Some Ottawa County trivia

By Frank Gluth

OTTAWA COUNTY was formed March 6, 1840, from Sandusky, Erie and Lucas counties. Ottawa, says Bancroft, is an Indian word, signifying "trader." It was applied to a tribe whose last home in Ohio was on the banks of the Maumee. The surface is level, and most of the county is within the Black Swamp, and contains much prairie and marshy land. A very small portion of the eastern part is within the "fire-lands."

There were but a few settlers previous to 1830. The emigration from Germany after 1849 was large; and its population is greatly of that origin.

Their farms are generally small but highly productive, the draining of the Black Swamp bringing into use the richest of land.

On the peninsula which puts out into Lake Erie are extensive plasterbeds, from which large quantities of plaster are taken. Upon it are large limestone quarries, extensively worked. Area about 300 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 60,922; in pasture, 16,311; woodland, 19,601; lying waste, 6,989; produced in wheat, 228,461 bushels; rye, 46,961; buckwheat, 101; oats, 223,003; barley; 22,134; corn, 505,787; meadow hay, 12,166 tons; clover hay, 5,226; potatoes, 41,237 bushels; butter, 265,064lbs.; sorghum, 317 gallons; maple sugar, 460 lbs.; honey, 8,786; eggs,

184,174 dozen; grapes, 6,993,216 lbs. (largest in the State); wine, 320,534

gallons (largest in the State); apples, 43;783 bushels; peaches, 86,424;pears, 1,867; wool, 49,823 lbs.; milk cows owned, 3,523.-State Report, 1888.

Limestone, 167,054 tons burned for lime, 261,085 tons burned for fluxing,

56,004 cubic feet of dimension stone, 16,333 cubic yards of building stone,

40,272 cubic yards for piers and protection purposes, and 3,534 cubic yards of ballast or macadam.-Ohio Mining Statistics, 1888.

School census, 1888, 7,338; teachers, 137. Miles of railroad track, 89.

Township

And Census 1840 1880 Township And Census 1840 1880 Bay, 231 509 Harris, 318 2,515 Benton, 2,712 Kelley's Island, 68 Carroll, 262 1,697 Portage, 357 2,094 Catawba Island, 520 Put-in-Bay, 1,222 Clay, 176 3,616 Salem, 108 2,683 Danbury, 515 1,599 Van Rensselaer, 27 Erie, 196 595

Population in 1840 was 2,258; 1880, 19,762, of whom 12,793 were born in Ohio and 3,800 in the German Empire. Census, 1890, 21,974.

The first trial of arms in the war of 1812 in Ohio occurred in two small skirmishes on the peninsula between the Indians, September 29, 1812, and a party of soldiers, principally from Trumbull and Ashtabula counties, one of whom, then a lad of sixteen, was Joshua R. GIDDINGS.

What is known as the PENINSULA is a tract of land, a little less than thirty square miles in area, lying between Lake Erie and Sandusky bay, and attached to the mainland by a narrow neck near the Portage river. Its early settlers were from Danbury, Conn., and gave it the name of Danbury Township.

The western boundary of the Firelands cuts off a narrow strip of land on the west side of the township, though, as the township is now organized, the western line is that of the Firelands survey.

Catawba Island was organized as a separate township on the development of grape culture. It contains some 600 acres, situated north of the old Portage river bed, that stream now emptying into the lake some eight miles west of its original outlet, what is known as "The Harbors" being the old bed of the river. Catawba Island is connected with the mainland by a bridge over the west harbor.

Port Clinton in 1846.-Port Clinton, the county-seat, laid out in 1827, is 120 miles north of Columbus. It is situated on a beautiful bay, on the right bank of Portage River. It has a good harbor-in which is a light-house-and about sixty dwellings. It is about the only village in the county, and may ultimately be a place of considerable trade

PORT CLINTON, county-seat of Ottawa, is on Lake Erie at the mouth of Portage river, and about 110 miles north of Columbus, thirteen miles west of Sandusky, and thirty miles east of Toledo, on the L. S. & M. S. Railroad. Churches: one Catholic, one United Brethren, one Lutheran, one Methodist Episcopal. Bank: S. A. Magruder & Co., S. A. MAGRUDER, cashier. Population, 1880, 1,600. School census, 1888, 546; John McCONKIE, school superintendent. Capital invested in industrial establishments, $78,500; value of annual product, $172,900.-Ohio Labor Statistics, 1887. Large fishing depots are located here. Census, 1890, 2,049.

Eleven young men

With good training taken

Can play a football game

and bring home the bacon.

**BURMA SHAVE**

(by Harold Lewis)