WOOD COUNTY, OHIO - 181 CHAPTER XXIII. INDIAN AND PIONEER TRAILS-EARLY ROADS, BRIDGES, ETC.-THE "MUD PIKE "-TURN-PIKES -PERRYSBURG AND FINDLAY PLANK ROAD COMPANY-FERRYMEN-PERRYSBURG MARINE INCIDENTS-WRECKS-COMPARISONS-RAILROADS. THERE are no evidences, such as mounds, extensive burying grounds, or old worn trails, in Wood county, to indicate that there was ever anything more than a temporary occupation for war, hunting, and, at a later date, for sugar making in some of the maple ridges on or near streams. There was a trail from Tontogany creek through the chain of sand ridges to the Portage river, above the Infirmary building, and another from the waters of Beaver creek to the Portage. These trails were used mostly by the Ottawas, and their adherent bands of other tribes with them at their village on the north side of the Maumee, below Providence, in their journeys to and from the Sandusky river country and the lake about the mouth of Portage creek. A creek or river afforded the Indian an easy way of transporting by canoe his furs and such baggage as he and his squaws possessed, while he could at the same time fish, hunt and trap as he traveled. It may be that it was in this way that the Portage came by its name. On the early maps it is called Portage, or Carrying " river. Portage, or Portazh, as the French voyagers have it, meaning a carry between two streams or lakes or around an obstruction to navigation in a stream - that is, a place where the boat must be unloaded and the cargo carried across, and often the boat, if not too heavy, is dragged across. The birch canoe of the northern Indians, because of its lightness, was especially adapted to water where carrying Places were frequent. There was another trail used on the journey between Detroit and the Ohio river, which crossed at the lower end of the Maumee Rapids and passed through northeastern Wood county, as close to the lake as the marshy land would permit, in the direction of Sandusky Bay, beyond which it branched - one trail leading to the upper Ohio, the other to Chillicothe and points lower down. These latter trails were, during subsequent years, much used in war expeditions by both French and English, and by traders and explorers making land journeys south, but this end of the trail was never popular with the Indians, at least that part of it across the wet lands of Wood. Hull's Trace and Harrison's Trace are fully described in the chapter on the War of 1812, and references made to the army trails and first roads in the chapters on the Townships. The early roads, considered by the commissioners of Wood county, included one from the foot of the Maumee Rapids to Bellefontaine a section of which forms today the main street of 182 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO Bowling Green. On June 30, 1820, James Carlin, : Ephraim L. Learning and Norman L. Freeman were appointed viewers. The cost of laying out and surveying that road is given as follows: Wilson Vance, for two days surveying- $3.50; Norman L. Freeman, two days viewing and one surveying-$3.75; Ephraim H. Learning, three days viewing-$3.00; Samuel H. Ewing, two days carrying chain-$1.50; James Carlin, three days viewing-$3.00; Ezra Kelly, one day marking on the road-75 cents; Thomas Learning, one day carrying chain-75 cents; Thomas Mcllrath, one day carrying chain-75 cents; James H. Slawson, one day carrying chain-75 cents; Jacob Wilkinson, a day and one half chaining-$1.12 ; or a total of $18.87. Bonds given by Peter G. Oliver for $2,000 to open the State road from the foot of the Rapids to Fort Findlay, and by Jacob Wilkinson for $50, for viewing a road from Perrysburg to a point opposite Francis Charter's house, were accepted by the commissioners in 1820. Norman L. Freeman surveyed that road, and reported fully on his work July 11, when the commissioners declared it to be a public highway. The contractors--Thomas Mcllrath, Francis Charter and Isaac Richardson-did not open lots 1, 2 and 3, of this road according to contract, and, in December, were decidedly at loggerheads with the exacting commissioners; nor did Peter G. Oliver and A. Spafford escape their vigilance. In February, 1821, the commissioners, themselves, viewed the State and other roads, considered the contracts completed, and settled amicably with the persons named. The Act of February 2, 1821, providing for a State road from Fort Meigs to " Wapakoneta," was observed prior to November 21, that year, when John Johnson, of Miami county, and Samuel Marshall, of Shelby, submitted the plat and field notes. Such documents are copied in the back of the pioneer record book of Wood county. The plat and field notes, reported by Almon Gibbs and John Perkins, of the road from the town of Maumee to Fort Defiance, must also be interesting to surveyors and topographers, while the old record book presents several reports on other State and county roads. That old volume is deserving of the best care which lovers of old books, in this old county, can bestow. A road from the Foot of the Rapids to Learning & Stewart's sawmill, on Swan creek, was