250 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY


able Governor Shelby of Kentucky always considered this campaign as the crowning glory of his distinguished career


Such famous Indians as Nicolas, the renegade Huron Chief ; Pontiac, Tecumseh, Little Turtle and the Crane were frequenters of this old Harrison trail and occasional residents of this place.


Under the treaty of 1817, the Indian title in Ohio was finally extinguished, and the land opened for settlement The place now known as Spiegel Grove became a portion of the northwestern quarter of Section 3 in the U. S. Reserve "Sandusky," which was entered by Josephus B. Stewart and William Oliver. When the patent was executed, however, by President Andrew Jackson in 1834, it was to their assignees Jacques Hulburd, one of the first settlers of Lower Sandusky ; and to the heirs of Martin Baum. After a partition by these owners, the first transfer was for an undivided half and was made in 1834, by which Sardis Birchard, the uncle of Rutherford B. Hayes, became the owner of about one half, including Spiegel Grove; and R. P. Buckland, who became a distinguished lawyer and soldier and who later formed a law partnership with Rutherford B. Hayes, became the owner of the remainder ; their properties being separated by the old State Road from Lower Sandusky (Fremont) to Fort Ball (Tiffin) now known as Buckland Avenue.


Several years after the purchase of Spiegel Grove tract, Mr. Birchard removed his residence from the village to the country home of Mr. and Mrs. James Vallette, in a house built about 1828 and now known as Edgerton Place. It is near the site of Colonel Ball's victory over the Indians on the banks of Sandusky River, on July 30, 1813, two days before the attack on Fort Stephenson. It was to this house that Mrs. Hayes brought Colonel R. B. Hayes, of the Twenty-third Ohio, after his partial recovery from his severe wound at South Mountain, in the opening of the Antietam campaign in 1862. Mr. Birchard, on his way to and from the village daily passed his new purchase, noted the deep woods, its pools of clear standing water reflecting like mirrors (the German word for Spiegel) the great trees and tangled boughs and swaying vines, listened to the songs of birds, the hooting of owls and the mourning of the doves, conned over the legends of the place, smiled over its traditional ghosts and spooks, recognized many a likeness to the scenes of the German fairy tales dear to his childhood ; named it Spiegel Grove and selected it for the site of the future home of his declining years with his nephew, Rutherford B. Hayes.


Sardis Birchard, this early patron of Spiegel Grove was born in Vermont, in 1801, and early left an orphan. Upon the marriage of his sister, Sophia, to Rutherford Hayes, the boy of

11 was adopted and went to live with them, and in 1817 was taken by them from Dummerston, Vermont, to Delaware, Ohio.


In 1822 occurred the death of Rutherford Hayes and the birth of his son Rutherford Birchard Hayes, and young Sardis Birchard, then 21 years of age, in his turn assumed the care of the family and became the devoted guardian of his sister's son. He never married. He was a man of extensive culture, artistic tastes, great practical force of character, and of the highest social and benevolent qualities. He was active in public and corporate works of progress in northern Ohio—the improvement of navigation, of vessel building, of the Western Reserve and Maumee Turnpike, a national work ; also of the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railway, of which he was at first the main support. In 1851 he organized a bank, which in 1863, he merged into the First National Bank of Fremont, standing fifth on the list of national banks, Mr. Birchard remain its president. He gave two public parks to the City of Fremont, endowed a public library for the use of the county and gave generously to the First Presbyterian and other churches of the city.


The house at Spiegel Grove was begun by Mr. Birchard in 1859 for the permanent home of his nephew and ward, who owing to his services in the army, in Congress and as Governor of Ohio did not occupy it till 1873, Mr. Birchard living there until that time and enjoying frequent joyful visits from his nephew and later from the latter's wife and young children.


The original house was a brick Structure,


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 251


two and one half stories high, surrounded on three sides by a veranda, but in 1873 General Hayes added two frame buildings containing a kitchen and an office and library. In 1880 preparatory to his return home from the White House he built a substantial addition on the north, duplicating the original gabled brick front of the house and materially remodelled the interior. In 1889 further extensive changes were made, at which time the present large dining room, kitchens and several upper chambers were added. This date remains memorable" in the family because before the alterations were finished the beautiful mistress of the house, who had looked forward eagerly to the large opportunities for hospitality, was stricken and died. Only two rooms of the old house now remain intact, the red parlor on the first floor and the ancestral room directly above it, which had been Mr. Birchard's chamber.


The house has high ceilings, spacious rooms with hardwood floors and many open fireplaces. A veranda eighty feet long and fourteen wide, so arranged as to make three laps to the mile, extends in front of the whole house. From the center of the large entrance hall one can look up four stories to the observatory, the upper halls forming balconies opposite the stairways. On either side of the front door hang portraits of Sardis Birchard and of George Washington, the latter being an original painting by Gilbert Stuart. The two archways opening from the hall are draped with the regimental flags of Colonel Hayes in the war with Spain, and in the Phillipine insurrection ; which take the place of his father's regimental flags of forty years earlier which are now carefully preserved in glass cases. Immediately behind, on a third archway, hang the "grandfather's guns" of the War of 1812, being the old flintlocks used by Rutherford Hayes of Vermont and James Webb of Kentucky. Opposite these, a glass case contains the side arms used by General Hayes during the War of the Rebellion ; two swords, two pistols, a field glass and an empty revolver holster. General Hayes had drawn his revolver, but lost it when his horse was instantly killed. and he himself badly injured while rallying his men during the morning surprise of Sheridan's Victory at Winchester. Eighteen Presidents of the United States, from Washington to Roosevelt, served as soldiers, but none other was wounded, with the single exception of James Monroe, when a young lieutenant at the battle of Trenton. General Hayes was wounded in battle six times, and had four horses shot under him during his four years' service, 1861-1865. A full length portrait of General Hayes in the uniform of a major-general hangs in one of the niches. The chimney-piece in the hall is hung with Indian tomahawks, totems, peace pipes, belts, wampum and mosaics. A silver plate presented to Mrs.. Hayes by the soldiers of the Twenty-third Regiment O. V. I., on the occasion of her silver wedding at the White House, is engraved with the log cabin in which Mrs. Hayes lived for two winters in her husband's camp in Virginia ; and with verses inscribed to "Our Mother."


The dining-room opening to the right of the hall is forty-six feet long and connected by an open archway with a library room of the same length, where is stored the fine historical library of President Hayes. This room preserves an atmosphere of homelikeness and comfort and is indicative of the well rounded character and refined principles of the student who arranged it. The many thousand volumes of Americana include apparently everything which has been writen. In the drawing-room hang life-sized portraits of President Hayes, by Brown, and of Mrs. Hayes, by Andrews, and other choice portraits and landscapes. Books are here too in great profusion, many of them being first editions and invaluable autograph copies. Fine old mahogany furniture, a magnificent Chinese rug, embroideries, a facsimile of the desk on which Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence; six great vellum volumes of autographs; a bronze figure of Lincoln and the cast of his hand ; seals used by Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson, a cup made from Farragut's flagship, are interesting treasures of this room.


The red parlor to the left of the hall contains a full length portrait of the only daughter of the house, a water color by Turner, oil landscapes by Bierstadt and others.


The bedroom in which both President and Mrs Hayes died faces the south and overlooks


252 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY


one of the most beautiful parts of the grove. The furniture is of fine old mahogany and the books, and pictures of Mrs. Hayes remain exactly as arranged by General Hayes after her death.


One of the most beautiful rooms of the home is the great dining-room with large windows at each end looking upon the lawns. The shelved chimney piece over the large fireplace is devoted to fine examples of old Indian pottery, and elk horns, and the skull and jaws of a huge grizzly shot by Colonel Hayes. The two old mahogany sideboards are family heirlooms, descended from the Birchard and the Webb sides of the house respectively ; two mahogany serving-tables from the White House, purchased during Madison's administration, were bought in at a public sale of discarded furniture in 1881 ; as also was a handsome secretary, purchased during Lincoln's time and used in the President's cabinet room until its sale,with many other interesting relics, on the renovation of the White House after the death of President McKinley. Other furniture of the dining-room is 'a Korean cash box, studied with brass, swastika ; and a second chest, superbly carved, fashioned from cabinet doors brought by Colonel Hayes from Peking. An antique clock which ticks circumspectly near the dining-room door was bequeathed to the President by his grandmother and brought hither from the ancestral Hayes homestead in Brattleboro, Vermont. On this clock stands the owl, which by dangling on the plumb-bob of the Washington Monument nearly caused the despair of the engineer in charge, who thought that his foundation had proved insufficent and that the monument was "wobbling."


Scarcely less than the rooms on the first floor, the uper chambers are crowded with historic and beautiful objects The ebony room contains furniture designed by a cousin, William Rutherford Mead, of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, and purchased by President Hayes for use in his little daughter's room at the White House and to be retained by her as a souvenir. The ancestral room has untold treasures from a colonial and antiquarian point of view ; and other rooms are fitted with furniture and hangings collected by Colonel Hayes in the Orient. One of these, the Oriental room, contains a Chinese bed, a monumental affair carved inlaid and paneled with paintings on rice paper ; while the Filipino room contains typical furniture, a console, a peacock dresser, and two canopied cane-bottomed bedsteads.


Upon General Hayes's personal assumption of the Spiegel Grove property in 1873, he began to improve and beautify the place, preserving and accentuating its natural advantage by clearing out indifferent trees, extending the lawns immediately about the house to let in the sunlight, opening vistas to throw into relief some superb old oak or elm ; and planting the hemlock avenue and windbreaks of spruce and pines The handsome Japanese cypress and deciduous trees south of the house were sent thither from the Centennial Exposition in 1876, being among the earliest of such Japanese importations.


General Hayes took particular pleasure in gathering historic trees, among which were a Napoleon willow, the forebears of which were willows on Washington's grave at Mt. Vernon and Napoleon's at St. Helena ; two oaks grown from acorns of the veritable Charter Oak of Hartford, Connecticut ; and tulip trees from the Virginia h0me of James Madison. General Hayes would point out to interested visitors storied trees, like the one to which the savage Indians bound a captive maiden and built a fire about her, when a thunder storm burst and put out the flames. White traders hearing of the outrage sent a swift runner to Detroit to get an order for her release from the Crane, the Wyandot chief, and he returned in time to save the captive. Another tree with a tale is "Grandfathers," an oak with a large hole near its base, under which Mrs. Hayes's father camped one cold night during the War of 1812. The story ran that he and a comrade were sent out to forage for. provisions. It was so bitterly cold that they could not make their way back to camp, and building a fire at the foot of this 'tree they slept there in the open. The soldiers in camp had their feet frozen that night, but this pair escaped such disaster. The old musket and hunting-horn of this Private James Webb, of the Kentucky Mounted Riflemen, are among the treasurers of the house.


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 255


West of the residence, in an open field adjoining Spiegel Grove, General Hayes laid out the Lucy Hayes Chapel in young walnut trees, with nave, transepts and tower—a chapel which he used to say would be worth looking at two hundred years hence


General Hayes moved the main entrance to Spiegel Grove from a point almost directly in front of the house to its present location at the northern entrance of the Harrison Trail, and laid out the winding driveway to the house. The entrance is further marked by a thirteen-inch shell fired by the battleship Oregon at Morro Castle in the siege of Santiago de Cuba in the war with Spain, which failing to explode was later presented to Colonel Hayes by Admiral Clark, captain of the Oregon, after whom the Admiral Clark Oak was named, the group near the General Corbin Oak and the General Young Oak.


The main drive through Spiegel Grove follows the old Harrison Military Trail of the War of 1812. clown which General Harrison brought his troops on his way to Fort Stephenson after Croghan's Victory. The road leaves Spiegel Grove by the southwest gateway, continuing down to the old French Spring, and on to Ball's Battlefield, Fort Seneca, Fort Ball (Tiffin) and upper Sandusky to Franklinton. (now Columbus).


Of the many interesting events which have occurred at Spiegel Grove, the more prominent were the meeting and greeting of General Hayes by his old neighbors and friends in Fremont. on the evening of his third nomination for Goyernor of Ohio in 1875, after what he had considered as his permanent retirement from public life. The next year this was followed by another gathering on the occasion of his last visit home prior to his departure from the State Capital at Columbus to be inaugurated as President of the United States. Six months later occurred the greatest demonstration in the history of the town, in the annual reunion of his regiment, the Twety-third Ohio, on the 14th of September, 1877, followed as it was bv the dedication of the new City Hall building. During this reunion, President Hayes entertained the members of his regiment at a luncheon on a table spread upder five of the giant oaks of Spiegel Grove. At this table also was General Philip H. Sheridan, the favorite battle general of the War of the Rebellion; and the four colonels of the regiment in the persons of General W. S. Rosecrans, E. P. Scammon, Rutherford B. Hayes and J. M. Comly, together with the first lieutenant-colonel, later Justice Stanley Matthews of the Supreme Court. The five oak trees were christened for the five guests. Major William McKinley was the orator of the day, and other speakers included Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite and James A. Garfield, after whom in later years were named the McKinley Oaks, the Chief Justice Waite Oak and the Garfield Maple, to commemorate visits by them. The finest elm in the grove was christened the General Sherman Elm, on the occasion of his visit after his memorable trip escorting President Hayes and party to the Pacific coast and the Texan frontier posts. President Hayes was the first Chief Executive to visit the Pacific coast during his term of office. On the return of President Hayes to Fremont, after leaving the White House, he was greeted most cordially by his fellow townspeople and escorted to his home where he delivered a short address in which he expressed his love for his old home and his neighbors of many years standing. He said in the course of this talk :


"This is a good place to find an answer to the question which is often heard : What is to become of the man, what is he to do, where is his place, who having been Chief Magistrate of the Republic retires at the end of his term to private life? It seems to me the answer is near at hand and sufficient. Let him like every other good American citizen be willing promptly to bear his part in every useful work that will promote the welfare, the happiness and the progress of his family, his town, his State, and his country. With this disposition he will have work enough to do and that sort of work which yields more individual contentment and gratification than the more conspicuous employments 0f public life from which he has returned."


Four years later, as President of the Sandusky County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monu-


256 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY


ment Association, President Hayes presided at an enormous gathering at the exercises of the dedication of the Soldiers' Monument in Fort Stephenson park to commemorate the services of the soldiers of all wars of Sandusky County, but particularly in memory of Major George Croghan and the gallent defenders of Fort Stephenson on the 2d of August, 1813.


The sudden and unexpected death of President Hayes's beloved wife, June 21, 1889, came as a great shock not only to himself but to the community at large, and a great number of friends gathered at Spiegel Grove to show their respect and love. His comrades of the Twenty-third Ohio, serving as guard of honor, marched down the Old Harrison Trail en route to Oakwood Cemetery. A little less than four years later, another great concourse gathered at Spiegel Grove out of respect to the departed soldier and statesman. Chief among the mourners was the ex-President, and now again President-elect, Grover Cleveland, who made the long journey in the midst of furious winter storms to show his frequently expressed admiration and regard. With President Cleveland, in the red parlor, were gathered also members of the Cabinet who represented President Harrison ; Generals Corbin, Breckenridge and Luddington, who represented the United States Army ; Governor William McKinley of Ohio and the State officers and members of the Ohio Legislature; the official representatives of the Loyal Legion, of which President Hayes was commander-in-chief ; and representatives of many other military, literary, educational and philanthropic organizations with which he was connected. A deep snow covered the ground, trees and shrubery so that the scene was a most striking one, to which the gaudy coloring of the military trimmings, indicative of the different arms of the military service, added much to make it a scene long to be remembered.


Four years after the death of President Hayes, his former regimental comrade and aide, William McKinley, as President of the United States, was an honored guest at Spiegel Grove on the occasion of the marriage of Fanny, the only daughter of the house, to Ensign Harry Eaton Smith, United States Navy. On the following day the reunion of the Twenty-third Regiment was for the second time held at Spiegel Grove. Mrs. McKinley and the ladies invited to meet her occupied sofas and chairs 0n the roof of the broad veranda from which they looked down on the speaker's Stand constructed around a group of five white oaks, since called the McKinley oaks, from which stand President McKinley and other prominent men spoke.


On the ninetieth anniversary of the defense of Fort Stephenson, August 1, 1903, a memorial tablet was dedicated on old Fort Stephenson and the George Croghan Chapter, D. A. R. held a reception at Spiegel Grove in honor of Mrs. Charles W. Fairbanks, the president general of the D. A. R. ; and Mrs. O. J. Hodge, the Ohio regent. An address was delivered by the Hon. C. R. Williams of Indiana. An elm was planted on the knoll by the Daughters, and ivy from Warwick Castle on one of the great oaks, by the Colonial Dames of Toledo. Again on August 2, 1906, the remains of Major George Croghan were reinterred at the foot of the monument erected in his honor on Fort Stephenson Park ; and the grave covered with myrtle taken from the Croghan family burying ground at Locust Grove, near Louisville, Kentucky, where Croghan had been originally interred after his death in 1849. Addresses were made at Fort Stephenson by the Hon. Chas. W. Fairbanks, vice-president of the United States; Gov. A. L. Harris of Ohio, and others, after which a public reception was held in their honor at Spiegel Grove.


Just before starting on his speaking campaign during the Presidential canvass of 1908, Judge William H. Taft and his charming wife (who as Miss Helen Herron had been a frequent visitor at the Hayes home both in Ohio and at Washington) came to spend a day at Spiegel Grove as the guests of Colonel Hayes, the present owner. They were conveyed from the landing place at Port Clinton on Lake Erie in automobiles to Fort Stephenson, and then on to Spiegel Grove, where they were entertained at luncheon and in looking over the old house. Judge Taft was advised by his host of the custom of naming trees after distinguished visitors, and after having had pointed


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 257


out to him the General Sherman elm, the Cleveland hickory, the Garfield Maple and the McKinley Oaks, he was invited to select his tree. He promptly advanced to one of the grandest oaks in the grove, immediately in front of the mansion, a tree some thirteen feet in circumference and, placing his hand upon it, said with a Taft smile : "This is about my size !" since which the 'time the tree has been known as the Taft Oak.


