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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 91
Palmer conducted the school alone after the first year or so, until it
AVIIS leased by Professor LiiAvrenct* and afterAvards came under the management
of Prof. B. B. Hall.
The first Avagon road A\HS cut out and cleared by Ebenezer Hayes and
F. W. FOAVICI- in the Avinter of 1810-11 from the mouth of the Huron
River on the east side, up the river to the Abbott farm, and thence
southerly, past the farms of Ebenezer and Hosmer Merry and Gundin
Perrin, to the north and south section line of Nonvalk.
The Columbia Road AVIIS opened the same winter, from the east side
of the mouth of the river to the east line of the tire-lands, Avhere it
joined a road from Columbia ToAvnship, Lorain County.
Another road was laid out in the Avestern part of the township in 1811
by Jabez Wright, Jared Ward and Charles Barnum. It lead from the
lake shore, west of the mouth of the rh'er, southerly past the farms
of Wright and Ward to the residence of Charles Parker, in the fourth
section of Milan, and thence up the rh'er to to Monroeville, and from
that point. southerly to NeAV Haven, on nearly the same line that is
traversed today. «
The Village of Beatty, IIOAV Milan, AA'as laid out in 1814 by FA Merry,
father of E. Merry, Jr., AVIIO resided in Milan until his death^i 1888,
and of Elizabeth, AVIIO resided with her brother. In 1816 Mr. Merry, Avith
J. C. Smith and Isaac Tapper, began erecting a saAV and grist mill near
toAvn. The former, Avho AVIIS a large land OAvner and a man of considerable
enterprise, bought out his partners before the mill Avas completed,
and, finishing it alone, operated it for some time to the satisfaction
of residents for miles around. Tn 1819 F. W. FoAvler removed to Milan
Village from Abbotts, ami in 1820 he opened a public house which
accommodated boarders up to 1842.
Tn 1823 a meeting of citizens of Milan and the toAvnship adjoining AVIIS
held at the bouse of F. W. FoAvler to consider the building of a harbor at
the mouth of the river. A committee AA'IIS appointed, consisting of George
W. Clioate, Philo Adams, N. P. Mason, Schuyler Van Rensselaer, David
Gibbs. Frederick 'Forsyth, N. M. Standart. James Williams and Ralph
LockAvood, to consider the feasibility of the plan. AfterAvard a company
Avas organized Avith five directors: Jabez Wright. Philo Adams, II. N.
Jenkins. N. M. Standart and B. N. Adams. The Avork AVIIS begun in
1824. under the superintendence of Charles Wheaton. of Milan, and
Avhen he died, the following 1 fall. Zebulon Stevens, of Huron, AVIIS elected
to his place. The company's money AVIIS exhausted before the Avork AVIIS
finished. Avhen the National Govenwneiit took it up and completed it.
Milan Canal.—The folloAving appeared in the Sandusky Clarion of
May 5, 1824:
"In conformity Avith the authority vested in us, and in discbarge of
the duties required of us, Ave, the undersigned, on the 12th day of April.
1.824, proceeded to make the necessary survey of the canal route from the
village of Milan to the navigable Avaters of the Huron River, near the
former seat of justice for this county.
"The engineers and acting committee, having carefully looked the