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 

Old First Presbyterian Church, Fremont, Ohio

The Presbyterian Church of Fremont, Ohio was founded in 1833 by twenty-two  residents, of which all but two had been  members of churches elsewhere.  

According to Homer Everett's History of  Sandusky County, they originally gathered in a log schoolhouse and then met regularly in the Lower Sandusky (Fremont, Ohio) courthouse. Prayer meetings were held at the minister's home on Justice Street.

Old Presbyterian Church

Fremont, Ohio

Courtesy of  Rutherford B, Hayes Presidential Library and Museums

Members met in various locations until they decided to build a church.  The trustees purchased a lot on the northwest corner of Main (now Park Avenue) and Garrison.  A building committee was appointed in 1844 and the above structure was dedicated January 10, 1847. Built of brick in the classical style, the church measured 45 by 60 feet and featured a bell tower. In 1852, the congregation added a lecture room at the rear of the church. 

In 1869, the Presbyterians subscribed $25,000 for a new building to be constructed on the same location.  During its construction, members met at what was then known as Birchard Hall. On the 28th  of April, 1870, the new church was dedicated. The total cost, which was completely paid for at its dedication, was $40,000

Some records can be found at the Rutherford Hayes Library and Museums.  A photocopy of the church's records from 1833 to 1885 appears in the Reading Room of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library under the title Records of the Presbyterian Church in Lower Sandusky, Volume I, 1833 - 1885.  The volume includes an index of names of members whose baptisms, dismissals, transfers, and deaths appear in the records. The index has been entered in a genealogy database in the library and also appears online (rbhayes.org/index). The bulk of the church's records are available in  the  Hayes Presidential Local History Manuscripts Collection.

The Grim Reaper

 “Mr. Leezen has the ague and the fever, Eliza the headache. Mr. Thomas Gallagher had the intermittent fever and his son the remitting fever. Many sick at the river at Green Creek. Mr. Rogers is yet hearty, but his housekeeper has another visit from the fever and ague.” These were just a few of the quotes from Josiah Atkins’ letters to his brother back in Ashtabula, Ohio.

In 1824, Josiah, a personable young man, had come to Lower Sandusky [Fremont, Ohio] to manage the sale of lands through the 20 miles of Black Swamp to Perrysburg, Ohio. The tracts were the last federal lands for sale in Ohio. Settlers ditched, grubbed, dug, chopped, and burned their way through a 120- foot right- of-way in the massive quagmire that would become the Maumee and Western Reserve Road.

Like the settlers, Atkins soon became sick himself. He wrote that he was at last freed from the shaking and fever. Yet, he told his brother, “I am not well – there is something hanging or clinging about my springs of life that tells me I am not well. My head is dizzy, my knees are weak, my breath is short. I am anything less than half such a man as I was when I came to this good and great city of Lower (than hell) Sandusky.”

Woodland Mosquito

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Some thought it was the foul air and the swamp's gases that was making nearly everyone sick. In reality, it was the ever present mosquitoes that thrived in the pools of stagnant waters. They were the culprits that spread malaria among these early pioneers. Many became so ill, they lay shaking in the cabins, unable to work or care for their families. More than a third who came gave up and moved on. No one really knows the exact death toll.

Mosquitoes carrying malaria not only brought death and misery to the settlers of the Black Swamp, but as far back as the Bronze Age, they contributed to the collapse of the Greek and Egyptian civilizations. For centuries mosquitoes harboring malaria had sapped the strength of armies. At the surrender of Yorktown, nearly half of Cornwallis’ soldiers were unfit for battle due to malaria. According to historian Amanda Foreman, the Panama Canal was only completed because of quinine and better mosquito control. In World War II, General MacArthur believed that for every one of his Pacific Theater divisions, two were unfit to fight because of malaria.

Today, the Grim Reaper continues to take its toll. Each year, more than 400,000 die from malaria throughout the world. Two thirds are children under the age of five. Welcome news has finally come! This year for the first time, the World Health Organization has approved a childhood vaccine against malaria!

Lower Sandusky and the U.S. Indian Factory System

Initiated in 1795 by President George Washington and later supported by Thomas Jefferson, a non-profit fur factory system was set up to undercut the influence of British traders with Indian tribes. Washington also believed America would develop better relations with the Indians and in turn reduce Army expenses necessary to protect the frontier. Washington insisted there be no fraud and goods were to be supplied to the Indians at fair prices.  