The Cleveland Hickory was also named by the laying on of hands. On the occasion of the attendance of President Cleveland at the funeral of President Hayes, the family carriage horses became somewhat fractious owing to the crisp air and the music of the bands so that as President Cleveland was about to enter the carriage the horses made a plunge forward. President Cleveland temporarily alighted, and while the horses were being brought under control he placed his right hand upon a thrifty shell-bark hickory, thereupon deemed especially appropriate to be named in honor of the great Democrat.


On October 18, 1908, the occasion of the annual State conference of the Ohio Daughters of the American Revolution, a brilliant reception was held at Spiegel Grove. During the summer months ever since the return of the President and Mrs. Hayes from Washington in 1881, Spiegel Grove has been the scene of many delightful gatherings of their guests, and this custom has been continued to the present time. Since the inauguration, of the National Rifle contests, at Camp Perry, on Lake the visiting teams, especially the members of the teams representing the army, navy and marine corps have been frequent visitors for week-end parties during the period of the contests.


Thus there is no absence at Spiegel Grove of that tradition which Ruskin thought would "rob your rivers of their laughter and your flowers of their light." Nature and artifice working hand in hand have stamped beauty and story upon its every detail. One feels that the influence of the early denizens of the place still haunts it ; that over house and grounds broods a spirit of beautiful other days when a sturdy man and a lovely woman who had received the highest honors in the land lived there, leaving behind them traditions of gracious manners, high ideals and noble characters as a legacy to their children, townspeople and countrymen. Of memorial parks such as Spiegel Grove this land has all too few.


The deed from Colonel Hayes to the State of Ohio for the Harrison Trail State Park, now a portion of Spiegel Grove, conveys about one half of the Spiegel Grove property and reads : "To have and to hold to the State for the use and benefit of the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society, so long as the premises shall be maintained and used as a State park, in which the old French and Indian trail along the Sandusky-Scioto water course from Lake Erie to the Ohio River, later known as the Harrison Military Trail of the War of 1812, shall be preserved in its present location and maintained as a drive, and in which the trees, shrubs and flowers now growing in said park shall be preserved and cared for, and together with such other trees, shrubs and flowers as may hereafter be planted in said park shall be properly marked with the scientific and common names, so as to be instructive and interesting to visitors."


Furthermore : "The Grantor reserves the right to transfer the remains of Rutherford B. Hayes and Lucy W. Hayes to the knoll in the premises hereby conveyed in Spiegel Grove, to be placed is a granite block beneath the monument heretofore designed and erected by Rutherford B. Hayes in Oakwood Cemetery, Fremont. The said monument, together with such improvements as shall be placed around it, shall be preserved and maintained forever, but no building or structure save the monument, other than. a suitable enclosure from the public roads, or around the monument shall be erected in said park without the consent of the grantor in writing."


In the will made by President Hayes but a short time before his death, he bequeathed, at the request of his children, Spiegel Grove and all the personal property connected therewith to them to be held in common without sale or division. Five years later, the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society, of which President Hayes was the president at the time of


258 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY


his death, issued a confidential circular with a view of securing the property with its valuable library and collections, which had been tendered them on the sole condition of raising an endowment sufficient to preserve and care for the property. In this circular the society said : "This offer of the family is unusual for its liberality, and most worthy of commendation for the filial desire it expressess to perpetuate the memorial to loved and honored parents. The place known as Spiegel Grove is of great historical interest, being located in the old Indian reservation or free territory maintained at the Lower Rapids of the Sandusky River, for a long time prior to the Revolutionary War. The old Harrison Trail, so called, a military road, leads from Fort Stephenson to Fort Seneca passes through the Grove and is preserved as its principal driveway. Of all the homes of our twenty-four presidents, covering a period of 110 years, the only ones that have been preserved are those of Washington at Mount Vernon ; Jefferson at Monticello ; Madison at Montpellier ; Jackson at the Hermitage; and Lincoln's modest home in the city of Springfield. * * * * * But in every case mentioned more or less time had elapsed before the homes were acquired and put in a state of preservation, and few or no personal relics or memorials were secured. Spiegel Grove is now in a perfect state of preservation, and all of the valuable historical effects of President Hayes remain there intact. Unquestionably this is the largest and most complete and perhaps most valuable collection of documents, papers and books ever left by any of our presidents. President Hayes was a great reader and a man. of scholarly tastes and attainments. He acquired the finest library of American history perhaps ever owned by any priyate individual, and during his public life he preserved all papers and memoranda in an orderly and accessible form."


The society, however, did not succeed in raising the required endowment and the entire Spiegel Grove property, library and collection, became the property of Col. Webb C. Hayes, by deed from the other heirs in the settlement of the estate in 1899, since which time he has maintained it as the Hayes family summer home. Colonel Hayes became much interested in locating and marking for preservation the old French and Indian trail, the northern half of which was later known as the Harrison Military Trail of the War of 1812. This trail extends for over half a mile of its length through Spiegel Grove; and in the numerous conferences with the officers of the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society looking to its preservation, the eventual disposition of the Spiegel Grove property was again brought up. On October 7, 1908, a formal offer was made by Colonel Hayes "to deed to the state or to your society, the road or drive in Spigel Grove now known as the Harrison Trail, together with all the adjacent tract of land (about ten acres), to be forever preserved as a state park." Colonel Hayes added a clause which partially revived the original proposition, "that in the event of your society securing the erection of a suitable fireproof building on said Spiegel Grove property, I will transfer to your society or the state a suitable site therefor in said Spiegel Grove, together with all papers, books and manuscripts left by my father for permanent preservation in such building," together with his own very large collection ; and expressed the desire that eventually all of the Spiegel Grove property, including the residence should be under the care of the society. though maintained as the Hayes family home, typical of the American home of the last half of the nineteenth century.


Not only has everything been preserved as it was left by President Hayes at the time of his death, but his son, Colonel Hayes, has added very largely through his indefatigable efforts in collecting articles of military and historical interest gathered not only during his service in the army in Cuba, Porto Rico, the Philippines and China ; but in his numerous journeyings since leaving the military service, in China. the Orient, South America and in several trips around the world. The care of the grounds has likewise received constant attention ; interesting trees and shrubs have been planted along the edge of the public highways in such a manner as not to detract from the beauty of the natural grove, but yet screen the highways from the house. The knoll to the south has


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 259


been carefully planted with appropriate evergreens and deciduous trees and shrubs, including an enormous border of rhododendrous. In order further to add to the privacy of the enclosure of the knoll it is separated from the remainder of the grove by a substantial iron fence screen with vines, two little lakes and a run- ning brook with several waterfalls.


Lower down on the knoll, marked by a great granite bowlder in memory of departed war horses of President Hayes and his son, lie the remains of the only war horse of President Hayes which survived the battles of the war,


“Old Whitey," a Hero of Nineteen Battles."

LUCY ELLIOT KEELER.


CHAPTER XIX.


BANKS AND BANKING.


THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF FREMONT.


On the 1st day of January, 1851, Mr. Sardis Birchard, in partnership with Judge Lucius B. Otis, established the first banking house in Sandusky County, at Fremont, Ohio, under the name of Birchard & Otis.


On the removal of Judge Otis to Chicago in 1856 Mr. Birchard formed a partnership with Anson H. Miller, and a year later with Dr. James W. Wilson, under the name of Birchard, Miller & Co.


In 1863 The First National Bank of Fremont was organized, and the banking house of Birchard, Miller & Co. was merged into it. This was the second national bank organized in Ohio, and the fifth in the United States.


It was organized under the National Bank Act of Congress of 1863. The original directors were Sardis Birchard, James W. Wilson, James Justice, Martin Bruner, Robert Smith, Augustus W. Luckey and Anson H. Miller, all of whom have passed away. The first officers were Sardis Birchard, president; James W. Wilson, vice-president, and Anson H. Miller, cashier. On the death of Mr. Birchard who died January 21, 1874, Dr. James W. Wilson was, on January 27, 1874, chosen president of the bank, which position he held until his death.


Mr. Miller continued as cashier until May 13, 1902, when he was elected vice-president. John M. Sherman was at the same time elected cashier, which position he has ever since held. Dr. Wilson died July 21, 1904, and on August 5, 1904, Mr. Miller was elected president to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Dr. Wilson. Mr. Miller died March 30, 1905, and on April 4, 1905, Charles G. Wilson was elected as his successor.


Through all the years, since 1851 up to the present, these banks have stood the test of all the panics and hard times and paid their depositors in full on demand, not even excepting the great panic of 1873, when nearly all the banks in the country were compelled, for a short time, partially to suspend payment. It has had four presidents, the fourth and present being Charles G. Wilson, son of the late Dr. James W. Wilson. It has had three cashiers, the third and present cashier being John M. Sherman.


This bank's present resources and liabilities are as follows :


RESOURCES


Loans and discounts

U. S. Bonds 

Fremont and other city bonds 

Real estate  

Cash on hand and in banks 

$1,002,274.03

75,000.00

271,837.76

42,762.00

219,103.35

LIABILITIES.

Capital

Circulation  

Surplus and profits (net) 

Deposits, individual and bank.

100,000.00

75,000.00

115,385.46

1,320,591.68


Its present officers are : Chas. G. Wilson, president ; John Fangboner, vice-president ; M. Gusdorf, vice-president ; John M. Sherman, cashier ; Wm. A. Gabel, assistant cashier.


THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK, BELLEVUE, OHIO.


This bank was established in 1875, with a capital of $50,000. Amos Woodward, Joseph B. Higbee, Joseph Egle and John W. Goodson were directors at its organization. John T. Worthington was president, and Edwin H. Brown, cashier. The presidents of this bank have been John T. Worthington, D. M. Harkness and George E. Pomeroy. The cashiers have been Edwin H. Brown, Amos Woodward, J. W. Close and L. P. Oehm. The present officers are : George E. Pomeroy, president; Frank A. Knapp, vice-president ; L. P. Oehm, cashier, and Robt. E. Wills, assistant cashier.


The resources and liabilities are :


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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY - 261


RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured

U. S. Bonds to secure circulation

Premiums on U. S. Bonds

Bonds, Securities, etc

Banking house, furniture and fixtures

Other real estate owned

Due from National Banks, not reserve agents

Due from State and Private Banks and Bankers, Trust Companies and Savings Banks

Due from approved reserve agents

Checks and other cash items

Exchanges for clearing house

Notes of other National Banks

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents

Lawful money reserve in bank, viz : specie $22,006; legal tender notes, $8,500

Redemption fund with U. S. Treasurer, (5 per cent of circulation)

Due from U. S. Treasurer

Total

$369,921.34

1,333.40

40,000.00

523.47

125,445.43

2,110.00

1,398.70

25,387.25


4,652.71

60,489.80

728.44

1,156.98

1,500.00

626.06


30,506.00


2,000.00

500.00

$668,279.58

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in

Surplus fund

Undivided profits, less expenses and taxes paid

National Bank notes outstanding

Due to other National Banks

Due to approved Reserve Agents

$ 50,000.00

15,000.00

14,986.66

40,000.00

3,871.40

85.84




543,572.92


762.76

$668,279.58

Individual deposits subject to check

Demand certificates of deposit

Certified checks

$131,655.91

410,716.01

1,201.00

Liabilities other than those above stated

Total

 

THE FREMONT SAVINGS BANK.


This bank was incorporated under the laws of Ohio in 1882. The present officers are, William E. Haynes. president ; F. J. Geibel, vice-president ; W. P. Haynes, cashier, and George W. Haynes, assistant cashier. Its resources and liabilities are as follows :



RESOURCES

Loans on real estate

Loans on collateral

Other loans and discounts

Overdrafts

State, county and municipal bonds not included in reserve

Premiums paid on bonds

Banking house and lot

Cash items

$ 314.832.56

51,919.68

186,522.02

6,281.36

321,126.38

587.60

6,500.00

667.21







338,972.73

$1,227,409.54

Due from reserve banks

Exchanges from clearing house

Gold coin

Silver dollars

Fractional coin

U. S. and national bank notes

$292,980.75

2,621.33

4,315.00

2,920.00

1,185.65

34,950.00

Total

LIABILITIES

Capital stock

Surplus fund

Undivided profits, less expenses, interest and taxes paid

$ 50,000.00

50,000.00

18,508.32





1,108,901.22

$1,227,409.54

Individual deposits subject to check

Demand certificates of deposit

Savings deposits

$102,311.68

143,127.28

863,462.26

Total deposits

Total

 

THE PEOPLES BANKING COMPANY OF CLYDE, OHIO.


This bank began business June I, 1884, with a subscribed capital stock of $50,000, 50 per cent of which was then paid in, but since that time the stock has been fully paid up. The first officers were, John M. Lemmon, president; Carmi G. Sanford, Thomas P. Dewey, Taylor Fuller and T. P. Hurd, vice-presidents. John C. Bolinger, cashier. The present officers are : Taylor Fuller, president; Thomas P. Dewey, E. D. Harkness, George Slessman, B. A. Becker and S. S. Richards, vice-presidents; D. E. Fuller, cashier, and H. C. Heffner, assistant cashier.



RESOURCES

Loans on real estate

Loans on collateral

Other loans and discounts

Overdrafts

U. S. Bonds not included in reserve

State, county and municipal bonds not included in reserve

Premiums paid on U. S., state and municipal bonds

Other bonds and securities

Furniture and fixtures

Other real estate owned

Due from other reserve banks

$ 48,120.00

17,355.00

114,712.00

5,140.70

1,000.00

17,388.30

163.69

5,840.00

2,000.00

7,500.00

36,618.88







49,091.99

$304,930.76

Due from reserve banks

Exchange for clearing house

Gold coin

Silver dollars

Fractional coin

U. S. and National bank notes

$34,734.42

566.60

5,172.50

916.00

1,055.47

 6,647.00

Total

LIABILITIES

Capital stock paid in

Surplus fund

Undivided profits, less expenses, interest and taxes paid

$ 50,000.00

7,500.00

6,253.41

Individual deposits subject to check Demand certificates of deposit

Savings deposits

$134,752.94

9,756.25

 95,744.95



240,254.14

Reserve for taxes

Other liabilities

Total

800.00

123.21

$304,930.76


262 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY


CLYDE SAVINGS BANK COMPANY.


The original of this bank was The Farmers and Traders. Bank, organized in 1886 as a partnership, by S. M. Terry, Ira S. Comstock and 0. E. Comstock. Mr. Terry established The First National Bank of Clyde, January 8, 1890, superseding the first bank. The officers were, G. P. Huntly, president ; W. A. Mugg, vice-president ; S. M. Terry, cashier, and G. D. Tiffany, assistant cashier.


On July 2, 1906, this second bank organization was suspended by The Clyde Savings Bank Company, then organized with G. P. Huntly, president ; W. A. Mugg, vice-president ; G. D. Tiffany, cashier, and Irvin R. Clapp, assistant cashier, who are the present officers. The members of the present board of directors are W. A. Mugg, G. P. Huntly, D. A. Heffner, G. D. Tiffany, Corwin Griffin, Fred Curtis and G. M. Benfer.


The following are the resources and liabilities of this bank :


RESOURCES.

Loans on real estate

Loans on collateral

Other loans and discounts

Overdrafts

State, county and municipal bonds not included in reserve

Other bonds and securities

Banking house and lot

Due from other than reserve banks

Cash items

$109,266.67

32,837.38

103,828.18

5,358.88

37,540.25

78.718.75

3,500.00

1.270.98

1,730.65






92,344.80

$466,396.54

Due from reserve banks

Gold coin

Silver dollars

Fractional coin

U. S. National bank notes

$67,508.75

7,825.00

1,255.00

1,109.04

14,647.00

Total

LIABILITIES

Capital stock paid in

Surplus fund

Undivided profits, less expenses, interest and taxes paid

Dividends unpaid

$ 60.000.00

3.000.00

5,841.84

75.00









397,479.70

Individual deposits subject to check

Demand certificates of deposit

Cashiers checks

Certified checks

Due to banks and bankers

Savings deposits

$140,094,04

20,874.18

242.60

50.00

4,622.58

231,596.30

Total

$466,396.54


THE CROGHAN BANK AND SAVINGS COMPANY,

FREMONT, OHIO.


This bank was organized in 1888 and is operating under the banking laws of Ohio. It has recently, under the superintendence of its late president, Augustus E. Rice, completed the erection of one of the most modern and convenient bank buildings to be seen in any of the smaller cities in the state. The present officers are : F. H. Dorr, president ; W. E. Proctor, vice-president ; J0hn C. Bolinger, cashier, and Clarence W. Cox, assistant cashier. The following is the present condition of this bank :


RESOURCES.

Loans and securities

City and county bonds

Cash due from banks

Banking house and real estate

Vaults, furniture and fixtures

Premium on bonds

Overdrafts

Total

$322,582.65

357,937.97

157,440.25

27,800.00

14,700.00

4.000.00

29.18

$884,490.05

LIABILITIES

Capital stock  

Surplus fund  

Undivided profits  

Deposits  

Total

$ 50,000.00

10,000.00

11,787.56

812,702.49

$884,490.05


THE GIBSONBURG BANKING COMPANY.


This bank was established at Gibsonburg in 1894 ; and its present conditi0n is as follows:


RESOURCES.