authorized in June, 1823, and Francis Charter, David Hull and Horatio Conant were appointed to view and survey it; but their report was not , considered until June, 1824, when a road, sixty feet wide, was ordered. At this time a road from Perrysburg to Grand Rapids was considered, and Ambrose Rice, Victory Jennison and Thomas R. McKnight were appointed viewers, while a year after the road from the Foot of the Rapids, in the direction of Tecumseh, Mich., was ordered. Of the $309.12 received from the three per cent. fund in 1826, the sum of $200 was set aside to be expended on the road from David Hull's cabin to Fort Findlay, and the residue to be expended in constructing bridges on that and on the road between Roche de Boeuf and Minard's, on the county line--all to be expended under the direction of Guy Nearing. In March, 1829, a road from Perrysburg t0 the Michigan line was ordered to be viewed, and in June a road from Carlin's "stone shop," crossing the Maumee at the ford, to the Perrysburg road, was authorized. Activity in road opening may be said to be first manifested in June, 1830, when petitions for new roads and changing the lines of old roads began to pour in. The Legislature in February, 1830, appointed James M. Workman and Thomas F. Jotin to locate a State road from Bellefontaine to Perrysburg, the line from Findlay to be between Ranges 10 and 11 to the Foot of the Rapids. This item, with several petitions for public roads, was considered in June, 1831, while in 1832 the Act for opening a road from Perrysburg to Bucyrus, described in the history of Freedom township as the McCutchenville road, was discussed and the road declared a public highway. The beginnings of the Maumee and Western Reserve road are told in the chapter on Public Lands. The construction of the " mud pike " was begun in 1825, and the road from Lower Sandusky to Perrysburg was lifted, so to speak, out of the swamp. That mud-road, the subject of all this legislation, was a veritable quagmire at certain seasons. Along the course were thirty-two taverns, where belated passengers might obtain refreshment and shelter, while the teamsters were engaged in lifting coach or wagon out of the mud holes. During the winter of 1837-38 its condition was so intolerable that the State granted a sum of $40,000 to be expended in filling the holes and macadamizing the road. In the report of the committee it was shown that a single stage coach in December, 1837, carried seventeen sacks of mail from Sandusky, and another, forty sacks, which had accumulated at Sandusky, owing to the fear of the drivers to undertake the trip to Perrysburg. At the same time, it was proved that during the winter months of 1837-38, no less than 5, 500 travelers passed over the road; WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 183 2,300 sleighs and sleds and 300 wagons, averaging for each day 180 footmen and 86 sleighs and wagons. In the summer of 1838 the work of macadamizing, from Perrysburg to the Portage river, commenced, under the superintendence of Gen. John Patterson, and the whole line to the Western Reserve was completed in 1842. One of the first turnpikes suggested by the people of Perrysburg, was that built in 1845. On March 7, that year, the commissioners talked with the directors of the Perrysburg, Findlay and Kenton Turnpike Road Co., on the subject of the purchase of that road, within the county. On March 10, a sale was negotiated by Willard V. Way, president, John McMahan and Schuyler N. Beach, directors of the road company of the first part, and the commissioners of the second part, on condition that all contracts on the road would be completed or declared abandoned on or before May 10, 1845. The county agreed to pay the amount of all contracts as well as $252 for engineering expenses and the claim of W. P. Rezner. This was a mud road of a very poor description. In the course of a few years, enterprising men secured it as a right of way for a plank road, and in a few more years that part of it north of Bowling Green was planked. The Perrysburg and Findlay Plank Road Co., was chartered by the Legislature February 3, 1849-Schuyler N. Beach, George Powers, E. D. Peck, W. H. Hopkins, Willard V. Way, Joseph Sargent and Collister Haskins et al. being the corporators. Under the section of the law, Plain township voted $2,000 subscription, by a majority of nine at the second election, and Perrysburg township subscribed $5,00o. These sums, with the capital of the projectors, were expended in the construction of a plank road (from Perrysburg to a point near the north line of the present town of Bowling Green), under the superintendency of John McMahan. A steam sawmill four miles south of Perrysburg, and one four miles north of Bowling Green, were used in sawing the native woods into plank, and, in 1853, or thereabouts, the road was completed and the inevitable toll-gate established. Perrysburg interests suggested the old turnpike as well as the plank road, intending to make the town accessible to the farmers in the interior; but the road was turned to the advantage of the precocious village near the county's center, and exercised no small influence in advancing the new town. The record of roads might be continued ad infinitum. Enough has been told, however, to point out the early roads and the pioneers connected with their construction. To go into the numerous turnpike road enterprises, of 1857-58 and later years, is entirely beyond the scope of this chapter. Ferrymen.