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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 397
On November 19, 1906, Isaac Coles died. He came to Sandusky in .
1848. His first job was to saw six cords of wood for 50 cents for the
Townsend House. He later owned a team, and used to tell of hauling
cars on the old Mad River road on Water Street that had four wheels
and were eight feet long, and would contain twenty-five barrels of flour.
The boxcars were Utile larger than a wagon box; there were ten of them
to a. train, which made eight or ten miles ail hour.
The Register of December 10, 1864, described the luxurious wood
train of the Mad River Railroad. This was a train operated to cut
down and gather wood to be burned by the old wood-burning locomotives.
The train seems to have been about half as luxurious as the ordinary
work train of a modern road.
The Sandusky Clarion of June 8, 1849, contains the timetable of
the Mad River Road announcing the rates of fare to various points.
It is somewhat interesting to observe that at this time butter was
worth 10 cents a pound and eggs 6Vi cents a dozen, and that the present
fare to Tiffin is 56 cents and Avas then $1.50.
The Clarion of May 27, 1848, advertises that it. will make the trip
from Sandusky to Cincinnati via the Little Miami Railroad in nineteen
hours.
On May 20. 1911, Samuel J. Catherman died at the age of ninety-
Ihree. He designed the reversible seats for passenger cars and invented
the idea of the end doors for passenger coaches instead of the side doors
used up to that time.
The .Junction Railroad was originally organized to connect the railroad
between Cleveland and Toledo through Sandusky. Its charter is
in the Carnegie Library. On June 28, 1850, a meeting was held to help
the road at Euterpean Hall. On November 17, 1850, the contract to
build the road was let, and the Clarion of July 8, 1853, describes the
laying of the rails on Railroad Street. On July 23, 1853, the first train
passed over the rails. On August 4, 1853, the drawbridge on East Washington
Street was finished. On September 13, 1853, the first passenger
train came through from Cleveland. On August 30, 1853, the first passenger
train from Sandusky to Chicago passed through the city. Old
residents describe long freight trains passing through the city over Railroad
Street at that time.
The Junction Railroad is now part of the Lake Shore System.
The following account of the opening of the Northern Bivision of
the Lake Shore Railroad is taken from the Register of March 13, 1872:
"One morning in December, 1858, Conductor O. J. True called 'all
aboard for Sandusky' at the station at Port Clinton and gave notice that
his train Avould not return by that route, and those who expected'to
return that night had better stay home. It was Avith a feeling of bitterness
that the Port Clintonites saw the train depart realizing as they did
that they had lost the last chance of making their pleasant little village
a metropolis. Not only was Port Clinton sorry, but every station on the
route was vexed that the line had been abandoned. Years passed and
the line came under the control of live Avide aAvake railroad men Avho