Seager Tavern, Woodville Township, Sandusky County, Ohio

 The existence of the Seager Tavern is well documented as one of the 30 taverns built along the 31 miles of the Maumee and Western Reserve Pike (now State Rte. 20) between Fremont (then known as Lower Sandusky) and Perrysburg, Ohio, known by pioneers as part of the Black Swamp.

Daniel Seager, born 1777 in Simsbury, Connecticut, had married Catherine Lounsbury in Duchess County, New York.  After living many years near Pompey, New York and a brief time in Geauga County, Ohio, they came with five of their six adult children to settle in Woodville Twp., Sandusky County, Ohio in 1833.   

It was a time of "westward" expansion.  Improved lands in the east were often priced beyond the reach of young families. Northwest Ohio provided one of the last places in the state of Ohio where virgin land could still be purchased from the federal government. Many times, sons and daughters brought their elderly parents with them.

On April 3, 1833, shortly after his arrival, Daniel purchased tract #101, bordering on the south side of the pike in section 35 of Woodville Twp. It contained 118 acres.  Daniel contracted to pay the federally regulated price of $1.25 per acre in four annual payments.  It was here that Daniel and his family built their tavern.  Like most of the other taverns along the pike, it no doubt served the family as their home as well.  A short time later, he purchased another parcel consisting of 85 acres. This lay just south of the tavern property.

Accommodations at most of the taverns along the pike were primitive at best.  Every pioneer family faced the awesome task of clearing land for crops.  But those who settled in the midst of the Black Swamp had the additional burden of draining their fields. Only a few acres could be transformed into productivity each year. More than 1/3 of those who settled left within a year. But the hardy souls of the Black Swamp, such as the Seager family, were determined to take advantage of the income from the unbroken stream of "movers" slowly slogging their way westward through the pike's mudholes.

If enough shot and powder were available, families could provide meals of racoon, opossum, turkey, and deer - all plentiful in the swamp. Small grain crops produced feed for the oxen and horses. Warm fires and the ever-present whiskey jug made the mud, cold, and backbreaking misery nearly bearable.  At dusk, the taverns filled up quickly. Every available inch of space would be filled with exhausted families wrapped in mud-caked, damp blankets.  Many were forced to sleep in their wagons or beside campfires.

Daniel was nearing 60 years of age on his arrival. Most of the labor was necessarily done by his children - Charles, Thomas, Elizabeth, Mary, and Catherine. Charles, was born in Pompey, New York in 1811 and educated at its academy.  A widower, he brought his young daughter, Martha Jane, to the swamp with him.

During this time the population of Woodville Twp. continued to grow as a few optimistic pioneers decided to try their luck in the swamp.  When Woodville built its first schoolhouse in 1836, the township trustees hired Catherine Seager to be its first teacher. This position often went to young men, but Catherine, still single at the age of twenty-three, had been educated in the east and was well qualified for the position.  By 1842, when Daniel died at the age of 65,  all of his children except Catherine had married. It's probable the tavern continued in operation a few more years. Improvement had been made on the pike in 1840, decreasing the tavern business immensely.

 Some miles west of the Seager tavern was that owned by Thomas and Harriet (Cochran) Miller who had married in 1826. The tavern was located where the Portage River crossed the pike (now Woodville,  Ohio). The couple has lost two babies.  A plot of land had been set aside by C. B. Collins as a burial ground.  Thomas and Harriet buried their babies there and when Thomas passed away in 1828, he too, was interred in the same cemetery. 

In 1835, Charles Seager married Thomas' strong-willed widow. They had one child, Charles L., born in 1837. The couple ran her tavern as well as assisting the Seager family with their lands and tavern. In 1837, Charles and Harriet sold the Miller tavern. Two years later, Charles bought from the heirs of Henry Weaver the tavern known as the "Sugar Creek House. " The tract,  which was bisected by Sugar Creek, lay on the north side of the pike and contained nearly 143 acres. The couple also bought land and settled on a farm in Ballville Twp., Sandusky County. 

In the Lower Sandusky Whig in 1839 Charles advertised "for rent Sugar Creek House 13 miles west of Lower Sandusky.  Attached to this tavern stand is a farm containing nearly 150 acres, 50 tillable, very productive. Terms: rent payable quarterly in advance."