-The ferrymen must be named; for, not only did they carry on important work here before the days of bridges, but also paid license for the privilege of serving the people. On October 6, 182o, George Patterson was licensed to run a ferry across the Maumee river, which license was renewed in 1821 ; Almon Gibbs was permitted to place a ferry at Miami, October 6, 1820, which he carried on until his death, in 1822; Moses Rice, at Fort Defiance; Horatio Conant, on the Maumee, March, 1823, to 1827; Daniel Hubbell, on the Maumee, from 1823 to 1834; Timothy F. Upton, on the Maumee, 1828 to 1831; and Eunice Upton, 1831-33; Jonathan Wood, from 1833 to 1838; Ezra Sawyer, 1835-36; Johnson White, at Miltonville, 1836-43; Hemperly & Brown, 1837-38; Marmaduke Bunting, 1838-39; S. H. Stedman, 1844-45; and D. W. H. Howard, 1844-45, at Grand Rapids. The old record book closes in 1844. Though deficient in giving locations of ferries, it is complete in the record of names and amounts paid for permits, and to it must be credited the writer's opportunity to deal even thus briefly with the early ferrymen. Perrysburg Marine,-The first craft on the Maumee was undoubtedly the light canoe of the Indian, which, as its owners became lower in nature's scale, gave place to the cumbersome dug out," a stout but tricky boat, which the English-speaking pioneers adopted on their coming. What were the names of the craft, which carried the early French explorers along the Erie coast of Ohio and up her navigable rivers, may never be known, nor will the historian be permitted to write the names of the little, trusty vessels, which carried to the Foot of the Rapids, the hardiest and happiest souls ever identified with the inauguration of Indian trade in the West. The coureur-des-bois left no record of the boats behind. Since 1810, however, the newspaper reporter and customhouse official have made it a duty to keep a record of the river marine, and from such records the following facts are taken. The old journal, known as Miami of the Lake, published in April, 1846, a list of schooners, steamboats and propellers, built on the Maumee below the rapids. In the first-class were the " Miami," built in 1810, a schooner of 25 tons; the "Guerriere," in 1827, 75 tons; the "Eagle," in 1827, 130 tons; the "Antelope," in 1828, 75 tons; the ''Michigan," in 1832, 130 tons; the "Walter 184 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. Joy," in 1835, 130 tons; the "Caroline," 50 tons; the "Gazelle," 75 tons, and the "John .Hollister," 130 tons, were also built in 1835, the " Favorite, " 150 tons, in 1837, and the "Scotland," 100 tons, in 1845-all constructed at Perrysburg, with the exception of the --Guerriere, " which was built at the mouth of Swan creek. Across the river, at Maumee, the " Merchant," 75 tons, was launched in 1834; the "Tippecanoe," 50 tons, in 1836; the "Maria," 10o tons, in 1836; the "Chippewa, " 25 tons, in 1837; the "Tom Corwin," of similar burden, in 1840; the " Robert Hollister," 120 tons, in 1844, and the "Ireland," in 1846. The " Major Oliver," built below Perrysburg in 1837, was of 150 tons burden, and the " Ottawa," built at Oregon the same year, 130 tons burden. They were all schooners like the " Chippewa," which was constructed at Chippewa in 1809 and brought into the Perrysburg trade in 1810 by her master, Capt. Anderson Martin, who built the " Miami." Both vessels were captured by the British in 1812, but were recaptured by Perry, during the naval fight, and restored to Martin, who placed them in service for conveying Harrison's army across to Canada and up the Thames in pursuit of Proctor. In 1833 steamboat building was introduced below Perrysburg, when the '' Detroit, " 200 tons, was launched. In 1835 the " Commodore Perry," 350 tons, was built at the Perrysburg yards; in 1837, the "General Wayne," 390 tons; the same year, the " John Marshall, 35 tons; in 1838 the " General Vance, " 50 tons; in 1844 the " St. Louis," 618 tons; and, in 1845, the " Superior," 567 tons-all owned by Perrysburg investors. The work of steamboat building began at Maumee in 1838, when the " Chesapeake," 412 tons, was launched. In 1840 the " General Harrison," 326 tons was placed in service; in 1843 the " James Wolcott," 8o tons; 1845, the- Troy," 547 tons; while at Toledo, the " Indiana, " 5 50 tons, was launched. The " Oliver Newberry " and "Andrew Jackson," built at Detroit, were purchased for the Maumee trade, and other sailing and steam craft brought in under purchase. The first propeller built at Perrysburg was the "Sampson," 250 tons, in 1843, and the second the "Princeton," 100 tons, in 1845. The "Globe," 300 tons, was launched from the Maumee yards