present officers are as follows : President, Mrs. Mary F. Mack; treasurer, Miss Harriet West; secretary, Mrs. Emma M. Marshall, board members, Miss Alice D. Mack, Miss Jessie Wilcox, Mrs. Mary A. Cook, Mrs. Mary E. Buyer, Mrs. Susan Kelley, Mrs. Frances Latham, Mrs. Katherine M. Graefe and Mrs. Marie Schuck. PARKS-COURT HOUSE-CHURCHES. As already noted, Washington Park, which lies in the center of the city, as well as the public grounds on Huron and Miami avenues, were provided for by the original proprietors of the town. The present court house, which fronts Washington Park on the south, was built in 1872. Sandusky has also a number of cemeteries, the most beautiful of which, HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 407 Oakland, comprises 160 acres in Perkins township, south of the city. It was first platted in 1849-50. It requires but. a glance at the residence districts of Sandusky to realize that her people are church supporters. She has twenty or more religious organizations, of which the Evangelical churches number five (four German) ; Catholics, three ; Methodists three, and Baptists, two. The Methodists appear to have been the pioneer religionists of Sandusky, although until 1828 they met at the homes of the members. In that year they erected a one story wooden church fronting the present site of the court house, south side of Washington Park. The present Trinity M. E. church is large, vigorous and growing. The First Congregational church organized in May, 1819 ; was provided with its first settled pastor in 1836 and about the same time erected a small house of worship fronting north, on the public square. The society now occupies a beautiful church erected in 1895. Grace Episcopal church celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of its founding in 1910. This panish is about to erect a new building. The Baptists appear to have established their first regularly organized society in 1838. The Wayne Street Baptist church was formed in 1854 and the Zion Baptist (colored), in 1856. Among the Catholics, the Germans were the first to form a society in Sandusky. In 1843 members of this faith founded the Church of the Holy Angels, from which sprung St. Peter's and St. Paul's. The building which the latten church now occupies was erected in 1866. St. Mary's church was founded in 1855, and the corner-stone of the stately edifice now occupied was laid in 1873. Both of these Catholic churches established parochial schools early in their history. Within the past few years the old school buildings have been replaced with stately edifices which are ornaments to the city and impressive evidences of Catholic strength. In the early fifties the Germans of Sandusky organized several strong Protestant churches—St. Stephen's Evangelical, in 1852, and the First German Methodist in 1851. Zion's Evangelical Lutheran church is now one of the strongest in the city, its religious home, which was completed in 1898, being both stately and graceful. SECRET AND BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES. In the establishment of the secret and benevolent societies, the Masons came first. In June, 1818, was formed Science Lodge No. 50. Sandusky Chapter No. 72 was formed in 1856, Council No. 26 in 1857, and Erie Commandery No. 23 in 1869. The Masonic Temple of Sandusky is one of the most impressive blocks in the city. The first body of the Odd Fellows was Ogontz Lodge No. 66, organized in 1846, and Erie Encampment No. 27 followed in 1848. McMeen's Post, G. A. R., was organized March 18, 1880, and the first lodge of the Knights of Pythias (Reserve No. 128) in 1881. MISS FAY AND THE ORPHANS' HOME. Prior to 1857 dependent children of this vicinity and the county generally were obliged to find homes in alms houses. On that date Miss Fay took thirty-five orphans of soldiers in a home. Later she thought of asking the state to make the home a county institution. Attempts were made to accomplish this in 1864 and in 1865, while in 1866 it became a law. This law applied to all counties of the state, and other states have followed the example of Ohio. Bravo for Miss Fay ! ARTISTS OF SANDUSKY. Among Sandusky artists we find the names of John Jay Barber, Elizabeth Mourse, George Starr Elwell, Emma Matern Weaver, Charles C. Curran, Charles Francis Schuck, Wilder and Katherine Darling. 408 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE SOLDIERS AND SAILORS' HOME. The Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Home is located in Perkins township about a mile south of Sandusky. Its buildings and grounds cover more than ninty-two acres. Its first Board of Trustees was organized under legislative act in June, 1886, Isaac F. Mack being elected its president and R. B. Brown secretary. The State Commissioners appointed to locate the Home visited various points in Ohio, and on July 31 st of that year decided in favor of the site near Sandusky. As an inducement toward this decision, the city agreed to construct a large sewer from the ground to Augustine Inlet, an arm of Lake Erie, and also place the Home in connection with the Municipal Water System. They further agreed to extend the city gas mains to the home grounds, and place the institution in direct connection with Sandusky by the extension of its electric and street car lines. All of these promises have been kept to the letter. The ground was broken for the first building of the home (Cottage "A") in the fall of 1886. This structure and the Domestic and Administrative buildings, were the first completed. It should here be explained that the homes or dormitories of the inmates are designated by letter, only one being omitted from the alphabet—"J," which is too liable to be confused with "I." The Home was formally dedicated November 19, 1888, and by the last of 1889 cottages A to D, inclusive, and the Domestic and Administrative buildings were occupied. The other cottages up to O have been enected since that year. In 1889 they also finished a hospital—a well-built two-story stone building, which cost $30,000. In the following year what is known as the Annex was completed. Here the feeble minded live. In 1895, during McKinley's administration as governor of Ohio, the large modern structure, which is now the main hospital building, was completed. The three buildings mentioned are connected by covered ways, and, as they now stand, represent one of the most convenient and scientific hospitals of the kind in the country. Next to this group is a large library building containing a collection of well-selected books and magazines, while files of newspapers from each county in Ohio are at hand. In the second VIEW AT SOLDIERS' HOME, SANDUSKY.   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 409 story of this imposing two-story brown-stone structure is the G. A. R. Hall, where all the military societies of the .Home assemble. Between the hospital and the lakes, which adorn the eastern part of the grounds, is an imposing Assembly Hall, completed in 1891. It contains a tastefully furnished auditorium, seating between 600 and T00; is constructed of limestone with a red tile roof and is mainly devoted to the holding of religious services, Camp Fires and the presentation of plays and other entertainments for the amusement of the residents. The imposing array of cottages which stretches through the' grounds from east to west terminates at each end in what is known as the "Mack" and "Dill" cottages—the former named in honor of the first president of the board of trustees and the latter of the first penmanent secretary. These buildings are made of huge broken boulders with tile roofs, may be said to guard the opposite entrances to the grounds ; in fact, they were. originally intended for this very purpok and are now mainly occupied by the most reliable and dependable ex-soldiers. Each cottage, or dormitory, is under the command of a sergeant and corporal, whose duties are to see that the rules of the institution are obeyed and to report any violations to the commandant of the Home. Southwest of the grounds is cottage O, originally intended for a railway station and rest room, but at the present time used as a dormitory by the male help connected with the hospital ;, the nurses and other women employees occupy a building just east of the main hospital. The administrative building contains the living rooms of the commandant and his family, and on the second floor are the offices of the trustees, and other quarters necessay for the thorough conduct of the institution. Officers Row comprises several residences covering four acres and stretches along the northern portion of the main grounds. In this Quarter reside, with their families, the quartermaster, adjutant, chaplain, engineer, qua r termaster's clerk and chief cook. The, illustration accompanying this chapter gives a better idea of this attractive tract than any words can do. The commandant of the Home, Gen. W. R. Burnett, prior to his appointment to his present position in July, 1909, was a well-known public man of Springfield, Ohio. Quartermaster Captain Latham Holloway appointed in May, 1910, and was formerly a resident of Canton, Ohio, while Adjutant Captain J. D. Wheeler was appointed in 1902 from Cleveland, Ohio ; and Chaplain Rev. William H. Haines, who has held his present position since 1897, came from Marysville, Ohio. The veteran of the Home as to years of service, and the one whom everyone knows and admires for his ability and faithfulness, is Dr. J. T. Haynes, the surgeon of the institution. His official connection with the service commenced in 1889 as First Assistant Surgeon. At the time of his appointment, he was engaged in practice in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in August, 1891, was promoted to be Surgeon in Charge ; so that Dr. Haynes has seen the institution grow literally from the ground up, and in its development he himself has been an active and.strong force. He has taken especial pride in the construction and development of the hospitals. The plans for their construction, both interior and exterior, are his handiwork and head-work, and are so practical as to have been followed by several similar state institutions in the east and west. Dr. Haynes has not only been prominent at the Home as an official, but was married there, and the birth and rearing of his children have occured at the Home ; so that, both officially and personally, he is closely identified with that institution. JOHNSON'S ISLAND AND THE CONSPIRACY. A few years ago a weather-beaten blockhouse on Johnson's Island was burned to the ground; this was the last of the great Confederate prison. All else that is left of that time are the buried remains of 206 soldiers. Their 410 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE graves are arranged in eight rows, or sections and are silent but conclusive witnesses to the important part played by this prison in the fortunes of the Confederacy. Of the Confederates buried here, it is recorded that four held the rank of colonel in the Southern army ; one was lieutenant colonel ; thirty-six were captains ; one a major ; seventy-two lieutenants ; in fact, it is known that comparatively few of ,those who were buried here, or who left the prison on Johnson's Island alive, were privates in the Confederate army. The property was first leased by the general government as a depot for rebel prisoners in 1861, and the necessary buildings were completed for their reception in April of the following year. The first prisoners were guarded by Company A, Hoffman's Battallion, O. V. I., but as the number increased the force was strengthened and a full regiment, the one hundred and twenty-eighth, was placed on guard. This guard was changed of course and at one time the 171 O. V. I. was ordered there. This regiment enlisted for one hundred days and was composed of leading professional and business men and very young men of the best families of Trumbull county. Among two of the oldest officers of that regiment living to- day are Frank E. Hutchins, then a captain, now Assistant Attorney General of the United States at Washington., He is more than eighty years old and Ezra B. Taylor of Warren, who was at the time a private, later colonel and who is now eighty-seven. When the author was a child she used to tease her father to tell her of the life at Johnson's Island and she let her indignation run high at the thought that her father (wonderful in her eyes) had to walk back and forth in the rain at night hours at a time while "the Rebels" slept within. So at Johnson's Island Confederate gentlemen inside had their sorrows and Union gentlemen outside had their sorrows as did everybody who lived in those awful days. War and sorrow are Siamese twins. The largest number confined here was 3,000, but, as they w being constantly exchanged during the pro ress of the war, it is estimated that fully 15,000 different .prisoners were received during the entire period. It was owing to the location of Johnson's Island that the prisonens were largely composed of officers. The communication between the mainland and the island was quite free ; the citizens of Sandusky were constantly passing back and forth. Not a few. enduring friendships were formed between these men CONFEDERATE CEMETERY, JOHNSON 'S ISLAND. HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 411 of different training and beliefs. This comparatively unchecked intercommunication evidently encouraged the Confederates to hope for ultimate escape from their confinement. An attempt was made to carry out a plan that involved the release not only of the prisoners, but the burning of Sandusky, Cleveland and other lake cities, and the inauguration of a raid through Ohio in an attempt to join the rebel armies of the Virginias. It was one of a chain of conspiracies, which also involved Camp Douglas and Chicago ; the latter coming even nearer to success than that of Johnson's Island. Rumors of this intended release, which was to be effected by a combination of rebel sympathizers in Canada and the prisoners themselves, reached the ears of the Federal authorities, who in September, 1864, dispatched the United States steamer Michigan to the threatened scene of action near Sandusky. The progress of the conspiracy from this time on is well related by the old Lake Shore Magazine, as follows : “September 19, 1864, the steamer 'Philo Parsons,' plying between Detroit, Sandusky and the adjacent islands, was boarded at Sandwich, on the Canadian shore, by four men, and at Malden by twenty more, who brought an old trunk with them. No suspicions were aroused, as large numbers of fugitives were constantly traveling to and from Canada at that time. After leaving Kelley's Island, the clerk, who was in command of the boat, was suddenly confronted by four men with revolvers pointed at his head ; the old trunk was opened, the whole, party armed themselves, and, with Beall at their 'head, ,took possession of the boat. Her course was altered and turned back to the Middle Bass Island. Here the 'Island Queen,' a boat plying among the islands, came alongside ; she was immediately boarded, and, although her captain (G. W. Orr) made a determined resistance, she was soon at the mercy of the conspirators, together with a large number of passengers. The engineer of the Queen, refusing to do the bidding I his captors, was shot through the cheek. But no discourtesy was offered to any one of us beyond the absolute necessity of the case, the conspirators being largely educated men from the best families of the South. "An oath of secrecy for twenty-four hours was extorted from the passengers, and they were then put ashore, the captain of the Queen being retained as pilot, but he refused to act. The two steamers were then lashed together and put off toward Sandusky ; but after proceeding a few miles the Island Queen was