Government factories were established mostly at forts where soldiers could handle transporting goods and protect against theft and violence. In all 17 factories were created. Lower Sandusky (now Fremont) was the sole Ohio fur factory. It was located at the site of Ft. Stephenson (now the site of Birchard Public Library). It fell under the direction of the older Ft. Wayne agency whose factor was John Johnston, federal Indian Agent. (The restored Johnston Farm and Indian Agency can be visited near Piqua, Ohio). Benjamin Tupper became Lower Sandusky’s first factor, receiving $750 a year. Factors also received $200 for furnishings and $20 each year for upkeep, indicating that houses were also provided for the factors.

Hides of deer, beaver, muskrat, wildcat, bear, otter, fox, mink, and rabbit were traded for the “white man’s goods” all supplied with government funds. Deer hides far outweighed all others.

The private Hudson’s Bay Company and the American Fur Company deeply resented these government, non-profit agencies who paid higher than market prices. In fact, when there was no market at all for deer hides, agencies continued to buy them. Losses escalated with hides suffering from worm and moth damage and transportation problems from Ft. Wayne down the Maumee River. Lack of clerks caused poor baling of hides that needed to be wrapped in smoked elk or deer hides to keep out moths and worms

 

In exchange, Indians traded for beads, bullet molds, fabric, jugs, cups. mugs, tallow, beeswax, traps, muskrat spears, moccasins, drinking glasses, silver arm bands, soap, coffee, blankets, sleigh bells, guns and gun powder, lead, needles, combs and even eye glasses (requested at Lower Sandusky for “old” Indians). Nearly $10,000 of merchandise was sent to Lower Sandusky in the years between 1808 and 1811. Nearby is an 1822 Detroit broadside from the closed Chicago and Green Bay factories, listing goods typically traded.                                                                                     

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

During the War of 1812, the British and their Indian allies burned Ft. Wayne and massacred Chicago while nearly $4,000 worth of goods were seized at Lower Sandusky. As war descended, then Factor Jacob Varnum fled with others to Delaware, Ohio. The factory did survive and was eventually “restockaded.”

The arrival of Major George Croghan and his victory at Fort Stephenson during the War of 1812 ended the importance of the factory system at Lower Sandusky.

Many thought the system a success because some tribes remained loyal to America during the War of 1812. However, these were mainly philanthropists, religious reformers, and government officials. But like the Chicago agency, the bulk of sales eventually went to white settlers. Much of the trade goods were of poor quality.  Additionally, Washington officials knew little of tribal needs on the frontier. When the losses became exorbitant, the system was declared “useless.” With continued pressure from private trading companies, Congress took steps to abolish the entire program.   

                                  ****************

More about the U.S. Indian Factory System appears in an article by Royal V. Way  in the "Mississippi Valley Historical Review" and in History of the United States Indian Factory System, 1795-1822 by Ora B. Peake.

Dr. Henry Skinner's Account of the Battle of Fort Stephenson

Five Maryland county historical societies have formed a consortium to build a website commemorating the War of 1812 on the state’s Eastern Shore. The website, appropriately titled Eastern Shore 1812 Consortium, is working “to provide in depth information, complete tourism access, and the best educational access for both   teachers and students.” The site features lesson plans, books, scans of newspaper articles, information about the U. S. Army, U. S. Navy, Maryland battles and skirmishes, African Americans, military leaders, Native Americans, ships, British viewpoints, government documents, links to important locations in each of the counties (Kent, Dorchester, Queen Anne’s, Talbot, and Caroline) and much more!

We thank members for kindly forwarding a scan of an article about the Battle of Fort Stephenson published in the Weekly Aurora newspaper. On 31 August 1813, the newspaper published an extract from a letter written 4 August 1813 from Lower Sandusky (Fremont, Ohio) by Dr. Henry Skinner to his brother of Annapolis, Maryland. Dr. Skinner provided a detailed firsthand account of action at the Battle of Fort Stephenson.

If you would like to learn more about the Battle of Fort Stephenson and Major George Croghan, go to Sandusky County Scrapbook.

