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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 35
by the name of Erie, and the seat of justice in and for said county
shall be, and is hereby fixed and established at Sandusky City, to wit:
Beginning at a point on the east line of Oxford Township, in the County
of Huron, one mile north of the southeast corner thereof; thence northerly
on the said east line, and in the same direction, to the Canada line;
thence westerly along said Canada line, to a point therein directly opposite
the west line of the Township of Portage, in Sandusky County;
thence southerly, parallel with the east line of said Sandusky County to
the northwest corner of the Township of ToAvnsend, in Sandusky County;
thence east, to the west boundary of Huron County; thence south, on
said west boundary of Huron County, to a point one mile north of the
south line of the ToAvnship of Groton, in said Huron County; and from
thence to the place of beginning: Provided, and it is hereby declared,
that if the east line of said County of Erie, as above described, will not
include the whole of Cunningham's Island, in Lake Erie, then, and in
that case, said line shall be so far varied from the south shore of said
lake to the said Canada line that it will embrace the whole of said Cunningham's
Island.
Sec. 2. That the said County of Erie be, and remain attached to
the counties from which it is detached, until the same shall be organized
by the Legislature. "C. ANTHONY,
"Speaker of the House of Representatives.
"GEORGE J. SMITH,
"Speaker of the Senate.
"March 15, 1838."
The act for the organization of Erie County AA'as passed March 16,
1838. It provided for the holding of an election in the following May,
and that all justices of the peace and constables, residing within the
territory taken from the counties of Huron and Sandusky and embraced
within the limits of Erie County, should continue to discharge tlieir
duties until their terms should expire, and that suits begun in court
before the taking effect of the act should proceed and be prosecuted as
though the act had not been passed. The county was by the power of
this act attached for judicial purposes to the Second Judicial Circuit.
No alterations or additions were made to the new county until 1840,
when the subjoined section of the act of March 6,1840, was passed:
"Sec. 5. Be it enacted, etc., That all that territory in the County of
Huron, north of the north line of the toAA'nships of Wakeman, Townsend,
NorAvalk and Lyme, which includes the tOAvnships of Vermillion, Florence,
Berlin, Milan and Huron, and also a strip off the south side of the
townships of Oxford and Groton, one mile in width, be, and the same
is hereby attached to the County of Erie."
On the fourth day of April, 1838, the first court of Erie Common
Pleas Avas held. Present, Judges Moors Farwell, Nathan Strong and
Harvey Fowler. The business of the first day, as given on No. 1 of the
dockets of the court, was as follows:
"It appeared that there was a vacancy in the office of clerk of the
court. It is ordered that Zenas W. Barber be, and he is hereby, ap-