in 1845, but like the others was owned by individual citizens of Perrysburg, and by the Perrysburg Steamboat Company The old captains were Martin, of the "Miami," Jacob Wilkinson, of the "Black Snake" (1815); David Wilkinson, of the "Guerriere" (1826), and of the "Eagle" (1828); Amos Pratt, of the " Antelope " (1829), of the " Maria " (1832), of the "Merchant" (1833), and of the "Gazelle," (1834); David Wilkinson, captain of the steamboat " Commodore Perry" (1835); E. K. Forbes, of the " Caroline " (1835), and of the Favorite" (1837); C. V. Jennison, of the " Maria" (1836); D. P. Nickerson, of the " Walter joy" (1835); Amos Pratt of the steamboat • General Wayne" (1837); Jesse Bailey, of the "Oregon" (1837); Charles G. Keeler, of the " Major Oliver" (1837); Shibnah Spink, of the steamboat "Gen. Vance" (1838); I. T. Pheatt, of the "Indiana" (1841); Amos Pratt, of the "Sampson" (1843); G. W. Floyd, of the " St. Louis" (1844); Amos Pratt, of the " Princeton " (1845); David Wilkinson, of the -Superior" (1845); C, G. Keeler, of the " Robert Hollister " (1846); Charles Ludlow, of the "Globe" (1846); Selah Dustin, of the '' John Hollister " (1847), and William Wilkinson, of the " Defiance " (1847). In 1818 the historic steamboat '' Walk in the Water," was built . for the Buffalo and Orleans trade, but it failed to run the bar below Perrysburg, and was placed on the Detroit line. Such schooners as the " Nancy Jane," of which Jacob Wilkinson was master; the " Sally," sailed by William Pratt, the "Walter," by Amos S. Reed, and the "Leopard " by John T. Baldwin, entered the river to the Foot of the Rapids in 1818 and 1819. The "Fire Fly," Luther Harvey master, entered in 1820. In 1823, Capt. Baldwin, named above, sailed the 12-ton schooner " Happy Return," while Isaac Richardson was master of the " Wapakoneta," a little boat of 12 tons. The " Vermillion," 34 tons, of which John Baldwin was master, and " The Packet " of Miami, sailed by Almon Reed, entered in 1824. This Reed was master of the " Lady Washington " in 1825. In 1830, Henry Brooks brought in the "Essex, " a schooner of 30 tons; in 1831, the " Independence " sailed by James Foster, entered the port, and these boats, with nearly all of those built at Perrysburg, Maumee and Toledo, may be said to have been engaged in the Maumee trade. In 1837, the steamboat "Gen. Wayne," under Capt. H. C. Williams, plied between the Head the Rapids and Flat Rock, near Defiance, so that passengers might leave Perrysburg at noon and arrive at Defiance about 7 o'clock in the evening, or leave Defiance at 6 o'clock in the morning and arrive at the Head of the Rapids about noon. In May, 1838, the " Andrew Jackson " ran between Perrysburg and Manhattan, stopping at Maumee, Oregon, Upper Toledo and Lower Toledo four times a day, and, in 1839, the " Oliver Newberry " and "Erie " made regular WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 185 trips between Perrysburg and Detroit, leaving at 7:30 A. M. and arriving at Detroit about 4 P. M. Prior to this, even from 1822, a number of lake vessels called regularly at Perrysburg en route from Buffalo to Detroit In 1846, the aggregate tonnage of the Maumee Valley was more than half the steamboat tonnage of the lakes in 1835, and lacked only a ton of being one-fourth of the entire steamboat tonnage of 1845. The tonnage of sailing vessels, constructed in the Valley, lacked only 1,025 pounds of being one-fifth of the aggregate lake tonnage in 1835, and only 875 pounds of being one-fourteenth the aggregate tonnage of 1846. Hundreds of stories relating to these days are still told. Hosmer pictures the determined character of the old lake captains of the Maumee more than once, and Capt. David Wilkinson particularly. In the fall of the year 1840, Capt. Wilkinson's steamboat, "Commodore Perry," was lying at the Perrysburg dock, the Captain was sick, and his crew were either sick or scattered. The Captain was a great admirer of Commodore Perry, and always made it a point to attend celebrations of Perry's victory over the British fleet at Put-in-Bay. In that year the great naval triumph was celebrated in grand style at Erie, Penn. Sick as was, Wilkinson, he was bound to attend the celebration, and insisted upon Shibnah Spink taking charge of the boat for the trip. A raw crew was collected, the Captain was carried to the boat and placed on a cot in his room, and the trip was made successfully, though not without many difficulties. which seemed almost insurmountable. Those who knew him were not surprised at his snaking the trip, for all obstacles were forced to yield when he determined upon a line of action. The story of the "Queen Mab," as associated with the old "Exchange Hotel," is a familiar one to the people of Perrysburg. Inside the bar was a small trap door in the floor known to but few persons. Beneath was a walled cellar deep and dark which was reached by a step ladder. This unknown vault was once stored full of the highest grades of imported liquors. How they came there, where from and when, outsiders did not know. About that time a fellow named