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CHAPTER III
ERIE COUNTY—ITS ERECTION AND ORGANIZATION
The earliest indication of a division of Huron County, that might
have been discovered by the far-seeing, was the springing up of a spirit
of jealous rivalry betAveen Sandusky and Norwalk. This feeling was developed
at an early day and increased steadily up to and beyond the
time when Erie County was set off from Huron, though the main cause
of its fostering was removed when Sandusky became the county seat of
Erie. There Avere other and more potent forces in operation, however,
which tended tOAvard the division of the territory. There Avas a desire
for the formation of new counties in several localities, notably in the
southern part of Huron and the northern part of Richland, where a
strong movement Avas on, foot for the erection of a neAV county from the
territory of the tAvo named," to be knoAvn as Plymouth, This scheme was
urged Avith considerable energy by the people of NCAV Haven (then a
thriving village), and of Paris (IIOAV Plymouth), between Avhich places,
had a new county seat been set off, there would have been a warm competition
for the "honors and emoluments" of the county seat location.
Had not Erie been set off from the northern part of Huron, some of the
territory of the southern part would, in all probability, have been set
off for the erection of the proposed County of Plymouth.
The act for the erection of Erie County was introduced in the Ohio
Legislature in the session of 1838, and AA'as the subject of much argument
pro and con in the public prints of the territory more or less interested
and through memorials.
Petitions and remonstrances, the usual recourse of the public, were
submitted to the Legislature, showing the reasons for and against the
erection of the county. The report of the standing committee of the
Senate, session of 1838, on HCAV counties, comments at length upon
these expressions of the people's will. A brief synopsis of this report
gives an exhibit of the causes that led to the formation of Erie County.
The petitions praying for the erection of the county were signed by 1,250
persons, all of whom were said to reside in the boundaries of Huron and
Sandusky counties and within the boundaries proposed for the county of
which the act under consideration contemplated the erection. In addition
to these there was another petition containing the names of forty-six
persons, who expressed a preference for Erie over OttaAva County. These
petitions represented that the counties of Huron and Sandusky were
larger than necessary; that they had an unusually good soil; were
capable of sustaining an unusually dense population; contained many