scuttled and the Parsons continued alone. She did not enter, but cruised around the mouth of Sandusky bay, waiting for the signal from the conspirators on land. That part of the plot, however, had failed. "A Confederate. officer named Cole, to whom the operations at Sandusky had been entrusted, had, as a Titusville oil man, been figuring very largely in social circles ; a liberal entertainer, giving wine suppers and spending money very freely. He had formed the acquaintance of the officers of the `Michigan' and had invited them to a wine supper on the evening of September 19. The wine was drugged', and when the officers had succumbed to it, a signal was to notify Beall, who was then to make the attack on the Michigan. But Cole had performed his part of the plan in such a bungling manner that the suspicions of the officers were aroused and the commanding officer of the Michigan, Captain Carter, arrested him on suspicion, at the very moment when success seemed assured. "In the meanwhile Beall and his comrades waited outside the bay for the signal. When they realized the plot had failed, they made for, the Canadian shore, passing Middle Bass Island, where he had left the Island Queen and Parsons passengers, who saw the Parsons pass, with fire pouring out of her smokestacks and making for Detroit like a scared pickerel. The captain and others who had been kept to manage the Parsons, were put off on an uninhabited island, and when the Canadian shore was reached she was scuttled and the conspirators disbanded. "This daring venture excited great con- 412 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE sternation among the lake cities and served to call attention to their defenseless condition. "Beall was captured a few months later, near Suspension Bridge, charged with being a spy both in Ohio and New York ; also with an attempt to throw an express train from the track between Dunkirk and Buffalo. He confessed to much of the evidence brought against him; was found guilty and hung on Governor's Island, February 24, 1865. "Cole after being arrested managed to warn his accomplices in Sandusky, of whom he had a great number, and who, thus warned, escaped arrest. He himself was confined for some time on board the Michigan, afterward transferred to the island, then to Fort Lafayette, in September, 1865, and was released after the close of the war. "The treatment of the rebel prisoners on Johnson's Island was considerate even to the verge of indulgence ; their wants were said to have been better filled than those of the soldiers guarding them ; this was owing to their being supplied plentifully with money by their friends ; they were well fed, clothed and housed, and were allowed every privilege consistent with security." Johnson's Island, three miles north of Sandusky, comprises about 300 acres of land and is nearly one and a half miles in width, gradually rising from the shores of the bay toward the center of the island, where it reaches an altitude of about sixty or seventy feet. It was originally covered with heavy timber and is said not only to have been a favorite resort for the Indians in the fishing season, but also a place to which they brought their captives for torture. Its first white owner was E. W. Bull, and it was called Bull's Island until 1852, when it was purchased by L. B. Johnson and assumed its present name. INSCRIPTION ROCK, KELLEY'S ISLAND. There are undoubted evidences that Kelley's Island was a favorite resort of the aborigines, numerous proofs being found in the mounds, burial places and implements and, beyond all, in the famous Inscription Rock. The last named has been regarded by scholars as the work of the Eries not long aften their annihilation by the Iroquois in 1655. The rock lies on the south shore of the island and stands about a dozen feet above the water. Its upper surface is 32x21 feet and is smoothly polished by glacial action ; and upon this splendid tablet, prePared by nature, is inscribed the mysterious Aboriginal record composed entirely of rude pictures and symbolic figures. These inscriptions were first brought to the knowledge of the white man about the year 1834, and soon after the purchase of the island by the Kelley brothers, in 1851, they were copied by Colonel Eastman of the United States army, who was detailed by the government for that purpose. These copies were submitted to Shingvauk, an Indian learned in picturegraphy and antiquity, who interpreted them as the final chapter the history of the Erie nation, especially d scriptive of its downfall before the might o the Iroquois. From the quaint human figures, the pipes of peace, tomahawks, dignified war riors and chiefs, great canoes and snowsho and like things, this Indian seer translates the record as a narrative of warfare, negotiations, treaties, triumphs and defeats, which tell of the first occupation of this section of the country by the Eries ; later, the coming of the Wyandots ; the final triumph of the warlike Iroquois and the crushing forever of the once powerful Cat nation. WONDERFUL GLACIAL GROOVES. Reference has been made to the remarkable glacial grooves made by prehistorical glaciers, as well as the highly polished surfaces of limestone which are scattered all over the higher lands of northern Ohio, and in the western part of the state almost to the Ohio river. On these higher lands, which lie several hundred feet above Lake Erie, the glacial scratches are generally from south to southeast, indicating the general direction of the great ice movement HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 413 during the height of its power in northern United States. However, the direction of both scratches and the great furrows or grooves on Kelley's Island is mainly toward the southwest, which corresponds with the longest diameter of the lake; indicating that these were markings of a later glacial movement, which was chiefly confined to the beds of the Great Lakes. These grooves vary from several inches to two and three feet in depth, and run for many rods in one general direction, winding and twisting over many acres of hard limestone. Without doubt they represent the GREATEST GLACIAL GROOVE EVER UNCOVERED, KELLEY'S ISLAND. most remarkable evidences of glacial action in the United States, if not in the world. The illustration speaks of their wonderful force, and shows the greatest glacial groove ever uncovered in this locality. •For this illustrative matter the writer is indebted to Professor E. L, Moseley, of the Sandusky high school, who has perhaps the largest collection of photographs descriptive of this wonderful locality in existence. Geologists state that the entire group of islands originally formed a part of the mainland on the south, and of the low coast to the west, and that probably all the lake west of Pelee in the preglacial period was more land than water. In this entire region, wherever the rocks are laid bare, evidences of ice action are very marked. Even in Sandusky city itself many of the cellar bottoms, which rest upon limestone, show the characteristic scratches and polish. SETTLEMENT OF KELLEY'S ISLAND. Kelley's Island is a township of Erie county, a little more than four square miles in area and is thirteen miles from Sandusky. It was originally called Cunningham's Island, being thus named from a French settler and trapper who came thither in 1803. He was joined in 1810 by two companions, but the three deserted the locality during the war of 1812, when General Harrison placed a guardhouse upon the western point of the island. In 1818 a Mr. Killam located on Kelley's Island, with his family and one or two men. About this time Walk-in-theWater, a pioneer steamer on the Great Lakes, appeared at the port on Kelley's Island for the purpose of collecting fuel ; and Mr. Killam supplied her with a partial cargo of red cedar. 414 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE This was one of the earliest commercial transactions of the Sandusky region. In 1820. Walk-in-the-Water was wrecked at a point called Albino. Kelley's Island of the present, however, came into history in 1833, when the brothers Datus and Irad Kelley, respectively of Rockport and Cleveland, bought the island because of its rich forests of red cedar. At this time there were a few squatters there and only six acres of clear land. Datus Kelley moved his family thither in 1836, and made the island this home for thirty years, dying thereon in his seventy-eighth year. His early days were passed mainly in cutting and selling cedar timber and the opening up of several limestone quarries. Noticing that the wild grapes upon the island were remarkably thrifty, the idea that they .might be cultivated both as a,: profitable investment and as an inducement to bring other settlers, occurred to him, and in 1842 he therefore brought from his Rockport home a quantity of Catawba and Isabella vines and planted them, leaving their active culture to his sonsin-law, Charles Carpenter. The latter planted the first acre of grapes on Kelley's Island and so demonstrated the profitable nature of their cultivation that within a few years 1,000 acres, or nearly one-third of the entire area, was covered with vineyards. The product was first used in the simple form of fruit, but the manufacture of wine soon followed, and before Civil war times Kelley's Island was headquarters for some of the largest wine companies in northern Ohio. By 1880 the average crop of grapes had increased to 700 tons, all of which was manufactured into wine. The Kelley Island Wine Company was for many years the leader in this industry and its vats had a storage capacity of one-half million gallons. Mr. Carpenter was also an active promotor of the artificial propagation of fish, and was among the most prominent leaders in the movement which resulted in the establishment of the State Hatchery, which was located at the city of Sandusky in the early eighties, but was removed a few yea ago to Put-in-Bay. HURON. The town of Huron, having a population of 1,700 people, is fifty miles west of Cleveland and ten miles east of Sandusky. The exact date of the first settlement in Huron is uncertain, but tradition has it that a French trading post which was at the mouth of the Huron river in 1749, which was abandoned prior to the Revolutionary war. The beginning of the first permanent white settlement was in 1805, in which year John Fleming came to Huron and located on the east bank of the niver, about two miles south of its mouth." Mr. Fleming was a man of remarkable social ability, was highly respected and a member of the Catholic church. He was married in 1811 to a daughter of William Pollock, this being the first Christian marriage in Huron. Jabez Wright came. to Huron in 1809, and in the same year he and Almon Ruggles commenced the survey of Huron township, laying it off into sections and lots. Mr. Wright was elected justice of the peace, the first one in the township, and later became associate judge of common pleas court of Huron county, while Mr. Ruggles was elected to fill the same office. The early settlers built some very creditable houses from the heavy timbers of the fores The first practicing physician was Dr. Absolam Guthrie, who resided in the village from 1813 until 1817. S. S. Smith has the honor of being the first white person born in Huron. COMMERCE AND SHIPBUILDING. When once. fairly started, the population of Huron increased rapidly and for many years it was the most propsperous town along the lake. Large shipping interests were established and carried on ; for this was the outlet for the people living through the central portions of northern Ohio. Even back a distance of fifty to seventy-five miles, from 1820 to 1830, grain hauled to Huron and sold for HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 415 sixty-two cents per bushel was loaded on boats and shipped to Buffalo, thence, via the Erie canal, to New York city. Lumber and fish were also staple articles of exportation. The first boat built in Huron was in 1811, by Captain Reed, for Major Hiram Russell, and had a capacity of four tons. He built another in 1813 called Fair America, which was sold to the Bnitish government. The first steamer built in Huron was for Towar Jackson and Richard Colt in 1834, and was named the Delaware. A few of the steamboats built here and the amount of their tonnage are Sheldon Thompson, 242 tons (the first steamer to enter Chicago harbor) ; United States, 366 tons; Washington, 500 tons ; Columbus, 391 tolls; and Great Western, 780 tons. There were also eight government gunboats built here, and in Huron the first cabin ever put upon a lake vessel was built by Wickham & Walker, after they had made a trip to Pittsburg to view the plans of the Ohio river boats. The first newspaper published in Huron was called the Huron Commercial. Its first issue was January 13, 1837, and it was continued until 1842, when its plant was destroyed by fire. The Huron lighthouse is situated on the west pier; it is forty feet above the sea level, and thirty feet above the base. It has a fixed light that can be seen twelve and one-half miles. It was first built in 1835 and rebuilt in 1857. The Huron wagon bridge was built in 1876; before this the people used an old wooden bridge built on floats. The first railroad built in Huron was in 1853, and was called the Oxford Broad Gauge. The first public highway or street was on the east side of the river, and the leading thoroughfares of the town are now Main, Center and Williams streets. The town hall was built in 1876, costing $14,000. The first public school was taught by Alvin Coe, in the winter of 180 and 1811, and it is also claimed by some that hiss Tamer Ruggles (later, Mrs. Jabez Wright) was a teacher in 1815. A little later; William Chapman opened a school near his home on Center street. The substantial school now in use was erected in 1885, at a cost of $20,000 and accommodates 400 pupils. The Presbyterian church was formed in 1835 and the first house erected in 1853, while the Episcopalians, who formed a society in 1837, have been meeting in their own home since 1840. St. Peter's Catholic church is attached to the parish of Vermillion, the present building being erected in 1890, although members of the faith have been organized as a so ciety since about 1838. TRANSFER POINT FOR ORE AND COAL. Huron is evidently a place of considerable promise ; but its present standing in the world of trade and commerce largely depends upon the fact that it has been made a great transfer point for the ore of the Lake Superior region and the coal of the southern Ohio fields. The Wheeling & Lake Erie railway has been erecting its massive docks and slips with huge conveyors and dumps, on both sides of the harbor, for more than a quarter of a century. In 1880 the town voted the railroad company a bonus of $20,000 as an encouragement for the location of its great plant at this point. Work was commenced on the old, or north docks, in the spring of that year, and everything was in operation by 1883. In this section of the plant the hoists are still of the old cantilever style. The new, or southern docks, were only completed several years ago, and the hoisting, conveying and dumping machinery there installed is of the latest. The capacity of the dumps is from two to ten tons. In the busy season about twenty trains of coal, or 400 cars of twenty-five tons each, arrive daily at the railroad docks. The coal is transferred to waiting vessels, their huge cargoes of ore having been dumped into cars and shipped to the steel mills and foundries of Ohio, Pennsylvania and other eastern and southern points. With these advantages of a fine harbor, cheap rates of water and railroad transportation, and perfect facilities for handling both ore and coal, Huron 416 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE may herself become an important manufacturing center. Huron has two banks—the First National, founded in 1892, with a capital of $50,000, and a branch of the Berlin Heights Banking Company. The Erie County Reporter was founded in 1879 by its present editor and proprietor, D. H. Clock, and Huron has no better or more earnest friend. VERMILLION. Situated at the mouth of the Vermillion river on Lake Erie, nearly midway between Sandusky and Lorain, the village of Vermillion contains about 1,500 people, and its present importance rests chiefly upon its fishing industry. It was among the first localities settled in Erie county, and during the early days promised to be one of the Great Lake ports. During the era of sailing vessels, shipbuilding was also carried on extensively at Vermillion, but since the age of railroads the importance of the village has steadily declined. It still does a good business in the fishing line and H. B. Kishman is one of the most prominent fish dealers. Among its manufactories are a brass foundry, flour mill and a large lumbet yard. The village has a good pumping station, the water being purified by means of natural filtration through sand. Vermillion is classed among summer resorts. Vermillion Park affords amusement and recreation, while Linwood is largely given up to religious gatherings. The first white settlers, who were so courageous as to take up their abode in Vermillion, were William Hoddy and Almon Ruggles, came in 1808, and were followed the next year by William Austin, George and John Sherod, Enoch Smith and Horatio Perry, while in 180 came Solomon Parsons, Benjamin Brooks, Barlow Sturgis, Deacon John Beardsley and James and Peter Cuddeback. These sturdy ancestors came mostly from New England, driving across the wilderness with their teams and being compelled, many times, to cut their way through the forest and guard their families both day and night. The first house ever built in Venmillion was erected at the mouth of Vermillion river by. William Hoddy in 1808, and the second by William Austin near by in 1809. These were log huts. The first frame house was built by Peter Cuddeback in 1818. William Austin was a progressive man and replaced his log but by a stone house in 1821. Horatio Perry built the first brick house in the same year. A log school house was erected in 1817, near the home of Captain Harris, and that gentleman taught the. first school during the winter of 1817 and 1818. During the next winter Benjamin Summers taught the school and this year a new house was built. At this time the school district embraced the whole southeast corner of the township, and the average attendance was from twenty-five to thinty. The school was supported by subscription, and money was so scarce that the teacher was usually paid in grain, whiskey or work, as was true of most places on the Reserve. Time went on, stores were erected, a traffic with the Indians was carried on, and, as the population of the surrounding country increased, business was given an impetus; shipbuilding was next engaged in, and Vermillion came to be a prosperous town. It was incorporated in 1837, and is governed by a mayor and a council of six members. The town has a modern grammar and high school building, erected at a cost of $10,000; a pumping station and pure filtened water; two Well conducted banks, the Erie County and Bank of Vermillion, and six churches as follows : the Congregational, Methodist, German Methodist, Reform, Church of Christ and Catholic. Vermillion has. but recently organized a Chamber of Commerce, and since 1897 has had a newspaper, the Vermillion News. Both of these mediums, especially the latter, have done much to advertise the good points and promote the interests of the village. HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 417 ALMON RUGGLES AND RUGGLES BEACH. For several miles west of the village of Vermillion there are a number of delightful summer resorts known as beaches, which are largely patronized by the people of Norwalk and Sandusky. A short distance from the village of Berlin Heights is what is now known as the Ruggles Beach (formerly Metowanga). Here are found pretty cottages, a pavilion for public gatherings, bowling alleys and various ALMON RUGGLES HOUSE (1813), RUGGLES BEACH. other accommodations and attractions. The proprietor of the resort, or beach, is Charles Ruggles—a grandson of Almon—the original surveyor of the Firelands. Across the electric road from the grounds stand a number of comfortable looking, old-fashioned wooden residences, one of which was completed by this pioneer of the Western Vol. I-27 Reserve soon after Perry's famous battle on Lake Erie in September, 1813. In an adjoining house resides both the daughter-in-law and the granddaughter of Almon Ruggles, and the former well remembers her father's tale in connection with the putting in of the foundation of this historical structure. She states he often told her that when he was hauling the logs to go into this foundation he heard the boom of cannon over the waters of Lake Erie far to the northwest. At the time, of course, he attached little significance to it,- but when news of Perry's famous victory reached him, shortly afterward, he realized that he had been a distant witness to one of the greatest events in American naval history. A picture of the Ruggles residence, which followed the first log cabin erected in this locality, is presented in other pages. Ruggles Beach embraces but a very small portion of the great tract of land originally held by this pioneer settler. In addition to his salary as surveyor of the Firelands, Almon Ruggles was permitted to select a tract of land one mile square, anywhere on the lake shore within the limits of his survey, for which he was to pay one dollar per acre ; and he selected his land in the township of Berlin, his section including the property already described. He located his home in this locality and, although the owner of this immense tract, which in time became quite valuable, he was a man of such generosity that he failed to realize, financially, from his investment. He not only assisted his neighbors, but gave largely to charity and all public movements. From 1818 to 1819 he was a member of the state senate, which then comprised the counties of Ashtabula, Geauga, Portage, Cuyahoga and Huron. Under the old constitution, he was also associate judge for several years. In politics he was an earnest Whig and a personal and valued friend of General Harrison. He died at his home in Berlin township in 1840, being then sixty-nine years of age. His living grandchildren, who are now well along, in middle life, are Charles and Frances Ruggles, residing at 418 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE Ruggles Beach, and Mrs. S. L. Hill, of Berlin Heights. BERLIN HEIGHTS. This is a village of about 700 inhabitants on the line of the New York, St. Louis & Chicago railroad, and is the largest of the villages in Berlin township. Although the place lies in the center of a rich farming country, one which is especially adapted to the raising of fruit, its growth has been slow. Some of the earliest orchards in Erie county were planted by its pioneers. One John Hoak, of Huron, who, in 1812, brought a number of apple and pear trees from Canada, planted them near Berlin Heights, and some of the old-timers insist that a number of these veterans are still standing and bearing. They point to one pear tree seventy feet in height, with a girth of nearly nine feet, and an apple tree which measures more than that distance around. Berlin Heights, however, was advertised most thoroughly between the fifties and sixties, as the headquarters of a number of socialistic communities. They started various publications at Berlin Heights which were especially devoted to the promulgation of the so-called free love doctrines. The Age of Freedom, which was issued in 1858, became so outspoken and so obnoxious to the respectable people of the community that twenty Berlin Heights women seized the mail sack containing one of its issues and made a bonfire of them both. Public sentiment continued to become so strong against them that the last of these communities, known as the Christian Republic, disappeared in 1866. Berlin Heights, as its name would indicate, Occupies an elevated and picturesque site on the border between the highlands of northern Ohio and the lowlands of the lake region ; in fact, the limits of the village toward the north correspond to the quite distinct division between these physical features of the state. The illustration presented in this article shows the actual appearance of one of those picturesque localities where the "heights" and the lowland come together. As a civic, social and religious community, Berlin Heights has two flourishing churches, the Methodist and the Congregational. It maintains three societies—the Masons, Knights of Pythias and the I. O. O. F.—and has a modern Union school, which is well attended and conducted. Its industries and business activities comprise a saw mill, a feed mill and an establishment devoted to the handling of lime, plas and cement. It has two banks—the Berlin Heights Banking Company, capitalized at $60,000 and formed in 1883, and the Citizens, capitalized for $35,000 and established in 1904 The local publication, known as 'the Saturday Budget, was established in 1899. MILAN. The town of Milan, twelve miles southeast of Sandusky and about eight miles from Lake Erie, is on the Sandusky, Milan & Norwalk and the Wheeling & Lake Erie railroads, and is a peaceful place of some 1,100 people. The town was laid out in 1816 ; was an early competitor for the county seat of old Huron county, and in the forties and fifties was promising canal town and shipbuilding center, But it ignored the "pretensions" of the railroads too long for its well being. Milan stands on the site of an old Indian village, which, at the time of the survey of the Firelands, was a Moravian mission, established in 1804. The Indians called their village Petquotting, while the few whites connected with missionary work christened it New Salem, The Moravian mission endured for a short time. In 1808 the land in Milan township was brought into the open market, and in the summer of 1809 David Abbott, an eccentric New York lawyer who came to Ohio several years before it was a state, bought 1,800 acres of land lying on both sides of the Huron river and including the future site of Milan. He is considered its pioneer permanent settler, and HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE- 419 most of the first new-comers bought their land of him. Mr. Abbott died at Milan in 1822. The progress of the settlement, which at first was rapid, almost came to a. standstill from 1812 to 1816, as .a result of the war with Great Britain. During the progress of active hos- tilities several men, having wandered too far from the block house which stood at the southwestern corner of the township, were murdered and scalped by the Indians. Milan was laid out by Ebenezer Merry, a Connecticut man, who had been among the few to arrive between 1812 and 1816. He died OLD CANAL BASIN, MILAN. in 1846, having represented the county in the legislature and twice declined a seat on the bench. A large brick 'building was erected in 1832 for the accommodation Of the Milan Academy, then attended by some 150 students and widely known in northern Ohio. The Western Reserve Normal school was also formerly located at Milan. The town generally known as Milan includes quite a population not strictly within the corporate limits, called East Milan and North Milan. Its present-day industries consist of the Lake Shore Electric paint shops, the Steeple mill and Herb brewery. It has a good Union school, and churches representing Catholics, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Methodists. The most attractive religious edifice of the place is the church of the First Presbyterian Society, built and presented by J. C. Lockwood in 1887. The large town hall was erected in 1876, and the square upon which it fronts is adorned by a neat soldiers' monument, dedicated July 4, 1867, to the memory of victims of the Civil war belonging to the following organizations Company E, Seventh Regiment ; Company E, One Hundred and Seventy-ninth Regiment ; Company B, Third Regiment, O. V. G. ; Company G, Fifty-fifth O. V. I. ; Company K, Sixty-seventh; Company C, Fifty-fifth, and Company B, One Hundred and First. ONCE A SHIP-BUILDING PORT. In 1853 an incorporated body of public-spirited citizens commenced the prosecution of the work designed to improve the navigation of Huron river and excavate a ship canal of three miles to Lake Erie. After much delay and an expenditure of $75,000, the work was completed, and on July 4, 1839, the first vessel 420 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE from the lake to Milan floated in the basin of the town harbor. This was the commencement of her commercial and ship-building prosperity of some two decades ; but that is now ancient history, with no ruins, even, to indicate the extent of her past activities. BIRTH-HOUSE OF EDISON. For one pre-eminent reason, however, the town of Milan is quite an American Mecca ; it is the birthplace of Thomas A. Edison. The house in which he opened his keen eyes stands on the border of a picturesque valley, and is a little one-story red brick building. The very THOMAS A. EDISON AT HIS BIRTHPLACE, MILAN. (Mr. Edison, with sister, opposite door.) room in which he was born is in the rear of the house, and represents a cube of ten feet. The property was owned for many years by Mr. Edison's sister, Mrs. Page, who died some years ago and left it to her daughter, of whom it was purchased by the great inventor. Its care-takers are now Mr. Edison's old uncle and aunt, who show pardonable pride over the achievements of "Tom," while showing the visitor the little room which was not "big enough to hold the boy long." In the reproduction of the house, Mr. Edison and Mrs. Page are shown together, other members of the party being family friends and neighbors. The occasion of this visit to his birthplace was the death of his old father, who lived in Milan for many years, as have his other relatives mentioned. CASTALIA AND VENICE. About five miles West of Sandusky are two small settlements on Cold creek—Venice near its mouth and Castalia, at its head—which turned out the first flour and cornmeal for the pioneers of the Firelands. They were among the pioneers of this industry in the whole of Ohio, and Venice supplied the city of Chicago (Ill.) with the first flour manufactured by mills west of the Alleghenies. Castalia was named from the sacred fountain of Greece, as Cold creek at this point is fed by a number of clear subterranean springs. Before it empties into Sandusky bay, three miles distant, it descends about sixty feet and supplies power for several mills. In 1810 a grist mill was erected at Castalia, which ground corn until the settlers were driven away by the news of Hull's surrender. Although the water of the creek is very cold, it never freezes and maintains nearly the same temperature summer and winter. The village of Castalia was laid out in 1836 by Marshall Burton. HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 421 Venice was founded in the summer of 1817, its mill race being begun soon afterward. It is said that the flour mills at that point, which were completed in 1833, established the first .permanent market for wheat in the Firelands. The first hundred barrels sent out of Ohio went to New York, where they were exhibited as a great curiosity and an index of the feeble and rather amusing industrial efforts of the west. But much of the flour made in Venice, as in other sections of Ohio, previous to 1840„. was shipped to western points. In 1836 Oliver Newberry, of Chicago, purchased 