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198 HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
cern of its kind in the state. The destruction of the factory by fire,
together with tire .exhaustion of the wood supply, explains the loss of
that plant. About this time the city gave the Gay Shipyard Company
the extensive grounds of the East Battery and $15,000 to start a shipyard
on the premises IIOAV occupied by the Sandusky Tool Company.
This was the first tramp enterprise assisted by our people that failed,
and Avas the predecessor of a long string of successive failures of the
same kind.
J. 13. & II. P. Radeliffe manufactured extensively candles, Avhich, together
Avith camphene and sperm oil, Avere the only means of illumination
at that time.
The grocers Avere Whitney & Wetherell, Porter & Lytle, S. S. Hosmer
& Co., W. A. Simpson, Barber & Berry, Radeliffe & Co., Casper, Parsons
& Co., Geiersdorf & Co. and Nathan Bear.
After the close of the war Winterstein & Arndt manufactured woodenware
until a fire destroyed their factory. After the factory was rebuilt
D. M. Arndt continued the business, adding fish packages and butter tubs
until the supply of timber Avas exhausted.
The dry goods merchants Avere W. T. & A. K. West, Charles Converse,
Monroe & Peck, John N. Sloane, Everett & Drake, Hubbard, Shepard &
Wilcox, T. D. West, C. E. & G. A. Cooke, and D. M. Arndt & Co.
Before the completion of the West House, the ToAvnsend House, later
called the Mississippi Hotel, after the steamboat Mississippi; the Colt's
Exchange, renamed the St. Lawrence Hotel, after the steamer St. LaAVrence;
the Veranda Hotel, the Mansion House, the Exchange and the
Steamboat Hotel at the west end of Water Street Avere the principal
hotels of the city.
The Register of December 31, 1851, describes the census taken by
George S. Patterson, shoAving Sandusky Avith a population of 7,901. The
Register of December 8, 1851, SIIOAVS this population divided as folloAvs:
American 3,435
Germans 2,188
Irish 1,849
English 277
Blacks 106
Miscellaneous 46
Total 7,901
The Register of June 21, 1852, described the Bay City Mills, then in
process of erection on Jackson Street Avharf, by Henderson & Pettibone.
The main building Avas 60 by 40 feet, four stories high, with Avings for
storing grain on each side extending its Avhole length and capable of
storing 30,000 bushels of wheat, with a capacity of about 400 barrels of
flour a day. At this time vessels would go to Venice and load as much
as the shalloAvness of the Avater would alloAv them, and then come doAvn
to Sandusky and complete their cargo at the Bay City Mills.