Loans

Bonds

Real estate, furniture and fixtures

Due from banks

Cash

Total

$346,471.62

19,343.20

7,000.00

117,143.48

8,096.37

$498,054.67

LIABILITIES

Capital

Surplus and undivided profits

Deposits

Total

$ 50,000.00

14,873.40

433,181.27

$498.054.67

 

The officers are, J. F. Yeasting, president; N. B. Ervin, vice president; J. F. Young, cashier; R. H. Peters, assistant cashier.


THE COLONIAL SAVINGS BANK AND TRUST COMPANY, FREMONT, OHIO.


This bank was organized in 1904 under the Ohio banking laws. Its resources and liabilities are as follows:


RESOURCES

Loans on real estate

Loans on collateral

Other loans and discounts

Overdrafts

State, county and municipal bonds included in reserve.

$ 34,390.04

122.254.38

170,846.26

1,618.73

43,620.65

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 265

Other bonds and securities

Banking house and lot

Furniture and fixtures

Due from other than reserve banks

Cash items

100,800.00

26,000.00

12,500.00

55.25

394.12









99,923.24

Due from reserve banks Exchanges for clearing house

Gold coin

Silver dollars

Fractional coin

U. S. and National Bank notes

$64.141.94

1,090.61

2,567.50

1,370.00

1,244.19

29,509.00

Total

$612,402.67

LIABILITIES

Capital stock

Surplus fund

Undivided profits, less expenses, interest and taxes paid

$ 75,000.00

1,500.00

2,097.59






533,805.08

$612,402.67

Individual deposits subject to check

Demand certificates of deposits

Certified checks

Due to banks and bankers

Savings Deposits

$180,090.01

74,533.52

8,000.00

35,575.73

235,605.82

Total


The officers of this bank are, J. W. Pero, president; Sam’l J. Hirt, vice-president; T. A. Lang, cashier ; E. K. Sarnes, assistant cashier.


THE HELENA BANKING COMPANY.


This bank is located at Helena, Sandusky County. and was organized under the Ohio banking laws in 1908.


The resources and liabilities are as follows :


RESOURCES

Loans on real estate

Loans on collateral

Other loans and discounts

Overdrafts

Furniture and fixtures

Interest paid

3,360.00

246.87

20,969.46

90.33

2,078.82

115.44






12,359.57

$39,220.49

Due from reserve banks

Gold coin

Silver dollars

Fractional coin

U. S. and National bank notes

$9,067.44

30.00

305.00

125.15

612.00

Expenses

LIABILITIES

Capital stock paid in

$12,500.00






25,137.45

46.91

1,536.13

$39,220.49

Individual deposits subject to check.

Time certificates of deposit    

Savings deposits  

$11,936.01

6,535.89

6,665.55

Due county treasurer tax collected

Earnings

Total


Its officers are. J. F. Yeasting, president ; G. F. Aldrich, cashier ; John Posey, vice-president, and S. D. Spohn, assistant cashier.


THE GERMAN BANK OF LINDSEY.


This bank was incorporated under the banking laws of Ohio, November 15, 1906, and commenced business in Lindsey, Ohio, January 2, 1907, with the following officers : F. D. Prentice, president; L. Bloker, vice-president; L. C. Porter, cashier, and Benj. J. Burkett, assistant cashier. The present officers are, F. M. Dotson, president ; L. Bloker, vice-president; A. C. Frank, cashier ; Benj. J. Burkett, assistant cashier, and C. L. Bloker, assistant cashier.

The resources and liabilities are as follows :


RESOURCES

Loans on real estate

Loans on collateral

Other loans and discounts

Overdrafts

Banking house and lot

Furniture and fixtures

Cash items

$24,338.00

12,136.88

30,922.58

1,156.24

1,862.20

2,143.32

146.28

Due from reserve banks

Gold coin

Silver dollars

Fractional coin

U. S. and national bank notes

$6,296.10

297.50

61.00

394.06

3,891.00

Bonds held as lawful reserve

Total

10,939.72

$83,645.22

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in

Undivided profits, less expenses, interest and taxes paid

$15.000.00


787.75




67,857.47

$83,645.22

Individual deposits subject to check.

Time certificates of deposit    

Savings deposits         

$25,822.70

8,211.6

33,823.03

Total


THE WOODVILLE SAVINGS BANK COMPANY.


This bank was incorporated as a banking institution under the laws of Ohio and commenced business in 1901. From its statement made June 23, 1909, we take the following:


Authorized Capital - $ 25,000.00

Loans  176,457.06

Deposits 232,707.00


The officers are William Keil, president; B. S. Otten, vice-president; H. Rancamp, cashier, and Frank Myers, assistant cashier.


The board of directors consists of William Keil, B. S. Otten, J. F. Mauntler, Fred H. Hartman, W. H. Price, Chas. A. Kuhlman and E. G. Baker.


The officers and directors have been the same ever since the organization of the bank, except Mr. Baker, who succeeded the late Benedict Emch as director.


This bank is nicely located in its own building on the south side of Pike Street.


266 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY


THE STATE SAVINGS BANK OF WOODVILLE.


This is the youngest bank in Sandusky County. It was organized under the laws of Ohio with a capital stock of $25,000, and commenced business June 3o, 1909. All the capital of this institution with the exception of a few shares is owned by citizens of Woodville and immediate vicinity. The board of directors consists of D. H. Bittinger, Dr. Henry Busch, William Depher, Henry Molkenbur, L. H. Gerwin, E. Henry Nieman, Hones Bringman, W. H. Yeasting and J. F. Smith.


D. H. Bittinger is president, Dr. Busch, vice-president; J. F. Smith, cashier, and G. H. Roll, assistant cashier.


This bank is erecting a fine bank building at the corner of Walnut and Pike Streets.


RECAPITULATION.


Aggregrate resources of the banks in Sandusky County, June, 1909 - $6,572,263.00

Aggregrate deposits therein - 5,716,191.00

Aggregrate capital stock - 537,000.00

Aggregrate liabilities, other than capital Stock and deposits - 410,822.00


NOTE : The State Savings Bank of Woodville is not included in this recapitulation.


CHAPTER XX.


MILITARY HISTORY.


Soldiers in War of the Revolution—The War of 1812—Mexican War—Sandusky County in the Civil War—The Spanish-American War—Graves of Departed Heroes.


As related in previous chapters, Lower Sandusky is associated, in military history, with the French and Indian War, the war of the Revolution, the Indian Border War, and the War of 1812; and was the scene of many thrilling events, finally culminating in the brilliant defense of Fort Stephenson, August 2, 1813 ; so that, although as a county organization, it did not exist until 1820, its military history dates from pre-revolutionary times.


SOLDIERS OF THE REVOLUTION.


The following named soldiers of the Revolutionary War are known to have lived in Sandusky County.


John Waggoner enlisted at or near Reading, Pa; Von Heer, captain ; rank, private, and in General Washington's Life Guard ; served till the close of the war. Applied for a pension, September 9. 1828. Claim was allowed. He married at Somerset, Perry County, Ohio, Sarah Minnie. At that date he is referred to as John Waggoner, Sr. His wife was allowed a pension on application executed September 13, 1853, while a resident of Washington Township, Sandusky County, Ohio. John Waggoner died December 15, 1842, aged 75 years. Buried in the Bowlus Cemetery, and later his remains were removed to Four-mile House Cemetery. In a newspaper published in Lower Sandusky of the date of June 3, 1841, is the following paragraph :


"It is with no little pleasure that on Friday morning last, between 5 and 6 o'clock we met our venerated friend John Waggoner, of Washington Township, in this county. He had come to town as he is wont to do for the purpose of delivering a periodical supply of butter to his customers. Mr. Waggoner is the last, or the last but one, of the surviving Life Guards of General Washington ; he is now about 80 years old."


David Dalyrymple enlisted at Petersham, Mass., June, 1780, served till November I, 1780, as private ; Captain, Taylor ; Colonel, Michael Jackson; was re-enlisted March 1781, served till November, 1783, private; Captain, Willson ; Colonel, Jackson. Applied for pension October I, 1832. His claim allowed. Applied at Walworth, Wayne County, New York ; 67 years of age at the time of application for pension ; buried in York Township.


Phineas Stevens enlisted May, 1775, served eight months as private ; Captain, Samuel Patch ; Colonel, Jas. Prescott ; re-enlisted March, 1776, served eleven months ; private, Captain Asabel Wheeler; Colonel, Reed ; engaged in the battles of Bunker Hill, Lexington, Lake Champlain. Applied for a pension May 8, 1818, Ontario County, New York, at the age of 64 years. Claim allowed. Died August 8, 1840 in Sandusky County, Ohio; buried in Townsend Township.


Daniel Bates enlisted in Morris County, New York, January, 1782, served one year as private ; Captain, Jonas Ward ; Colonel,. Seeley, New York. Applied for a pension in Sandusky County, Ohio, October 2, 1832. Claim allowed. Born in Morris County, New York, March 27, 1763. Buried in Green Creek Township, in Dana Cemetery.


George Armstrong enlisted at Juniata, Pennsylvania, December 25, 1776 ; served two months, fifteen days ; sergeant ; Captain, James Gibson ; reenlisted 1778, served two months as


- 267 -


268 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY


private; Captain, Robert Matier ; Colonel, Smith; reenlisted 1780, served two months as private; Captain Robert Matier ; Colonel, Smith; reenlisted 1780, served two months, private; Captain, Hurl; applied at the age of 71 years for a pension at Benton Yates County, New York, September 28, 1832. Claim allowed; buried in York Township.


Allen Watrous enlisted at East Hadden, Connecticut, June 1, 1780; served eight months, private; Captain, Benton; Colonel, Sherman; reenlisted _____ ; served one month, private; Captain, Jonathan Kilbourne ; Colonel, Joe Worthington, Connecticut; born in Lyme, Connecticut, 1758. Applied for pension, Ridgefield, Huron County, Ohio, July 27, 1832. His claim allowed; buried in Green Creek Township.


Joab Wright enlisted at Saybrook, Connecticut, 1780; served eight months as private ; Captain, Caleb Baldwin ; Colonel, Swift, Connecticut. Engaged in battle at Saybrook, Connecticut. Applied for pension at the age of 67 years at Thompson Township, Seneca County, Ohio, July 27, 1822. Claim allowed. Died August 16, 1844 ; buried in Green Creek Township.


John Burkhardt was born in Switzerland, came to America about 1753 or 1754. John Burkhart enlisted in Von Herr's Light Dragoons or Troop Marchausse, in 1778. Later he re-enlisted at Reading, Pennsylvania, and was a member of Washington's Life Guards through the war. His family lived at Reading, Pennsylvania, until about 1795 ; from there they moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and later to Perry County, Ohio. John Burkett (now spelled) moved to Sandusky County, Ohio. Died 1849, aged 93 years. Buried in Hessville Cemetery, Washington Township, Sandusky County. Ohio. Archives of the State of Pennsylvania, Second Series, Vol. II, page 175, edition 1891; he was in the battle of Yorktown and after the surrender of Cornwallis returned home at Reading, Pennsylvania, and was married.


Daniel Brainard—Private in the Connecticut Troops; pensioned April 27, 1833.


Christian Crow—Private in Pennsylvania Continentals; pensioned December 1, 1819.


Jacob Daggett—Private in Massachusetts Continentals; pensioned September 16, 1834.


John Davenport—Private in Massachusetts Militia ; pensioned September 24, 1833.


Reuben Patterson—Private in Massachusetts Militia; pensioned May 30, 1834.


Nathan Goodale—In the year 1793 a Revolutionary soldier by the name of Nathan Goodale with the title of Major, a native of Brookfield, Massachusetts, while living near Belpre, and working on his farm there, was captured by Indians, who started with him for Detroit, for ransom, by the way of Lower Sandusky. Here he was taken so ill that they could proceed no farther with him and took him to the house of James Whittaker down the river, and there left him. Here he died and was doubtless buried near the Whittaker home.


Harrington—Judge Israel Harrington in 1840 writes : "My father was a soldier of the war, preceding the War of the Revolution, and commonly called the -Old French War," which closed when the immortal Wolfe fell at Quebec. When the Revolution began he was one of those who fought at Bunker Hill, where the lamented patriot Warren fell. He was a soldier throughout the Revolution. He died at my house, where I now reside, in 1826."

Other revolutionary soldiers were John W. White, John West, Arthur Ellsworth and Simeon Hoff.


SOLDIERS OF 1812.


Among the settlers of Lower Sandusky before the organization of the county, the following are known to have served in the War of 1812: Jeremiah Everett, Thomas L. Hawkins, Charles B. Fitch. Dayid Gallagher, Jonathan H. Jerome, Israel Harrington, Josiah Rumery and James Justice. Other soldiers of this war settled later, in different parts of the county, but it has been impossible to ascertain the names of more than a few as follows : Samuel Thompson, wounded at Lundy's Lane, was a captain in the Mexican War. Ephriam K. Townsend, William Fink, Nathaniel B. Tucker, Noah Huss, Alanson Carpenter, Chaplin Rathbun, Thomas G. Amsden, John West, Gurdon Woodward, John Heter, Sr., Merritt Scott, Uriah Craig, Henry Roller, Daniel Greene, W. D. Sherwood, Daniel R. Ellsworth. John Bush,


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 269


Joseph George, John Coonrod, James More-craft, Hugh Bolen, Jacob Hampsher and Luther Winchell.


Other soldiers whom we have ascertained served in this war were George Garnick, Daniel Ellsworth, William Sibberell, Aepheus McIntyre, Sr., William Bundy, Samuel Pogue and Joseph H. Curtice.


THE MEXICAN WAR.


In the spring of 1847 Capt. Samuel Thompson of Lower Sandusky, a veteran of the War of 1812, who was wounded at the battle of Lundy's Lane. raised a company of volunteers for the Mexican War, known as Company C, the commissioned and non-commissioned officers of which were as follows :


Captain, Samuel Thompson ; First Lieutenant, Dsaac Knapp ; Second Lieutenant, George M. Tillotson Second Lieutenant, Lewis Leppelman ; Orderly .Sergeant, Isaac Swank ; Sergeant, Thomas Pinkerton ; Sergeant, Michael Wegstein ; Sergeant. James R. Francisco; Corporals, John Williams, John M. Crowell, Benjamin Myers, Edward Leppelman ; Musicians, Grant Forgerson and Charles Everett.


There were seyenty-six privates in this company. The company being ordered to report at Cincinnati, traveled by wagon from Lower Sandusky to Perrvsburgh and thence by the Miami Canal in canal boats to Cincinnati. In June, 1847, they were mustered into service as Company C, in the Fourth Regiment of Ohio Volunteers, then forming in that city, officered as follows :


Colonel. Charles H. Brough ; Lieutenant Colonel, Augustus Moore; Major, William P. Young; Surgeon, Oliver M. Langdon; Assistant Surgeon, Henry E. Foote.


Besides the men enlisted by Captain Thompson, there were eighteen. recruited by Captains Amos C. Bradly and J. A. Jones, in the year previous, among whom were Andrew Kline and his brother Lewis Kline and John Foltz, members of Company F, of the First Regiment 0. V. I., making in all, who volunteered from Sandusky County, about one hundred and ten men.


This regiment went from Cincinnati to New Orleans, thence to Brazos, Santiago, and from that point marched to the mouth of the Rio Grande and was transported thence to Vera Cruz, where it became part of the brigade of Major General Joseph Lane. From there Captain Thompson, owing to disability, was compelled to return home, and from that time the command of the company devolved upon Lieutenant Knapp, through the entire service.


General Lane's brigade left Vera Cruz September T0, 1847, and arrived at National Bridge about the 23d of the month, and passing through the city of Jalapa September the 30th, reached Pueblo on the 12th day of October; Pueblo was garrisoned by the Americans, commanded by Colonel Childs, and was in a state of siege, by a large force under command of General Santa Anna. When Lane arrived, an engagement took place there, in the streets, in which Company C of the Sandusky County boys participated. The Mexicans were defeated and the garrison relieved.


The Fourth Regiment remained at Pueblo until after the treaty of peace was ratified, and on June 2, 1848, left for home, arriving at Cincinnati the latter part of July, where the soldiers were finally discharged; the Sandusky County soldiers, homeward bound, reached Tiffin by railroad, going thence to Lower Sandusky by wagon.


There were but few sound men in the ranks when they reached home, and a number died from disease contracted in the service; many others were enfeebled during the remainder of life. Of the men who enlisted from Sandusky County only four are now known to be living, Andrew Kline and Jacob Faller of Fremont; Lewis Kline, of Michigan, and John Foltz, now of Henry County, and in the Soldiers' Home at Sandusky. Andrew Kline served in Company H, Seventy-second Regiment O. V. I., in the Civil War, and was promoted to first lieutenant. Jacob Faller is the only surviver of Captain Thompson's Company. At the ninety-third anniversary of the defense of Fort Stephenson on August 2, 1906, when the remains of Major George Croghan were there reinterred, five veterans of the Mexican War were honorary pall bearers, viz : Andrew Kline, Lewis Kline, Jacob Faller, Grant Forgerson and Martin Ziegler, of whom the two last mentioned have since died.


270 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY


THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865.


In the preparation of the account of the part taken by Sandusky County in this great struggle for the maintenance of the Union, the History of Sandusky County, by Homer Everett (1882), and the address of John M. Lemmon at the unveiling of the Soldiers' Monument in Fort Stephenson Park, August 1, 1885, have been, in the main, followed as local authorities. Space at command will not permit as full an account, as the editor would be glad to give. Only brief outlines can be here stated. In rosters of companies, commissioned officers only are named.