500 barrels of flour, largely obtained from the Venice mills, and took the precious food-stuff to the struggling, hungry little frontier village at the foot of Lake Michigan. He bought at $8 per barrel and sold at $20; but his townsmen held a public meeting and thanked him for not charging $50. Chicago was rapidly growing, food was scarce owing to the unsettled condition of the surrounding country; and the Newberry supply represented the town's entire stock for the winter. Before the establishment of the Venice mills and others in the Firelands, many of the early settlers took their wheat in boats to Detroit and there had it ground. MRS. HARRIET G. SPRAGUE, FLORENCE. One of the early settlers of Florence was Harriet Griswold Sprague. She was the daughter of Solomon Griswold, of whom much is related in the Ashtabula county chapter. When Harriet landed at the mouth of the Huron river she had a cow with her, which she had brought that her baby might have food. It was not long before a bear attacked this animal in a clearing and tore off her bag. This family like all others, had a hard time getting flour, and Mrs. Sprague said when they became reduced as to supply she grated it. She said when her husband, out of kindness, did the grating, they usually had a scant meal. CHAPTER XXVI. HURON COUNTY. As a detailed account of the creation of New Connecticut, or the Western Reserve, as well as the set-off of the half million acres of land from the western portion of that domain, has been given in the general history of this work, it is not necessary to go further into details at this stage of the narrative. It is in order, however, to simply. remind the reader that in 1792 the state of Connecticut set aside this portion of the Reserve for the benefit of the citizens of New London, Norwalk and Danville, Connecticut, whose homes had been burned and devastated by the British during the Revolutionary war. These were known as the "Sufferers' " lands or the Firelands, and embraced the present counties of Huron and Erie, exclusive of Kelley's Island, and included the township of Danville, Ottawa county, and Ruggles, Ashland county. In 1803 a new charter was granted to the owners of the Fire-lands by the newly created state of Ohio, and a board of directors was chosen, with authority to extinguish the Indian title and survey the property into towships. HURON COUNTY COURT HOUSE AND SHERIFF'S RESIDENCE. In 1805 the title of the Red Men was extinguished by the treaty consummated at Fort Industry, and in 1807, February 7, Huron county was organized. It comprised at that time an arcompnisedly greater than that of the Firelands, but a little later this territory was - 422 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 423 reduced to correspond to their area. It was not until 1838 that the county was reduced to its present dimensions and named for a tribe of Indians which held dominion over a large portion of northern United States and southern Canada. As it now stands it is bounded on the north by Erie ; east, by Lorain. and Ashland south, by Ashland and the forty-first parallel of latitude; west, by the western boundary of the Reserve' and contains nineteen townships. SURVEY OF THE FIRELANDS. Taylor Sherman, grandfather of Hon. John Sherman and General William T. Sherman, was the general agent of the Firelands Company in 1805. At that date he contracted with John McLean and James Clark, of Danbury, Connecticut, for the survey of those lands. He stated that such work must be done "by Almon Ruggles or some other competent person." The half million acres was divided, as was the eastern portion of the Reserve, into townships five miles square. The contract provided that the work must be. completed within a year, unless the Indians retarded it and provided congress ratified the treaty made at Fort Industry. The treaty was ratified, the Indians did not interfere, but the work was so much more difficult and complicated than had been anticipated that the date set for completion was extended to June 1, 1807. THE RUGGLES SURVEYS. The first surveyors were not as diligent as they might have been. Their manner of work was rather fitful, but in the spring of 1806 Mr. Ruggles joined a small field party at Pittsburg and proceeded to Cleveland, a hamlet of less than half a dozen families. Here the party made a canoe from the trunk of a tree, eight feet in diamter, and Ruggles with a party of the men surveyed the shore lines of Lake Erie, while James Clark was in charge of the land work. When the west line of the Firelands, which ran parallel with the western boundary of Pennsylvania was completed, the party was reunited at Huron. The islands in Lake Erie, which are now chiefly attached to Erie county; were surveyed also at this time and the party reassembling at Cleveland prepared to run the east line, thus completing the boundaries of the half million acres. When all the limits of the survey had been fixed, and Ruggles and his men had returned to Danbury, after an absence of thirteen months, it was discovered that by some miscalculation the western line of the Firelands had been fixed two miles . too far to the west. This error made a resurvey of that boundary necessary. Maxfield Ludlow, a deputy surveyor of the United States, rectified this mistake and also surveyed the south line of the Firelands, setting a post at each mile along his route. Ruggles then resurveyed the line of the Firelands, commencing his work June 8, 1808, afterward returning to his home in Danbury, Connecticut, but in the spring of 1809 resuming his work. He surveyed into lots the townships of Vermillion, Florence, Wakeman and Clarksfield, and surveyed into sections the townships of New Haven, Norwalk and Berlin. For his work, which was completed in the following summer, he received three dollars per mile. He was an excellent workman and subsequent calculations show that the Firelands, as finally surveyed, contain precisely 500,027 acres. Mr. Ruggles not long afterward settled in Berlin township, Erie county, where he purchased a section of land and established a homestead. In this locality his daughter-in-law and his grandchildren still reside ; the former a venerable, but energetic lady, and the latter, well advanced in middle age. A more detailed narrative of his residence in this locality, as well as an illustration of his second residence which he erected during the progress of the battle of Lake Erie, will be found in the history of Erie county, in which it properly belongs. Several maps of the Firelands, as surveyed by Mr. Ruggles, were placed on record, but one of the oldest and certainly the most authentic is deposited in the valuable museum 424 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE of the Firelands Historical Society, at Norwalk.. Through the courtesy of this association and its president, Hon. C. H. Gallup, we are able to reproduce the accompanying map, which was made in 1818. This was the year When the county seat was moved from the locality near the present village of Milan, Erie county, to the village of Norwalk, Huron county. Rare and interesting as it is, this map of the Firelands has never before been published. (Engraved by A. Doolittle in 1818.) RUGGLES MAP OF THE FIRELANDS. SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWNSHIPS. A logical introduction to the organization of Huron, county includes the dates of settlement of the various townships embraced in the Firelands, which were originally marked off by Almon Ruggles. The years in which they were first settled are as follows : Huron, 1805 ; Vermillion, 1808; Danbury, Portland, Groton and Florence, 1809 ; Berlin, Milan, Margaretta Oxford, Norwalk, Greenfield and Perkin 180 ; New Haven, Lyme, Townsend, Ridgefield and Sherman, 1811 ; Bronson, New London and Peru, 1815 ; Fairfield, 1816; Norwich, Wakeman, Clarksfield, Greenwich, Hartland and Fitchville, 1817 ; Ruggles, 1823; and Richmond and Ripley, 1825. The war of 1812 put almost complete cessation to immigration to the Firelands for a number of years, but several causes combined to revive the movement westward in the year 1817. In that year New England evinced not only a new business and manufacturing prosperity, but the shortness and coolness of the summers induced many families to migrate to the new western country, whose climate was reported to be warmer and decidedly healthful. Hundreds of people afflicted with tuberculosis recovered after taking up homes on the Reserve. Then it was supposed that the climate worked this cure, while now we know that the outdoor life, the lack of infection, really were the causes of recovery. In the spring of 1816 settlers came in great numbers and continued so to do throughout 1817. The popular sections were the interior townships' of Huron, and so large was the number of emigrants that for business reasons the county seat was moved south and the newly laid out village of Norwalk was chosen. Here the county seat has remained both for old Hunon and new. COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS. Huron county under its present name, but not with its present territorial limits, was organized in 1815. As stated, it then included what is now Huron and Erie. The first session of the county commissioners was held August 1st, of that year, at the house of DaVid Abbott, a farmer whose place was a short distance north of the present village of Milan, Erie county. Officially, the county seat was known as Avery, and was situated in Wheatborough township. The original county commissioners were Caleb Palmer, Charles Parker HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 425 and Eli S. Barnum, and the first county clerk, Abijah Comstock. FOUNDING OF NORWALK. For a number of years after the organization of Huron county, Norwalk and Milan remined the chief centers of historical interest. As the special field of this investigation is the present Huron county, however, attention is called to the former city. THE OLD PIONEERS OF HURON COUNTY. Meeting of Firelands Historical Society, held at home of Martin Kellogg, Bronson, to celebrate his one hundredth birthday, September 21, 1886. The solid founding of Norwalk by Elisha Whittlesey, Platt Benedict, and other lesser lights is thus described by President Gallup in his valuable paper "One Century of Norwalk." In 1815 two Connecticut Yankees came on to attend court at Avery, and that is a place now where there is no habitation or sign of life except a hill and grass and trees. There are no buildings where the county seat was in those days. Incorrectly, it has been called Wheatsboro. That was a mistake. Avery was the township now known as Milan. Now these Connecticut Yankees came on there and thought they saw an opportunity. They had traveled through here land hunting and had seen the Sand Ridge. They had fallen in love with it. They got their beads together and said, 'Well now, we will make a land speculation. We will take the county seat away from here and up to the Sand Ridge. Elisha Whittlesey, Platt Benedict, Frederic Fallig, three of them, entered into a written agreement to that effect. They sent Platt Benedict on to Connecticut on horseback. He rode eleven days, and the land that Norwalk was built on was bought for about $2.15 an acre. They got an act through the legislature for the appointment of a commission to locate the county seat. Huron embraced Huron and Erie then. I don't know what manipulation took place, but they got the report of the committee. 426 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE COUNTY SEAT MUDDLE SETTLED. "The act authorizing- the change of the county seat required that they should indem-nify the owners of property at Avery for any damage they might suffer by their removal of the county seat. Elisha Whittlesey gave a bond to, indemnify those people for all losses -they might suffer, as might be determined by a commission. The Commission was ap-pointed, and acted. They awarded damages amounting to about $3,440. Elisha Whittlesey gave a bond to make that good. Mr. Whittle- THE OLD HURON COUNTY JAIL, ERECTED 1819. sey, in behalf of the four parties (Fallig having surrendered his interest to E. Moss White and Mathew B. Whittlesey) who purchased the property here, took title in his own, name as trustee for himself and the rest. He said to a certain number of the people of Norwalk, If you will take off from my shoulders the re-sponsibility of my bond to those, Avery people, I will surrender my interest in the town plat of Norwalk,and five men stepped up and assumed that liability. I want to give their names : David Underhill, Peter Tice, Levi Cole, Platt Benedict and Daniel Tilden. They obligated themselves in the sum of eight thousand dollars to make good any damage that might occur. "For five men, to assume an obligation of eight thousand dollars away back there in 1815 or '16 was equal to men of today assuming hundreds of thousands of dollars. They were poor people ; men who had come to hew out a home in the wilderness. They took their courage in their hands and signed the bond. That is the kind of spirit that builds towns That is the kind of spirit, built up at that time, that has never died from that day to this in Norwalk. PLATT BENEDICT AND FAMILY. "In 1817 Platt Benedict came on with his family, .and with him the family of Luke Keeler. They were the joint settlers of the city HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 427 of Norwalk. The city hasn't reached its century mark yet. We are celebrating the Norwalk township centennial. These two families came, one settling just east of the Court House, the other building, his home way out east of the sand ridge ; so: that Platt Benedict was really the first settler of the city of Norwalk. FIRST CHURCH ORGANIZED. "When a few families had become settled here, they bethought themselves of the institutions of their old home. They wanted schools ; they wanted churches. A few of them gathered themselves together and organized a church, and this is the paper that records that organization. It is a quaint old paper and I am going to read you a little from it. "NORWALK, "HURON COUNTY, OHIO January 20, 1821. "At a meeting of a number of persons residing in this vicinity, Platt Benedict was elected clerk of the meeting, and the following gentlemen enrolled themselves as members or friends of the Protestant Episcopal, Church of the United States of America :Platt Benedict, John Keeler, Luke Keeler, John Boalt, Amos Woodward; Samuel Sparrow, William Gardiner, Asa Sanford, Ami Keeler, Henry Hulbert, William Woodward, E: Lane, Gurdon Woodward, William Gallup, Ezra Sprague, D. Gibbs; Enos Gilbert and Moses Sowers. "Those men associated thernselves together to organize their church. They did organize it and soon afterward had their first baptism. Here is the record of that: 'On Sunday, January 21, 1821, the ordinance of baptism was administered to the following persons by the Rev. Roger Searles : Louise Williams, aged three years ; Theodore Williams, aged one year, children of James Williams. Sponsors James Williams, E. Lane. William Gallup, one year: Sponsors, William Gallup, Sarah Gallup. Ebenezer Shaw Lane, one year. sponsors, E. Lane, Frances Ann Lane, James Williams.' "This is the record of the first old church that was started here for the benefit of those settlers who had come in and who were living here, with the woods all around them. Now and then the nights were made hideous by the drunken revels of the Indians who came in and got the white man's fire-water, and they were always apprehensive of the results of those drunken revels. They were living in log houses ; their windows were not glass. Theirs was the spirit that builds towns. They came in here with the intention of building a town and a home, but they did not forsee what was to take place. A PAPER MILL IN 1831. "They had to have, paper. How