In  addition, Charles  and Harriet began buying up the interests in Daniel's estate.  These plans were cut short when Charles died in 1844.  Harriet buried him in the cemetery near her first husband. 

  

Harriet Seager

Sandusky County History, 1882

 

As Daniel's estate hung in limbo, no doubt Thomas Seager managed the Seager tavern and property. But with Thomas' death four years later, and the waning traffic along the pike the tavern business most certainly came to an end. 

Daniel's widow, Catherine, and his unmarried daughter remained on the land. John McBride,  relative of neighboring tavern owner Michael McBride, lived with them and farmed the property. This provided an income until the settlement of Daniel and Charles' estates.  Barthol Hurrelbrink had purchased part of the Seager estate, but within a matter of months Michael McBride had gained title to the entire property.  Catherine, almost 70 years of age, with her dower interest in Daniel's estate, returned to New York to an easier less primitive way of life.

                                                  

Charles Seager Grave

 

                     

The great grandson of Charles Seager recalls the family history that when the Oakwood Cemetery was opened in Fremont, Ohio, Charles' widow Harriet Cochran Seager was determined to have her husband's body removed from the early Woodville Cemetery near Sugar  Creek. Her son refused to take part in this  expedition. Harriet then hitched her wagon and hired two men to help her remove Charles' body from the cemetery along the pike. He was then reinterred in the new Oakwood Cemetery in Fremont, Ohio.

Lake Sturgeon - Those Really Big Fish Make a Comeback!

Courtesy of Dept. of Natural Resources

Having grown up fishing on Ohio's Portage River, my heart was warmed when I learned of the restocking of sturgeon hatchlings in the Sandusky River. Eric Weimer, Ohio DNR fishery biologist, who manages the restocking, says there are no plans to restock the Portage because of its proximity to the Sandusky. However, it was one of Ohio's four rivers to once host a breeding population of lake sturgeon. He hopes, as do I, that some hatchlings make it to the Portage on their own. 

During mid-October the Ohio DNR continued its successful restocking efforts in the Cuyahoga, Maumee, and Sandusky Rivers.  Students from Clyde, Liberty Benton, and Whitmer High Schools helped release 750 baby sturgeon  into the Sandusky River. Restocking will continue for the next 25 years when the sturgeon population of Lake Erie will hopefully be reestablished.  
 

Courtesy of Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources

The largest fish in the Great  Lakes, sturgeon can grow to  9 feet and weigh more than 300 pounds, and live for 150 years. Contemporaries of the dinosaurs, sturgeon, with their shark-like tails, rows of  armored plates, and protruding mouths are an impressive site.

The return of these docile giants to Lake Erie is encouraging, but their numbers are a mere fraction of those reported by pioneers of Northwest Ohio.  Early Fremont, Ohio newspaper editor Isaac Keeler reported that sturgeon weighing 70 - 100 pounds were common in the 1850s.  It is reported  that anywhere from 330,000 to 1.1 million were believed to have lived in the waters of Lake Erie in the  early 17th century.

Native Americans revered the lake sturgeon as part of their traditional spiritual culture. But early commercial fishermen slaughtered them by the thousands.  Sturgeon were considered a nuisance because they frequently destroyed fishing nets.   Keeler reported that sturgeon were hauled from the waters, and killed like "sticking a pig." When the carcasses dried, they were piled up and set afire like "pitch-pine logs." All along the Great Lakes sturgeon were stacked like cordwood and used for fuel for the early steamships. 

Still plentiful in the 1870s, sturgeon began to find a place in the commercial market. Port Clinton, Ohio, fishermen Nassler and Detlefson opened a "fish house" and wharf there in 1874. They processed caviar, fish oil, and smoked sturgeon. According to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Great Lakes catch peaked a decade later at 8.6 million pounds. Over-fishing, pollution, and the construction of dams sent sturgeon numbers plummeting. The Ballville Dam in the Sandusky River was removed in 2018, allowing them to reach further up the tributary during spawning.