The population of Sandusky County in 1861, when the war broke out, was about twenty-two thousand souls. It had between the ages of 18 and 45 about four thousand three hundred men, a considerable percentage of whom, of course, would be subject to disability. Not counting the re-enlistments, in 1862, the county sent 827 men; in 1863, in all about one thousand six hundred fifty; in 1864, in all about two thousand sixty, and in 1865, in all about two thousand three hundred, exclusive of those designated as 100-day men of whom the county furnished from 700 to 900 in 1864. Thus it appears that about seventy per cent of the male population of the county, of military age, went into the service. The number from townships, excluding 100-day men, was, according to Mr. Lemmon, as follows:


York, 176; Townsend, 103 ; Green Creek, including Clyde, 351 ; Riley, 79; Ballville, 231; Sandusky, which then included Fremont, 593; Jackson, 110; Washington, 189; Scott, 135; Madison, 86; Woodville, 149; Rice, 100, a total of 2,302.


The soldiers who went from Sandusky County served in more than 120 different regiments or independent organizations. They served in the following regiments of infantry volunteers : 2d, 4th, 5th, 8th, 11 th, 14th, 18th, 19th, 21st, 23d, 24th, 25th, 28th, 29th, 32d, 33d, 34th, 36th, 37th, 39th, 41st, 43d, 49th, 50th, 52d, 55th, 56th, 57th, 58th, 60th, 64th, 65th, 66th, 68th, 69th, l0th, 72d, 74th, 82d, 86th, m0th, 101st, 103d, 105th, 107th, 110th, 11 I th, 123d, 126th, 128th, 129th, 176th, 177th, 180th, 181st, 185th, 186th, 188th, 189th, 191St, 195th, 196th, 197th and 198th.


And in the following infantry regiments of the National Guards, viz : 139th, 145th, 164th and 169th. They were also in the 2d, 3d, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 12th Regiments of Cavalry Volunteers; and in the 1st and 2d Regiments of Light Artillery, and in the l0th, 12th, 17th, 19th, l0th, 21st and 22d Batteries. The county was also represented in Company 7 of Sharp Shooters and in Hoffman's Battalion. Besides these ninety-two Ohio organizations, Sandusky County had representatives in twenty-eight organizations outside of Ohio, viz : 2d Colored Troops, 44th Colored Troops, 9th, 16th and 29th Indiana Infantry Volunteers, 1st and 18th Michigan Infantry Volunteers, 54th and 65th New York Infantry Volunteers, 169th and 198th Pennsylvania Infantry Volunteers, l0th and 18th U. S. Infantry, 1st U. S. Chasseurs, 2d Colorado Cavalry, 6th Illinois Cavalry, 1st Michigan Cavalry, 1st and 6th U. S. Cavalry, 1st Illinois Battery, 5th Michigan Battery, loth U. S. Battery, 1st Michigan Mechanics and Engineers U. S. Telegraph Corps, President's Body Guard and Virginia Cavalry. There were also several representatives in the naval and gunboat service. It is certain enough that the soldiers 0f Sandusky County were represented in 120 different organizations. The largest number in one command was in the 72d Infantry, next in the 169th 0. N. G., and then there were two companies in the gallant old 8th Infantry, and about one company each in the 21st, 25th, 49th, 55th, 100th, 111th and 186th Volunteer Infantry. There was also a company in the 3d Cavalry. In the other named organization the number varied from nearly a company to a small squad. They fought in the great battles of the war. Some were at Bull Run, and some at Donelson and New Madrid : at Shiloh, Stone River, Corinth, Seven Pines, Fair Oaks, Cross Keyes and Port Republic ; in the Seven Days' Retreat at Groveton and Gainesville ; Second Bull Run, Antietam, Iuka, Fredericksburg, Virginia, Chancellorsville ; in the Vicksburg Campaign, at Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge ; in the Atlanta Campaign ; the Wilderness and at Spottsylvania ; in the Siege of Rich-


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 271


mond, at Franklin and Nashville; in the grand and glorious March to the Sea, and in other marches, sieges, advances and retreats, the brave Sandusky soldiers had their full share. (Lemmon.)


EIGHTH O. V. I.


This regiment was first organized as a three months' regiment at Camp Taylor, Cleveland, Ohio, and sent to Camp Denison for equipment and drill April 28, 1861 ; it was subsequently reorganized for three years and left camp for West Virginia, July 8, 1861. Companies F and G were organized in Sandusky County. Commissioned officers of Company F were: Captain, George M. Tillotson, died March 4. 1863, at Fremont, Ohio ; First Lieutenant, Charles M. Fouke, resigned ; Second Lieutenant Edward W. Cook, resigned; Sergeant, Henry A. Farnum, promoted to first Lieutenant and Captain, wounded at Gettysburg, July 3d, 1863 ; Sergeant, Thomas H. Thornburg, promoted to Second Lieutenant, wounded at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, and at Mine Run, December 4, 1863.


Company G, Commissioned Officers—Captain, William E. Haynes promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, Tenth Regiment, Ohio Cavalry.


First lieutenant. Edward F. Dickinson; promoted to Captain and served as Regimental quartermaster.


Second lieutenant. Creighton Thompson ; wounded at Antietam and resigned. The regiment, after having been engaged in forty-eight battles and skirmishes, was mustered out at Cleveland, July 13. 1864, its term of service having expired. General Buckland in his address August 1. 1885, at the unveiling of the Soldiers' Monument, speaking of this regiment, said : "At the great battle of Gettysburg, under the command of its gallant colonel, Frank Sawyer, it achieyed immortal renown by charging and driving superior numbers of the enemy from an important position in front of the Union lines. and holding it for nearly two days and until the victorious close of the battle, against the repeated assaults of the enemy. In this affair the regiment lost in killed and wounded nearly one-half its number engaged.


THE TWENTY-FIFTH O. V. I.


This regiment contained men from various localities of the state and nearly one full company was from Sandusky County. It was Company F, Captain, Moses H. Crowell, resigned; Captain, Michael Murray ; First Lieutenant, Hezekiah Thomas, and Second Lieutenant, George W. Iden. The regiment was organized at Camp Chase in June, 1861. On July. 29, 1861, it went into service in West Virginia, and was stationed along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Oakland to the Ohio River. It went through long and arduous service, and was in the battles of Cheat Mountain, Greenbrier, Camp Baldwin, Monterey the engagements and marches in the Shenandoah Valley; along the Rappahannock, the second at Bull Run and at Gettysburg, and others in all twenty battles, in which eighteen color-bearers had been killed or wounded. With its re-enlistment it had served over five years.


FORTY-NINTH O. V. I.


This was Col. William H. Gibson's Regiment.


Company F was raised in Sandusky County. Its commissioned officers were :


Captain, Joseph R. Bartlett; about the middle of November, 1862, was appointed Inspector General of the Second Division 0f the Army of the Cumberland, and assigned to the staff, at first, of General Sill, and afterwards on that of General R. W. Johnson, and acted as chief of Staff and Adjutant General in addition to the duties of Inspector General ; promoted to Major, December 5, 1864 ; promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, March 29, 1865; commissioned Colonel, June 26, 1865.


Captain, Mathew R. Lutz ; promoted from Second Lieutenant, Company B, February 10, 1865.


First Lieutenant, Morris E. Tyler ; promoted to Captain of Company B, July 3, 1862.


Second Lieutenant, Timothy H. Wilcox.


Second Lieutenant, Edwin r Haff ; promoted from Corporal, October 31. 1863 ; wounded at Rocky Face Ridge, and transferred to Company I.


Second Lieutenant, John F. Kessler ; promoted to First Lieutenant on July 5, 1862 ; promoted to Captain of Company E, May, 1864.


Recruiting for the company was begun by Captain Bartlett in July, 1861. After he had


272 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY


obtained about forty recruits, it seemed improbable that he could obtain a full company. In the meantime Timothy H. Wilcox had enlisted about the same number for a company of Home Guards. It was agreed that if Mr. Wilcox, with his men, would join Company F with Captain Bartlett, that Wilcox should be First Lieutenant of the company. This arrangement was effected, and the company was soon filled by the combined efforts of Captain Bartlett and Mr. Wilcox, the latter being elected First Lieutenant. The company went with the regiment into camp at Camp Noble, Tiffin, Ohio, for equipment and drill. From there the regiment was at once sent into camp at Muldraugh's Hill, near Elizabethtown, where it remained until October 10, when it moved to Nolan Creek and went into Camp Nevin. It finally moved to Pittsburgh Landing, April 6, 1862. Here, its Colonel, W. H. Gibson, was assigned to a brigade and the 49th was placed in command of Lieut. Col. A. M. Blackman. The regiment was conspicuous for its valor in the battles here. It was in the battles of Murfreesboro, Chickamauga and Mission Ridge. After the engagement at the latter place, the regiment was re-enlisted and granted thirty days' veteran furlough. After returning to the service, under the re-enlistment, the regiment was in the engagements at Dalton, Resaca, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain, Chattaheechie River, Atlanta, Franklin and Nashville, suffering severely in killed and wounded in all these battles. On its return from the Nashville expedition, the regiment was taken, June 16, 1864, by transports, to Texas, reaching Texas in July ; the regiment landed at Victoria and moved to the interior as far as San Antonio. After suffering great hardships in the service there, for four months, the regiment returned to Victoria, where it was mustered out, November 30, 1865.


During its service eight officers were killed in battle and twenty wounded, six of them mortally ; of the privates 137 were killed in battle. seventy-one were mortally wounded, 165 died from hardship or disease and seven perished in prisons at Andersonville and Danville. Six hundred and sixteen were discharged on account of wounds or other disability. The men of the regiment received 942 gun-shot wounds.


FIFTY-FIFTH O. V. I.


This regiment was raised chiefly by Col. John C. Lee and went into camp at Norwalk, Ohio, October 17, 1861. Colonel Lee resigned May 8, 1863, and the command of the regiment devolved upon Lieut. Col. Charles Gambee of Bellevue, until he was killed at the battle of Resaca, May 15, 1864. Three hundred and nineteen had re-enlisted and returned to Norwalk, January 20, 1864. From here it again moved to the front, and marched through Atlanta with the Twentieth Army Corps, toward the sea and on December 21 camped near Savannah. After much hard service and suffering it reached Richmond, May 11, 1865. On the 24th it went into camp near Washington. On July 11, 1865, it was mustered out of the service and paid off at Cleveland, July 19, 1865. A number of men of this regiment were recruited from Sandusky County in the vicinity of Bellevue. During the service there were enlisted in this regiment 1,350 men, and of these about seven hundred and fifty were either killed or wounded.


FIFTY-SEVENTH O. V. I.


Sandusky County furnished a number of men for different companies of this regiment. When first organized the regimental officers were : Colonel, William Mungen ; Lieutenant Colonel, William Mungen ; Major, Silas B. Walker, and Surgeon, John P. Haggett..


Company C —Captain, Samuel R. Mott: First Lieutenant, John W. Underwood ; Second Lieutenant, John Doncynon.


Company F—Captain. Alva S. Skilton; First Lieutenant, George T. Blystone ; Second Lieutenant, Edward E. Root.


Company H—Captain, Daniel N. Strayer; First Lieutenant, John A. Smith ; Second Lieutenant, Lucius Call.


The commissioned officers of other companies are not accessible to the writer.


This regiment experienced hard service and suffered much sickness, and though starting out, in February, 1862, with over nine hundred men by the 6th of April, 1862, at Shiloh, it could only muster 45o men for duty. And in the three days' fighting in and around Shiloh it lost twenty-seven killed and 150 wounded, sixteen mortally. At Memphis it was strengthened by the addition of 118 volunteers and 205


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 275


drafted men, making its force there 650 men. It marched thence to Chickasaw Bayou, where in an engagement with the enemy it lost thirty-seven killed and wounded, and at Fort Hen:- Berson suffered about the same loss. It was at the siege of Vicksburg in service in the trenches or picket duty. In January, 1864, it re-enlisted, with the addition of 207 recruits. May 1st it moved with the corps in the Atlanta Campaign, and participated in the battles at Resaca, Dallas and Kenesaw, losing heayily in these engagements. It reached Richmond by way of Petersburg, and thence to Washington, and was in the Grand Review there. May 24, 1865. On June 24, 1865, the regiment was mustered out of service.


SEVENTY-SECOND O. V. I.


Col. Ralph P. Buckland, on October 11, 1861, issued a call to the people of Sandusky County for volunteers to fill a regiment. He was authorized by the governor of Ohio to raise, to be known as the Seventy-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry. This call was so cheerfully responded to, that by the middle of January following, the regiment was sufficiently full for organization, which was accordingly effected. January 17. 1864 ; but owing to vicissitudes of the service, thereafter, many changes in this regard became necessary and were made. as will appear in the roster of commissioned officers of the regiment.


Companies A, B, C, D, E, F, H and I were formed almost entirely of citizens of Sandusky County ; Company G, with a small portion of Companies H and A, were recruited in Erie County, and Company K was mostly recruited in Medina County, while a few men in Companies C and E were of Wood County, Ohio. Company K was disbanded and distributed among the other companies and its officers discharged in order to make full companies, and a company which had originally been recruited for the Fifty-second O. V. I. was assigned to the Seventy-second at Camp Chase and denominated Company K, and thus the regiment was complete in numbers—


Regimental and Staff Officers — Colonel, Ralph P. Buckland ; appointed Brigadier General, November 29, 1862. Lieutenant Colonel, Herman Canfield ; died April 7, 1862, from

wounds received at Shiloh. Major, Leroy Crockett; promoted to Lieutenant Colonel April 6, 1862; died of disease December 10, 1863. Adjutant, Eugene A. Rawson; promoted to Major, July 23, 1863; died of wounds received at battle of Tupelo, Mississippi, July 15, 1864. Alonzo C. Johnson, Adjutant, July 23, 1863; resignation accepted August 1, 1864. Quartermaster, Daniel M. Harkness ; resigned January 16, 1863. Surgeon, John B. Rice; detailed Surgeon in Chief of Memphis District, April 28, 1864. Chaplain, Abraham B. Poe; resigned January 15, 1863. Assistant Surgeon, William M. Kaull; resigned June 4, 1863. Assistant Surgeon, John W. Goodson; dismissed the service of the United States March 3o, 1863. Steward, William Caldwell; appointed Assistant Surgeon April 27, 1863 ; resigned on account of disability, January 7, 1865. Principal Musician, Nicholas B. Caldwell; died of disease, June 5, 1862, at hospital, Keokuk, Iowa.


Company A—Captain, Charles G. Eaton; promoted as follows : To Major, June 20, 1862 ; to Lieutenant Colonel, December 24, 1863 ; at close of the war was breveted Brigadier General.


Charles L. Dirlam; mustered as Captain, April 28, 1864.


Jonathan F. Harrington ; mustered as Captain May 28, 1865. .


Merritt Sexton ; mustered as Captain, April 11, 1865.


Joseph Seaford ; mustered as Captain, May 25, 1865.


Charles L. Hudson; appointed as Captain, September 4, 1865, but never mustered in.


Charles H. McCleary; mustered as Captain, June 11, 1865.


First-Lieutenant, H. W. Gifford; promoted to Captain, June 20, 1862 ; died at Cincinnati, Ohio, July 27, 1862, of wounds received at battle of Shiloh.


Second Lieutenant, Spencer Russell; promoted to First Lieutenant, June 20, 1862; promoted to Captain, May 17, 1862; resignation accepted, August 21, I863.


Charles L. Dirlam ; Second Lieutenant, June 20, 1862, First Lieutenant, March 1, 1863; mustered as Captain, April 28, 1864; taken


276 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY


prisoner at Brice's Cross Roads, June 11, 1864.


Jonathan F. Harrington; mustered Second Lieutenant, March I, 1863; First Lieutenant, April 9, 1864; Captain, May 25, 1865.


Morris Rees; mustered Second Lieutenant, March 1, 1863; taken prisoner at Brice's Cross Roads; promoted to First Lieutenant, April 6, 1864, and afterwards promoted .to Captain.


Merritt Sexton; mustered as Second Lieutenant, April 24, 1863; as First Lieutenant, April 28, 1864, and Captain, April 11, 1865.


Lorenzo Dick, appointed Second Lieutenant, April 6, 1862; mustered as First Lieutenant, March 1, 1863; taken prisoner at Brice's Cross Roads.


Joseph Seaford; appointed Second Lieutenant, February 26, 1863; mustered as First Lieutenant, January 3, 1865; mustered as Captain, May 25, 1865.


James H. Stewart; appointed Second Lieutenant, January 15, 1863; resignation accepted May 3, 1863.


Alonzo C. Johnson; mustered as First Lieutenant and Adjutant August 11, 1863; resignation accepted August 1, 1864.


Charles L. Hudson; mustered as Second Lieutenant November 22, 1864; wounded at Tupelo; mustered as First Lieutenant and Adjutant April 11, 1865; appointed Captain September 4, 1865, but never mustered into service.


Joy Winters; mustered as Second Lieutenant, April 29, 1864; taken prisoner at Brice's Cross Roads.


Charles H. McCleary ; mustered as Second Lieutenant, April 29, 1864 ; mustered as First Lieutenant, November 20, 1864; mustered as Captain, June 14, 1865.


Rollin A. Edgerton; mustered as Quartermaster-Sergeant, November 14, 1861 ; mustered as Second Lieutenant, April 24, 1863; resigned on account of disability September 28, 1864.


Andrew Unckle; mustered as Second Lieutenant, April 9, 1864.


Edward McMahon; mustered as Second Lieutenant, May 14, 1864 ; mustered as First Lieutenant, April I I, 1865 ; later taken prisoner at Brice's Cross Roads.


David Van Doren ; mustered as Second Lieu tenant, April 9, 1864; taken prisoner at Brice's Cross Roads.


Josiah Fairbanks; mustered as Second Lieutenant, April 9, 1864; taken prisoner at Brice's Cross Roads.


Zelotus Perin; mustered in as Second Lieutenant, April 9, 1864; taken prisoner at Brice's Cross Roads.