were they going to get it ? They had to have flour and things of that kind. When they first came here, they had to carry their grain way to the Black river on horseback. They had to .carry it in bags and bring it back on horseback. They started a mill here. Henry Buckingham, Platt Benedict and a few others started a paper mill and grist mill. I want to tell you what they said about it way back in that day. Platt Benedict, in writing to Elisha Whittlesey, under date of August 25, 1832, said to him : 'I have taken possession of the Henry farm and am improving it ; have been offered twelve dollars an acre cash in hand which I refused ; and the steam mill which was thought so foolish and visionary is the sole cause. The mill does a good business, making seventy to eighty reams and grinding about .a thousand bushels of corn a week.' That paper mill was started in 1831, and run by an engine built here by Daniel Watrous, our pioneer machinist. "This little book is a pioneer book. It was given to the Firelands Historical Society April 6, 1859, by Hon. Frederick Wickham, the father of Judge Wickham, and long editor of the Norwalk Reflector. This is a rare publication. I don't know of another copy in existence. It is the 'Ohio and Michigan Register and Immigrant's Guide.' This was published HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 429 by J. W. Scott, Florence, Huron county, Ohio, in 1832. The spirit of commerce was abroad in the land in those days. I want to refer you to these two ads : "'Norwalk Manufacturing Co., paper makers,' etc. "'Printed by S, Preston & Co., Norwalk, Huron county, Ohio. The whole thing is a product of Norwalk, way back there in 1832. (From a melanotype of 1850.) PLATT BENEDICT, AGED 75 YEARS. "We can't make paper here today. But we have the physical record of that old paper mill. A mile or so up Norwalk creak they built a dam, and from that dam they ran a mill-race all the way, down to town to the mill. That stood over on the slope of Woodlawn avenue, on the west side of that avenue, about thirty or forty rods south from Main street. They ran the water down into a well which they built. I filled that well up myself about twenty-five years ago. There are parts of the old race still to be seen, showing the enterprise of those days. About half way down from the dam to the paper mill a saw mill is yet plainly in evidence just south of East Elm street bridge. That spirit of enterprise has always remained here. The pioneers started it here and nobody has ever been able to take it away from us." ELISHA WHITTLESEY AND PLATT BENEDICT. Elisha Whittlesey was one of the best known men of the Reserve. For years he lived in Canfield, Mahoning county, and in his law office near by all the brilliant lawyers of the time 430 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE studied law. He was a member of congress for many years, and was one of the best known, best beloved men of his day. Some of his grandchildren reside in Warren. In speaking of Platt Benedict, the first settler of Norwalk, or in mentioning any other pioneer or pioneer events of the Firelands, it is impossible, even if it were desirable, to avoid grateful reference to the historical collections of the Firelands Society. Strange as it may seem, no life-like reproduction of the stern, and yet fatherly personality of Mr. Benedict has ever been given to the public. The portrait which accompanies this article is therefore presented with some pride, and with warm thanks to both the Firelands Historical Society and Mr. Gallup, through whose, courtesy it is reproduced. It was copied from a melanotype, made in 185o, and represents Platt Benedict at seventy-five years of age. NORWALK IN 1837. It may be of interest to the citizens of the county seat of Huron to read what the "Ohio Gazetteer" of 1837 says of it : "Norwalk, an. incorporated port town and seat of justice of Huron county, is situated near the center of the county * * * The public buildings within the village consist of a new and elegant court house and jail ; a banking house ; three churches, belonging to the denominations of Episcopalian, Methodist and Baptist ; to which may be added an ample and costly edifice for the Presbyterian church, now in progress of building ; and four taverns, two of which are of brick, and furnished at considerable ex-pense., There are also eleven drygoods and two grocery stores ; a steam paper mill and a grist mill, an insurance company, and three insurance agencies ; a lyceum connected with a public library and reading room ; two printing establishments issuing weekly newspapers :—The Experiment (Administration) and The Reflector (Whig). Twelve lawyers, six divines and four physicians, compose the professional class of the citizens * * * In 1830 it contained about 500 inhabitants ; its present population is estimated at up of 1,800. NORWALK'S SCHOOLS. When the gentlemen who planned the removal of the county seat from Milan to Norwalk laid out the plat of the latter village, they dedicated four lots for public purposes: one for a court house, one for a jail, one for a meeting house, and one for an academy. The first school in the vicinity of Norwalk opened in the fall of 1816, was a few miles from the township line on lot 2, Ridgefield. It stood upon the left bank, after crossing the bridge which is now on the present road to the village of Benedict. Its first teacher was Charles S. Hale, a son of General Hale of Herkimer. Less than two years afterward, a school was opened by J. A. Jennings in a house upon the present site of the village. This house was a brickmaker's shanty which stood on the south side of what is now Seminary street, a few rods east of Benedict avenue: Later a frame building was erected for the accommodation of scholars on the site of the present high school building. Among the early teachers of Norwalk may also be mentioned Dr. Amos B. Harris, who taught in the old court house and in other temporary buildings for a number of years prior to the organization of Norwalk Academy the final outcome to the institution projected by founders of the town. NORWALK ACADEMY. In October, 1826, the corporation known as Norwalk Academy was organized by election of a president and board of trustees which purchased Of Elisha Whittlesey four lots on the present site of the high school. Mr Whittlesey. himself erected and partially finished a three story brick building at this locality, leasing the first and second stories to the Academy and the third to a Masonic Lodge. In December, 1826, the Academy was formerly opened, with Rev. C. P. Bronson, pastor of St. Paul's church, at its head and four male HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 431 assistants ; and not long afterward a female teacher was added to the force. At the close of the first year, the rolls of the academy showed an attendance of one hundred pupils. HAYES, FOSTER AND MCPHERSON BOYS. For years the Norwalk Academy was the most popular institution of its kind in Ohio and several of its scholars afterwards became noted characters in the history of the United States. Among these may be mentioned Rutherford B. Hayes ; Charles Foster, afterward governor of Ohio ; and United States Senator General McPherson, that brilliant and heroic figure of the Civil war.-- If the tales told by the old settlers of Norwalk are to be credited—and there is no reason that they should be doubted—the Hayes and Foster boys were noted for their mischievous dis-positions, while McPherson was gentlemanly, studious and "attended strictly to business." It happened that although the last named passed creditably through his academic courses, it looked at one time as if he would be debarred from entering the Military Academy at West Point, since Hon. Rudolphus Dickerson, a member of Congress, through whom he expected his appointment, suddenly died. McPherson was already twenty years of age, and realized with chargin that the delay of another year would prevent him from commencing his military course, as the maximum age of admission to West Point was fixed at twenty-one years. By mere accident the warrant for his admission was discovered among Mr. Dickerson's papers after his death, and with this precious document in his possession the young man achieved the first great ambition of his life. The story goes that the future president of the United States and the governor of Ohio were lively dormitory boys who economized to such purpose that they lived comfortably on forty cents a week. An explanation of their cheap living is given in the following words : In the fall of the year (as can be guessed) the boys used to live on the fat of the land. On almost any night, along toward midnight's witching hour, mysterious figures would be seen surreptitiously gliding into the old school-building, with large, mysterious bags on their shoulders. If you would glide up behind one of them, you would see the contents of those bags disgorged in the ruddy glow of the firelight which lit up the laughing faces of half a score of future senators, congressmen, governors, judges, or—must we say it ?—preachers. There were big watermelons and roasting ears, and sweet potatoes, apples, now and then a plump pullet from some neighboring roost ; and there was a banquet for the gods !" GEORGE KENNAN. The Academy continued under the principal-ship of Mr. Bronson until May, 1828, when he was succeeded by Henry Tucker, who remained for a few months, and was followed, in the fall of that year, by John Kennan of Herkimer. Although Mr. Kennan had a good reputation in those. days as an educator, he is now specially known as the father of the famous traveler and lecturer, George Kennan, who came into the world-wide notice many years ago because of his descriptions and exposures of Russian conditions and brutalities in Siberia. Mr. Kerman was born in Norwalk in 1845, and his. stirring and romantic life has been filled not only with adventures and unusual experiences in Russia, but checkered with campaigns in Cuba and Manchuria. He reported the Russian-Japanese war for the Outlook. At the present time he considers himself a resident of New York City, although Norwalk and Ohio claim him. With this little break in the history of Norwalk Academy, its progress is continued by the statement that in October, 1829, it was consolidated with the district schools of the township, and No. 1, after that month, occupied the first floor of the old Academy building. In 1833 Norwalk Female Seminary was opened in the Academy building. It was under 432 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE the auspices of the Methodist church, especi-ally under the superintendency of Miss Eliza Ware. Rev. Jonathan Chaplin soori. after be-came principal and at the time. the building burned, in 1836, the Seminary was a flourish-ing institution. NORWALK SEMINARY AND INSTITUTE. In December, 1838, the Norwalk Seminary was opened in a new brick three-story building, and about 1842 had an attendance of nearly four hundred. In 1844 the financial burden proved too heavy to carry, particularly as the transfer of the interests of the Methodist church to the University at Delaware was made and the Seminary went out of existence. In January, 1846, the Baptist church of the place called a meeting to consider the purchase of the property, and in August of that year opened the Norwalk Institute, with Rev. Jeremiah Hall as its principal, and Miss Martha J. Flanders in charge of the female department. At this time 230 pupils of both sexes were registered. Reverend Hall was succeeded by A. S. Hutchins, who continued until 1855, when the Norwalk Institute ceased to exist. The organization of the local public schools on their present basis was accomplished in February, 1847, under the so-called Akron School Law ; three years afterward, the schools being thoroughly graded under D. F. De Woolf, the first City Superintendent. There were then three public school buildings :—the Central, on Mechanic street, now Whittlesey Avenue ; the Southwest, Pleasant Street and the Seminary Street. About three hundred scholars were in attendance in 1855, when the Board of Education purchased the building of the defunct Norwalk Institute to be used by the Central High School. The League Street School house was erected in 1868 and the Benedict Avenue structure in 1872. THE WHITTLESEY ACADEMY. The Whittlesey Academy of Arts and Sciences, although its name would indicate that it is an institution of higher learning not dissimilar to the old Norwalk Academy, was in reality an organization of twenty-five leading citizens, who aimed through this body to initiate and promote public movements of an educational nature. The incorporators who thus formed the Academy in 1854, were as follows : G. T. Stewart, M. R. Brailey, George H. Safford, E. Gray, J. E. Ingersoll, C. E. Newman, F. A. Wildman, O. G. Carter, Charles B. Stickney, W. L. Rose, Louis D, Strutton, Samuel T. Worcester, John Tifft, S. R. Beckwith, B, F. Roberts, J. A. Jones, N. S. C. Perkins, Edward Winthrop, Charles Bishop, J. A. Jackman, Hiram Rose, J. E. Morehouse, John Cline, George Baker and Joseph M. Farr. They erected the so-called Whittlesey building, reserving Whittlesey Hall for the special use of the Academy meetings and public gatherings. They let the hall, as well as rooms and offices in other portions of the building. Rentals from these sources brought the Academy on an average of $1,200 for many years, and every dollar of this income which was not expended upon the maintenance of the property went toward the promotion of movements which benefited Norwalk as a public community. The most prominent of the benefits thus derived was the establishment of a public library. In January, 1866, the Academy had opened a Public Library and reading room, conducted under the special auspices of the Young Men's Library and Reading Room Association. It finally passed over to the city a library of more than fifteen hundred volumes, which first installed as a public institution in the Mansion House block. In June, 1878, it was moved to the Gallup Block, and in 1905 the convenient and tasteful building was erected which is now oc-cupied as a City Library. THE PUBLIC LIBRARY. The Firelands Historical Society, organized in 1857, Was in reality the outgrowth of the Whittlesey Academy of Arts and Sciences. In the final establishment of the Norwalk Public Library this organization donated $15,000 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 433 and Andrew Carnegie a like sum. The collection now consists of more than 8,000 well selected volumes, housed in the main body of the building. Its first floor, or basement, is devoted to the safeguarding of the valuable museum which has been collected by the Firelands Historical Society, and also includes tastefully furnished rooms, which are chiefly' used by various literary women's societies of the city and the trustees of the Historical So-ciety; hence the library is also designated as the Firelands Memorial Building. FIRELANDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. In June 1857 the leading pioneers of Huron and Erie counties met at the court house in Norwalk to organize the Firelands Historical Society, whose chief aim was to. collect and preserve in enduring form the facts constituting the full history of this interesting section of the Western Reserve. Since that time it has held its annual meetings in this city, while its quarterly gatherings have assembled in various other portions of Huron and Erie counties. It is the only county society of this nature which occupies its own building, and the purposes of the organization, formed more than half a century ago, have been fully realized. The Firelands society has the honor of having issued more historical literature of a high character than any other organization of the kind in Ohio