Lt. Col. William Charles Shortt and His Descendants by Mike Hedges

Through the decades, descendants of Lt. Col. William Charles Shortt and Hayes Presidential Center staff have exchanged information about Lt. Col. Shortt's family, his descendants, and his military career. Most recently, Mike Hedges of Portsmouth, England, a great great great grandson of Lt. Col. William Charles Shortt contacted me. I thank Mr. Hedges for graciously agreeing to share some of his research in the article below. Above is a photograph of a portrait of Lt. Col. Shortt sent previously by a descendant of William Tayler Peter Shortt.

My great great great grandfather, Lt Col William Charles Shortt, served in the 41st Regiment of Foot in the British Army and died a heroic death at the Battle of Fort Stephenson, Lower Sandusky, Ohio (Fremont, Ohio), on 2nd August 1813.

The Battle of Fort Stephenson

This battle, won decisively by the Americans, was the last western battle in the Second War of Independence (War of 1812) between Britain and America. Fort Stephenson guarded an American supply base on the Sandusky River and became a target for the British, led by Major-General Henry Proctor, after they had failed to capture Fort Meigs at Perrysburg, Ohio.

Fort Stephenson was commanded by Major George Croghan. His superior, Major-General William Harrison, ordered him to destroy the fort and withdraw, believing the British force to be larger than it really was. However, Croghan was confident that he could defend the fort and successfully persuaded Harrison of this.

Croghan’s view was decisively endorsed by the outcome of the British assault. The British and their Indian allies had 96 men either killed or wounded, of whom 25 were from Lt Col Shortt’s column of men from the 41st Regiment of Foot. Shortt himself died with many of his men in a murderous barrage of American fire as he led them into one of the perimeter ditches of the fort.

A full account of the battle can be found on the website http://www.sandusky-county-scrapbook.net/FtStephenson.htm

Lt Col William Charles Shortt

Lt Col William C. Shortt had a rather colourful life and seems to have passed this trait down the generations that followed. According to information provided in 1909 by his great-nephew Captain Henry D. Shortt to the Hayes Presidential Center, he was the eldest son of Major John Shortt of the Madras Native Infantry. William was born in Trichinopoly (now Tiruchirappalli) in India in 1764 and was apparently educated at Eton College[1]. He joined the Army as an Ensign in the 24th Foot in 1782, became a captain in 1783 and joined the 99th Foot at the same rank in 1801. By the time of the Battle of Fort Stephenson, he was a Brevet Lieutenant Colonel[2].

William C. Shortt had a relationship with (or may in fact have married) a Shawnee Indian called Sally Bluejacket (born 1778) while his regiment was garrisoning the British fort on the Maumee River, Ohio, in 1794 and 1795[3]. They had a son, Thomas Shortt, born in 1796, who was later recorded as living in the Indian reservation at Flat Rock, Mi[4]. Thomas had a son Joseph, born in 1833, and Joseph had two daughters[5]. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the relationship between William and Sally did not last and she later married a trader called Wilson. They may have met again in 1813 just before the Battle of Fort Stephenson, as by then Sally was living on the Detroit River, within the area commanded by William’s superior officer, Major General Henry Proctor.

By this time William C. Shortt had married Jean Margaret Stuart (known by her middle name) and they had a son William Tayler[6] Peter Shortt, who had been born in Marylebone, London, in 1800. The name Tayler was no doubt chosen because it was the maiden name of William’s mother Jane; her brother Lt Gen William Tayler was an equerry to King George III.

William C. Shortt’s wife Jean died in 1805 while giving birth to a daughter, Mary, who survived for just seven weeks. In 1809 William married Jane Crooks, whose sister had married the borther of his commander, Henry Proctor. William and Jane had a son, James Symington Shortt, who was born in 1812 and was my great great grandfather. James’ mother died in 1812, probably after giving birth to him.

With the death of their father at the Battle of Fort Stephenson and the earlier deaths of their mothers, William TP Shortt and his half-brother James became orphans at the respective ages of 13 and 1. To support their upbringing and education, the guardians of both boys were granted payments from the Royal Bounty, a fund established to support the families of people who had died in service of the British Crown, for example officers killed in battle.

