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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 45
Beecher defended this man, while the firm of Parish & Sadler were
special prosecutors for the people.
Then, again, was the famous case of Lockwood and others against
Wildman and others, involving the title to the lands on which stands
the city of Sandusky. This was, perhaps, the most important civil case
ever tried in Erie County. For the plaintiffs were Counsellors C. L.
Boalt, George Reber and Judge Peter Hitchcock, while the defendants'
interests'were guarded by Messrs. Parish & Sadler, L. S. Beecher, Pitt
Cook and others. The case AA'as revieAved by the Appellate Court in 1844,
and a decree granted for the plaintiffs, but there being other questions
and considerations arising iii the case that were not tried and revieAved,
a compromise was effected and the case settled notAvithstanding the
decree of the Supreme Court sitting en banc.
The old building is gone and not a trace of its existence is IIOAV
visible, save only in its past record.
But it Avas not alone the courthouse building that engaged the attention
of the first board of county commissioners, as provision had to be
made for a place of confinement for offenders; and this Avas one of the
things for the furnishing of which the proprietors and likewise the citizens
wore pledged. For this purpose on the 8th day of November, 1841,
Isaac Mills, one of the proprietors, executed his deed of conveyance to
the county, for jail purposes, a lot on Jackson Street, numbered eighteen.
This deed, hoAvever, was not presented to the commissioners until the
21st of January, 1842. On this lot Avas built the first county jail. It
was erected at the expense, mainly, of the citizens of the toAvn of Sandusky,
and Avas accepted by the commissioners on. July 2, 1842. This
property Avas sold in 1883 to George BroAvn and Adam Feick for the
sum of $3,400..
At length, as the population and Avealth of the city increased, it
became necessary that HCAV county buildings should he provided; buildings
more in keeping Avith the modern, substantial and elegant structures
of various kinds that were then standing around the public square and
other business streets of the city; such as Avould not only be an ornament
but an honor to the county seat and to the county. '
The NCAV Courthouse.—The first definite action looking to this end
Avas taken by the board of county commissioners at tlieir meeting held
in January 4, 1871, upon which occasion that body declared their intention
of building a HCAV courthouse on the site of the old building unless
some other location be agreed upon; and inviting petitions and remonstrances
regarding the matter, to he heard and acted upon on the 7th day
of March following.
Upon the occasion designated the board proceeded to examine the
several communications presented, of which there Avere five, containing
an aggregate of 345 signatures, all in favor of the contemplated erection
and none opposed thereto. One of these bore the names of sixteen
members of the legal profession. From that time the various proceedings
of the commissioners in the matter went rapidly fonvard.