A portion of  this post (written by me)appears on Paper Trail on the Hayes Presidential Library and Museums' web site. Pictured there is an image of a 180-pound sturgeon caught on April 29, 1935, near Kelleys Island by Alfred McKillips, Albert Kugler, and Sylvester Dwelle. Fishermen claimed it was one of the largest fish ever pulled from the waters of Lake Erie. The photograph is part of the Captain Frank Hamilton Album 1.  

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Bellevue's (Ohio) Sinkholes

Bellevue, Ohio

 

The City of Bellevue, a large part of Thompson Township in Seneca County, most of York Township of Sandusky County and the south-west part of Groton Township in Erie County have no other drainage than sinkholes. The whole district has an underlying strata of carboniferous limestone. Seneca Caverns in Thompson Township have been a show place for years. Some of the sinkholes are natural, others artificial, being constructed by drilling and testing until a crevice or fracture capable of taking a sufficient quantity of water to be useful is found. 

Some of the sinkholes are connected underground. Tests have been made to determine whether the Kinney sinks have any connection with the underground river emerging from the Blue Hole at Castalia which tended to prove they did not. Sinkholes in the lower areas have been known to spout water during flood times, which could only have been caused by pressure through connected fractures from higher land. The lowest land not provided with surface drainage in Groton and York townships was the last to drain. Water from the June flood laid in certain low areas until October. If the water from the region south of Bellevue can be taken care of by surface drainage facilities much of the trouble existing in the low lying sinkholes area around Bellevue will be eliminated.

[Excerpted from a report by Myron T. Jones, engineer and attorney, published in the Bellevue Gazette, April 1, 1938.]

This article about Bellevue's Sinkholes appeared on the Sandusky County Scrapbook website which no longer exists.  The site was a local history cooperative effort of the Sandusky County (Ohio) Libraries. 

Oakwood Cemetery, Sandusky County, Fremont, Ohio

 

Oakwood Cemetery, Fremont, Ohio

Courtesy Find a Grave

Oakwood Cemetery was established in 1858 when James Vallette from Ballville Township sold twenty-six acres of beautiful oak woods to the newly formed cemetery association.  The location met the needs of the growing city of Fremont, Ohio and its surrounding area. Oakwood Cemetery was located two miles from the center of Fremont on the road to Tiffin along the Sandusky River.  The first recorded burial at the cemetery was Benjamin Munson on October 6, 1860.  Since that date more than 25,000 burials have been recorded. The cemetery has expanded as needed over the years.  Records can be viewed at the Hayes Presidential Library and Museums.

Oakwood Cemetery,  GAR Circle

Courtesy of Find a Grave

The Hayes Circle is located at the main entrance of the cemetery where sons and one daughter of President Rutherford B. Hayes and Lucy Webb Hayes are buried.  Webb Cook, and his wife,  Mary Miller Hayes are buried at Spiegel Grove near the burial site of the President and First Lady who were reinterred in 1915 by second son Webb Cook Hayes.

Oakwood Cemetery,  1915

For the complete story of the removal of the bodies of President Rutherford Hayes and Lucy Webb Hayes, please read the earlier Ohio's Yesterdays blog post (January 1918) by Meghan Wonderly-Kolbe, Annual Giving and Membership Coordinator at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums. 

McBride Tavern, Woodville Twp. Sandusky County, Ohio

McBride Tavern,  Woodville Twp., Sandusky County

Michael McBride, born October 13th 1806, near Sugar Creek, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania,  was the son John and Nancy McBride who had immigrated to America from Ireland.  As a young man,  he worked as a stonecutter at Buffalo, New York.  At the age of 21,  he came to Ohio and contracted to build several sections of the  Maumee and Western Reserve Pike (now U.S. State Route 20). It was at this time that Ohio at last appropriated funds to make permanent improvements to the pike.  Culverts, ditches, and macadamizing were intended to transform the endless miles of mud from Lower Sandusky (now Fremont, Ohio) to Perrysburg, Ohio.

In 1839 Michael married a young Irish girl named Joanna Kaley.  In the spring of 1841, Michael purchased tract #102 which lies today in section 35 of Woodville Twp. As with most of the tracts, they were first surveyed in long narrow parcels. This particular tract contained 96 acres and was originally purchased from the federal government by John Hollister.  

