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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 167
Hollister & Company kept a grocery and their next door neighbors on
the east were Caswell & AIills who, orf the 11th day of June, 1832,
opened a large stock of groceries, dry foods, crockery and hardAvare.
John Wheeler occupied a building at the corner of Decatur and Water
streets, Avhere he displayed a large stock of staple and fancy goods,
boots and shoes, shot and pOAvder. He was largely patronized by the
sporting element. There were no saloons, but many stores sold Avhisky.
The Clarion of July 25, 1832, quotes it at 30 cents a gallon.
On Wednesday, July 18, 1832, the Clarion published an extra giving
the first known case of the cholera in Sandusky up to that date. On the
same day the board of health of the city issued a circular attributing the
death of the deceased to cholera aggravated by the use of liquor and
expressing the hope the disease Avas limited to the one ease. In this
they Avere disappointed, for Avithin a few days three deaths occurred.
Sandusky had in its earliest history more wholesale and commission
houses than at the present time. Of the many firms that advertised in
the Clarion in the years 1822 to 1832 are mentioned the folloAving, all
out of business at this date: William Townsend, J. AV. Hollister, Isaac
Darling, Wildman & AIills, E. Gregg, L. & M. FarAvell, Wilcoxon, Swearingen
& Company, Alichael Gill, S. Sherwood, W. H- Caswell & Company,
A. C. Corbett, Venice, Ohio; S. II. Smith, Venice, Ohio; E. Jessup,
Venice, Ohio; E. Alerry, Alilan, Ohio. •
It was also at one time the largest fresh-Avater fish market in the
world, and the freight carried every day during the busy season by a
large fleet of pondboats to the Avarehouses for disposal was often so
enormous that Avith a day and night- force *it Avould not be properly
handled and taken care of. Tbre small fish were dumped back into the
bay and everybody Avas welcome to a basketful to save the trouble of
throAving them back. /
It Avas also at one time the third largest grain market in the world,
excelled only by Odessa, in feussia, and Massilon, Ohio.
The Sandusky Clarion of date of October, 1828, refers to the fact that
on a given date 285 teams, heavily loaded AA'ith grain, passed through
the streets of Sandusky, coming from Mansfield, Fostoria, Tiffin and
other settlements, to unload their freight at the different warehouses.
One of the first gristmills in northern Ohio Avas located and operated
at Venice about seventy years ago. This mill, at present owned^by
Gallagher Bros., is still in operation, although the warehouse and the
HayAvood dock, AA'hich extended fifty years ago far into the bay, have\
become obliteratejVas well as the* cooper shops that were running full
blast night and day, manufacturing the thousands of flour barrels in
demand. This old gristmill .Avas constructed by three time-honored "G^^
man pioneers, Peter Gilcher, Fred Reinheimer and Valentine Nicolai,
Avhose children are still living and prospering.
In 1834 tAvo English clerg^men>Head /and Alatthewson, visited Sandusky
under the auspices ofuhe EnglishNQpngregational Union. Air.
Head thus describes his visit TO Sandusky: "In the middle of the day
Ave reached Sandusky. It has not more than seven' or eight hundred