jack Olney frequented the Maumee a good deal. Jack was a New Yorker, a confirmed cripple, yet a jolly, openhanded sort of a fellow, a favorite with sporting men. Jack owned a little pleasure craft called " Queen Mab. " She was ship-rigged in every appointment, painted black, and as handsome as a bird and a good hailer. Jack frequented the river, bay, and lake as far as Detroit and Malden, and often indulged his friends in a pleasure ride on the "Queen Mab, " treating them with the most generous hospitality. But the report leaked out after the "Queen''had gone, that she was a sly little smuggler, false lined and equipped for the business, yet so carefully as to leave no ground for suspicion. So insignificant a craft of course received no attention from the custom officer who was stationed then at Miami, and the dark-mantled little " Queen" had no trouble in taking on a valuable cargo at Malden in the night and making her way unsuspected to any of the lake or river ports. Whether she ever landed a cargo on the island in the Maumee in front of Perrysburg, which afterward found its way to the dark cellar, is at best only a surmise. Bensman and Thurber, the original proprietors of the house, who were favorites on the -Queen," are gone; the cellar walls have long since tumbled in, but the impressions of our chronicler are that Jack Olney could tell how that cellar came to be stored with the best imported high grade liquors, and that there never was a gayer smuggler than the little " Queen Mab." Among the stories of wrecks by winds, or collisions, or fires, that of the schooner " Eclipse," in September, 1822; of the schooner Sylph," in May, 1824; that of the schooner "Surprise," April 28 or 29, 1826; that of the schooner "Guerriere,'' May 29, 1832; and that of the steamer "G. P. Griffith," June 17, 185o, concern the marine of the Maumee, either in ownership or personnel of people lost. In 1826, Capt. David Wilkinson commanded the " Guerriere" and rescued the survivors of the wrecked "Surprise. " In 1832, the "Guerriere" was sailed by R. Pember for John Hollister, the owner. When lost on Middle Sister Island, May 29, 1832, it was Capt. Pember who saved most of the crew and passengers, a woman and her four children being lost. In 185o, Charles C. Robey was captain of the " G. P. Griffith." He, his wife, mother-in-law and two children, all of Perrysburg, were drowned, and about 300 passengers perished in the waters of Lake Erie. Most of the crew, too, were lost, so that, all in all, the burning of the steamer, in sight of Fairport, Ohio, that 17th of June, 1850, was a calamity as appalling then as the burning of a great ocean liner would be to-day. Comparisons.-In 1838, the merchants of Perrysburg paid on freight from New York City at the rate of $22 a ton, 74a the Erie canal and lake boats, while from Perrysburg to Chicago a sum of $10 extra was charged. The fall rates WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 186 were very much higher, being no less than $4 for a package the size of a barrel between Buffalo and Chicago. The insurance was $12.50 a ton between these points, and between Perrysburg and Chicago $8.34 a ton. The completion of the Michigan Southern Railroad to Chicago, in 1852, changed all this, brought Perrysburg within a few hours' ride of the Gateway to the West, and made traveling a luxury rather than an affliction. In 1841 Toledo began to take the lead of Perrysburg in marine interests; in 1842 seven steamboats were, gathered under one management to run between Buffalo and Toledo, and, within a few years, the new town on the site of Fort Industry took precedence in everything except beauty of location. Perrysburg, of course, did not lose all her marine interests; for, until recent years, ship building was carried on, and several large boats were launched from her yards each year. Railroads.-In 1832 the Ohio Legislature granted charters to twelve railroad companies, but of the number the Mad River & Lake Erie was the only one constructed. In 1839 this road was completed to Bellevue from Sandusky, and in 1844 to Dayton, Ohio. In 1832, when the name Toledo began to mean the village on each bank of the Maumee, below the Rapids, the idea of railroads running through the Black Swamp took possession of the leading spirits among the people, and Toledo would, in their mind's eye, become the great terminal of many systems. There were 232.54 miles of railroad completed in Wood county down to the close of 1893, of which the B. & O. had 24.46 miles; the Bowling Green, 21.21; the Columbus, Findlay & Northern, 1.06; the C., H. V. & T., 35.38; the Dayton & Michigan, 37.34; the L. S. & M. S., 15.51; the T. & O. C. main line, 41.40, and Western line, 40.87; the Toledo, St. Louis & Kansas City, 2.09, and the Toledo, Walhonding Valley & Ohio, 13.42. The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad begins its history with the charter granted by Michigan, in 1832, to the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Co. Its history, so far as it relates to Wood county, begins in 1850, when