John G. Nuhfer ; mustered as First Lieutenant, April 12, 1865.


Company B-Captain, George Raymond; resigned May 23, 1862.


John M. Lemmon, mustered in as Captain, January 29, 1864.


First Lieutenant, Henry W. Buckland; promoted to Captain, June 20, 1862. Second Lieutenant, William T. Fisher ; promoted to First Lieutenant, June 20, 1862 ; resignation accepted July 27, 1863.


Alpheus B. Putman ; mustered as Second Lieutenant, September 16, 1862 ; mustered as First Lieutenant, March 2, 1864.


Company C-Captain, Samuel A. J. Snyder; mustered as Major, July 27, 1864.


First Lieutenant, Milton T. Williamson ; Aid-de-Camp to General Denver, June 2, 1862.


Second Lieutenant, Daniel W. Hoffman : promoted to First Lieutenant, March I, 1864.: left a prisoner of war and severely wounded at Tupelo, Mississippi, July 13, 1864.


Company D-Captain, Andrew Nuhfer ; wounded seyerely at Shiloh, April 6, 1862; taken prisoner at the Battle of Bride's Cross Roads, Mississippi, July 11, 1864.


First Lieutenant, Manning A. Fowler ; promoted to Captain, March 8, 1863; resigned July 23, 1863.


Second Lieutenant, Jesse J. Cook; resigned June 6, 1862.


Company E-Captain, John H. Blinn ; resignation accepted January 15, 1863.


First Lieutenant, Charles D. Dennis; mustered into service as Captain, March I, 1863.


Second Lieutenant. William A. Strong; resigned on account of disability, August 4, 1864.


Company F-Captain, Leroy Moore; taken prisoner June 11, 1864, at Battle of Brice's Cross Roads, Mississippi ; service expired March 12, 1865


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 277


First Lieutenant, Alfred H. Rice; discharged for disability August 18, 1863.


Second Lieutenant, John B. Gilmore; mustered in as First Lieutenant, April 24, 1864; taken prisoner at Battle of Brice's Cross Roads June 11, 1864; died in prison October 9, 1864, at Charleston, South Carolina.


Company G—Captain, James Fernald.


First Lieutenant, William C. Biddle; commissioned as Captain, April 23, 1864.


Second Lieutenant, John H. Boyer; resigned December l0, 1862.


Company H—Captain, Michael Wegstein; killed in Battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862.


First Lieutenant, Anthony Young; promoted to Captain, June 20, 1862 ; resigned July 23, 1863.


Second Lieutenant, Andrew Kline, promoted to First Lieutenant ; discharged for disability,

September 11, 1862. He served in the Mexican War in 1846-7.


Company I—Captain, Jacob Fickes; resignation accepted February 4, 1863.


First Lieutenant, Albert Bates ; resignation accepted August 7, 1863.


Second Lieutenant, James Donnell; resigned September 3. 1862, at Memphis.


Company K—Captain, T. M. Thompson. First Lieutenant, W. H. Skerritt ; elected as

Division Quartermaster, April 15, 1862.


Second Lieutenant, Caleb T. Goshom ; resignation accepted January 15, 1863.


To do justice to the braye commanders and officers, and to recount the many deeds of valor of the men, of this regiment, would require a volume, and we shall have to be content with the brief. mention here made. This regiment reported to General Sherman at Paducah and was assigned to a brigade composed of the Forty-Eighth, Seventieth and Seventy-second Ohio Regiments with Colonel Buckland in command. At Shiloh, Vicksburg, Corinth, Jackson, Nashville, Tupelo and wherever engaged. the officers and men of the Seventy-second proved equal. in heroism, to all expectations of them, as true soldiers. It was at Brice's Cross Roads, Mississippi, June i 1, 1864, where it suffered its greatest reverse. losing in that engagement eleven officers, and 237 men, killed, wounded and captured. The greater portion were captured. But here, these men were conspicuous for bravery amid the disaster which had overtaken them, through no fault of theirs, nor of the officers of the regiment, but, according to the accepted belief, owing to the blunder of General Sturgis, there commanding. The regiment was mustered out at Vicksburg, September 11, 1865.


ONE-HUNDREDTH O. V. I.


Sandusky County contributed Company K to this regiment. The officers 0f the regiment were:


Colonel, John C. Groom; Lieutenant Colonel, Edwin L. Hayes; Major, Patrick Slevin ; Surgeon, George A. Collamore; Assistant Surgeon, Henry McHenry.


The commissioned officers of Company K were : Captain, Nathaniel Haynes; First Lieutenant, Sanford Haff; Second Lieutenant, William Taylor.


This regiment was organized at Toledo, Ohio, in July and August, 1862, and moved to the defense of Cincinnati September 8, and thence to the front in Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee and farther south. It participated in the defense of Knoxville ; and in the spring of 1864 in the Twenty-third Army Corps joined General Sherman, and was present at almost every battle from Rocky Face Ridge to Atlanta. In the assault on the Confederate works in front of Atlanta this regiment lost 103 men out of 300 taken into the fight. It participated in the battles of Franklin and Nashville. During its term of service it suffered as follows: Sixty-five killed in battle; 142 wounded, of whom twenty-seven died of their wounds; 108 died of disease; 325 were captured by the enemy, and eighty-five died in Confederate prisons. It was mustered out of service at Cleveland, Ohio, July 1, 1865.


ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH O. V. I.


Field and Staff Officers: Colonel, John R. Bond ; honorably discharged, October 18, 1864. Lieutenant Colonel, Isaac R. Sherwood; promoted to succeed Colonel Bond; February, 1864. Lieutenant Colonel, B. W. Johnson ; resigned February 6, 1862. Lieutenant Colonel, Moses R. Brailey. Lieutenant Colonel, Thomas C. Norris; mustered out as Major. Majors : Moses R. Brailey, Isaac R. Sher-


278 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY


wood, Benjamin F. Southworth and Henry J. McCord. Surgeon, Lyman Brewer. Chaplain, A. Hollington.


Sandusky County furnished Company A and a major part of Company G of this regiment.


The commissioned officers of Company A were : Captain, John V. Beery ; First Lieutenant, Joseph H. Jennings ; Second Lieutenant, Orin B. Frome.


The commissioned officers of Company G were : Captain, H. J. McCord; First Lieutenant, M. P. Bean ; Second Lieutenant, George W. Moore.


This regiment first entered the field at Covington, Kentucky, in September, 1862, and after moving about in Kentucky, it took part in the pursuit of Morgan in his raid into Indiana and Ohio, after which it returned to Kentucky, thence to Tennessee ; and after many movements and minor engagements it finally reached Red Clay, Georgia, May 6th. On May 12th it marched to the front of Resaca and took part in the battle there, the second day. It took part in the entire campaign against Atlanta ; was actively engaged in the Siege of Kenesaw, the battles of Pine Mountain, Lost Mountain, Dallas, Chattahoochee, Decatur, Peach Tree Creek, and in the Siege of Atlanta. In the Atlanta Campaign this regiment lost in killed and wounded 212 out of 380 men. Finally, on December I, 1864, it was back at Nashville, and was engaged in that battle and there captured three Confederate battle flags and a large number of prisoners. This regiment also took part in the pursuit of Hood. At the battle of Franklin this regiment was highly

complimented for holding the right of the turnpike, while other regiments gave way. If space allowed, much more of the splendid service of this regiment could be related. When finally mustered out there were only 401 soldiers left of 1,050 that entered the service in the regiment.


ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHTH O. V. I.


To this regiment of Ohio volunteers, Hoff-man's Battalion, Sandusky County furnished the following named soldiers :


Company C—Captain, Philletus W. Norris. First Lieutenant, Amos C. Bradley ; promoted to Captain, January 5, 1863. Second Lieuten ant, George Caryer; promoted to First Lieutenant and then Captain. Sergeants : Lewis D. Booth, George W. Hollenbeck, James L. Clapp, Shelby A. Gish, Styles Rich. Hollenbeck was promoted to First Lieutenant. Eugene 0. Mitchell became First Lieutenant. Corporals: Nathan Tefft, Jonathan L. Smith, Charles N. Mallery, Emery Bercaw, Samuel M. Alexander and Miron M. Starr. Privates : Israel H. Bitter, Josephus Gayer, Rodolphus Lagore and James Williamson.


ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINTH O. V. I.


As finally organized, the following is the roster of the officers of the 169th regiment; commonly known as one hundred day men :


Field and Staff Officers : Colonel, Nathaniel Haynes ; Lieutenant Colonel, J. H. Carr; Adjutant, John L. Green, Jr. ; Ouartermaster, H. J, Kauffman ; Surgeon, Peter Beaugrand; Assistant Surgeon, S. B. Taylor ; Sergeant Major, I. H. Burgoon ; Quartermaster Sergeant, Ferguson Green ; Commissary Sergeant, Theodore England.


Commissioned Officers of. Companies : Captain, A. Beider, A ; M. J. Tichenor. B ; Harry C. Shirk, C ; Abraham Gift, D ; W. K. Boone, E; Charles Thompson, F ; J. H. Jennings, G; Jacob Thomas, H ; A. C. Anderson, I ; Hanson R. Bowlus, K. First Lieutenants, David W. Hardy, A ; W. M. Bacon, B ; Thomas I. Robinson, C; Henry McGill, D ; W. H. Flick, E; Charles Baldwin, F ; John Lichty, G; W. J. Havens, H ; W. H. Goodson., I ; Jonathan Loveberry, K.


Second Lieutenants : Jesse W. Flickinger, A ; Emanuel Sanders, B ; Samuel B. Hughes, C; Dayid Hoitzer, D; Benjamin F. Baltzley, E; George J. Krebs, F; C. S. Long, G; Solomon Warner, H. ; Sidney Sinclair, I. ; Philip Overmyer, K.


The regiment was mustered into the service May 15th and 16th and the organization com- pleted the 17th at Cleveland. On the 19th it left Cleveland for Washington City, where it arrived May 21st, at mid-night. From there the regiment moved to Fort Ethan Allen, Virginia, reaching the fort Sunday night the 22d of May, which was to be the home of the men for their term of service. The splendid fellows composing this regiment did not haye opportunity


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 279


to show, in battle, their courage, but were not lacking in their guard duties, to prevent any sudden attack on the Capitol, which was probable at any moment. The men suffered greatly from sickness, and forty-three died during the service; sickness and death, toward the close, seemed to lurk in every part of the fort and barracks. Some days scarcely a real well man could be found in the regiment. When it started homeward August 22d, there were at least 500 of the men on the sick list, over 300 of whom had been taken from the hospital, for home. The regiment was mustered out at Cleveland September 4, 1864, having been in the service 125 days.


ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-SIXTH O. V. I.


This regiment was raised under the last call, to serve for one year, and was composed of men from different parts of Ohio. Of these, Sandusky County furnished about seventy-five soldiers, most of whom had seen service before. The regiment was mustered in at Camp Chase March 2, 1865, and placed under Col. Thomas F. Wildes, from thence it moved to Nashville. On the 8th it left there for Murfreesboro, arriving the l0th of March. The day and night previous, the regiment marched through rain and snow, the weather at night turning intensely cold. There was not a tent to be had in the command that could be legally drawn, as there was no regimental quartermaster yet mustered in to furnish them, if any there were. The destination was Cleveland, Tennessee, where the regiment went into camp, and soon erected comfortable quarters. May 2, 1865, it moved to Dalton, and thence to Chattanooga, at the request of Wildes, who had been breveted Brigadier General, to join his brigade there to which he had been assigned. On July 20th it was ordered to Nashville. On September 13th orders were received to prepare muster rolls for the muster out of the regiment. On September 25th the regiment was mustered out at Nashville.

The Commissioned Officers of Company E were: Captain, John L. Green; First Lieutenant, Edward Cook, promoted to Captain, September 10, 1865; Second Lieutenant, James Daugherty, promoted to First Lieutenant, Company A, June 22; 1865.


THE THIRD OHIO CAVALRY.


The Third Ohio Cavalry was organized at Monroeville, Ohio, in September, 1861. Capt. William B. Amsden recruited a company designated Company D, in Sandusky County. The First Lieutenant was Richard B. Wood, and the Second Lieutenant was George F. Williams, promoted to First Lieutenant, June 20, 1862, promoted to Captain of Company F, April 17, 1863. During the first year of its service it was attached to Gen. T. J. Wood's division, and for its gallant acts reference is made to the history of Wood's division. It subsequently fought many hard battles to the details of which space here cannot be given. It finished its long career of arduous and brave service at Macon, Georgia, and was mustered out August 14, 1865, at Camp Chase, Ohio, having served four years lacking twenty days.


NINTH OHIO CAVALRY.


James Turner, Sergeant ; Francis H. Bartlett, Ferdinand Bates, Jefferson Baker, Oscar T. Lefever, W. H. Nortrip, H. D. Van Fleet, Henry W. Baker, W. S. Ballard, B. F. Bolus, H. C. Dicken, C. S. Elder, William Fisher, Elias Howard, V. Lybarger, S. G. Martin, D. S. Moses, John Momy Shaffer, A. J. Ogle, Francis Overmyer, Benjamin Phillips, J. G. Woodruff, J. R. Wilson, W. M. Wyant, Jacob Yourts.


TENTH OHIO CAVALRY.


This regiment was organized at Camp Taylor, Cleveland, in October, 1862; left for the field in. Tennessee in February, 1863; served the year out in Tennessee and Alabama, part of the Army of the Cumberland; in 1864 served under Sherman in the great campaigns of Atlanta and to the Sea.


It served with Sherman in 1865 in the campaigns of the Carolinas. It was in the battle at Chicamauga, Cosby Creek, Tunnel Hill, Siege of Atlanta, Jonesboro, Sweet Water, Bear Creek Station, Waynesboro, Georgia ; Aiken, South Carolina ; Monroe Cross Roads, North Carolina and Averysboro, North Carolina. William E.. Haynes was Lieutenant Colonel of this regiment from November 10, 1862, to April 12, 1865. James H. Hafford, Jehial Halliday, Francis Howell, Uriah Mitchell and Andrew Powers of San-


280 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY


dusky County were also in this regiment - Hafford was Second Lieutenant of Company G; promoted to First Lieutenant, January 10, 1863, and to Captain, November 22, 1863. The regiment was mustered out at Lexington, North Carolina, July 24, 1865.


MISCELLANEOUS ORGANIZATIONS.


In addition to the soldiers before named, Sandusky County men served in other organizations in the Civil War. The names of such as can be ascertained are as follows:


In Company H, 139th O. V. I., were Captain, L. W. Davis ; First Lieutenant, L. B. Shaffer and Second Lieutenant, George A. Hall. In Company I were Captain, Thomas J. Davis; First Lieutenant, Samuel H. Eckelburg, and Second Lieutenant, Abraham Balyeat. William J. Raymond and M. C. Beymer, in 164th 0. N. G. ; Edwin Snyder, in Seventeenth Battery ; Andrew J. Culp, W. H. Deal, J. W. Knapp, Charles Niff, A. J. Paden, D. M. Shively, Clarence Williams, T. M. Hill, Joseph C. Knapp, in the Twenty-second Battery ; Denton Devo and Andrew Hush, in the Seventh Ohio Sharp Shooters; Jacob C. Hoover, Byron Holly, Albert E. Ingham, Jacob O. Smith and Nelson R. Forrester, in the Second Ohio Heavy Artillery ; Lysander C. Ball, Charles E. Everett and Peter Parker, in Naval Service, Mississippi Squadron.


SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.


COMPANY K, SIXTH O. V. I.


May 12, 1898, at Camp Bushnell, Bullitt Park, Columbus, Ohio, the Sixth 0. V. I., with Company K, formed of Sandusky County boys, was mustered into the United States service in the Spanish-American 'War. The muster roll of Company K was as follows :


Captain, Louis E. Fouke ; First Lieutenant, Myron C. Cox ; Second Lieutenant, Clarence E. Myers ; Sergeants : Quartermaster, Stephen Buckland ; First, Roscoe A. Fry ; Second, Frank C. Stine ; Third, John W. Fouke ; Fourth, Wallace R. Stine ; Fifth, Ralph W. Stewart.


Corporals, Guy Emerson, Charles Myers, Shirley A. Proctor, Harry R. Hazel, Guy Wickett, Bert Michaels.


Musicians : First, Clarence Childs; Second, Ed Heider; Artificer, George Ehman; Wagoner, Ralph Wickert.


Privates, Fred Albritton, W. C. Anderson, Charles Bellinger, Irvin Boop, Alta Boyer, Ralph Campbell, Geo. Cook, Fred Cooley, James Dickinson, Frank Emerson, Bert Ferrenberg, Harry Fisher, John Florkowski, Patrick Foley, W. A. Garn, R. H. Gilmore, L. A. Goebel, Irvin F. Hague, D. F. Halter, Arthur Hanawalt, C. A. Harrington, Guy C. Hayman, Harry Hoffman, Albert Levy, Howard Long, Harry Morgan, Bert Mills, David Mish, Harry Myers, Ed. Nickel, Len Nickel, Clarence Over, George Overmyer, J. W. Parks, Fred R. Patterson, W. E. Proctor, Jr., Charles R. Raumsauer, W. F. Raumsauer, William Reamer, J. A. Rearick, Al. A. Reinick, W. L. Renchler, Edgar A. Rhodes, J. Wilson Rice, W. C. Richards, J. G. Russell, Homer Smith, M. D. Strobl, H. A. Snyder, Louis Strauss, Guy Terry, William Veith, George Walker.


