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FIRST SETTLERS.
The
first settlers of Sandusky County, outside of the old military
reservation of Lower Sandusky, and excepting the French and
captive settlers on the Sandusky prairies, penetrated the forest
near the eastern border, and were mostly eastern people, who had
temporarily located in the fire lands. Land east of the
reserve line was selling at prices ranging from two to four
dollars per acre. Preferable land on this side was
surveyed and platted in 1819 and 1820 preliminary to being
placed on the market at one dollar and a quarter an acre.
Emigrants, when on the ground, with their goods packed in large
covered wagons, sought out a dry spot in the trackless
wilderness, cut out roads just wide enough to pass through and
erected temporary cabins. Two or three families usually
came together, and gave each other such assistance as was needed
in raising a house, which was made of small logs. Notches
were cut in on each side at the ends, so that the hastily built
structure might stand more firmly. Mud, plentifully mixed
with leaves, was used to fill the cracks, and a chimney of
sticks was built outside. These cabins were little better
than Indian huts, but the lone pioneer was unable to erect a
hewed-log house such as he heard his eastern parents talk about.
He was almost a solitary adventurer in an inhospital forest.
Having provided a shelter for his family, this advance guard of
the pioneer army next set to work to prepare a spot of ground
for corn, which in new settlements then was the staff of life.
He did not cut down all the trees, as is done in modern
clearing, but only the underbrush and saplings, the larger trees
were girdled to prevent them from leafing. These advance
settlers often planted considerable corn, without even clearing
away the water-soaked logs, which covered more than half the
surface.
Skirmishers of the pioneer army made their appearance
in Townsend in 1818, and about the same time in Green Creek and
York. This year also the incipient village of Lower
Sandusky extended up the river, as far as the second rapids, and
a few openings were made in the forest adjoining the bottoms
below town.
Sandusky county did not present the true picture of
pioneer life until after the public lands were platted and
placed upon the market. Huron County was by that time well
advanced in settlement and general improvement under rapid way.
The fame of the exhaustless fertility of Sandusky's fertile
vegetable soil had reached New York, and a stream of emigration
turned westward. Some came in large covered wagons all the
way, but by far a larger proportion utilized lake transportation
from Buffalo to Huron, and thence in wagons. Many Huron
settlers abandoned unfinished improvements, and began anew in
the adjoining forest of Sandusky, York, Townsend and Green Creek
Townships received their immigration mostly from New York.
Below the falls of the Sandusky the dry
[Pg. 99]
[Pg. 100]
[Pg. 101]
[Pg. 102]
DAVID GALLAGHER
HON. JEREMIAH EVERETT
[Pg. 103]
SAMUEL HOLLINSHEAD.
[Pg. 104]
[Pg. 105]
GENERAL W. H. GIBSON.
[Pg. 106]
[Pg. 107]
PHILANDER REXFORD.
[Pg. 108]
JONAS SMITH
[Pg. 109]
[Pg. 110]
MISS HARRIET A. HULBURD.
[Pg. 111]
REUBEN RICE.
[Pg. 112]
JUDGE WILLIAM CALDWELL.
[Pg. 113]
[Pg. 114]
has put up a comfortable house, but has had too much reverence
for his primitive dwelling to remove it. He has erected a
neat frame barn, a garden surrounded with a picket fence.
His stock has increased. The improvements of his neighbors
have reached him, and he can now look out without looking up.
A school district has been organized, and a comfortable log
schoolhouse has been erected. And she, the better part of
his household, must not be lost sight of, and she need not be.
She is busy with her domestic affairs. There is quiet and
even loneliness about her, but depend upon it. there are
in yonder schoolhouse, some half dozen that she cares for and
hopes for.
PAUL TEW.
[Pg. 115]
WEALTHY M. MORRISON
MRS. SARAH LANCE
[Pg. 116]
JAMES SNYDER
[Pg. 117]
HEZEKIAH REMSBURG.
[Pg. 118]
[Pg. 119]
JOHN LINEBAUGH.
[Pg. 120]
ADAM HENSEL.
[Pg. 121]
[Pg. 122]
JACOB BOWLUS
[Pg. 123]
| GERMAN LUTHERAN CHURCH.
GIBSONBURG |
ST. MARY'S CATHOLIC
CHURCH,
CLYDE |
| METHODIST CHURCH,
CLYDE
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CATHOLIC CHURCH,
GIBSONBURG |
[Pg. 124] - BLANK PAGE
[Pg. 125]
LYSANDER C. BALL.
JOSEPH LAMBERT, SR.
[Pg. 126]
MRS. ELIZA JENNINGS - INMAN
[Pg. 127]
[Pg. 128]
ARCHIBALD RICE
LEODEGAR LEHMANN
[Pg. 129]
[Pg. 130]
JOHN MOORE.
[Pg. 131]
JAQUES HURLBURD.
MRS. ELIZA JUSTICE
[Pg. 132]
JEMIMA EMERSON.
HON. ISRAEL HARRINGTON.
[Pg. 133]
[Pg. 134]
ALBERT R. CAVALIER.
HON. HOMER EVERETT.
[PHOTO OF HOMER EVERETT]
[Pg. 135]
[Pg. 136]
[Pg. 137] SANFORD G.
BAKER [Pg. 138]
[Pg. 139]
THE SENECA RESERVATION.
[Pg. 140]
[Pg. 141]
[Pg. 142]
THE WYANDOT'S FAREWELL
FURTHER CONCERNING THE SENECAS.
[Pg. 143]
[Pg. 144]
REMINISCENCES OF PIONEER DAYS.
By Nan Wolfe Stull.
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