the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad was undertaken, which was completed to Toledo, December 20, 1852, and through service to Chicago inaugurated February 7, 1853. The Junction Railroad Co. began paralleling the T., N. & C. in 1850, via Perrysburg and Maumee, and pushed forward the work as far as grading and building piers for the proposed bridge at Perrysburg. In 1853 the enterprise fell into the ownership of what is now the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Co., and work ceased along the line, though subsequent efforts were made to have the road completed. The vote of Perrysburg, in May, 1851, on the question of subscribing $50,000 to the Junction Railroad Co. was 98 pro and 1 contra the odd fellow being a German laborer who had his own ideas on such subscriptions. In June, W. V. Way was elected a director; B. F. Hollister and John C. Spink being among the directors elected October 251 185o. The Cleveland and Toledo company constructed a bridge at Toledo in 1855. The line between Cleveland and Buffalo was completed in 1853 by three corporations known as the Buffalo & Erie, the Erie & Northeast and the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Companies. In 1853 the Erie & Northwest was consolidated with the other two roads, and its sixfoot gauge made to correspond with the four-foot-ten inch gauge of the two roads forming that link in the present trunk line. The Erie Gauge war resulted. In 1869 the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Co. was formed as owner in fact of all the lines named, together with the proprietary roads known as the Toledo & Detroit, the White Pigeon & Kalamazoo, the Jonesville & Lansing, and the lines running to Oil City, Pennsylvania. The Ohio Railroad Company, organized at Painesville April 25, 1836, was granted $249,000 by the State, and large sums of money from the people along its proposed line, from the Pennsylvania boundary to Manhattan, on the Maumee, 177 miles. At Maumee the crossing of the river would be made so as to connect with the proposed Manhattan & Detroit Railroad. Under the plans of the projectors, the superstructure from the Maumee to Fremont (twenty-nine miles) was completed in March, 1842; but here the work ended, and the sum of $237,220, or $11,780 less than the State contributed, was lost. The Pittsburg & Bellefontaine Railroad was a reality so far as bonds and good will were concerned. The Act authorizing Wood county to subscribe $100,000 to this road was observed by the commissioners April 23, 1839, when they subscribed for one thousand $10o shares and appointed an agent to borrow the money. As told in the transactions of the commissioners, this agent's report and his resignation were received and accepted, and the end of the enterprise was at hand. There is no report of the cancellation of the subscription, or of any further dealing with the bonds. The Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad Company may be said to have become the owner WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 187 of Wood county's first north and south road. The Dayton & Michigan Railroad Co. was chartered in Ohio, March 5, 1851, to build a road from Dayton, Ohio, through Wood county, via Lima and Toledo, to the Michigan line in the direction of Detroit. On June 17, 1859, the road was completed to Tontogany. On August 18, 1859, the road was completed to Toledo, the cost of construction and equipment being $6,903,190.92. T. J. S. Smith was then president, Matthew Shoemaker, superintendent, and Preserved Smith, treasurer. Ten days after the date given, its first freight was received at Toledo, being ten cars of staves consigned to P. H. Brickhead & Co. On May 1, 1863, the D. & M. was consolidated with the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton road. Down to 1880, a rate as high as ten cents a mile, and as low as two and one-fourth cents a mile, was charged for passenger service. The frieght rates ranged from seven to twenty cents a ton for one mile to one and four cents a ton a mile, for through freight. The main line from Toledo to Cincinnati is 202.3 miles in length; Dayton to Ironton, 164.1 miles; Dayton to Delphos, 94.9 miles; Tontogany to North Baltimore, 19.4 miles; Cincinnati to Middletown, 13.9 miles; Hamilton to Indianapolis, 99 miles; and Desher to Findlay, 18. 