The regiment left Columbus for Chickamauga May 17th and arrived at Camp Thomas, its allotted place on the 19th. Here orders were received to recruit more men and Company K added the following recruits : E. A. Andrews, P. A. Andrews, L. F. Beck, Clarence G. Binkley, Fred Bower, E. E. Bowman, William Burkett, A. M. Campbell, R. J. Campbell, Wesley Cloud, Charles Cook, Daniel Crane, Garfield Dollison, J. C. Dryer, Ed. Everett, Arthur Foust, W. L. Feightner, Wesley Ferenberg, J. B. Forgerson, Willard Forgerson, Edgerton Garvin, Charles Gleason, George Grob, B. C. Hauser, John Heltzel, Frank Heriff, Truman House, Samuel Jackman, J. E. Myers, Frank Newman, W. C. Parrish, Irvin Rich, C. C. Swank, J. W. Tuckerman, John Walsh, Horace Waring, Charles Zimmerman, R. B. H. Corey and Ralph Stewart. From this place the regiment moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, August 28th, where it remained until December 27th ; it embarked on the transport Minnewaska at Charleston, South Carolina, December 28th for Cuba, reaching Cienfuegos January 3, 1899, and was there assigned to guard-duty to keep order and try to establish government, and protect plantations. It remained in Cuba about four months, and left on the transport Sedgwick for Savannah, Georgia,


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 281


April 24, 1899, but was sent to Augusta, where it was mustered out May 24, 1899, and returned home May 26th. While at Knoxville, Captain Fouke's resignation having been accepted, the command of the company was turned over to Lieutenant Cox, who was promoted to Captain, and Frank L. Mathews, Second Lieutenant of Company H, was appointed First Lieutenant of Company K. The following is the roster of the non-commissioned officers at the time of the muster out :


First Sergeant, Roscoe A. Fry ; Quartermaster Sergeant, Stephen Buckland ; Sergeants, Frank Stine, Wallace Stine, J. Wilson Rice, W. E. Proctor, Jr.


Corporals, Guy Emerson, Charles B. Myers, S. A. Proctor, H. R. Hazel, B. E. Michaels, Guy Wickert, P. M. Foley, Harry J. Morgan, C. F. Lutz, Louis Strauss, J. W. Park, B. C. Hauser; Cook of the Company, John Walsh ; Artificer, Harry Fisher ; Wagoner, Ralph Wickert.


COMPANY I, SIXTH O. V. I.


Captain, William E. Gillette; First Lieutenant, Jesse A. Douglas ; Second Lieutenant, Edward Welsh ; Sergeants, Elvin J. Robinson, Charles Raymond and Le Roy Lemmon ; Corporals, Mack Robinson, Mack A. Dennis, William E. Sellinger, Fred Weeks and Louis Becker.


Privates, Geo. F. Gettins, Scott L. Sowell, Louis Becker, Henry Needham, Manly C. Selvey, Sherwood B. Anderson, James H. May, William A. Sargeant. William H. Covell, Robert Mann, Harry D. Sargeant, Harry E. Conley, John A. Conley, Clarence Chapman, Fred S. Clapp, Chas. L. Dennia, James H. Daly, Fred Duennish, John W. Eisenhard, Edward J. Geiger. Ernest Gallagher. Geo. Gray Thomas W. Guilliat, Chauncey Hawk, Fred E. Hawley, Merritt C. Haff, Jesse Lindsay, Edward Mann. Charles M. McCleary, Francis X. McHugh, Bruce Myrice, John W. Beightel, Howard Robinson, Charles M. Lemmon, Fred K. Gettins, Geo. W. Carter, Caddie E. Ford, Charles F. Sheats, Charles H. Rife, Eugene M. Aldrich, Clair D. Aldrich, Warner Bennett, Eugene E. Brown, Arthur R. Buzzell, John Brady, Dennis Brady, Henry C. Bankey, Howard J. Cooper, Elijah Crockett, Wells D. Ream, Morris W. Sowell, Fred Strong, William E. Scott, Ernest W. Scott, Clyde A. Steiff,'George G. Steiff, Robert S. Smith, Bert R. Smith, Horace Stark, Jerry M. Scanlon, John Scanlon, Geo. J. Schroeder, Chas. A. Schowochow, Fred Sains, Chas. L. Sinetzer, Joseph P. Schwab, Bert Vickery, Frank J. Westbrook, Adam W. Wickerham, William L. White, Isaac N. Wilcox, Frank E. Wright, John B. Welliver, Fred J. Weileleski, Orville G. Wadams, Mack A. Dennis, Wm. Sellinger, Frank Craig, Ruben Hess, Joel B. Elliott, Burton J. Wilson, Harkness Miller, David H. Bennett, Albert F. Lee, Frank L. Meek, Scott W. Trump, Geo. W. Lemmon, Mack Lemmon, Le Roy Lemmon, Alvin I. Robinson, Fred E. Weeks, Walter F. Jessop. The service of Company I was similar to that of Company K.


OTHER SPANISH- AMERICAN SOLDIERS FROM SANDUSKY COUNTY.


Major Webb C. Hayes, in Roosevelt's regiment of Rough Riders ; Yeoman Rudolph Walker, on board Dewey's Flag Shap, Olym-Chance, in the Fifth U. S. Infantry ; Granville pia, at taking of Manila ; Major Jesse C. Buckland, in the Sixth U. S. Infantry ; Privates Benjamin F. Hall and John Nahm, in the Nineteenth U. S. Infantry; Frank M. Schmidt, in the U. S. Cavalry; Charles Hitishu, in the Seventeenth U. S. Infantry; Marshall Greene and Willard Door, in the U. S. Signal Corps, stationed at Manila ; Edward Schwartz in the U. S. Hospital Corps, at Camp Wyckoff, Montauk Point; Lieutenant Harry E. Smith, in the U. S. Navy ; Major Webb C. Hayes and Corporal A. E. Slessman, in the First Ohio Cavalry. Also Privates Charles R. Heffner, First Illinois Infantry ; W. C. Schoedler and Francis Ake, in the Tenth O. V. I.; John Rosanski, Harry Price and Fred Steller, in the Regular Army; Harry Ernst, in the First California Infantry ; Edward Webber, in the Eighth Kansas Regiment ; Fred Springer, in Company K, Ambulance Corps ; Georgs Rollins and Georgs Barto, in Washington Regiment near Passig, Philippine Islands, and Rutherford B. Dillinschneider, in Company B, U. S. Infantry, also doing service in the Philip-


282 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY


pines; George Burton Meek, sailor on U. S. Torpedo Boat 'Winslow, killed in battle at Cardenas, Cuba, May 11, 1898.


The father of George Burton Meek received from the Charge d'Affaires at Washington, D. C., of the Republic of Cuba a letter which reads as follows :


“Washington, D. C., August 24.


"John Meek, Esq. :


"Dear Sir: Some months ago a Cuban gentleman, who signs himself Cambreis, from the City of Mexico, sent General Tomas Estrado Palma, of New York, an order for $100.00 to be given to the wife, children or parents of the first American born sailor who should die in the war to free Cuba. I have just now been informed that your son, George B. Meek, fireman of the first class on board the torpedo boat Winslow. was the first hero to shed his blood for the independence of our unfortunate and downtrodden people.


"I beg to enclose you the check, entrusted to my care, this a proof of the gratitude of the Cubans for their friends and allies, the Americans. Please acknowledge receipt of the same in duplicate.


Yours very respectfully,

GONZALO DE QUESADO,


"Charge d'Affaires of the Republic of Cuba."


The check read as follows :


"No. 4,445 New York, May 17th, 1898.


"The Bank of America pay to the order of Mr. Tomas Estrada Palma, one hundred dollars.


"Maitland Cappel & Co."


On the reverse side is endorsed :

"Pay to the order of Gonzalo de Quesado,

"Tomas Estrado Palma."


Below is first endorsed :


"Pay to order of Secretary of Navy," and this is erased and endorsed : "Pay to John Meek by Gonzalo de Quesado."


Among the many departed heroes of these wars, whose honored graves are found in Sandusky County, may be mentioned without disparagement or thought of invidious distinction, Harrington and Stevens, who fought at Bunker Hill; Waggoner and Burkett, members of General Washington's Life Guard, the latter in the battle at Yorktown ; Croghan, the defender of Fort Stephenson; Thompson, wounded at Lundy's Lane, and Captain in the Mexican War ; McPherson, killed in battle at Atlanta, the highest Union officer, in rank, killed in the Civil War ; Buckland, the hero of Shiloh; Hayes, Major General and President of the United States, and George Burton Meek, the first American-born sailor to. giye his life to make Cuba free.


"How sleep the brave who sink to rest

By all their Country's wishes blest !

When Spring with dewy fingers cold.

Returns to deck their hallowed mold,

She there shall dress a sweeter sod

Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.


By fairy hands their knell is rung.

By forms unseen their dirge is sung;

There. Honor comes, a pilgrim gray,

To bless the turf that wraps their clay;

And Freedom shall awhile repair,

To dwell a weeping hermit there!"


CHAPTER XXI.


MILITARY HISTORY-MEMORIALS.


The McPherson Monument at Clyde—The Soldiers' Monument at Fremont—The Reinter-men! of Remains of Major Croghan—A Look Forward—Extract From Mr. Dodge's Oration.


M'PHERSON MONUMENT.


On the 3d day of August, 1866, McPherson Monument Society of Clyde was organized. Dts officers were Gen. R. P. Buckland of Fremont, president, and Capt. John M. Lemmon of Clyde, secretary. The whole cost of the monument was to be $11,000, and the Clyde society pledged itself to raise $3,000 of the amount, which it raised by subscription. In addition, this society greatly beautified the cemetery wherein lie the honored remains of the fallen hero. It was through the efforts of General Buckland and Captain Lemmon that Congress was induced to appropriate four bronze cannon, i,000 muskets and twenty-five cannonballs which have been placed in the cemetery, by the side of the monument. The Society of the Army of the Tennessee raised $3,956 toward the erection of the monument.


There were efforts made to have the McPherson Monument located at West Point instead of Clyde. Finally, however, a resolution was adopted by the Army of the Tennessee, as follows :


"That we the members of the Army of the Tennessee pledge ourselves to the erection of a monument to the memory of Major Gen. James B. McPherson to be placed over his remains at Clyde, Ohio."


The statute of Major Gen. James Birdseye McPherson, is pronounced a perfect piece of art. The pedestal is of granite, 9 feet in height, and 6 1/2 feet at the base. The figure, which is also 9 feet in height, and composed of bronze represents the commander in full military uniform, with sword belt and hat. The left hand holds a field-glass, while the right hand and arm are extended as if pointing to where the battle rages fiercest. The piece is from the Cincinnati Art Foundry of Rebisso, Mundhenk & Co., who are also the designers and sculptors of the equestrian statue of McPherson, previously erected at Washington.


The statue occupies a knoll in beautiful McPherson Cemetery at Clyde, wherein the hero with father and mother and two brothers lie, and which once formed a portion of the homestead of the McPherson family, where the general was born.


The unveiling ceremonies took place July 22, 1881, attended by 15,000 people, a large number of military societies and distinguished military men. A procession more than a mile long was formed and marched to the cemetery where the assemblage was called to order by Gen. R. B. Hayes, president of the clay. The Statue was unveiled by Gen. W. T. Sherman ; the dedicatory oration was delivered by Gen. M.. F. Force. Formal addresses were delivered by Gen. W. E. Strong and Gen. W. T. Sherman, followed by short addresses by Generals Gibson, Hazen, Leggett, Belknap and Keifer. General Force in his oration said :


"In this place, in this presence, in sight of the home of his childhood, where he was born on the 14th of November, 1828, speaking to the playmates of his youth and the comrades of his career, there is little need of saying who James B. McPherson was. They are present who remember the sunny-faced boy, cheerful, generous, affectionate, studious, diligent in every duty ; his youthful toil helped to support


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284 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY


a widowed mother. Entering West Point at the age of 19 he feared his limited education would weigh him down, but in a class which included Schofield, Terrell, Sill, Tyler, Hood and afterward Sheridan, he quickly rose to the head and kept his place there. The professor regarded him as one of the ablest men sent forth from the institution."


General Sherman on the same occasion said :


"Those whom the gods love die young. My memory in a somewhat eventful career of forty years, retains three conspicuous examples.


* * * * * * * * * * *


"My third young hero lies buried in Clyde, Ohio, in the orchard where he played as a boy. He, too, died young, only 35 years old, and was of the kind whom the gods love 'exceedingly well'. You, his neighbors, knew him as a boy and had a glimpse of him in manhood, and somehow I think a man may not be a prophet or a hero in his own home. You knew his genial, hearty nature, his attachment to his family and neighbors, but you could not see the man as I have seen him, in danger, in battle, when every muscle and every tissue was in full action, when the heroic qualities shone out as a star in the darkest night.


"McPherson, a youth, grew from a lieutenant of engineers to be a corps commander, an army commander, promotion as rapid as ever marked the progress of the mighty men, in the days of Napoleon, but like a brilliant meteor, `Loved of the Gods,' his young life went out before we had achieved the full measure of the work demanded of us by the times.


* * * * * * * * * * *


"A nation has adopted him as one of her heroes, and long after we are gone, and it may be forgotten. young men will gather about his equestrian statue in Washington and this one at Clyde, Ohio, and say to themselves : 'Behold the type of man who rescued us from anarchy ; who died that freedom might become universal ; that America might attain her true place in the gallery of nations, and whose virtues, heroism, and self-sacrifice we must imitate.'


"We must soon pass away and leave him alone in his glory, but before we go we should attempt to emphasize his fame, and I have sought elsewhere for language fitted to the subject, but cannot find anything more appropriate than what I myself wrote the day after his death, when the sounds of battle still thundered in my hearing, when my heart was torn by the loss of a comrade and friend, one whom I loved, in whose keeping was the fate of one of our best armies, and whose heart's blood still stained the hand with which I wrote. I therefore beg to reproduce my own report of his death, made after I had consigned him to the care of loving aids to be brought here to Clyde, Ohio, for interment.


"Headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi,

"In the field near Atlanta, Ga., July 23rd, 1364. "General L. Thomas,

"Adjutant-General, United States Army,


"Washington, D. C.,


"General: It is my painful duty to report that Brigadier General James B. McPherson, United States Army, Major-General of Volunteers and Commander of the Army of the Tennessee, was killed about noon yesterday. At the time of the fatal shot, he was on horseback, placing his troops in position, near the city of Atlanta, and was passing a cross-road from a moving column toward the flank of troops that had already been established on the line. He had quitted me but a few moments before, and was on his way to see in person to the execution of my orders. About the time of the sad event, the enemy had rallied from his entrenchments of Atlanta, and by a circuit, got to the left and rear of this very line, and had begun an attack which resulted in a serious battle, so that General McPherson fell in battle, booted and spurred as the gallant and heroic gentleman should wish ; not his loss alone, but the country's, and the army will mourn his death and cherish his memory as that of one who, though comparatively young. had risen by his merit and ability to the command of one of the best armies which the nation had called into existence, to vindicate her honor.


"History tells of but few who so blended the grace and gentleness of the friend with the dignity, courage, faith and manliness of the soldier. * * * *


"I am with respect,

"W. T. SHERMAN,

"Major General Commanding."


Ex-President Hayes said :


"In grateful recognition of the services and character of General McPherson, his surviving comrades of the Army of the Tennessee and. his friends and neighbors residing at and near his birthplace, Clyde, Sandusky County, Ohio, have erected a portrait statue of heroic size in bronze. It will fitly mark the last resting-place of the earthly remains of General McPherson. It stands before us within a few rods of the spot where he was born, and is in the midst of


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 285


the scenes in which his infancy and boyhood was passed. * *


"His rank, his important command, his brilliant services, the cause for which he died, his talents, his culture, his grace and beauty and soldierly accomplishments, his noble and lovable nature, so affectionate, so gentle, and at the same time so brave and manly, and his heroic death in one of the battles of a decisive campaign, while he was yet in the bloom and promise of early manhood, taken altogether, has given to McPherson a place in the hearts of mankind, more tender and interesting than that which belongs to any other of the thousands of honored heroes whose death in battle his countrymen have been called to mourn. His name will be forever found on the shining roll of the world's best loved heroes."


SOLDIERS' MONUMENT.


Erected in 1885.


"Where dear Sandusky's waters glide,

From storied falls, through meadows wide,

By verdant hills on either side

To seek Lake Erie's famous tide;

  On proud Fort Stephenson,

Where Croghan his laurel chaplet earned,

And freedom's foes a lesson learned,

A shaft memorial is discerned,

  The soldier's benison."


At the general October election held in Sandusky County in 1882, the proposition submitted to the voters by the county commissioners to leyy a tax of not more than one-half mill on the dollar, to raise a fund wherewith to build a soldiers' monument, carried by a majority of 2,322 in a vote of 5,246. The proposition originated with Eugene A. Rawson Post G. A. R., of Fremont, which on May 19, 1882, appointed a committee consisting of R. B. Hayes, R. P. Buckland, W. E. Haynes, G. A. Gessner and S. A. J. Snyder, to promote the project. A Monumental Association was incorporated April 19, 1883, the incorporators being R. B. Hayes, R. P. Buckland, W. E. Haynes, J. H. Rhodes, J. M. Lemmon, M. E. Tyler and John B. Rice, of which R. P. Buckland was president, J. H. Rhodes, vice-president, W. E. Haynes, treasurer, and R. B. Hayes, secretary. Pursuant to an Act of the Legislature, passed April 27, 1884, the county commissioners turned over to the Association the funds realized from the taxes levied by them amounting to $7,653.19. The Association and Eugene A. Rawson Post acted jointly in the prosecution of the matter of the monument to be erected. Plans, specifications and designs for a monument were invited, and September 12, 1884, was designated to examine designs and let contracts for the construction of the monument.


