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140^ HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
John L. Wilner, who was an early resident here, was in the army at
Fort Meigs in the War of 1812.
Elihu Parker served eighteen months about the close of the War of
1812.
The first grist mill was built on Cold Creek in 1810 by D. P. Snow.
It was built of logs, and the stones Avere brought from the quarries or
rocks near by. Lewis Ensign, a citizen of Groton, did the work on
them. This mill ground from ten to fifteen bushels of grain in
twenty-four hours. It was only used two years, and in 1819 there was
a mill built three-quarters of a mile from the head of the stream by
Joshua Pettingill which had a scmv-wheel and ground the most of the
grinding for the entire Firelands for many years.
In 1811 Major Falley raised the frame of a sawmill Avhere the Venice
mill-race is now, but the War of 1812 coming on the mill was left unfinished,
and in 1815 it was purchased by Eli Hunt, AVIIO put a sawmill
in operation, with a run of stone in one corner and an apparatus for
bolting. This was the first sawmill in the western part of the Firelands,
and from it the first lumber was procured.
At the same time that Alajor Falley began his mill a tannery was
started near the head of the Venice mills. Two years later, in 1813,
he removed to the tannery built by Alajor Falley, at the head of Cold
Creek, and this industry became one of the most important to the early
settlers, who were thus supplied with an article of importance.
Mrs. Gertrude M. Chapman says:
"I am 84 years of age, and have lived all my life in Erie County.
My father, William AlcCartney, came here when there was only one
log hut in Sandusky. At one time he owned 1,800 acres of land near
Venice. The pier at Venice then extended out into the bay a mile and a
quarter. The Major Jack Downing was the first steamboat that came to
Venice. They could not come any nearer because of the shallowness of
the water. I was a little girl about ten years old when the dock was
built. There was a large flour mill at Venice then owned by Mr. Heywopd
and he had three hundred men at one time making flour barrels.
We lived in the marsh near Venice when I was a little girl. I was in
Sandusky during the Cholera but do not remember any facts. Aly first.
remembrance of Sandusky Avas when I was about ten years old. The
Townsend House was the largest Hotel and Venice then had much more
business than Sandusky. There Avas not much in Sandusky but Indians
then. They Avere Ogontz Indians. In the year 1849 a young woman
came to my mother's hou|e Avith cholera from Detroit and she and five
others died of cholera. I kneAv many of the people buried in the old
Sandusky cemetery. They Avere many of them of the aristocracy of the
town. They Avere buried in coffins made of rough boards. Aly brother,
who died of cholera, had a coffin of planed boards. The people died
like sheep. The coffins Avere piled up in the cemetery like cordwood.
I have seen thirty or forty unburied at one time. You could not buy
even a loaf of bread then in Sandusky. All south of Jefferson street
was hazel bushes. The Catholic church on Tiffin Avenue Avas the AA'est