or in the middle west. The publications thus devoted to the Firelands and the early history of Ohio include thirty-five substantial volumes and nearly five thousand pages of reading matter, These publications include addresses of such pioneers and distinguished citizens as Elisha Whittlesey, General L. V. Bierce, Judge Joshua R. Giddings, John Sherman, President Hayes, Platt Benedict, Jay Cooke, Clark Waggoner and G. T. Stewart. The museum at Norwalk is a verita-ble treasure. house of historical interest and value. Its bound newspaper files include several initial volumes of journals published in the Firelands territory which cannot be found in Vol. 1-28 any other depository, while its collection of maps, especially relating to the first survey of the Western Reserve and the Firelands is simply invaluable. The Indian relics, fossils, petrifactions and other mementoes comprise a collection over which one might linger with benefit for hours. Among the Indian relics one of the most interesting is a wampun belt, the property of President Gallup, which has HON. H. C. GALLUP. descended through the different members of the family from the period of King Phil-ip's war, whose chief events are grouped around Narragansett Bay, R. I. This belt was presented to one of Mr. Gallup's ancestors about this time by a friendly Indian as a warning to him, but, notwithstanding the good intentions of the red man, Captain Gallup, who took part in the war, met his death in the historical Swamp fight. In the "war department" of the museum are found all kinds of firearms and ordnance, as well as powder flasks and pocketbooks collected from HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 435 American battlefields, an especially large collection representing the battle of Lake Erie. Platt Benedict was the first president of the Firelands Historical Society and continued thus until his death in 1866.. The present incumbent is Hon. C. 4. Gallup, who is also the curator of the museum. It is not too much to say that no one ever connected with the organization has been more faithful or efficient in extending its high reputation. A FAMOUS EXECUTION. Before generally tracing the development of Norwalk into a modern municipality, men- EAST MAIN STREET, NORWALK, IN 1854. tion must be made of an event which caused wide-spread excitement in the community during its early and formative period. Reference is made to the trial and execution of Ne-Go-Sheck and No-gon-a-ba, for the murder of John Wood and George Bishop, two well-known citizens and trappers of the Firelands. The narrative of the crime and execution is given in the words of the late C. B. Squier, as follows : In the spring of 1816 John Wood, of Venice, and George Bishop, of Danbury, were trapping for muskrat on the ;west side of Danbury, in the vicinity of the "Two Harbors," so called ; and having: collected a few skins had lain down for the night in their temporary huts. Three straggling Ottawa Indians came, in the course of the night, upon their camp, and discovered them sleeping. To obtain their little pittance of furs, etc., they were induced to plan their destruction. After completing their arrangements, the two eldest armed themselves with clubs, singled out their victims and despatched them in an instant. They then forced their youngest companion, Negasow, who had been until then only a spectator, to beat the 'bodies with a club, that he might be made to feel that he was a participator in the Murder and so refrain from exposing the crime. After securing whatever was then in the camp that they desired, they took up their line of march, for the Maumee, avoiding, as far as possible, the Indian settlements in their course. A SIDE SHOW TO MILAN. Up to the early fifties it seemed as if Milan, the old county seat of Huron county, would maintain its supremacy as a center of com- 436 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE merce and industry. The latter had con-structed a ship canal to the Huron river and thus secured an outlet to Lake Erie. A pros-perous shipyard had been established at Milan and it had also become a large shipping point for the grain and farm products of a large surrounding territory ; even the goods purchased in the east by Norwalk merchants came via the Erie canal and lake to Milan, so that as one of the old Norwalkites expressed it : "Up to 1851, Norwalk was 'simply a sideshow FIRST ENGINE FROM NORWALK TO HURON, On the old Narrow Gauge. to Milan." Norwalk had, in short, settled down to the peaceful and plodding career of an academy town, but a sudden change came over this condition of affairs in 1852, when Milan refused to subscribe towards the building of a railroad from Cleveland to Toledo. Its citizens considered that there was no comparison in importance between a railroad and a canal. RAILROADS WAKE UP NORWALK. The enterprising people of Norwalk took a distinctly different view of the matter and voted $50,000 in bonds to aid in the furtherance of the project. Thereby it became a railroad town in contradistinction to a canal town, and since that time Norwalk has been on the rise, while Milan has steadily declined. With the coming of the railroad, various manufactories were also established. In 1877, after the place had increased from 3,000 to 5,000 people, the Wheeling & Lake Erie railroad came to their doors in response to a donation of $72,000. Norwalk's next great accession to her industrial strength was the location of the railroad shops of the corporation, which occurred in 1882. In their location, Noma considered that she had achieved quite a tri-umph ; since Wellington, Toledo, Tremont and Massillon, as well as other places, were bidding for the location, and working energetic ally against her interests. She did not get the shops, however, without working hard for them and also subscribing over $100,000. The building of the Wheeling & Lake Erie carshops added 200 to 300 men to the population of Norwalk, and the place therefore considered it little short of a public calamity when the plant was destroyed by fire in 1908; it has since been rebuilt on an enlarged scale. HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 437 INDUSTRIES OF NORWALK. As further indications of the public spirit of Norwalk, may be mentioned the subscription of $175,000, which her citizens raised to locate the great plant of the Huron Steel and Iron Co. For this purpose the citizens purchased 500 city lots as a site for the foundry. Its output consists of the manufacture of steel only and is furnished chiefly to plow companies. In 1904 Norwalk added to its transportation lines the Sandusky, Norwalk & Mansfield Railroad, so that now. there are few cities of its size in the Reserve whose facilities in this line are more complete. Among its large and substantial industries may be mentioned the piano factory conducted by A. B. Chase Co., which was established in 1876 ; the Auto-Bug Co., which manufactures buggies with solid rubber tires, but which, mechanic-ally speaking, are automobiles ; The George S. Stewart Company, large manufacturers of library and office fixtures and red cedar cabinets; the Gardner. Grain and Milling Company; the Norwalk Tobacco Works ; the Pressing & Orr Canning Factory and Gallup-Ruffing Handle Company. Norwalk is now a busy and attractive place between eight and nine thousand people, a marked evidence of its prosperity being eleven. miles of brick-paved streets. It also has well under way a complete and perfect sewering system, which includes a large disposal plant. Its standing as a business town is further evident from the fact that one of the best hotels in the Western Reserve "The Avalon" is supported by its citizens and the traveling public. As a place of residence, where one may both earn a good livelihood and live comfortably, Norwalk is almost ideal. CHURCHES. Brief reference has been made to its churches, which now include a dozen flourishing societies. The father and mother of them all is the St. Paul's Episcopal church, which had its origin in the religious services first held in the log-house of Platt Benedict, in 1818. Services were first read at his home, but. upon the completion of the new court house, in the following. year, the meetings were adjourned to that structure. In January, 1821, the society was formally organized as St. Paul's Episcopal church, and in June, 1836, its first religious edifice was consecrated and still stands at the rear of Benedict Chapel. The corner-stone of the stately Gothic structure of stone, now known as St. Paul's Episcopal church, was laid in November, 1908, and no edifice devoted to religious purposes attracts more favorable comment. Exclusive of interior furnishings, it costs about $50,000. In the fall of the same year which marked the gathering of the little band of Episcopalians in Mr. Benedict's house, four men and one woman assembled in Norwalk and,. through their exertions, a Baptist society was formed in January of the following year which numbered fourteen members. This was the nucleus of the present First Baptist church. In 1823 the first Methodist society was organized, with seven members. Its first building was erected in 1834, on Seminary street ; its second edifice in 1856, and its present church was completed in June, 1902. The First Presbyterian church of Norwalk was organized in February, 1830, as a Congregational society, and assumed its present name in March, 1836. Religious services were held in the old Norwalk Academy building until the latter was burned in 1836, and in 1838 the society erected its own building, the edifice which it now occupies being completed in 1870. Catholicism obtained a foothold in Norwalk during 1840, and six years afterward the building occupied by St. Peter's church was dedicated. For many years attendants came from Monroeville and Milan but in 1868 the people of the village of Norwalk separated from the mother society. At first their organization was called St. Peter's and then St. Paul's church. After 1872 each organization had its own pastor. St. Paul's church is composed almost exclusively 0f Germans, while St. Mary's includes the 438 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE English speaking. element. In June, 1851, the Evangelical Lutherans formed an organization and St. Peter's English Lutheran church is now a flourishing society. In 1869 the Universalist church of Norwalk was organized, and the building still occupied by this society was completed in 1872. Briefly, these are the chief religious organizations of Norwalk, and add a very strong feature to its many advantages as a resident town. THE NEWSPAPER FIELD. Norwalk has always presented a fair newspaper field, although at the present writing it is somewhat disorganized. The first paper published in Norwalk, and the second in the Firelands, was the Reporter, which was first issued by John P. McArdle in 1827 and discontinued in 1830. On February 2, of the latter year, Samuel Preston and G. T. Buckingham put forth the Reflector. In 1854 F. Wickham became its sole owner and so continued until 1865, when W. S. Wickham joined him in the enterprise ; the latter withdrew from the firm in 1873. The Reflector, which is still in the newspaper field owes its founding and progress largely to the labors of different members of the Wickham family (this feature of local journalism is further expanded in the sketch of Hon. Charles P. Wickham, as assistant editor of this work). The daily edition of the Reflector was established in 1882, and the Reflector Company is now not only the publisher of the two editions of this newspaper but of the Chronicle a weekly journal established in 1874. In 1835 the Norwalk Experiment was founded as a weekly newspaper, and in 1883 the Huron County News was established, these publications being now consolidated under the title Experiment-News, which is issued from a Norwalk office. The other local publications embrace the Evening Herald, founded in 1902, and the Ohio Law Bulletin and Central States Guide, established in 1876 and 1885 respectively, and issued by the American Publishers' Company. THE TOWN OF BELLEVUE. Bellevue is a town of more than five thousand inhabitants, situated not only on the west line of the 'Western Reserve and the Firelands, but on the boundary line between the counties of Huron and Sandusky. It is one hundred and twenty miles west of the east line of Ohio and one hundred and two miles east of its western boundary ; so that it is nearly in the geographical center of the commonwealth from east to west. With reference to leading Ohio cities, it is twelve miles south of San-dusky, forty-five miles east of Toledo and sixty-seven miles west of Cleveland. Although surrounded by first-class farming land, its geographical situation places it within the radius of the commercial activities of these large cities, which have drawn upon its natural territory and retarded its individual progress. Nevertheless it is a substantial little place, and growing slowly and surely. EARLY BELLEVUE SETTLERS. The first settler within the present limits of Bellevue was Mark Hopkins, of Genesee county, New York, who located with his family in the fall of 1815, and built the first log cabin upon the site of the present town. In February of that year John Baker, also a New York man, had located with his son about two and a half miles northeast of the place. The second settler within the limits of Bellevue proper was Elnathan George, who came with his family in the spring of 1816 and built a log house for their accommodation on the lot where the Tremont block still stands. In the following year he added to his dwelling, and opened the pioneer tavern of the place. Strictly speaking, it is beyond the province of this history to mention any local events which occurred west of the line which passes through the town and divides Huron and Sandusky counties, as that section is not included in the Western Reserve. Still, in order to make the narrative more complete, it may be said that Charles F. Drake and Captain Zadoc Strong, in 1822 purchased the land which now HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 439 embraces most of the village on the Sandusky side of the line. THE INDUSTRIOUS BAKERS. In the fall of 1815, when the Bakers located near Bellevue, the public roads of this vicinity were noted for their absence, although Indian trails Were very plentiful. One of the first duties, therefore, which was assumed by Mr. Baker and his son was the cutting of a road through the woods from Russell's Corners to Strong's Ridge (where they lived) and the stone quarries about one mile west of the town. In the spring of 1817 the industrious Bakers also made further public improvements in this regard, not only cutting roads through the woods, but putting up guide boards to direct travelers between Sandusky and various points in this section of Huron county. At that time there was not a permanent settler between Bellevue and Tremont, or lower Sandusky, as it was then called. Thus Bellevue was first recognized as a place of sufficient importance to be placed in communication with the rest of the world. FIRST THINGS AND EVENTS. The first store in Bellevue was opened in November, 1823, by Thomas G. Amsden, a trader who was engaged in traffic with the Indians and French. Mr. Amsden displayed his miscellaneous assortment of goods in a good size log building, commencing business as an agent for Daniel Whitney, a widely known merchant of those times living at Green Bay, Wisconsin. Two years afterward, however, Mr. Amsden and F. Chapman bought the stock and entire business, and their store became so popular and widely known that for many years the place was known as Amsden Comers. Mr. Chapman, who appears to have been a man of energy and public spirit, opened what was known as the Exchange Hotel in 1829, and made of it