1 miles, or 61 1.7 miles of single track. The Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railway was conceived in 1867, to remedy the delays in travel between Cincinnati and Toledo, via the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati and the Cleveland and Toledo Railroads. At a meeting held in Columbus in 1867, Gen.. Robinson, of Hardin county, presiding, with Fred R. Miller, of Wood county, secretary, it was resolved to continue the Columbus & Hocking Valley Railroad, then in operation northward. At a meeting held the same year in Toledo, the authority to seek charters for four companies was given; C. C. Waite, a son of Chief Justice M. R. Waite, was appointed chief engineer, and by December 13, 1867, he reported the survey of a line, 1231 miles in length, from Toledo, via New Rochester, Freeport, West Millgrove, Fostoria, Springville, Upper Sandusky, Marion, Middleton, Bellepoint, White Sulphur Springs, and Dublin, to Columbus. This line was not adopted. Within a year or two the "West Line, " 127%, miles long, was surveyed through Bowling Green and Marysville, while the "East Line," 123 1/2 miles in length, was surveyed almost over the route of the survey of 1867. In March, 1873, the choice of routes was submitted to the Toledo council, and that body selected the eastern survey. In May, 1873, Toledo, which had donated $200,000 toward the construction of the East Line, voted a similar sum toward the construction of a road over the western survey. Work was begun under the charter of May 28, 1872, to the Columbus & Toledo Co.. and to the other road, on each line, but the supreme court declared its donations unconstitutional, and this judgment caused the cessation of work on the "West Line," while the "East Line " builders pushed forward their enterprise, and on December 5, 1876, saw the road completed. On January 10, 1877, the first through passenger train, over that road, tolled through Wood county en route to Columbus. The Toledo & Woodville Railroad was a local enterprise of 1869, suggested to Toledoans by the greed of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, which down to that date commanded Toledo's commercial aspirations east of the river, and opposed them in many ways. This terminal road was to extend 22.1 miles southeast to Woodville, in Sandusky county, and offer to the new roads an easy entrance into the city. A sum of $450,000 was voted by the citizens toward the construction. J. H. Sargent surveyed the line, and April 10, 1870, J. Edwin Conant was awarded the contract for construction; but he surrendered such contract, and May 4, 1871, the directors contracted with the Baltimore & Ohio, the Toledo & Michigan, and the Mansfield, Coldwater & Lake Michigan Companies to pay for right of way and depot grounds, and bridge the Maumee, the city giving $420,000 in bonds, if the work were completed within eighteen months. The companies named contracted with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to iron the road, build depots, machine shops, and equip the little system. On June 11, 1872, the trustees, displeased with the slow procedure, accepted a contract from the Pennsylvania Company. On May 1, 1873, the road was open for traffic, and February 2, 1874, a train of twenty-seven cars left Toledo for Philadelphia. In 1878, the trustees sold the road to the Pennsylvania Company for $225,000, without conditions. It may be called a terminal road, since the great Pennsylvania Company, and the C., H. V. & Toledo use it in entering from the south; the Detroit & Canada Southern, the Toledo, Ann Arbor & North Michigan, and the Ohio & Michigan, in entering from the north. It is not now known by its original name. The Toledo & State Line road, built in 1872-73, was merged into the Pennsylvania system, and now forms a part of that road. The Ohio Central Company is the, new name of the Atlantic & Lake Erie Railroad Company, WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 188 incorporated in June, 1869, to build a railroad from Toledo, via Fostoria, Bucyrus, Mt. Gilead, New Lexington and Athens, to Columbus. What work was done under that charter became the property of the reorganized company-the Ohio Central Railroad Company--in 1899, when the Sunday Creek Valley road was absorbed. In 1880, the branch from Corning to Shawnee, in Perry county, was completed and accepted by the new company, so that by the new year of 1881, 148 miles of road, from Bush's Station to Toledo, and sixty-five miles from Corning to Columbus, were in operation. From September 29, 1883, to April 15, 1885, the company's affairs were in the hands of a receiver. Then the bondholders became owners, and reorganized as the Toledo & Ohio Central Railway Company. In August, 1886, the company leased a portion of the Kanawha & Ohio Railroad, and entered on that prosperous business career which has made it not only a great international coal-road, but also a great' freight and passenger road between Central and Northern Ohio. On January 30, 1883, the last spike in the Toledo and Indianapolis road, between Toledo and Findlay, was driven. On January 27, the first hand-car rolled into Bowling Green, and three days later passenger trains brought invited guests to the barbecue at Allentown, or Cygnet, in Bloom township, tendered by E. Shinabarger, the owner of the new village, in recognition of the completion of the road. The gross earnings for the year ending August 31, 1895, amounted to $1,903.990.04, and the net earnings to $190,740.23, The Toledo, St. Louis & Kansas City, known as "The Clover Leaf," is the new name of the Toledo, Delphos & Burlington Railway. The company, organized in May, 18.79, as the legal name of the consolidated companies, known as the Toledo, Delphos & Indianapolis Railway Company, organized in 1872; the Toledo & Maumee Narrow