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.

Civil War Letter of Lt. Amos E. Wood of Woodville, Ohio

Lt. Amos E. Wood
John B. Rice Collection
Hayes Presidential Library and Museums

 The following is a transcription of a letter written to Sgt. Robert H. Caldwell of Elmore, Ohio by Lt. Amos Eastman Wood, Jr. of Woodville, Ohio. Both men enlisted in Company I, 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the fall of 1861. They had fought together at the Battle of Stones River on December 31, 1862. Robert died February 8, 1863 of wounds received in that battle. Obviously, his friend, Lt. Wood had no knowledge of his death, but believed Caldwell had returned home to Elmore, Ohio. The Grand Army of the Republic Post in Elmore was named for Sgt. Caldwell.  Lt. Wood was the elder son of Amos E. Wood, Sr., for whom the town of Woodville, Ohio is named. Lt. Wood died of disease in a Murfreesboro, Tennessee hospital in June 14,1863. 

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

Camp at Smyrna Run

Feby 18th 1863

Dear Robert

I promised you when I wrote you last that I would write again someday, but the fact is, Robert, a soldier has no business making promises, for he makes them only to forget them. He cannot tell what a day may bring forth, but what he may be on duty or something of that kind. I hope by this time Dear Boy, you are much better and have arrived safe in Elmore (as I was informed you were in Cincinnati when I last wrote you. I thought you were at home until after I had written.) You cannot imagine how surprised I was this afternoon upon hearing of the death of Geo. Rice.  I was up to Murfreesboro the other day and he was then so much better I thought he would soon get well, but poor Boy was taken away while far away from friends and home. How many many young men left home bouyent with hope, that they would live to see the time when peace would restore them to their loved friends, now are gone to their long homes and their remains left to bleach in the blood stained ground upon which they fought for their country's freedom. 

How hard it seems Robt to have those whom you love and respect, shot down by your side and then your forced to leave them to the mercies of the insolent foe, and while breathing their last to be stripped and damned by them.  After the battle, I walked over the battle ground and there saw Veon [probably  Cpl. Alanson J. Veon of Co. I, 21st OVI who was killed at Stones River, Tennessee on Dec. 31, 1862] and others stripped of their clothes as if some uncivilized being had rumbled over the ground and perpetrated this barbarous act. And then I thought "why" this was done by men who profess to be educated and refined, how can men who have been raised in a Christian land act thus? Surely it is as "Burns" says "Man's inhumanity to man, makes countless thousands mourn."

Robert, I have thought lately about being a Christian. I would give anything to be a good Christian, an honest one. I have thought since the fight, more about this than ever before. I was kindly cared for during the fight, and brought without a scratch, and to whom should I be thankful but to God who has watched over me and supplied my every want thus far in life. I am satisfied that I shall never be happy until I am [a] humble Christian. Robert, will you think of me in your prayers? Ask that I may become better; I will endeavor to be better by daily watchfulness and prayers.

I am well pleased with the place  I now have, though it was quite hard for me to leave the Boys. Michael Rice [sergeant in the 21st OVI] is with me, he sends love, and says tell Robert to hurry and get well. I think the army will make another ground move soon for Chattanooga (or perhaps this side). If so, you can look out, for Rosecrans  is sure to win. Our Army has received quite a large reinforcement since you left, and they are all good men, all of them old troops, at least most of them.  Robert, you must write me and give me all of the news. Write soon for I shall be uneasy untill I hear from you. My love to all inquiring friends, especially to your father and mother. 

 

Your friend as ever, 

Amos E. Wood

1st Battalion, Pioneer Corps

Murfreesboro, Tenn. 

Lt. Wood's letter is part of the Robert Caldwell collection of Civil War letters at the Hayes Presidential Library and Museums. The Caldwell letters have been transcribed and appear on its website. 

Atkins Papers: Proposals for Constructing the Bridge Across the Carrying River at Woodville, Ohio,

List of Bids Submitted for Constructing the Bridge across the Carrying River at Woodville, Ohio
1825

The scanned documents are part of the Quintus F. Atkins Business Papers recently donated to Hayes by Mr. Harry Wilkins on behalf of the Tabor Historical Society of Tabor, Iowa.  They were preserved by Martha Atkins, who graduated from Oberlin College where she met her husband John Todd. Before moving to Tabor, Martha and John  were active in Oberlin’s anti-slavery and temperance movements.

Martha’s father, Quintus F. Atkins was appointed by the state of Ohio as Superintendent of the Maumee and Western Reserve Road that passed through the Black Swamp.  Having discovered the description of the Atkins Papers held by HPLM, Wilkins and the Tabor Historical Society believed that Tabor's Atkins Papers could be better utilized if it were merged with those located here at Hayes Presidential.

A portion of Tabor's Atkins Papers includes proposals sent to Atkins from Sandusky Countians, hoping to gain the contract to build a bridge across the “Carrying River” (i.e. the Portage River) where the road passed through Woodville, Ohio.

Atkins listed the names of bidders, their sureties, amounts proposed, and expected dates of completion. The eleven proposals listed in the first document were written during the spring of 1825. Tabor's Atkins Papers include a total of 18 proposals. Below is that of Thomas Miller. Thomas and Harriet Miller owned a tavern at the site where the Portage River (Carrying) crossed the Maumee and Western Reserve Road (now Rte. 20) as early as 1825.

Proposal Submitted by Thomas Miller
1825

Unfortunately, Tabor's Atkins Papers do not provide evidence of who was awarded the contract. A Sketchbook of Woodville, Ohio: Past – Present, written in 1986 for the village’s sesquicentennial, states on page 14 that the “first bridge over the Portage River in Woodville was a covered wooden bridge. It is not known just when it was built.” The latest date proposed by a bidder was August of 1826. The requirements stipulated that the bridge should be capable of withstanding ice, flooding, and driftwood for a period of three years. The wooden bridge did all that and much more; it was not razed until 1878 when it was replaced with an iron bridge. 