one of the best houses cm entertainment west of Buffalo. It is said that travelers for many miles around, in those days, would always make it a point to reach Amsden Corners, in order to secure the comforts and sociabilities of the Exchange Hotel. This remained the only hostelry at Bellevue until the erection of the Tremont house in 1836. In the spring of 1817, Mrs. Mark Hopkins died, having been bitten by a massasauga. A few hours before her death she gave birth to a daughter—Jeannette Hopkins—and the child grew up to womanhood here. Said birth and death were the first in Bellevue. The first marriage was that of Israel Markham to Louise Leonard, in 1818, at a house on the lot recently owned and occupied by H. M. Sinclair as his residence. The first sermon was by Rev. Lot B. Sullivan, in 1818 or 1819, at the house of Elnathan George. The first meeting house was on the lot where the Congregational church now stands, and was built about 1837. The first school was opened about the year 1830, at which date the first school house was built, or rather the log building formerly used by Mr. Kinney as a blacksmith shop, was re-modeled. It stood at the intersection of Mon-roe and West streets. The first manufacturing establishment was a blacksmith shop, owned by Return Burlinson. A postoffice established here in .1830, with Frederic Chapman as postmaster, was called "York Cross Roads." In 1831, Chapman & Amsden put in operation a tannery. The first cabinet shop was opened by David and Ben-jamin Moore, who for some time were the only furniture dealers in Bellevue. The first practicing physicians were Drs. Harkness and Lathrop, and a Mr. Kent opened the first law office. The first election in Lyme township was held in a log school house, on the Ridge in April, 1820. Bellevue's first paper. was started in 1851, by G. W. Hopkins, in a small room in the second story of the Howard Mansion, on Monroe street. It lived only three or four months. It 440 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE was a five-column sheet, and bore the title of Bellevue Gazette. Its motto was "Open to all." GRANDMA SAWYER. Jeanette Hopkins has been mentioned as the first white child born in Bellevue, although during the life of the late "Grandma" Sawyer (nee Caroline Chapman) there was always a vigorous dispute as to this honor. This good old lady, who lived for more than ninety years in the town, passed away in February, 1910. The grandfather of Caroline Chapman, Will-iam. Chapman, moved from Connecticut to Huron, now Erie county, about the time that the first settlers were coming in to Bellevue, and a few days afterward Nathaniel Chap-man, her father, with his two brothers started for the locality now including the site of Bellevue. The brothers stopped at Muskkash, now known as Venice, eight miles north of Belle-vue, and here John Chapman was killed and scalped by Indians. A few days later the two brothers camped on the site of the future town, but Nathaniel Chapman shortly afterwards returned to Connecticut where he married Ruth Tompkins, bringing her later to Bellevue. Mrs. Sawyer was the first child born of this couple, and at her death, in 1910, no villager was better known or more beloved than "Grandma Sawyer." STRONG'S RIDGE ROAD. The old Strong's Ridge road, or more properly "trail," at first ran along the high ground south of Alfred Stebbins' to the saw mill, near the present site of Woodward's distillery, and thence to where Main street now crosses the county line. This accounts for the awkward angle at which Monroe street comes to the center. The Strong's Ridge road was afterward straightened upon its present line and thus we see how it is that there is no known line in the village which conforms to any point of the compass known to the science of naviga-tion. Up to this date, the town had grown up "by guess." EARLY VILLAGE PLATS. In the year 1835, the land on the Huron county side, consisting of fifty acres, owned by Gurdon Williams, was purchased by F. Chapman, James Hollister, Josiah Hollister, Thomas G. Amsden, L. G. Harkness and Pickett Latimer, and during that year was surveyed and laid out into village lots by David Camp. The lots varied in size and price, fifty dollars being the average price for a. quarter-acre lot. In 1839 Chapman & Amsden, who at that time owned a large quantity of land west of the county line, had it also surveyed and laid out. These lots were somewhat larger. In order to induce the people to locate here, they put their prices at the lowest figures possible, giving long time and being very careful never to sell to speculators, their principal object being to build up, a village. COMING OF RAILROADS. The Mad River & Lake Erie railroad was completed from Sandusky' city to this place in 1839. James H. Bell, a civil engineer in the employ of railroad company, was authorized to name the station here.. He called it Bellevue, as at once suggestive of his own name and expressive of the beauty of the place. This railroad was extended to. Republic and Tiffin, in 1841, and soon. after reached its connection with the Little Miami railroad at Springfield. The line of the Mad River & Lake Erie railroad was changed between Tiffin and Sandusky, and laid by way of Greenspring, Clyde and Castalia, in 1855, and the track upon the Bellevue route taken up. The Toledo, Norwalk. & Cleveland railroad was located through this place in 1852 and completed the following year. TOWN INCORPORATED. The town of Bellevue was incorporated by the act of the legislature passed January. 25, 1851, and its charter limits were about a mile from east to west along Main street, extending about one-quarter of a mile on either side of HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 441 the same and embracing nearly equal portions of Huron and Sandusky counties. A govern-ment was organized February 24, 1851, with the following officers : Mayor, Abraham Leiter; recorder, Samuel Z. Culver ; trustees, Eliphalet D. Follett, Benjamin F. McKim, David Armstrong, Joseph M. Lawrence and Thomas G. Amsden. SCHOOL HOUSES. As early as 1827, and probably before that year, several log school houses were located on the present site of Bellevue, one where the BELLEVUE HIGH SCHOOL. Pike building now stands and another where' the Wright Bank is located. In 1832 a stone structure replaced the log school houses on the site of the Pike building, and in 1871 this, in turn, gave place to a larger brick building. The latter structure was in Sandusky county. The building which occupied the site of the Wright bank and was on the Huron county side. In 1845 the Catholics. erected a two-story brick building which they occupied as a parochial school. Soon after the erection of the Catholic school the town erected a seven-room building on the site of the present East Central structure, and for forty years the building was occupied for school purposes. In 1885 the original building which now constitutes the East Central school was erected at a cost of $5,000, and to this an addition was made in 1906, forming the substantial eight-room schoolhouse now in use. The McKim street building was erected in 1893, and was erected to accommodate the primary pupils living east of the Nickel Plate railroad. In 1900 was erected the substantial Central high school building, which was fittingly "dedicated to the best interests of twentieth century education." The cost of the site, building and furnishings was about $40,000. BELLEVUE CHURCHES. The churches of Bellevue are in accord with her standing and needs as a moral and religious community. The pioneer society to be organized was the First Baptist church, originally composed of twenty-six members who first assembled on May 14, 1836. The first pastor was Elder J. Kelley. In September of the same year the First Congregational church was founded on the plan of Union then existing be- 442 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE tween the Presbyterian and Congregational denominations. In 1846 the society was reorganized on a strictly Congregationalist basis. The Methodists formed a society in 1839, and their first resident minister was Rev. Oliver Burgis. In 1849 the Episcopalians organized under the name of St. Paul's church. In 1852 the Catholics of Bellevue founded the Church of the Immaculate Conception. In 1864 the Evangelical Lutherans founded St. John's church, and in the same year the St. Paul's Reformed church was founded. In 1875 originated what is known as Bishop Seybert Memorial Evangel-ical church. YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. In 1904 two institutions were founded in Bellevue which, with its churches, have most contributed to the moral and intellectual up-lifting of the place. These are the Public Library and the Young Men's Christian Association. The building, in furtherance of the well understood plans of the latter organization, was dedicated March 6, of that year. The lot on which the building stands has a frontage of 145 feet and a depth 0f 243 feet, giving ample room for tennis and croquet courts and an outdoor gymnasium. The main floor contains the rooms for reading and recreation, the latter containing easy chairs, game tables, mu-sical instruments and other means for rest and amusement. There is also an indoor gymnasium, 40x60 feet, two bowling alleys and a natatorium, with all kinds of shower baths and other accommo-dations of this nature. The second story of the old part of the building contain sleeping rooms, which are in constant use by worthy applicants. The educational department of the Y. M: C. A. embraces not only lectures given by authorities on various practical subjects, but regular classes of instructions for both men and boy's. Distinctive religious activities are directed largely by a special committee, and include not only the regular meetings of the association, but others held in the different churches of the city. On account of the generous donations of the New York, Chicago & St. Louis railroad and of the various brotherhoods of locomotive engineers and trainmen, the building is usually designated as the Bellevue Railroad and City Y. M. C. A. FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY. The movement that culminated in the erection of the present free public library of Bellevue began with the organization of the Bellevue Library Association in January, 1891. A reading room for the benefit of the public was soon after opened, and until 1892 the enterprise was solely supported by membership fees. In that year D. M. Harkness presented to the library association a tract of land known as the Business Mens' Addition to Bellevue, which was afterwards sold for $1,500. In 1896 the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Com-pany (the Nickel Plate) had commenced its support of the library scheme by paying into the treasury of the association $30 per month. These material additions to the income of the association encouraged its board of trustees to start the movement for the erection of a perma-nent library building. In 1902 Andrew J. Carnegie offered a donation of $10,000 toward the erection of such a building, upon the usual condition that the people of Bellevue furnished a site and supported the library. These conditions were formally accepted in 1903, and the completed building was opened to the public on August 10 of the following year. The library now consists of nearly 7,000 bound and well-selected volumes and some 2,000 pamphlets, magazines and unbound volumes. As a reference and working library', it stands high among similar institutions in the Western Reserve. RAILROAD CONNECTIONS. The completion of the old Mad River railway from Sandusky to Bellevue, in 1839, has already been noted. In 1855 this line was torn up and is now a part of the Big Four system. The Chicago, Sandusky & Hocking railway HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 443 took over the right-of-way of the old Mad River line, and this corporation is now a part of the Pennsylvania Company. By 1854 cars were running into Bellevue over the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, and by 1881 two new railroads were seeking connection with the town. Their efforts were soon after realized in the extension of the Nickel Plate and the Wheeling & Erie lines to this place. Besides enjoying transportation facilities through steam railroads, Bellevue has also the Lake Shore Electric Line as one of its many means of communicating with outside territory. As Bellevue is the middle division terminal of the Nickel Plate road, the yards of that line are specially extensive and conducive to her standing as a commercial and industrial center. INDUSTRIES AND BANKS. Among the leading industrial corporations of the place are the following: The Ohio Cultivator Company, manufacturers of agricultural implements and hay presses ; the Conway Steel Range Company, which turns out steel ranges and cooking stoves ; the Jeschke Manufacturing Company, whose output includes corn cutters and ditching machines ; W. H. Gardner Grain & Milling Company, manufacturers of our and mill products and dealers in grain ; Bellevue Stone Company, dealers in crushed limestone, sand and gravel ; Zehner Brothers Packing Company and Bellevue Kraut & Pickling Company. These are all local concerns, while the A. H. Jackson Manufacturing Company, whose output is mostly muslin underwear, is controlled by Fremont capitalists, and the Spence Brothers Stone Company and the Garrigan Brothers Stone Company are really branches of parent houses in Columbus and Toledo. The financial operations of Bellevue are conducted through three organized institutions -- the First National Bank which was organized in 1875 and now has a capital of $50,000, with headquarters at Toledo, Ohio ; the Wright Banking. Company, of which J. A. Wright is president, which was founded in 1899 and is capitalized at $25,000 ; and the Savings Bank Company, which was founded in 1901 and is capitalized at $25,000. BELLEVUE NEWSPAPERS. One of the strongest and most persistent supporters of Bellevue is its wide awake newspaper, the Gazette. This publication was founded as a weekly in 1867, its originator being C. A. Willard, a drygoods merchant who established the paper as a small advertising sheet to boom his own business. Subsequently, a young man and practical printer, E. P. Brown, came over from Oberlin, joined him in the enterprise and a "regular built newspaper" was the result. The Hammers, father and son, succeeded Brown, and the former sold the plant to C. D. Stoner and S. C. Thompson. In 1881 C. R. Callaghan, a young man who had been making himself generally useful about the newspaper office for eight years, bought a half interest in the business, which was continued for twelve years under the firm name of Stoner & Callaghan. C. R. & M. J. Callaghan formed their partnership in 1899, and continued the publication of the paper until February 1, 1906, when the Gazette Publishing Company was incorporated. Since then the Gazette has absorbed the Daily Record, which was founded in 1899, and (in 1906) the Daily and Weekly Bellevue News. The result is that the Gazette Publishing Company has a monopoly of the local newspaper field and is mak-ing a legitimate and, at the same time, profit-able use of its advantages. CHICAGO JUNCTION. Comparatively: a new town, Chicago Junction is, notwithstanding-, the third place in population within the limits of Huron county, and, judging from the enterprise and public spirit which have been so manifest there for the past few years, it promises to be really a credit to its larger and stronger brother at the foot of Lake Michigan. It was established as a rail-road town, and its present strength and its promising future rest upon its advantages in 444 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE this regard. On January 1, 