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

HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 387
that the poAver of attorney was defective, and to find a verdict in favor of
the defendant. In the case of Lewis F. Weimer vs. Sloane, the man who
owned three of the slaves, the plaintiff obtained a judgment of $3,000
and costs, Avhich, on motion the court refused to set aside. Hon. Henry
Stanbury and one Coffin were the attorneys for plaintiff. Hon. Thomas
Ewing, IT. II. Hunter and S. F. Vinton were attorneys for defendant.
Judge Levitt presided. What the slave ordinance, miscalled law, of 1850
was and what its demands and penalties were, can be seen in the now celebrated
case of Weimer vs. Sloane. In this trial occurring at Columbus,
the capital of the State of Ohio, a state which by the Ordinance of 1787
had been forever dedicated to freedom, and Avith the facts in the case
clearly proved, the United States judge gave the law of the case to the
jury, based on decisions made under the law of 1793, and not under the
act of 1850, to Avhich act no reference Avas made in his charge.
In the summer of 1853 four fugitives arrived at Sandusky, coming
over the Cincinnati & Sandusky Railroad, and Avho Avere allowed by a„
noble-hearted conductor to leave the train just east of Mill's Creek, and
before reaching the cribbing Avhere the road runs a short space in
deep water. Just north of where the negroes were left, there was on
the north side of the railroad a little cluster of bushes and trees, and
here, until night, the party Avas secreted. Meanwhile Mr. John Irvine,
who is mentioned before, had arranged for a "sharpee," a small sailboat
used by fishermen, with one George Sweigels to sail the boat.
to Canada with this party, for which service Captain Sweigels was to and
did receive $35. One man accompanied Captain Sweigels, and at 8
o'clock in the evening the party in this small boat started to cross Lake
Erie; the wind was favorable, and before morning Point au Pelee Island
was reached, and the next day the four escaped fugitives were in Canada.
Captain Sweigels later resided in Sandusky. In the year 1854 a
party of seven runaway slaves were put on the cars of the Sandusky,
Mansfield & Newark Road and safely brought to Sandusky. The earnest
men of the different stations from time to time received Grape Vine telegraph
dispatches and were always ready to act with promptness in facilitating
the onward progress of the fugitive. In the above instance, when
the slaves reached the City of the Bay, a small tAvo-masted sailboat Avas
in waiting, as it had been learned that it Avould not be safe to send
the party by the Detroit boat, the agents of the owners being in town and
watching the steamer daily. Captain Sweigels Avas also engaged in this
exploit, and it came near being a disastrous one, for after the boat was
in the lake the wind increased so much that she Avas almost swamped, but
at last Avas run safely into a small creek on the shore of Canada. The
Messrs. Irvine, II. F. Merry, George Reynolds and a conductor on the
railroad above named could have given further particulars of this incident.
The largest number of fugitiA'es that Avas ever brought over the road
at one time Avas twenty.
One escape that occurred in 1855 is worth notice: a poor slave had
been able by SIOAV stages, now a ride and then a Avalk, to reach Shelby,