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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 445
cost $709,263.96 for construction; that the road then operated 10 locomotives,
5 passenger cars, 3 baggage cars, 145 freight cars; that it carried
22,036 passengers that year without injuring a passenger, receiving for
their transportation $338,180.58; that it carried freight amounting to
$79,587.98, with a total income of $117,848.61; that part of the freight
was 849,897 bushels of wheat.
On November 20, 1850, there was a ball at the Townsend House
attended by eighty couples and the tickets were $3.00 apiece.
In the early '50s the collector of the port skipped the town with the
Avife of his deputy and $30,000 which had been collected on the rails
of the Mad River Railroad. His bondsmen Avere indemnified before
he skipped and he never Avas caught.
On September 28, 1851, Salmon P. Chase spoke at the old courthouse
for the free soil party and Avas roundly abused by the Register for doing
it. On May 19, 1899, the corner stone of the Odd Fellows' Temple was
laid and in it Avere placed a ritual, the constitution, local papers, list of
officers and members, etc.
Previous to the erection of the West House its present site was
covered by a roAV of old frame shanties that were all saloons. It took
fire in the cholera year of 1852, and the fire department stood by and
alloAved them to burn doAvn Avithou/making an effort to extinguish the
fire with the general approval of £he community.
On October 18, 1852, Gen. wfnfield Scott, then a candidate for the
presidency, visited Sandusky and made a speech and was Avelcomed
by a large croAvd with a procession of militia, and was honored with a
banquet at the Exchange Hotel. The toastmaster was Pitt Cooke, and
there Avas a large triumphal arch at the foot of Columbus Avenue.
The Sandusky Gas Light Company Avas organized May 26, 1854.
On July 8th of that year the Register mentions that the Hubbard Block
Avas nearly finished, as well as the residence of Gen. W. H. Mills, on
Washington ROAV, which stood about half way through the block and
the walls of Avhich Avere utilized in building the Mahala Block.
On December 8, 1854, the present postoffice AA'as finished. It Avas
built on a lot belonging to George Reber, Avho made most of his fortune
out of the old- suit betAveen Wildman and Mills over the town site of
Sandusky, and who also Avrote a book of an infidel nature entitled
" Therapeutae," Avhich Avas an attempt to prove that St. John was never
in Asia Minor Avhere the Book of Revelations Avas supposed to be written.
On December 13, 1853, the Register records the fact that the courthouse
bell Avas rung at 6 A. M., at noon, and at 9 P. M., which Avas probably
the origin of the "curfeAv" ordinance.
The Register of July 25, 1853, shows the cost of living Avith granulated
sugar at 9i/> cents a pound and Avhiskey at 19 cents a gallon.
On July 26, 1854, Wetherell & Co. built four passenger cars for
the old Junction road between Cleveland and Sandusky.
The Register of January 12, 1885, contains a description of the
State Fair Avhich was held at Sandusky in 1858. It was held on Hancock
Street, this side of the property of Conrad Spaith and the Schoepfle