1874, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company fixed upon this point as the eastern terminus of its Chicago division. The railroad business was first prosecuted in a one-story frame building about fifteen by twenty-five feet, and the railway employes boarded with neighboring farmers. A RAILROAD TOWN. It soon became .evident that the place was bound to become a railroad center and, a number of houses were built near the station. The PEARL STREET LOOKING- WEST, CHICAGO. first substantial building erected on the site of Chicago Junction was the hotel and grocery of S. L. Bowlby, which was opened to the public September 7, 1874. In December, the railroad was completed to the Junction and temporary shops, consisting of an engine house and blacksmith and machine shops, were erected, giving employment to about sixty men. Early in the year 1875, the railroad conipany laid the foundation of its large brick depot, and about the same time the town of Chicago Junction was platted. In summer, work was commenced on the permanent shops. and in April, 1876, the plant was virtually completed. CHICAGO JUNCTION'S GREAT FIRE. During the following two years Chicago Junction had what may be called a real boom, but in the midst of its good times a fire broke out in the business section of the place and swept away nearly one-half of its best buildings. The people of 'Chicago Junction look back to the fire of December 8, 1897, with much the same spirit, not unmixed with pride, which is exhibited by the typical citizen of Chicag (Illinois) when he remembers his great fire of 1871. Although at first thought the conflagration seemed a crushing calamity, and left many of the local merchants on the border of bankruptcy, they quickly revived in spirit, went to work with a will, and within a few years the burned district was covered with HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 445 much more substantial buildings than formerly had stood upon it. TOWN ORGANIZED. The town of Chicago Junction was organized in the fall of 1882, by the election of Samuel Snyder as mayor and other municipal officers. In 1906 was completed the Akron extension of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, and upon the opening of this division the town took on new life and increased in population even more rapidly than during its early years. The establishment of telephone service in 1898 ; the completion of a modern system of water works in 1899 and the erection of an electric lighting plant in 1900, with the coming of an electric railroad in 1905, marked distinct steps in the growth of this progressive place. Its main streets commenced to be paved in 1900, and much work in this line was accomplished 1904 and since that time ; its main thoroughfares are uniform and metropolitan in appearance. EXTENSION OF B. & O. YARDS. Chicago Junction is on the eve of another era of rushing times, because of the extension of the already great railroad yards of the Baltimore & Ohio road. These improvements have already commenced and will cover, when completed about two years from this time, fifteen acres of additional area. More than a million and a half of dollars are to be expended in the perfection of the following features: Great platforms for the so-called New Castle division of the road on Spring street, with an arched bridge leading from the general depot to these structures ; westbound receiving yards, with a capacity of 680 cars, and classification yards, with a capacity of 1,300 cars ; eastbound receiving yards, capacity 696 cars, and classification yards, with a capacity of 1,292; main tracks for Both west-bound and east-bound traffic and car repair yards, with a capacity of 120 cars ; house tracks, capacity 201 cars; a large transfer shed and subway, and an overhead bridge west of Main street ; an immense water reservoir ; and the Sandusky division yards, with a capacity of 150 cars. In the completion of these great railway improvements, hundreds of men will be permanently employed and added to the popu-lation of the town. The local merchants and other business men will feel the benefit of this large accession, so that Chicago Junction has every reason to look for not only a "boom," but most substantial growth. That she is really expecting it, is evident from a number of large enterprises which are well under way ; among these may be mentioned a $45,000 opera house and Masonic temple. The place, however, is not solely dependent upon the Baltimore & Ohio road for its prosperity and growth., It is surrounded by a rich agricultural country,. whose products find here a ready market or distributing point. Among the most important branches. of agricultural industry of the locality may be mentioned celery growing, thousands of acres in the vicinity of Chicago being devoted to the production of this vegetable. Two other large industries in the town itself should also be mentioned, namely : The Beelman Manufacturing and Lumber Company and the Chicago Manufacturing Company. The former is chiefly engaged in the manufacture of ornamental hardwood floors, while the output of the latter mainly consists of windmills. BANKS AND "CHICAGO TIMES." The financial accommodations of the place are furnished by the Commercial Bank, a private institution founded in 1888, and the Home Savings Banking Company, the latter established in 1900, with a capital of $25,000. Chicago Junction will never be allowed to "hide its head under a bushel" as long as it enjoys the enterprising service of such a newspaper as the Chicago Times. This paper was founded in 1883, the year after the incorporation of the town, and is now conducted by E. A. Evans, formerly superintendent of schools. 446 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE SCHOOL ACCOMMODATIONS. At the time the town was first incorporated its residents sent their children principally to the Sykes school district, but with the rapid increase of the local population Motson's Hall, at Chicago Junction, was rented, with other smaller buildings in town. In 1880 the township board of New Haven erected two school houses for the better accommodation of the village pupils—one on the East Side in which the East Side building is now taught, and another on the lot where the brick building now stands. These were used until 1883, when the voters of the two districts and all that part of Richmond within the corporate limits of the city decided to organize themselves into a separate village school district. This improvement was perfected at the spring election of 1883, when the village school board was chosen and organized. In 1891 additional territory was annexed to this district In September, 1888, a large central or main school building for the accommodation of the village pupils was completed, bonds amounting to $16,000 being voted for that purpose. At the present time Chicago Junction has two good school buildings, about 475 pupils being accommodated in the main structure and thirty-five in the East Side building. CHURCHES AND SOCIETIES. In the matter of churches, four leading denominations are represented in Chicago, the St. Francis Xavier Catholic church being especially strong. The Y. M. C. A., organized by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, has also proved a strong moral force in the community, and its work is thoroughly appreciated by the railroad men. The building now occupied was erected in 1906, and has sixty-five beds for the accommodation of both transient and permanent lodgers. These accommodations are so much in demand that plans for $5,000 addition have already been prepared The present membership of the association nearly 500. As would be expected, the organizations de- WEST MAIN STREET, NEW LONDON. HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 447 voted to the interests of the railroad men are especially numerous at Chicago Junction, the brotherhoods of locomotive firemen and engi-neers, of railway car men, railway trainmen, and railway clerks, being already strong and constantly increasing in membership. The Masonic fraternities are represented by Rule lodge "No. 552, and the Knights of Columbus and Knights of Pythias have also flourishing organizations. PARK AND SCHOOL HOUSE, NEW LONDON. NEW LONDON. New London is an incorporated village of about 1,400 people, situated seventeen miles from Norwalk, the county seat, and located on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis and Northern Ohio railways, some forty-five miles southwest of Cleveland. It is one of the oldest and also one of the most thriving places in Huron county, and exhibits quite an array of flourishing industries. The largest business house in the place is operated under the firm name of Coleman & Carr, its dealings being in cement, plaster, coal, lime, salt, wood 'and hay. Its yards and 1warehouses cover quite a large. area near the sta tions of the two railways. The same firm also has a factory for the manufacturing of butter and cheese packages. The largest manufactory of the place is operated by the Arnold-Creager Company, whose business was established fully thirty years ago and now comprises the manufacture of brick machines, trucks and other appliances required in the operation of that industry. The flour mill of the place is conducted by P. H. Burk and son; there is a tile factory in active operation, under the control of E. Bigelow and son, and two large local manufactories are devoted to the turning out of paraphernalia used by secret societies. This industry, which is considered by many the leading one in New London, is controlled by the two Ward brothers, and it is intimated that they have pushed their business with such energy as competitors that they have virtually divided the local lodges into two factions. EARLY SETTLEMENT AND INCORPORATION. The first settler on the present site of New London was John Corey, who erected and occupied his log cabin in 1816. A number of 448 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE other settlers followed him by 1817, among others the Merrifields, whose activity and prominence gave the settlement its name from that year until 1822. In the latter year it became Kinsley's Corners and from 1840 to 1853 King's Corners. In the year named, the village was incorpo-rated as New London, it having been a station of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis railroad since 1850. New London has a substantial Union school building completed in 1904, and several well constructed and tasteful church edifices. Its religious organizations embrace the Methodist, whose building was erected in 1879 ; the Congregational, the Catholic and the Baptist. The last named is known as the Beth Eden church, and was completed in 1882. New London has also a neat monument erected to the memory of its, dead soldiers, which was donated to the public in 1897 by the Runyan Women's Relief Corps. Further, and foremost in the estimation of many of its citizens, it has the New London Record, a neatly printed weekly paper founded by its present popular editor, George W. Runyan, in 1868. MONROEVILLE This village of some 1,200 inhabitants is Iocated at the junction of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, on the Lake Erie division. of the Baltimore & Ohio and the Wheeling & Lake Erie railroads. Although the main business section of the place is quite a distance from these lines, the village was laid out in September, 1817, and was then called Monroe, the "ville" being added upon the establishment of a postoffice. An addition was made to the original site of the place in 1836, and the village was incorporated in 1868. FOUNDING OF THE VILLAGE. The main incidents connected with the founding of Monroeville and its early development are well narrated by L. O. Simmons, editor of the Spectator, in the following words: HURON RIVER VIEW, MONROEVILLE. HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 449 "In the year 1818, a man by the name of Sowers, with his family, emigrated from the state of Maryland to this locality. About the same time Seth Brown and Schuyler Van Ransalear came here from the state of New York. The land comprising the present site of the village of Monroeville was purchased by the above named gentlemen, with a view to its improvement for agricultural purposes—to make for themselves and families homes. Soon after they were joined by others, among whom was one Richard Burt, who proceeded at once to erect a saw and grist mill, which were in operation as early as 1816. These mills were located and comprise the original of the mill of The Heyman Milling Company of the present day. This was the nucleus of greater things ; the starting point, the origin of our now populous village. Messrs. Sowers, Brown and Van Ransalear caused the survey of the village plat, which was soon occupied, and prominent among whom, and as the first to locate there, were the following : Seth Brown, Schuyler Van Ransalear, Richard Burt, Dr. Cole, a Mr. Fuller, Daniel, John and James Sowers, and John S. Davis. Mr. Van Ransalear opened a small store and to him belongs the honor of inaugurating mercantile pursuits, from which insignificant establishment have sprung the many business houses of today. Verily its progeny has been prolific. "Buckley Hutchins, another of the early settlers of the place, kept the first tavern, not one of the modern concerns where the blase guest sits down to a dozen courses but a humble structure in which the fare was of a primitive character, where compones and venison former the staple diet. Mr. Van Ransalear was the first postmaster. The Baptists organized the first church society, and were closely followed by the Presbyterians and Methodists. "Monroeville, like all other towns in a new country, was subject to many annoyances and inconveniences ; the mail, for instance, put in an appearance quite infrequently, and before the days of stages and railroads was carried on horseback or on foot from settlement to settlement, and the arrival of the postman in these times was hailed as a gala-day by the inhabitants. As the years roll by, there is a gradual increase in the population, and some new features of improvement adds to the importance of the place. For many years there was little to attract or encourage immigration. Situated in the midst of a forest and surrounded by savages and wild beasts, the settlement of the country was attended with no little peril and risk of life. There were no-markets, and the resources for the growth and improvement of the locality were limited in character, and the growth of the new village was extremely slow. For many years traffic with the Indians constituted a very important item in the business transactions of our merchants. Many amusing scenes and anecdotes might be related of pioneer life, but as it is our purpose to chronicle briefly that of an historical nature, we will leave the romantic to those whose ability, augmented by the experience of early years, is greater than our own. As the surrounding country became more and more developed there was a corresponding increase in the population of the town ; also an expansion of business matters. The building of the railroads in after years marked a new era in the affairs of Monroeville. It not only infused new life in business matters, but was the means of a more rapid development of the surrounding country. It opened up new and hitherto unapproachable markets, placed us upon the plane of equality with other and older towns, and was in every respect a consummation that had been long and devoutly wished." The Ohio Gazetteer of 1837 in speaking of this village says : "From this town to Sandusky City a track for a railroad has been cut out and graded, and it is expected that the road will soon be ready for use. * * * It has improved rapidly within a few years and now contains several splendid brick buildings, Vol. I-20