The innkeeping business along the pike had flourished for the previous ten years due to the wave of people headed "west." But it was the thirty miles of road which spanned the distance between Fremont (then called Lower Sandusky) to Perrysburg, Ohio that proved to be the real boon for those hardy Black Swamp pioneers.  Frequently travelers stayed in the same tavern three nights running.  Initially, many residents opened their homes to the "movers." Others converted their homes into taverns.  The McBrides were no exception.   They too, entered the tavern business,  but Michael built a building specifically for innkeeping rather than his  home.

The inn was an imposing structure situated on the south side of the pike just east of Sugar Creek which passed through the tract.  It measured approximately 40 feet by 28 feet with the first floor containing a sitting room, dining room, family parlor, and kitchen. On the second floor another huge sitting room extended the full length of the front of the inn.  To the rear of the second floor were the guest rooms.  Two large fireplaces one on either end of the inn provided heat for both the first and second floor.  A full cellar with hand cut limestone walls held wine racks.  A two-story addition,  measuring 30 feet by 27 feet, was built on the rear of the inn.  It is possible the McBrides lived in this section.  Eventually it was used for buggy storage.  Fruit and grain were stored on the second floor. 

Michael's thrifty, hard working ways made him well-liked and respected by his predominantly German neighbors. The hey-dey of the turnpike taverns had passed by 1850, but Michael listed innkeeping as his occupation on the census that year.  He valued his holdings at $5,000.  He accumulated more than 400  acres of farmland.  Though it was poor, rocky soil and drainage remained a problem, Michael was able to hire numerous neighborhood teens to work at the tavern and in his fields.

All four of Michael and Joanna's children: James, John, Michael, and Margaret were born at the inn.  They attended St. Mary's Church in Woodville. It is unknown when the inn was closed and used only as a home,  but Michael remained on the farm until his death in 1890.  He was buried in the Catholic Cemetery adjacent to Woodville's Golden Hill.  Michael,  himself, had laid out this cemetery in 1854. 

Michael, Jr. eventually became the owner of the inn and maintained possession until it was sold out of the family.  The building's appearance remained unchanged through the years.  But in 1969,  proposed widening of Rte. 20 placed it on the demolition list.  Although the Clark family made a valiant effort to preserve it because of its historic  value,  this rare symbol of the pike's past met the fate of progress.  

*Several McBride descendants have posted a sketch of the above photograph on facebook.  The original of the photograph was taken by the G. O. Clark family. An article about the tavern appeared in the Toledo Blade, February 9,  1969.

Michael McBride

Courtesy of Find a Grave 

Bellevue, Ohio Flood 1883

 [from the Bellevue Local News, February 10, 1883]

The village of Bellevue has had one experience, during the past week, entirely new in its history. The oldest inhabitant, covering the period of 60 years, remembers nothing of the kind so extensive and disastrous as the flood that submerged a good part of town on Saturday night. Indeed the town is so situated, on the divide, between Huron and Sandusky rivers and 200 feet above the lake, as to make it appear almost a physical impossibility for anything of the kind to occur, in any amount, at least to be a disaster. But the storm of Friday night and Saturday was peculiar as in all its features. Saturday morning the whole country was one glare of ice. Trees were laden and many, especially peach trees, broke down under their load. The scene was grand and beautiful, even if mischievous. It began thawing toward noon, and, the rain falling in a steady pour upon ground impervious to a single drop, it ran off with great rapidity into sink-holes, our only sewerage, already choked by frost and snow. These rapidly filled leaving the surplus to seek other outlets in lower levels. Then, too, in 1877 an insignificant ditch was enlarged draining the Woodward tract, Morey and Hayward farms, a broad extent of prairie south of town, into the sink-hole on the Kinney farm, contiguous to the corporation line on the south. Kinney and DeYo objected to this, because it would flood their land. They also tried to enlist the town in the fight, because a surplus over the capacity of the sink there, must necessarily come into the village. The details of this we give in another place. Suffice it to say here the ditch was opened and although for five years no mischief, to us, resulted from it, now it came with an amount and disaster which the pen can but feebly depict.

