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HISTORY" OF ERIE COUNTY 393
without precedent in that connection, it being the first occasion of the
kind in the western states. The day was ushered in with a national
salute, at that time consisting of twenty-four guns. At 11 o'clock a
procession Avas formed in front of the Steamboat (since the Verandah)
Hotel, with Gen. W. II. Mills as marshal, assisted by Major White and
Captain Kinney. The procession was headed by the Sandusky Rifle
Corps and other military; the officers of the Monroeville & Sandusky
Railroad, president and directors of the Mad Ri\ r er Road, and the chiefs
of the Wyandot Nation from Upper Sandusky.
The point selected for the ceremony was on the East Battery, at the
then northeastern boundary of the city, a point on a side of the same
opposite to what came to be the terminus of the road. Here the exercises
were introduced with prayer by Rev. J. E. Chaplin, then principal
of Norwalk Seminary: after which the address was delivered by lion.
Hleutheros Cooke. The most conspicuous personage of the occasion was
(fen. Win. 11. Harrison, to whom and to whose military and civil record,
.Mr. Cooke made prominent reference in his .remarks.
At the close of this address, the president of the railroad company
with General Harrison, supported by the officers of the company in the
presence of the assemblage, proceeded to'break ground upon railway
line, which act was followed by twenty-four guns. This being accomplished,
the-procession again formed and marched to the Mansion House,
where a dinner had been prepared by the landlord, Mr. Henry Victor.
lion. Isaac A. Mills, of Sandusky, acted as president, with Oran Follett
and John Wccden, of Sandusky, and John Fish, of Monroeville, as vice
presidents.
The dinner over, the regular toasts were presented, one of which ,
was complimentary to General Harrison, who responded in a speec\i
of some length, in which besides recognizing the importance of the
improvement then inaugurated, referred to the early history of Ohio
and the West with which he was so prominently identified.
The means of the company then consisted almost wholly of subscriptions,
payable in land. At the session of 1835-36, the Legislature passed
what came to he known as the "Pluredon Law," in doing which the
credit of the state, to the amount of $200,000, was loaned to this
company, and under the same act county subscriptions were obtained,
with which means the work was prosecuted under constant embarrassments
during the twenty years following the date of the charter, until
in 1852. the line was opened from Sandusky to Dayton, a distance of 157
miles. Some idea of what this struggle was may be had when it is known,
that it took four years (to 1839) to get the road in operation to Bellevue
(fifteen miles), the next thirteen years being spent on the line
south of that point.
In common with all American railways at that date, the Mad River
first used the flat or strap rail, selecting the lightest known pattern, being
two and one-half inches wide, five-eighths thick and weighing twenty-two
pounds to the yard, or nineteen tons to the mile. This was supported
by continuous wooden sills. Sp light a structure soon gave way, when