The Elder Son, William Tayler Peter Shortt

William TP Shortt was educated in Quebec, but eventually returned to England where he gained a Bachelor of Arts degree at Worcester College, Oxford, in 1821 and, true to family tradition, embarked on a career in the British Army. However, before this he engaged in another tradition for wealthy families of that period by going on the so-called ‘Grand Tour’, a visit to classical cities, art galleries and historical sites of continental Europe. In his case, the tour was through France and Switzerland to Italy and consequently, in an early pointer to his future occupation as an author, he published A Visit to Milan, Florence and Rome, etc in 1821. The visit inspired his lifelong interest in Roman antiquities. In 1824, he co-authored Journal of the Principal Occurrences During the Siege of Quebec.

By 1826, William TP Shortt was a Lieutenant in the 17th Regiment of Foot, joining from the 34th Foot. However, he soon abandoned his military career and moved in 1832 to Heavitree, Exeter, England, where he lived as a gentleman of independent means (on his father’s death, he had inherited the freehold rent of Remenham House, near Henley-on-Thames, England). He developed a keen interest in Roman relics and especially coins, many of which were being found during the substantial reconstruction of Exeter that took place from the 1830s to the 1850s. At this time, no great interest was aroused whenever archaeological remains were discovered and building contractors regarded any interference in their work to recover relics as obstruction. However, William TP Shortt was not deterred and, over a period of 23 years from 1832, took it upon himself to retrieve and investigate as many items as he could and to publish the results of his findings.

His persistence led to some incidents on building sites, typical of which is one of July 3rd 1835 when, during his enquiries with labourers about relics found during the re-development of the Upper Market, Shortt was confronted by a prominent Exeter builder, Henry Hooper, ordered off the site and helped on his way by a shovelful of earth! Enraged by this slight on his dignity as an ex-officer and a gentleman, Shortt summoned Hooper for assault. At a court appearance the next day, Hooper admitted the assault but said that Shortt’s habit of retrieving artefacts was constantly interrupting work at the market and that he had refused to leave the site when asked. The Mayor of Exeter, conforming with the general indifference to the history of Roman Exeter, found Hooper guilty but levied a token fine of 10 shillings (50 pence) on him. Shortt was rebuked for his ‘warmth of temper’. The case was well publicised in the local and national press, which generally supported Shortt, and began a trend of making archaeological excavation and research more fashionable[7].

William TP Shortt published many articles about his findings in the Devonshire Chronicle, the Flying Post and other local journals. He apparently insisted on receiving printers’ proofs of his articles, which he then savagely corrected before they were printed! He also wrote two books about his work; the first, with the not very catchy title of Sylva Antiqua Iscana, Numismatica Quinetiam Figulina, or Roman and Other Antiquities of Exeter, was published in 1841 and the following year came Collecteana Curiosa Antiqua Dunmonia; or An Essay on Some Druidical Remains in Devon. The latter book was based on his visits on horseback and in all weathers to every known prehistoric site in Devon. Each book is, it has to be said, hard to read for the modern eye, but each was no doubt very learned and based on Shortt’s great historical knowledge and extensive field work. This did not prevent a magisterial put-down by one writer, who said of Shortt’s books: ‘I could refer to the two works of this author with much more confidence had they been drawn up with the gravity which becomes the subject. They have been compiled in such a careless, rambling and ill-arranged manner, and are so full of haphazard assertions, that I lament extremely that I cannot quote them as authorities’[8]!

Despite this criticism, there is no doubt that William TP Shortt carried out pioneering archaeological work in Exeter that recorded and preserved valuable Roman artefacts. Without his intervention and dedication, they and the valuable historical information that they yielded would certainly have been lost.

William TP Shortt moved to Heidelberg, Germany, in 1855 and died in 1881. He and his wife Margaret had a son and three daughters. His son Stuart followed a military career, and the Army also featured strongly in the lives of his daughter Ann and of the descendants to the present day of his daughter Kathleen. She married Captain John Dent Bird, who was murdered by one of his troopers at Aldershot, England, in 1874. Their son Wilkinson Dent Bird (born 1869) was a decorated soldier, became a Major-General, and lectured and wrote about military history and strategy.

The Younger Son, James Symington Shortt

Orphaned at the age of just one year when his father William died at the Battle of Fort Stephenson, James Symington Shortt probably then lived with his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Crooks, and his material aunt, Mary. His middle name Symington came from the surname of John Symington of Niagara, who was his maternal grandfather and one of the executors of his father’s will (the other was William C Shortt’s cousin, Captain William Thomas Tayler).