Bidders were:
John P. Rogers
James Birdseye
Josiah Rumery
Ezra Williams
S. B. Collins
James Justice
George J. Moore
Jacques Hulburd
Joseph Wood
Seth Doren
Jonathan H. Jerome

The Kellogg Brothers of the 68th Ohio Volunteer Infantry

Sgt. Thomas Kellogg

Courtesy of L. M. Strayer

 Thomas Kellogg, a young man of 18, was one of nearly 3,000 Sandusky Countians to serve in the Civil War. Thomas and his younger brother Collin were the sons of Elijah Kellogg who had emigrated from Canada in 1840 to settle and raise a family in Woodville, Ohio. Elijah was a Union man who strongly opposed the South’s secession. When war broke out, it was only natural that his two sons would join the Union cause.  They enlisted in the 68^th Ohio.

Thomas, a true patriot like his father, had little knowledge of the South and slavery. As the war continued and the march of the 68^th took them deeper and deeper into the South, the conflict and all its horrors brought not only disillusionment, but also changed attitudes toward the South.

In his nearly 80 letters to family and friends back home, Thomas tells of conversations with prisoners, deserters, and local residents.   Near Oxford, Mississippi, he found the locals “so short of provisions that we had to give them rations to live on. One place we left a half barrel of molasses.” At Vicksburg, Kellogg wrote his father back on the farm in Woodville, “I tell you that there is some very large plantations on the Mississippi. The negroes are coming in by the hundreds and as soon as they come they are put right at work digging” [the canal to Lake Providence]. Kellogg “no longer opposed the arming” of the slaves, and wrote that the “rebs thought they could gobble up what negro soldiers we had.”  Instead, “the sesech found the ‘black yankees,’ as they called them,” credible fighters.

Siege of Vicksburg

by Kurz and Allison

Following the Union victory at Vicksburg on the 4 th of July 1863, Thomas escorted hundreds of prisoners to Clinton, Mississippi. He discovered that “nearly all of them seamed to be tired of the war”… and some of them “declared they were done fighting and ready to take the oath. There were a great many Mississippians and border state men among them.”

To Thomas Kellogg, no longer were these men hated enemies. His conversations with Confederate soldiers, deserters, and the wounded softened his attitude to toward the South. Escaped slaves who fled to safety behind the lines of Grant’s army gained his respect as both workers and fighters for the Union and for their freedom. Seeing their plight firsthand, Thomas sympathized.   

Fort Pickering at Memphis, 1858

The ravages of war took a toll on the Kellogg brothers. After continuous fevers and days of sickness, Collin wrote his father, hoping he could come to the hospital at Fort Pickering and take him home. He wrote, “I would be very glad to get home if I could for it seems like I can never get well here.” Collin did receive a medical discharge and Elijah Kellogg left Woodville and headed to Memphis to bring his son home. Collin survived the war, but suffered for the remainder of his life. Thomas was not so fortunate. A year later, afflicted with consumption, Sergeant Thomas H. Kellogg, aged 21, died at Vicksburg.   

Letter from Sgt. Thomas Kellogg to his parents, Elijah and Barbara Kellogg 

of Woodville, Ohio

Providence, Louisiana
Feby 23rd 1863

Dear parents as I now have an opportunity and not knowing when I might have another I shall write a few lines to let you know where we are. we left memphis on the morning of the 21st and landed here this forenoon. it is a miserable looking place and if it was not for the levy it would be no place at all. the soldiers that are hear are verry busy digging a cannal from the river to lake Providence a distance of six hundred yards. the river at the present time is sixteen feet higher than what the lake is. the outlet of this lake empties into Red River and so you see if the thing works right we can move our transports below Vicksburg.. for my part I don't see how it can help but work. they tell me that it is 75 mi from here to Vicksburg. I think it all of that and if any thing more. 

there has not been any fighting in this vicinity. they had  a skirmish a day or two before we came and I guess if the truth is known its not a verry dangerous place. the negroes are coming in by the hundreds and as soon as they come they are put right at work digging. I tell you there is some large plantations on the mississippi. I saw some of Gen Price's plantation. on the arcansas side. some places there is a bank or levy thrown up for miles and at the present time the water in the River is several feet higher than the bottom land. I have been down to see the lake. it is a small thing but still I can say I have seen a lake. 

Coll was left back at memphis. his is jackson block Ward D. so if you want to write to him you direct as above mentioned. I can assure you he will have good care so you kneed not fret as to that. I tried to go and see him but it was out of the question. I got permission one afternoon while we were on the boat to go and find what hospital He was in. I went all through Adams Block. I could not find him but ran on Henry Harpel. He was glad to seem me and before I all through there it was night & I went to the boat without seeing him but one of the boys in co. K has a brother in the same hospital. He saw his brother and he told me He saw colls bunk but coll had just gone out so I am certain He is there. we drew two months pay after we got on the boat. I drew coll which was 13 Dolls and shall send it to him. and as he is not a valetudinarian He will soon recover. 

since I commenced this we have moved out on the lake shore  and are camped in a large cotton field put up our tent and got a good floor in it but I tell you the way the old man's house had to suffer was a caution. it don't make any difference how nice a house is if the boys want lumber to sleep on they tear the house down. the house our division tore down was worth not less than five thousand dollars. I tell you it looks barbarous to see how we tear up things but all I have got to say is they had no business to [?] I will send ten dollars in this letter. 

In writing to coll don't put the company or the Regt on the letter. no more this time from your son Thos. H. Kellogg