PDF (20 MB) - Virtual Library of the Public Library of Cincinnati

HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 177
River at Cincinnati for the rapid exchange of commodities between the
cities of the north and the great states of the southwest. Nor is this
route less a channel of travel than of trade. The same cause which has
given to this port the sudden accession of commerce has* also drawn
through it an immense increase of travel between the eastern states and
cities and the great southwest, requiring a constant daily line of steamers
of the largest class between Sandusky City and Buffalo for its accommodation^
During the past year the books of the company show the number
of through and way passengers over the Cincinnati line to have been
more than 88,000, and that the receipts of THE NORTHERN PORTION OF
THE LINE ONLY, NOTWITHSTANDING THE SUSPENSION OF TRADE AND TRAVEL
FOR SEVERAL MONTHS BY THE PREVALENCE OF CHOLERA IN THE WEST,
AMOUNTED TO $343,734.80. On the southern section owned by another
company the receipts are presumed to be fully equal, making the gross
amount of receipts on the whole line nearly $700,000.00. (Vide official
abstract.) To this should be added the number of passengers on the
Sandusky & Mansfield Railroad, and it will give an aggregate of nearly
$1,000,000.00 and 123,000 passengers."
Mr. Cooke attached to his address an abstract from the report 741
of the engineer's department, showing that in the year 1847 the total
imports of Cleveland, Ashtabula, Conneaut, Fairpark, Black River and
Vermillion were $6,322,292, and Of Sandusky $7,147,261, leaving a difference
in favor of Sandusky of $826,969; that the imports of Chicago
for 1847 were $2,641,852, with a difference in favor of Sandusky of
$4,505,096; that the imports of Toledo for the same year were $4,034,824,
Avith a difference in favor of Sandusky of $3,112,437; that the imports of
Detroit Avere $4,020,559, with a difference in favor of Sandusky of
$3,126,702.
Mr. Cooke further tabulated the imports of all the ports on Lakes
St. Clair, Huron and Michigan, including Chicago, St. Joseph, Grand
Haven, and the ports north of Grand Haven, Kalamazoo, Black River,
Mackinaw and the Soo, Port Huron and Lexington, St. Clair, Newport
and Acgonack at $3,982,532, with a difference in favor of Sandusky of
$3,164,729, Avhich figures he takes from the official congressional report.
He further tabulates the imports of Sandusky for the year 1849, with
a total value of $8,320,949, and of exports $2,577,841, showing an increase
over the year 1847 of $1,183,688.
In his visit to the United States in 1842, Charles Dickens thus describes
his trip to Sandusky after leaving Tiffin:
"At tAvo o'clock we took the railroad from Tiffin; the traveling on
which Avas very SIOAV, its construction being indifferent, and the ground
Avet and marshy; and arrived at Sandusky in time to dine that evening.
We put up at a comfortable little hotel on the brink of Lake Erie, lay
there that night and had no choice but to Avait there next day, until a
steam-boat bound for Buffalo appeared. The town, which was sluggish
and uninteresting enough, was something like the back of an English
Avatering-place out of the season.
"Our host who was very attentive and anxious to make us com-
Vol. 1—IS