Family researches have so far thrown up no other information about James Shortt’s early life. He is next recorded as living in Ancaster Township, Brent County, Ontario, in 1832. Within a year he was an Ensign in the 48th Foot Regiment of the British Army. In 1835 he transferred to the 4th, or King’s Own, Regiment of Foot, became a Lieutenant in 1837 and a Captain in 1844.

In 1839 at Sholden, Kent, James married Mary Harvey, one of the daughters of Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Harvey (1775 – 1841) who, along with many other members of his family, served with great distinction in the Royal Navy. Mary died only two years later and James subsequently took her sister Annie as his partner, but they never married because, at that time in England, it was illegal for a man to marry the sister of his deceased wife.

Over the period of James Shortt’s service in the 4th Foot, the regiment was stationed first in Australia then, from January 1838, in India[9]. James and Annie had their first child, a girl, in 1844, but the child did not survive her first day. A son ws born a year later, but is believed to have died in infancy. Their first surviving child, Mary, was born in Kamptee, India, in 1846. James remained in the Army until 1847-48. James’ departure from the Army came shortly after he had been found guilty at a court martial of being drunk at the funeral in Kamptee of a fellow officer, Ensign William Thorpe.

The remainder of James’ life was punctuated by misfortune and tragedy. During the 1850s, he and Annie had five more chilren. a son and four daughters, but only Jessie (born 1850 in Colaba, India) and Helen (born 1855 in Broadstairs, England) survived. Four of these five children were born in India, but it seems that Annie purposely came back to England to give birth to Helen there and give her a better chance of survival. Helen may well have remained in England in the guardianship of Annie’s sister Eliza and may never have returned with her mother to India; certainly Helen was living with Eliza and her husband Admiral William WP Johnson[10] in England in 1866.

James and Annie’s youngest child was Edith Annie Shortt, my great grandmother, who was born in 1861 in Ahmedabad, India. Tragically her mother Annie died just 17 days later from diarrhea and exhaustion following her confinement.

James’ fortunes with employment were no better. After leaving the Army, he and Annie stayed in India and he is recorded as working in the secretariat of the Judicial Department in Bombay from 1851 to 1853. In 1855 he is listed as a clerk, but then prospects seem to have improved, as he held the post of Deputy Marshal of the Byculla House of Correction (a prison in Bombay) in 1856 and was its Governor from 1857-59. Thereafter his employment appears to have resumed its decline, for by 1862 he was a clerk on the Bombay, Baroda and Central Indian Railway.

In 1864 he brought my great grandmother Edith (and possibly one or more of her older sisters) back to England. Edith was put first into the guardianship of her maternal aunt, Sarah Rainier, and her husband Revd. George Rainier, and then into the guardianship of her maternal uncle, Admiral Henry Harvey.

The final tragedy of James Shortt’s life came when he died at sea of dysentery in 1865, probably on his return journey to India, and was buried at sea.

Thus, like her father, Edith Shortt was orphaned at a very young age. She was clearly told of the fate of her parents; a poignant letter, still in the family’s possession, from Henry Harvey to his sister Eliza mentions that ‘little Edith….says her own Papa “gone, dead, gone into the water. Mama died too.”’

Of the four surviving daughters of James Shortt, Mary remained in India and married a civil engineer, Robert Gompertz, but is believed to have died before 1882, when Robert re-married. Jessie (1850 – 1939) never married but went to England, eventually giving birth to a son, Henry. Helen (1855 – 1925) married George Humphreys, a farm labourer. Edith (1861 – 1933) married Thomas Hall, a post office clerk.

Contrasting Fortunes

Thus the two sons of Lt Col William C. Shortt and their descendants experienced contrasting fortunes. William TP Shortt initially followed his father’s footsteps by joining the Army, but the academic side of his nature led him away from military life into pioneering archaeological work. He lived to the age of 81, and several of his descendants continued the family tradition of military service right through to the early 21st century. He did not escape sadness, losing his daughter Kathleen when she was only 27 years old and his son-in-law in an act of murder in 1874.