Those people, several of them at any rate, residing in the low lying districts, were warned of its coming, but who could believe it? At least, no one did. After flooding the Kinney sink the water came, a rushing torrent, across the Kilborne road and Josiah Matz's place, the Gardner road and so around the valley, back of the Reformed church, down to the Lake Shore R'y embankment which served as a dam, or levee, making the whole district south of that road, from the Hilbish farm, on the west, to Woodward street, on the east, and Gardner St. on the south, a low lying place occupied by many residences, that began rapidly to fill Saturday evening. The night was dark, foggy and dismal. The alarm was given by young Furlong, who waded out in water waist deep. The fire bell rang, and men and boys with lanterns, rushed to the rescue. People in the submerging district were alarmed and crying for help. Nothing like a boat was to be had. Lumber was accumulated, fences torn down, men waded in the ice cold flood to construct a raft, or rescue those near at hand. Mrs. Kehoe was sick abed and had to be carried out of a window, bed and all, by men waist deep in water. A portion of sidewalk was found afloat, and Marshal Mayne, using it as a raft, went to the relief of Coony Sinning and family, who had water knee deep on first floor, at that time, and it finally arose to half the height of the lower story. They next went to the rescue of Mrs. Furlong, who had become so nervous from excitement as to lose her wits, while getting her on the raft, she threw up her hands exclaiming "Howly [sic] Mary!" and tumbled into the water. They fished her out and took her to a place of safety. Chris Free's family got on their second floor, with water the full height of first floor. They were rescued through the upper windows. Fritz Liebold was "full" in his upper story and shouted, "Help! Help!" His wife and family had waded out and the rescuers left him to do the same. Peter Pixley and wife waded out, while some young men carried out their child.

Mr. R. G. Hartman had heeded the warning and was somewhat prepared for the flood, at least, had more time to save goods. The water rose some eight inches on his first floor. By this time, nearly midnight, the water had risen not quite up to the platform of the Lake Shore station house, and was rushing a perfect torrent across the track down each side of York street, thence across Kilbourne into the valley back of David Moore's residence and the Riddell House, where the water would have gone, at first, had it not been obstructed by the Lake Shore R'y embankment. Nearly all this region is back lots, with barns and out houses. It soon became a lake scarcely allowing time to remove horses, cows and pigs; while wood, lumber and every loose thing floatable was being mixed in inextricable confusion.

Water filled the dining room of the Riddell House to the height of 5 feet, with all its contents. Murray & Rushton, furniture dealers, occupying part of the building, only got part of their furniture out of the basement.

T. C. Wood got up in the morning to find his horses floating around in the barn. Rev. Hamilton's cows were in the same predicament, and so nearly chilled to death as to require the utmost care to save them.

The flood crossed West Main street, to the depth of 3 or 4 feet, flooding Mrs. Brewer's house, the Bitzer building, occupied by Meyer, Tschumy & Co., Dennis Calligan's residence and just over the floor of Wm. Leiber's. Dehe & Relling's carriage works, on North West St., were flooded in the basement, the part used for blacksmith shop. Here the water crossed Castalia street and filled the hollow beyond, which being back lots resulted in no particular mischief.

During the night, previous to finding its way across the R'y track, the water rushed along the track east across South West street, into Harkness' vacant lot, and so under the track flooding Patterson's tannery. This, with overflow from the big ditch on the Drury farm, running down beside the W. & L. E. R'y, combined to fill the Monroe street hollow. Martin Hauff's grocery was flooded half way up its lower windows, and the family for their lives. A family occupying a small house on Broad street, near Hauff's, were nearly drowned before people became aware of their situation and could take measures to save them.

The overflow from here took its usual course and filled the section of town north of East Main street, between High street and Nickel Plate R'y, thence over into Dan Harkness' field, opposite the round house, making it a young lake.

This, as near as we can describe it, is the extent of the flood. Many cellars were filled and damage done that we cannot enumerate.

By Sunday morning the rain had ceased, and the weather becoming colder arrested many a little rivelet, and thus water gradually sank away. It was visited by hundreds of people on Sunday. Monday morning it had nearly all gone leaving beautiful frost and ice work on trees, fences, and buildings, etc., where the water had congealed as it fell. All except south of the Lake Shore R'y, where only one small sink is known. This section became frozen over and the young people found it a beautiful skating park, but far from beautiful to those with property still under water. It will take some time yet for this to drain away. In the meantime people are cleaning up and repairing damages, which, at a rough estimate, will mount up into the thousands.

This is certainly a peculiar experience for Bellevue, and while it may not occur again in a life time, the bare possibility of it should compel the adoption of such measures as will prevent, or if not prevent, at least, provide for such another calamity.

This article appeared on the Sandusky-County-Scrapbook web page which no longer exists online.  The  scrapbook was a joint local history effort of Sandusky County libraries. 

Leezen Tavern, Lower Sandusky (Fremont) Ohio

 In 1818, Calvin* Leezen (born 1800) and his wife Clarinda (born 1796) left Genesee County, New York and set out for Lower Sandusky (now Fremont, Ohio.)  In 1819, the couple sold their remaining 150 acres in Allegany County, New York, deciding to settle permanently in Lower Sandusky and build a tavern.

Taverns often symbolized the village itself  and its stage of development.  They frequently were the "heartbeat" of the community,  sometimes functioning as the post office, schoolhouse, polling place, and militia headquarters.  

Leezen purchased a quarter acre lot for $50 from Cyrus Hulburd, one of the original proprietors of the Two-Mile Square Reserve. The tavern he built lay on Front Street between Garrison and Croghan. Pioneers described "it as a low half story frame building which stood back from the street with a yard in front." The Leezen tavern featured a barn, stable, outbuildings, kitchen, common room, and bedrooms.  Generally these early taverns served as the family home as well. The Leezen children included: Martin**, Susan, Clarissa, and Elizabeth.   

The raw frontier brought a variety of patrons: land speculators, trappers, surveyors, lawyers, and pioneer families, known as "movers," who hoped to acquire the last of Ohio's cheap government land.  

In these early years, local historian Lucy Keeler wrote that 30 log cabins and ten or twelve brick or frame structures were scattered amid the dense forest. Tavern owners were often as rough and wild as the wilderness they inhabited. Gambling, card playing, heavy drinking, cock fights, and brawling were common.

Some tavern owners were particular about their boarders. Frequently they refused "movers," believing they were generally thieves.  Not so with the Leezens. Court records show that Calvin was indicted at the spring term of court for selling whiskey to the Indians.   Almeron Sands was charged with assault and battery on Calvin.. 

Judge Justice recalled several mysterious deaths that occurred at the tavern. A land speculator had come "west" with a large amount of money.  He became  sick while staying with the Leezens and  suddenly died. His money was distributed among  several of the townspeople.  A short time later his wife came searching for him.  She too put up at the Leezen tavern where she took sick and died. She was buried beside her husband in the lot where St. Ann's Catholic Church was later built. Both were  reinterred at the Whittlesey Cemetery. Not long after a stranger named Howard died while playing cards at the tavern. 

All was not well between Clarinda and Calvin. A notice published  by Calvin in the "Sandusky Clarion" on July 31st 1827 that his wife had left him. Without her help, it appears Calvin decided to rent out his tavern to David Day.  On August 22, 1827 the two had a contract drawn up in which Day would run the tavern, but would keep Calvin in "victuals" and board him for $1.00 per week.  On the first of November 1828, Day would pay Calvin $140. 

Unfortunately Calvin Leezen died on June 22, 1828, long before the contract ended.  It appears that Clarinda returned to the tavern as she was indicted by a grand jury for poisoning Calvin.  Prosecutor Rudolphus Dickinson  charged her with murder, claiming she had put white arsenic in his "water gruel" and "chicken soup" on the 10th and 12th of June. Calvin lingered til the 22nd of June when he died.  He was buried in the Whittlesey Cemetery.  

Judge Justice claimed there was a "strong desire" to convict Clarinda, but in her defense she stated she had only treated  Calvin's ulcerated leg with the arsenic. The jury failed to find her guilty.

Clarinda moved to Bradner where she lived with daughter Eliza who had married Samuel Biggerstaff shortly before her father's death. Clarinda died there in 1852.  She is buried in the Chestnut Ridge Cemetery.  In the estate settlement, the tavern was sold to the well respected Loveland family who many early settlers remember with fondness.

*Calvin was sometimes referred to John Calvin

**Martin was sometimes referred as Martin Luther