The design of the New England Granite Works was accepted, and the contract awarded to that company, the monument to be of Quincy granite, and the statue Westerly granite. Of course no other site for its erection than Fort Stephenson Park was thought of. , February 2, 1885, the Association met and fixed upon Saturday, August 1, 1885, as the day of unveiling, the anniversary of the defense of Fort Stephenson in 1885, falling on Sunday. The monument was completed Wednesday, July 29, 1885. The whole Structure is 44 feet, 3 inches high. The platform is 18 feet square and on it rests three bases 572 feet high, the largest being 8 feet 9 inches square. The die is 4 feet square; on top of that is a cap over which rests the Corinthian column, 3 feet in diameter at the bottom, and 2 feet 6 inches at the top, 18 feet 6 inches in length and fluted. The cap surmounting the column is 4 feet 8 inches square, and 3 feet 6 inches thick. The statue of the soldier is 8 feet high including the base. The statue represents a soldier at parade rest and is a very life like representation. It faces north. The polished 'die on which the column stands bears the following inscriptions :


On the north side :


To him who hath

Borne the Battle

And to his Widow and his Orphans.

Erected by the people of

Sandusky County, 1885.

On the east side :

Liberty and Union forever,

One and Inseparable.

1861-1865.

On the south side:

In Memory of the

Victorious Defense of Fort Stephenson,

On this spot

By Major George Croghan and the

Brave Men of his Command.

August 2, 1813.


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On the west side is the representation of G. A. R. badge and this inscription :


Vacant places at our camp-fires

Mutely tell of comrades dead,

Fallen in the time of duty,

Where the needs of battle led.


The unveiling took place with appropriat ceremonies, military and civic, on the day des ignated, being the seventy-second anniversary of the defense of Fort Stephenson. Gen Rutherford B. Hayes was president of the day Gen. Jacob D. Cox, orator ; Capt. John M Lemmon, historian ; Capt. Andrew C. Kemper poet; Capt. John L. Greene, grand marshal Rev. Lyman E. Prentiss, chaplain. Gen. Ralph P. Buckland delivered the unveiling address and removed the flag which enveloped the statue. At the lowest estimate 15,000 people were present.


Among the distinguished guests presen were, United States Senators Sherman an Payne, Ex-Governor Foster, Generals Cox Beatty, Grosvenor, Lee, Leggett, Young, Ken nedy, Sanderson, Casement, Sawyer, Fuller an Comly ; Judges Foraker, Haynes, Wickham Lang and Caldwell ; Clark Waggoner, Jame: Winans, D. R. Locke, I. F. Mack and W. W Armstrong; Col. C. M. Keyes ; Captains Hop kins, Cochley and FIarkness ; Hons. W. p Hill, Dudly Baldwin, Orrin Follett and R. G Pennington. Letters of regret were receive from many distinguished persons to whom in vitations had been extended, among which an the following :


"Mt. McGregor, N. Y., July 14th.


"Gentlemen : General Grant directs me to acknowledge receipt of your kind invitation to be present a the unveiling of the Soldiers' Monument in Fremont on the 1st of August, and to convey to you his heartfel thanks for the kind expressions contained therein per sonal to himself.


"Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

"N. E. DAWSON.

"Gen. R. B. Hayes, ex-President U. S., and other Committee."


When this letter of regret was read by Gen eral Hayes, a man in the crowd cried : "Three cheers for General Grant." A silence oppres sive followed. General Hayes said : "If Gen eral Grant was living today the proposed three cheers would have found an instantaneous re sponse from all. As it is, the present grief an sorrow in the hearts of the American people a will naturally silence any cheering echo rela- ting to the dead hero.


"912 Garrison Ave., St. Louis, Mo., July 15, 1885. "Gen. R. B. Hayes, Fremont, Ohio :


"Dear General : Pardon me if in addressing you as General instead of President, I make a mistake, but I always do so to General Grant, and feel the former title the more familiar. I have received your most friendly note of July 13th and the other one equally kind and acceptable of Mrs. Hayes dated 'Spiegel Grove,' and regret extremely that I must answer both, that every day from this to September 10th, is so parcelled out and dove-tailed that I cannot possibly change

a day without violating promises of long standing. * * * The defense of Fort Stephenson, by Croghan and his gallant little band was the necessary precursor to Perry's victory on the Lake, and of General Harrison's triumph and victory at the battle of the Thames. These assured to our immediate ancestors the mastery of the Great West, and from that day to this, the west has been the bulwark of this nation.


"The occasion is worthy a monument to the skies, and nothing could be more congenial to me, personally, than to assist, but, as I hope I have demonstrated, it is impossible. "Accept the assurance of my profound respect for yourself and every member of your family.


"Sincerely yours,

"W. T. SHERMAN.”


"Governor's Island, N. Y., July 15th.


"My Dear General :


"Your note of the 13th enclosing invitation to be present at the unveiling of the Soldiers' Monument in Fremont, Ohio, Saturday, August 1st, has been received.


"It would afford me great pleasure to be present and participate in the unveiling ceremonies on that occasion, which occurring on the anniversary of Major George Croghan's gallant defense of Fort Stephenson, August 2, 1813, is of additional interest, but my official duties interfere with my absence from home, save for brief periods, and oblige me to decline.


"I thank you for kindly expressions in conveying to me the invitation, and I beg you will express to your committee my regrets.


"I am very truly yours,

"W. S. HANCOCK"


"Hon. R. B. Hayes and others:


"Gentlemen : It will be impossible for me to accept invitation to be present at Fort Stephenson on account of poor health. Will explain by letter.


"Yours truly.

"WILLIAM GAINES."

New York, July 22d.


"Committee Invitations: I sincerely regret that I cannot join in your tribute tomorrow, of grateful recollection to the early heroes of your state. The interest and pleasure which I should have had in being present would have been increased, by realizing on that historic ground, the honor conferred on me, in giving it my name. Your monument, rising from the dust of a century, and the funeral gloom which today covers the country, shows that this Republic is not ungrateful, but generously mindful of good service rendered.


"J. C. FREMONT”


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 289


"Headquarters Army of the United States,

"Washington, D. C., August 4, 1885.


"My Dear Sir : Returning on Saturday from duty in the Indian Territory, I found your very polite note requesting my attendance at the unveiling of the Soldiers' Monument at Fremont, Ohio, on the 1st of August.


"I regret very much that I was so situated as to be unable to be present on that interesting occasion.


"Yours very truly,

"P. H. SHERIDAN,

"Lieutenant General."


"Orange, New Jersey, July 24, 1885.

"Hon. R. B. Hayes, Chairman:


"Dear Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your courteous invitation to attend the unveiling of the Soldiers' Monument on the 1st of August. I regret that other engagements will render it impossible for me to avail myself of the invitation. With my cordial thanks for the compliment and my best wishes for the complete success of the meeting, I am, respectfully,


"Your devoted servant,

"GEO. B. MCCLELLAN."


"1305 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, July 17, 1885.


"Gen. R. B. Hayes, Chairman, S. M. A., Fremont, O.


"Dear Sir: Being a confirmed invalid unable to leave my home, it is not possible for me to be present on the anniversary of the defense of Fort Stephenson, August 1, 1885. Your polite invitation brings in review a number of historical events connected with your city, that have occurred during the past century. The rapids of Lower Sandusky, where Fremont now is, put a stop to Colonel Bradstreet in October, 1864, on his way to join Colonel Boquet at the forks of the Muskingum.


"During the War of the Revolution many of the expeditions of the British and their Indian allies passed up the Sandusky River to attack the frontier settlements. In the fall of 1781 the Moravian Mission on the Tuscarawas under Zeisberger were forced away from their posts to the towns on the Sandusky and thence to Detroit. Indian and English war parties passed up the river to join in the battle against Colonel Crawford, near Upper Sandusky, in June, 1781. The first Protestant Mission among the Wyandots and the first United States Agency were located at the Lower Rapids in 1803 and 1808, their buildings forming part of the fort constructed in 1812. The first company drafted on the Reserve in April, 1S12, under Capt. John Campbell, was ordered there, and assisted in completing the fort. But all these interesting events culminated in the unparalleled discomfiture of the British and Indians in August, 1813, by a young major of Kentucky acting against orders.


"Nothing can be more appropriate than the celebration of a defense so brilliant and complete and the erection of a durable monument to fix the spot forever.


"Very respectfully yours.

"CHAS. WHITTLESEY."


The following extracts are from the oration Df General Cox :


"The whole northwestern quarter of the state was Indian territory, and its tribes, confederated by the genius of Tecumseh, a man of no ordinary power, were banded with the red nations of Indiana and the greater west to resist the further advance of the whites. The forts were only isolated out-posts in the midst of hostile territory built to protect the communications of the army with the more distant posts of Chicago and Detroit. For this purpose Fort Stephenson was built here at Lower Sandusky on the hostile side of the river, so that a crossing might always be in the power of our troops. Here was the promise of a frontier place of importance, both for trade with the Indians in time of peace, and a depot 0f supplies for interior settlements as they might be formed. In these days of railways, we forget the navigable connection with the lake which made the foot of the rapids the natural place of transhipment for the lake commerce, coming by the great watery highway of trade from east to west. Viewed from the standpoint of that time, Lower Sandusky was one of the most important posts and promised to be one of the most important business centers in northern Ohio. * * * It is only when we remember all this that we fully appreciate its military importance and the necessity of holding it, with a firm and determined grasp."


In his reference to the hardships of the soldiers under his command, among whom were Sandusky County men, General Cox said :


"My personal acquaintance with them began in the winter of 1863-4, in east Tennessee. On New Year's Eve of 1864 a terrible cyclone of frosty wind swept down from the northwest over the whole valley of the Ohio and Tennessee, reaching and searching with its blasts the whole region to the base of the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. From a mild evening on the 31st of December the thermometer fell in a single hour to zero. It struck the little army in East Tennessee when they were in the worst possible condition to resist its influence. During the Siege of Knoxville they had been shut out from all communication with their base of supplies and when the siege was raised and Longstreet retreated, the winter had set in, and the long mountain roads across Tennessee and Kentucky to the Ohio River were impassable. Chattanooga also had


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been beleaguered, and no supplies could come by that route. Clothing was worn out, the commissariat was exhausted, and the troops had to live upon the scanty food that could be bought or got by foraging in the country. Their tents were in rags, and what was left of them had to be taken for clothing. The activity of the enemy forbade the building of cantonments and the men had to bivouac in the open air sheltered only by such booths as they could hastily make from the limbs of the trees.


"I found them huddling about the camp-fires in every stage of raggedness and destitution. Few had overcoats, some had no coats at all, many no shoes, and one poor fellow without pantaloons and with an old blanket pulled around him like a petticoat, was roasting a few grains of corn he had collected and washed from the dung where the mules stood. To my sympathetic greeting he answered : 'It's pretty rough General, but we'll see it through.' And that was the spirit that pervaded the whole camp."


Sergt. William Gaines, whose letter of regret is here published was one of the soldiers that defended Fort Stephenson in 1813, and the only member of that galant band living at the time of the unveiling of the monument.


Colonel Hayes found Sergeant Gaines at the Barnes Hospital in the Soldiers' Home in Washington, during his father's term as President, and clothed him in the full dress uniform as shown in the portrait, the stripes down the legs of his trousers being sewed on by Lucy Webb Hayes, then the Lady' of the White House.


REINTERMENT OF REMAINS OF MAJOR GEORGE

CROGHAN BENEATH THE SOLDIERS'

MONUMENT IN FORT

STEPHENSON PARK,

FREMONT, OHIO,

AUGUST 2, 1906.


George Croghan was born at Locust Grove, Kentucky, November 15, 1791. His father, William Croghan; was born in Ireland in 1752, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and fought at Brandywine, Monmouth and Germantown. His mother was Lucy Clark, sister of the Conqueror of the Northwest from the British, in 1778. Gen. George Rogers Clarke. At the age of 17 he entered William and Mary College, from which he graduated with the degree of bachelors of arts. It was his purpose to become a lawyer. But the uprising of the Indian tribes under the leadership, of Tecumseh about this time, becoming formidable, Gen. William Henry Harrison, territorial governor of Indiana Territory, issued a call for volunteers to subdue the savages, if possible.


Young Croghan was among the first to respond, and joined the army as a private and was soon promoted to aide-de-camp to General Boyd. He was in the battle at Tippecanoe. When the War of 1812 was declared he again volunteered and was made Captain in the Seventeenth U. S. Infantry. He was at the Siege of Fort Meigs, in 1813, and for meritorious conduct there was promoted to major. He was thereafter for some time stationed at Upper Sandusky, guarding military supplies from threatened depredations. From 'that place he was sent' to Fort Stephenson, where the crowning achievement of his military career occurred August 2, 1812, the particulars of which, and results have already been related in this volume. That he was proud of the fighting blood inherited from his ancestors will appear from the following words of a letter written by him while in Fort Stephenson, just before the attack :


"The enemy is not far distant. I expect an attack. I will defend this post to the last extremity.


"I shall, I hope, do my duty. The example set me by my revolutionary kindred is before me. Let me die rather than prove unworthy of their name."


He resigned from the army in 1817 and moved to New Orleans and in 1824 was made postmaster there but soon entered the regular army and was made inspector-general with the rank of colonel. He was in the Mexican War, and rendered conspicuous service in the assault upon Monterey. He died of cholera January 8, 1849, at New Orleans, where it was generally supposed, that he was buried in one of the numerous cemeteries there, but this proved to be an error. Fremont's patriotic citizen, Col. Webb C. Hayes, several years ago began the search for the hero's remains that they might be re-deposited where he won his renown.


After a long search and persistent quest, the


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remains were discovered in the Croghan family burial plot at Locust Grove, Kentucky, on the Ohio River. The outer mahogany casket enclosing the remains was badly decomposed, but the leaden casket within was intact. The surviving members of Croghan's family assisted Colonel Hayes in the preparations for the removal of the remains to Fremont and gave free consent to the same.


The following is from "Ninety-third Anniversary of the Battle of Fort Stephenson," by Lucy Elliot Keeler.


"The remains arrived in Fremont, Monday evening, June 11, 1906, and were conveyed to the city hall on the fort. The room had been beautifully decorated by the George Croghan Chapter, D. A. R., with flowers and evergreen, and myrtle from the Kentucky grave. A detail from Company K stood at the head and foot of the casket as the remains lay in state. On the afternoon of the 13th the flag-draped casket was lifted to the shoulders of six members of Company K, who were preceded by the company's trumpeter, and followed by the five local veterans of the Mexican War who had seryed in that campaign under Croghan. These veterans acted as honorary pall-bearers. The ladies of the D. A. R. and many citizens followed. The procession passed out in front of the Soldiers' Monument, where it was photographed, and then proceeded to Oakwood Cemetery, marching over the Harrison trail through Spiegel Grove. At Oakwood the remains were placed in the vault, a song was sung by the D. A. R., and the trumpeter sounded taps.


THE CELEBRATION.


"Thursday, August 2, 1906, dawned auspiciously on the historic city of Fremont. The Toledo battery, which had arrived the night before and was stationed at Fort Stephenson, aroused the people at sunrise with a salute of twenty-one guns, announcing that the events of the day had begun. Thousands of visitors from far and near, including many prominent officials of State and Nation, made pilgrimage to the historic shrine of Fort Stephenson. The city was appropriately decorated and every hospitality and courtesy possible was extended by the citizens to their guests.


"At 8 o'clock the casket of Major Croghan, which had been temporarily placed in the vault at Oakwood, was taken therefrom and borne to the city, with military honors of music and soldiery escort. The line of march was over the old Harrison trail, through Spiegel Grove, down Buckland and Birchard Avenues to Park Avenue and then to the high school building where, in the hallway, the casket, draped with flags, was placed. Guarded by a detachment of state troops the remains lay in state until the big parade of the day passed the schoolhouse, when the casket, borne on the shoulders of six stalwart members of the National Guard, was tenderly escorted to Fort Stephenson Park. The civic and military parade, which was the feature of the forenoon, was an imposing spectacle. It was headed by the city police force and fire department, followed by a provisional brigade of the Ohio National Guard commanded by Brig. Gen. W. V. McMaken, 0. N. G., the local and visiting posts of the Grand Army of the Republic, Spanish War Veterans, Masons, Woodmen of the World and secret orders, German musical societies, commercial organizations and school children, waving the American emblem and singing patriotic songs.


"An interesting link in the procession brought the present event in close touch with the historic past, for in a spacious carryall were Fremont's five Mexican War veterans, Capt. Andrew Kline, his brother Louis Kline, Grant Forgerson, Martin Zeigler and Jacob Faller. They had all personally known Croghan. The parade passed in review before the handsomely decorated stand at Croghan Street and Park Avenue, on which stood Vice-President Fairbanks, Governor Harris, Mayor Tunnington, General Chance, Congressman Mouser, Hon. J. F. Laning and Hon. A. H. Jackson ; behind them the governor's staff, Colonel Kautzman, Colonel Weybrecht, Major Hall, Captain Williams, Captain Knox, Captain Garner, Captain Wood and Lieutenant Moulton. Vice-President Fairbanks stood up in his automobile almost the entire length of Front Street, and with his hat in hand acknowledged the cheers and applause of the crowds, while Governor Harris kept bowing to people on both sides of


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the street in response to the cheers with which he was greeted: At the high school the procession halted and the Croghan remains were escorted from their resting place at the base of the monument by the George Croghan Chapter of the D. A. R., the members of which had-charge of the final interment. The children scattered flowers in the grave, a salute was fired, taps were sounded and the honored dust of the gallant George Croghan was consigned to its final resting-place on the spot and in the sacred soil he had so bravely and loyally defended ninety-three years before. The grave was covered with a large block of Quincy granite bearing this inscription :


George Croghan.

Major 17th U. S. Infantry,

Defender of Fort Stephenson

August 1st and 2d, 1813.

Born Locust Grove, Ky., Nov. 15, 1781.

Died New Orleans, La., Jan. 8, 1849,

Colonel Inspector General

United States Army.

Remains removed from

Croghan Family Burying Ground,

Locust Grove, Ky.,

August 2, 1906.


EXERCISES AT FORT STEPHENSON PARK, 1:30 P. M.


1. Music by Light Guard Band.

2. Assembly called to order by Mayor C. C. Tunnington.

3. Address by Gen. Jesse C. Chance, president of the day.

4. Prayer by W. E. Tressel.

5. Patriotic song by school children..

6. Historical address by Hon. Basil Meek.

7. Music by Light Guard Band.

8. Address by Hon. Samuel S. Dodge.

9. Patriotic song by school children.

10. Paper on Fort Stephenson, by J. P. Moore.

11. Remarks by the Hon. Charles W. Fairbanks, Vice-President of the United States.

12. Remarks by Gen. Andrew L. Harris, Governor of Ohio.

13. Remarks by Hon. E. O. Randall, Secretary Ohio Archeological and Historical Society.

14. Music by Light Guard Band.

15. Presentation of distinguished guests.


Dress Parade of Troops at McPherson Park, 5 p. m.


Reception at Spiegel Grove, 6:30 p. m., to the Hon. Charles W. Fairbanks, Vice-President of the United States, and Gen. Andrew L. Harris, Governor of Ohio, and staff.


Venetian Night on Sandusky River, 7:30 p. m.


A LOOK FORWARD.


In this and the preceding chapter attention has been directed mainly to war and the heroes of war—our own heroes of the past, whom we greatly delight to honor and by erecting monuments and in Story and song, to commemorate their heroic deeds.


In the closing portion of the eloquent oration of Hon. S. S. Dodge, at the reinterment, are words which deserve special consideration as turning attention from war toward peace, and as prophetic of the hoped-for, good-time-coming, when all controversies between nations and people shall be settled by arbitration, and when peace shall prevail instead of war the time when it may be truly said : "Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war," and the promoters of peace may, indeed, be honored as have been the heroes of war.


Hon. S. S. Dodge said : "My Friends : Wars are cruel. They crush with bloody heel all justice, all happiness, all that is God-like in man. We have but to read the history of nations to discern the hideous slaughters which have marked their progress, and yet man is such a savage that until the present generation he has insisted that the only way to settle things is by the gage of battle. He has covered zoo battle fields with men and horses ; with the groans of the wounded and the dying. He has covered the pages of our history with gore and if history, such history as you have learned here on the banks of this gentle flowing river, that for half a century had been the scene of strife and battle, if such historv I say, cannot cultivate out of man the brutal spirit of war, teach him the wisdom of diplomacy and the need of arbitration, then has the lesson been lost and he has failed to taste the fruit or imbibe the philosophy of humanity. It is for us to substitute law for war, reason for force,


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courts of reason for the settlement of controversies among nations following up the maintenance of the law with the vitalizing forces of civilization until all nations are molded into one international brotherhood, yielding to reason and conscience. Then can we draw the sword from its sheath and fling it into 'the sea rejoicing that it has gone forever. Let us recognize this truth, and today on this anniversary, we will lay a new stone in the temple of uniyersal peace. This temple which shall rise to the very firmament and be as broad as the ends of the earth. May such occasions as this lead us away from an era of wars and battleships and new navies, and bring us to a time when patriotism and humanity can be compatible one with another and to a time


When navies are forgotten

And fleets are useless things,

when the dove shall warm her bosom

Beneath the eagle's wings.


When memory of battles,

At last is strange and old,

When nations have one banner

And creeds have found one fold.


Then Hate's last note of discord

In all God's world shall cease,

In the conquest which is service

In the victory which is peace!"


CHAPTER XXII.


RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.


THE PIONEER CLERGY AND CHURCHES.


The real pioneers of the clergy among the sparse settlers of Lower Sandusky were three missionaries, the Revs. Joseph Badger, James Hughes and James Montgomery. Rev. Joseph Badger was a member of the Presbyterian Synod of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, laboring in the Western Reserve, and in 1805 made a tour west as far as Michigan. June 14th he crossed the Sandusky River at the lower rapids, swimming his horse by the side of a canoe. He speaks in his diary of meeting with Rev. James Hughes and conferring with the Indian chief about preaching. He then found a temporary house with Mrs. James Whittaker down the river about three miles. On his way back from Michigan in 1806, he located at Lower Sandusky and he and Mr. Hughes preached to the Indians there, most likely, from the knoll where Fort Stephenson was afterward erected. We have seen from the field notes of the survey in 1806, that Mr. Badger's house was on this knoll and that he had a small corn field along the west bank of the river just east of the same. The labors of this missionary consisted, not only, of preaching and teaching, but also, helping the Indians in their work, raising crops. He speaks in this diary of making his own boat, and making a plow for Mrs. Whittaker, hoeing in the garden, digging for water, writing letters and administering to the sick ; he was here for a number of years, laboring among the Indians. He had been a soldier in the Revolutionary War and was at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He became a soldier in Gen. Simon Perkin's Brigade, .in the War of 1812, and was chaplain therein. It is believed that his influence with the Wyandots caused their neutrality during that war. He died at Perry-burgh in 1847, and lies buried there, with a stone marking his grave, placed there by the Presbyterian Synod. Of the services of Mr. Hughes there seems to be no further account to be found.


In 1819 Rev. James Montgomery, a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Indian agent at Fort Seneca, came to Lower Sandusky and preached the first sermon ever preached there by a Methodist preacher. He continued to preach there at stated intervals until 1820, when he organized himself, his wife and daughter into a "class" which was really the nucleus of a church. A letter (1880) from Mr. Montgomery's daughter, Mrs. Sallie Ingham, then of Tiffin, says : "At the first communion service the communicants were the above mentioned three persons, with the addition of a local preacher from Springfield, Ohio, named Moses Hinkle." James Montgomery proceeded regularly to organize the first class of the Methodist Episcopal Church ever formed in Lower Sandusky. He had been ordained by Bishop Asbury, and was a local preacher for thirty years ; he died at Fort Seneca in 1830.


In the year 1822 Rev. Jacob Bowlus of the United Brethren Church came to the vicinity of Lower Sandusky from Maryland and preached to the new settlers, as he had opportunity. A few classes were formed and a few preaching places were established through his efforts. In 1829 a circuit, called the Sandusky Circuit, was formed by the general conference of that church, and Jacob Bowlus was made its presiding elder, and a minister by the name of John Zahn was appointed "circuit rider." The next year Mr. Bowlus was re-elected presiding elder and Israel Harrington and J. Harrison were assigned to the circuit. These four, Bowlus. Zahn. Harrington and Harrison are


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said to have been the first pioneer itinerant preachers of the United Brethren Church in northwestern Ohio.


The ministerial labors of Mr. Bowlus extended throughout nearly all the western portion of the county. He was the first resident preacher authorized by law to solemnize marriages. Elder John Mugg, of York Township, in 1829, organized a church society in that township known as the Free-will Baptist Church, composed of several prominent persons there. It will be seen, in the history of the townships where the subject is further considered, that from these small beginnings large and flourishing churches have been established, and gospel privileges extended to every section of the county.


St. Ann's Catholic Church represents the oldest religious organization at Fremont and its history, identified as it is with the stirring events of the early settlement of this section of Ohio. is replete with interest. On a stormy day in March, 1823, an earnest priest came all the tortuous distance from Detroit. to say mass to a little gathering of faithful French Catholics, in their rude little log cabin in the frontier village of Lower Sandusky. The natural beauty of Sandusky County with its noble river and its teeming forests and advantages for hunters and trappers, had early appealed to adventurers from every section—brave men who were willing to dare much in order to find a livelihood and found homes for their loved ones. Hence, by 1816, Lower Sandusky's population numbered 200 white settlers and here really begins the history of the venerable St. Ann's Church. Three brothers, Joseph, Anthony and Peter Momenay, French Catholics, had come to this point from Detroit and it was through their representations that John B. Beaugrand, then a prosperous merchant in the Michigan town, cast in his lot with the people of Lower Sandusky. In 1822 he made his first visit and in the following year he returned to locate, bringing with him his wife and seven children, all faithful Catholics.


Mr. Beaugrand found all things as he had anticipated in the new home, with the exception of religious privileges and as quickly as possible he went about securing these. He in- vited his late pastor, Rev. Gabriel Richard, of St. Ann's Church, Detroit, to pay him a visit and bless his home, his house being a two-story building, located a short distance east of the present Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway station. In the latter part of March, 1823, Father Richard came as requested, and in the Beaugrand home said the first mass ever celebrated in the village of Lower Sandusky. His stay was for only a few days during which he also visited the French families at La Prairie, eight miles from Lower Sandusky. After Father Richard's departure no priest visited the village for some years, but between 1826 and 1831 Bishop Fenwick, on his way to Michigan, stopped over at Lower Sandusky two or three times, and looked after the spiritual wants of his neglected little flock.


On one of these visits he was accompanied and assisted by the Rev. S. T. Badin. In 1831 Lower Sandusky was also visited a few times by Rev. Edmund Quinn, pastor of St. Mary's at Tiffin, Ohio. After another lapse of time the Redemptorist father, F. X. Tschenhens, attended Lower Sandusky from Peru, as a station, from 1834 to 1837. During 1835-6, Rev. E. Theinpont, from Tiffin, also visited Lower Sandusky occasionally.


In July, 1834, Bishop Purcell, accompanied by the Rev. J. M. Henni, of Canton, and F. X. Tschenhens, of Peru, paid his first Episcopal yisit to Lower Sandusky ; and his second, in 1836, when the Revs. S. T. Badin and H. D. Juncker assisted him on his missionary tour through northern Ohio. The Rev. Joseph McNamee, of St. Mary's, Tiffin, paid a few pastoral visits to Lower Sandusky, between September and November, 1839, when the Rev. P. J. Machebeuf, stationed at Tiffin from November. 1830. to December, 1840, was commissioned by Bishop Purcell to look after many missions and stations in northwestern Ohio, Lower Sandusky was included among these ; he attended it about one month, at first from Tiffin, beginning in November, 1839, and after that ( January, 1841-5) from Sandusky.


Mass was celebrated in Mr. Beaugrand's house by all the visiting bishops and priests until 1838, and during the following year in Joseph Hunsinger's residence. By this time


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the Catholic populati0n of the town and vicinity had grown too large to be accommodated in private houses and Pease's Hall was then rented and was used as a place of worship until 1843, when the turner shop of John Christian was rented and fitted up. Father Machebeuf in the meantime raised a subscription for a church edifice and in this received liberal assistance from Mr. Beaugrand's two sons-in-law, L. Q. Rawson and A. Dickinson, although they were not of the Catholic faith. A site was purchased for $200, on State Street, from L. Brush, who gave the deed December 13, 1841, and the church was commenced in the fall of 1843. It was a plain, frame structure, 30 x 40 feet, and cost about $2,500. Although at the time the interior was not completed mass was said in the church in May, 1844. At that time the mission comprised about thirty families, the larger number living on farms in the neighborhood and few of them being possessed of large means, but their liberality attested their zeal. From 1845 until January, 1846, Rev. P. Peudeprat, assistant to Father Machelbeuf, had charge of a number of his missions and among these was Lower Sandusky, which he attended monthly. Father Peudeprat was succeeded in February, 1846, by Rev. Amadeus Rappe, formerly of Toledo. and he at once had the interior of the church finished and it was dedicated by Bishop Purcell, to St. Ann, on June 8, 1846.


Father Rappe had as his assistant in his vast field of missionary work, extending over northwestern Ohio, Rev. Louis De Goesbriand, who visited Lower Sandusky from the latter part of 1846 until 1848, when he was transferred to Cleveland. Rev. Morris Howard, of Tiffin, was then in charge for a few months, when Rev. William L. Nightingale was appointed first resident pastor of St. Ann's Church, at Lower Sandusky, this being about the time the name was changed to Fremont. During his pastorate, which lasted until the early part of 1850, a frame house, located at the corner of Croghan and Wood Streets, was bought for his residence. About 1849 the grade of State Street was considerably lowered, in consequence of which it was difficult to reach the church, which had been built on an eminence, consequently it became necessary to lower the lot on which the church stood.


In 1850 Rev. A. Carabin succeeded Father Nightingale, and remained in charge until July, 1852, when, stricken with paralysis, he was obliged to give up all pastoral work. His successor was Rev. Thomas Walsh, who remained until June, 1856; Rev. John Roos taking his place in July. About this time the German members of St. Ann's asked Bishop Rappe's permission to organize a separate parish and as he did not deem it expedient to comply ill feeling arose and in April, 1857, there was open opposition to the bishop. This led to his leaving the parish without a pastor.


In the meanwhile the Germans organized, collected funds and built a brick church, costing $7,000, making the new property far more valuable than the old. After about six months, when Bishop Rappe found the seceders from St. Ann's still determined t0 have a German parish, to be known as St. Joseph's, he finally yielded and sanctioned their organization in December, 1857, by appointing a pastor for them, in the person of Rev. Louis Molon, who at the same time was charged w: h St. Ann's as a mission. In July, 1859, Rev. George Peter was appointed assistant. In March, 1861, Father Molon severed his connection with St. Joseph's. Bishop Rappe then assigned him to the pastorate of St. Ann's and he served until July, when Rev. Michael O'Neill was appointed his successor and remained in charge until May, 1865. During his pastorate St. Ann's was enlarged by an addition of thirty feet, making its dimensions 35 x 70 feet. In August, 1864, he bought a tract of land for a cemetery, covering about fifteen acres, St. Joseph's parish taking the north half of it and both parishes dividing the .expense of $1,400. In May, 1872, Father Carroll bought three lots fronting on State Street, at the intersection of Rawson Avenue, for the purpose of there eventually erecting a new church. He was succeeded by Father

O'Callaghan, who remained until August, 1877, and during his pastorate the first school building was erected at a cost of nearly $3,000. Rev. J. V. Conlan succeeded and during his pastorate many needed improvements were


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pushed to completion. In April, 1883, Rev. J. D. Bowlus took charge and in November of that year lie bought three lots adjoining those purchased by Father Carroll, on the west and a very comfortable frame house on one of these was so changed and remodeled that it became suitable for a parochial residence for the Sisters of St. Joseph, who have had charge of the school since that time.


In August, 1887, Rev. T. P. McCarthy was appointed priest at St. Ann's. He was not satisfied with the progress the parish had made and soon made it evident that he expected to bring about many changes, all for the better. He appointed a building committee to consider con- cerning the erection of a new church and the plans of priest and committee were approved by Bishop Gilmour and the foundation for the present imposing structure of Gothic architecture, was begun in the fall of 1888, and the good bishop was able to lay the corner-stone on June 9, 1889. This church with its fine finishing of antique oak, its beautiful frescoes and stained glass windows, is one of the fine buildings of Fremont. It was dedicated on Sunday, July 26, 1891, by the Rt. Rev. Mgr. Boff, at that time administrator of the diocese, the priest in charge at that time being Rev. A. E.. Manning, who succeeded Father McCarthy in March, 1890. In April, 1893, the old church, so long a landmark, was torn down, mass having been celebrated in the ancient structure for the last time on Sunday, July 19, 1891.


Father Manning was succeeded by Rev. Patrick O'Brien, Rev. C. V. Chevraux taking charge in 1897, and Rev. J. McClosky in 1900. In 1906 Rev. Edward M. O'Hare took charge of St. Ann's, and a sketch of this well beloved and efficient priest will be found in this work. He has still further extended the work begun by his predecessors and in the past three years has impressed himself vitally on the parish. His work is heavy, St. Ann's having grown into one of the important churches of the diocese, the growth, even under many disturbing circumstances, having been slow but sure. There are now in the parish 200 families, some 600 souls and the flourishing school has an enrollment of 125 pupils. This school is one of excellence, having the grammar grades and a two-year commercial course.


In recalling the present prosperity of old St. Ann's it were well to place on record, in this connection, the names of those whose early efforts and zeal contributed as the humble instruments of bringing St. Ann's into existence : John B. Beaugrand, Peter Beaugrand, Jacob Gabel, Joseph Andrews, Dennis Lane, Michael Gleason, Joseph Hunsinger, Joseph Baumgartner, George Rimmelspacher, John Kenny, Dennis Doran, Balt Kiefer, John Powers, Gabriel La Pointe, Joseph, Anthony and Peter Momenay, Peter Beaugrand, Patrick Hayes and Casper Hodes.


St. Joseph's Church at Fremont, representing the religious home of 600 families of earnest Catholics, has an exceedingly interesting history. Its beginning dates away back to 1856. Until that year St. Ann's was the only Catholic Church at Fremont ministering to all Catholics for miles around, regardless of natiyity, but each year, as the country became more closely settled, the German element began to be important and the German Catholics began to hope for a church of their own. In 1856 a celebrated missionary of the Society of Jesus, Rev. F. X. Wensinger, gave a mission at St. Ann's. and it was in following his advice that the German contingent began preliminary measures to organize for an exclusive German church.


When the matter was laid before Bishop Rappe it met with his disapproval, which caused great disappointment and subsequently led to the withdrawal of the Rev. John Roos, then pastor of St. Ann's and from June to December, 1857, the church was without a spiritual director. The German people, however, were not entirely discouraged and they entertained the hope that when Bishop Rappe saw how deep was their desire and how willing they were to practically prove their zeal that his interdict would be withdrawn, and such proved the fact. They c0llected the funds, purchased land and on it erected a substantial brick edifice, 48 x 100 feet in dimensions, at a cost of $8,600. Other minor difficulties arose but, owing to the wisdom of the bishop and to the energetic spirit of the people, these were all