His half-brother James S. Shortt suffered disadvantages that stemmed from being a second son orphaned at the age of just one year. With no university education, he joined the British Army at the age of 21. His first wife died when he was 29. For him, the early prestige of being an Army officer was later significantly tempered by his court martial, and more sadness came with the loss of five of his children in infancy. The final personal tragedy for him and his daughters was his death at sea at the age of 53; almost inevitably perhaps, the guardians of his three younger daughters could not provide sufficient financial resources for them to be able to live the privileged lives of their parents’ families.

This story of the lives of Lt Col William Shortt and his descendants is the result of much research by my cousin David Royle and myself. There are still many gaps in our knowledge and we would welcome any further information. This can be passed to us by contacting Nan J. Card, Curator of Manuscripts, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, Fremont, Ohio at(ncard@rbhayes.org).

Acknowledgements: My family is grateful for information provided during our research by the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center (Fremont, Ohio), National Archives (Kew, London), the British Library (London), the Families in British India (FIBIS) website, Sue Andrew, G. Carlyle Hinshaw and Margaret McGrath.

This article has been copyrighted by Mike Hedges.

Footnotes:

[1] Henry Shortt said that William was educated at Eton College, but my enquiries with the College suggest that this is not correct.
[2] Brevet rank was awarded for distinguished service, but the recipient retained the pay and responsibilities of his previous lower rank. Brevet rank could not be purchased.
[3] Ref. Bluejacket: Warrior of the Shawnees by John Sugden (University of Nebraska Press, 2000).
[4] Article in the Wyandotte Tribune, 3 November 1948.
[5] Information provided in an e-mail to the author.
[6] Correct spelling, but generally recorded as Taylor in later mentions of WTP Shortt
[7] From An Antiquary in Devon (WTP Shortt 1800 – 1881) by R.G. Goodchild, Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, 1947.
[8] From A Dissertation on the Site of Moridunum, The Gentleman’s Magazine, January to June 1849.
[9] From The King’s Own: The Story of a Royal Regiment Volume 2, 1814-1914, by Colonel L.I. Cowper (Oxford University Press, 1939).
[10] William Ward Percival Johnson (1790 – 1880) served as a young seaman on HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

Lower Sandusky Temperance Society

Constitution of Lower Sandusky Temperance Society

By almost any standard, early Americans drank not only universally but in large quantities. According to historians, average annual consumption at the time of the Revolution equaled 3 ½ gallons of pure 200 proof alcohol per person. By 1830, hard liquor consumption reached nearly 9 gallons per every man, woman, and child – excluding ale, hard cider, and wine!

Historians tell us that a that a "keg or bottle of rum, whiskey, or gin was a staple at weddings, funerals, frolics, cabin raisings, and log rolling." Early Sandusky County pioneer Ezra Howland matter-of-factly reported that Lower Sanduskians “gathered early one SUNDAY morning with a keg of whiskey and proceeded in raising the courthouse.” Lawyers often drank before court. Physicians believed in liquor's curative effects.

List of signers of Lower Sandusky Temperance Pledge

As the problem grew, temperance societies formed throughout the country. The Lower Sandusky (Fremont) Temperance Society functioned much as other chapters across the nation in their attempts to control the “evils of drink.” The group raised funds for the national organization, presented a proclamation to the “town fathers,” and petitioned for better law enforcement. Interestingly, its first meeting took place on July 4, 1839. Nearly 200 Lower Sanduskians took the “pledge.”

Perhaps the success of the society was due in large part to one man – Ezra Williams. Williams had come “west” from New York in the early 1820s. By 1824, he was running the tavern of Israel Harrington. The following year, he built a distillery at “the foot of the east side hill just south of State Street” in Fremont, Ohio.

Here Williams created some of the purest whiskey that could be had. His experienced distiller combined just the right amounts of corn and rye to produce an exceptional product. The distillery was the chief source of revenue for area farmers, who sold some 12,000 bushels of corn to Williams annually. Catherine Hawk Tillotson remembered that “Williams’ hogs filled themselves with the slops or swill or other refuse of the distillery…it was a dirty place, and a dirty business.”

But all of that changed when Williams found religion at a revival meeting. He abandoned his distillery and true to his new found faith became a charter member of the society. For the first time, the amount of liquor available in Sandusky County declined. Clearly the Lower Sandusky Temperance Society brought about the first real change in the drinking habits of the early pioneers.