Gauge, incorporated the same year; the Delphos & Kokomo, and the Delphos, Bluff ton & Frankfort, incorporated in 1877. The project of building the Toledo, Thornton & St. Louis Railroad was discussed in January, 1872, before a meeting held at Bowling Green, Dr. T. M. Cook, E. Reed, S. L. Boughton and E. A. Barton being the principal speakers. In 1880 the Dayton, Covington & Toledo was absorbed, and in March, 1881, the Dayton & Southeastern. The last named company's line from Dayton to Gallipolis, 144 miles, was constructed, in fact, by the T. D. & B.; in 1881 the branch, from Lebanon to the junction, with the Cincinnati Northern, was built, and, same year, a branch from Wellston to Ironton was commenced. The extension of the Swan Creek road to Hamilton street, Toledo, where it connects with the T., St. L. &. K. C., was an individual rather than a corporate enterprise. George Laskey, who resided at Grand Rapids until his removal to Toledo, in 1877, was one of the founders of the T., St. L. & K. C. system. It was a narrow-guage road connecting Grand Rapids with Toledo, and, until and since its absorption by the " Clover Leaf, "the principal aid to Grand Rapids' trade and commerce. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.-The beginnings of this historic railroad were made July 4, 1828, by no less a personage than Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. The nucleus of this present immense system was for many years the only means of rapid transit between the Forks of the Ohio and Baltimore. In later years the road was gradually extended westward, after the design of its founders, and in our own times, by new lines and consolidation of short roads, pushed forward its iron bands to the Gateway of the West, becoming, under the Garretts, a trunk line connecting Lake Michigan with the Chesapeake-the old city of Maryland with the new and precocious city of Illinois. Early in 1872 the work of construction between Newark (Ohio) and Chicago was entered upon, and this extension of 365 miles completed, the road was opened for traffic to Baltimore, 831 miles, in November, 1874. The Pittsburg & Western, leased for some years by the Baltimore & Ohio Company, became the property of the company in 18g1, and, with the new road from Akron to Chicago junction, is used as the short line between Chicago and Baltimore-the old line via Bellaire and Grafton being 858.8 miles, or 27.8 miles longer than the road via Akron and Pittsburg. The total length of the four great divisions of this system is 2,052.98 miles, to which may be added 614.68 miles of second, third and fourth track, and 756.74 miles of side track, or a total of 3,4224.35. The rolling stock embraces 896 locomotives, 689 passenger coaches and 27, 589 freight cars. At Chicago its terminal facilities are represented by the great depot and yards known as the Grand Central Depot, a modern palace on Harrison street, near the business center, while at Washington and Baltimore its terminals hold even as close a relation to the hearts of these cities. The main line through Wood county (twenty-four miles in length within this county) was constructed under the charter of 1872. On this division all through trains over the old and new roads run, affording unusual advantages to the southern half of the county. The WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 189 road may be credited with founding the thriving towns of North Baltimore and Bloomdale, and the villages of Welker, Bairdstown, Denver and Hoytville; for without it, enterprising men would scarcely seek, on their sites, safe places for the investment of capital. The exhibit of the Baltimore & Ohio at the World's Fair was in itself a history in iron and wood, showing the quaint beginnings of the road in contrast with its present magnificence in extent and equipment. The general superintendent makes headquarters at Chicago, Ill., while the general passenger agentCharles O. Scull-has his office in Baltimore, the birthplace of the road. The Bowling Green & Tontogany Railroad, and the Bowling Green & North Baltimore Railroad are referred to in the chapter on Bowling Green. The Toledo & Maumee Valley Railroad Coinpany was organized by Parks Foster, W. A. Taylor, Thomas H. Tracey, A. K. Detweiller and others, to build a road from Toledo to Perrysburg. The road, eight miles in length, was completed in August, 1894 (in forty days), eight miles from the Toledo city limits to Perrysburg. Early in 1895 this company widened: the bridge at Perrysburg, so that this road will connect with the company's road to Maumee, making a belt road. Proposed extensions of this electric system are seriously entertained, and it would not be surprising to learn, within a few years, that all the important towns and villages of the county were connected with the county seat by electric railways. [Since the writing of the above the road has been extended to Bowling Green, completed October, 1896, and is in operation under the name of The Toledo, Bowling Green and Fremont Electric Railroad.] RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE