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
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