OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Bio History of Kelley's Island - 1865 Developments *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 May 6, 1999 *********************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio The Kelley Family Book compiled by Hermon Alfred Kelley 1897 And Then They Went West by Darlene E. Kelley 1998 *********************************************** Several events took place in the year 1865 that had profound effect on the destinies of the island and the islanders. The first was the publication on Feb 7th in the volume of the Islander, of the prospectus of the Kelley Island Wine Company. By the end of the year, the company was fully organized and had commenced to operate, having rented Mr. Charles Carpenter's wine cellar and dock for temporary use, until the Company could erect a larger cellar of its own. The far reaching effect of this enterprise was not realized and everyone was so optimistic over its future, that the Capital Stock of $100,000.00 was soon subscribed for, and fully paid up. On May 14th another transaction took place, that was to lead to even greater and more beneficial results. It was the beginning of the consolidation of the quarries, by he purchase of F. and N. Kelley for $45,000.00 of the quarries and docks of Wm. S. Webb and the Webb and A.S Kelley stone interests. This was the largest transaction in real estate since the settlement of the island, but put F. & N. Kelley into possession of all the stone docks on the south shore of the island. Graded schools were first instituted on the island that year. Also in this year, the Protestant people of the island who had been holding religious services in Kelley Hall for sometime previously, secured the services of Rev. Robert McCune, who came to officiate as a regular pastor. He was the first Protestant English speaking minister ever regularly engaged on the island. This resulted in the formation of the Union Evangelical Church which developed into the First Congregational Church. Thus, it will be seen, that the material, mental, and spiritual development of the island , went on together, chronologically at least. Other events of minor importance, yet of great interest to the islanders occurred this year. The Island Queen which had served the island so long, was considered to be inadequate to the demands of the growing population and she was sold. But before that event occurred, Captain Orr had resigned. He had sailed her since she was put into commission in 1854. Ill health was the cause for his resignation and Captain G.W. Magle had taken his place. The stockholders appointed A.S.Kelley and W.S.Webb to find a better boat adapted to the trade with the results that the Steamer Evening Star was purchased at a cost of $45,000.00. The Star 340 tons, could carry twelve hundred passengers and was twice as large as the Queen. The Star reached the island for the first time. on September 18th and was immeiately put on route with Captain Magle in command. The Philo Parsons was also sold in August to Chicago parties, and she was suceeded by the new Steamer, City of Sandusky; but proving too large was replaced by the Island Queen on the Detroit-Sandusky route and she ran till the close of the navigation season. On September 30th, the new Steamer, Messenger, commenced making tri-weekly trips between Cleaveland and the islands, The Star laid up in Sandusky on December 9th. On Decmber 13th the Monitor was launched and started for Sandusky manned by " The Experienced mail carrier Oscar Dean." Another event took place that year was the building of an ice house by J.E. Woodford and John Wing. It was located on the shore of the lake,east of Table Rock, near Addison Kelley's pond. Strangely enough,this was the first public ice house of any size built on th island. Before that the islanders had gotten ice from Sandusky. The grape crop was good, notwithstanding complaints of rot in some vineyards. The average price was 8 cents per pound. The school District No.1 shool house became inadequate to accommodate the children, a third school was erected, and a graded school system inaugurated. It had been a custom of Addison Kelley to give Christmas dinner and to invite to it all his nearest relatives every year. This custom was started in 1838. Mrs. E.K. Huntingham, his sister, was one of his guests on that occasion as the dinner was given in his newly built home, which was then the only frame dwelling on the island; all others being log cabins. He gave the twenty-eighth annual dinner in his great stone mansion near Inscription Rock. This house like the other, was the finest on the island at that time. It had been completed that year,1865. Mrs. Huntington was present at the Christmas dinner and is what she had to say about it. " Yesterday was the twenty-seventh invitation I have accepted to take a sumptuous dinner at Brother Addison's and I assure you it has been food for reflection as well as for the inner man. Twenty-seven years ago, our Christmas dinner table was spread in the house now owned by Adam Schardt. ( This house was destroyed by fire later. ) There were great trees growing and great logs about the grounds where now our vineyards are. Near the spot where the elegant mansion stands, where we sat at meat yesterday, there stood an old log house with only a clearing around it for a garden spot. ( This was built by Nicholas Hoskins in 1830.) The land valued at eight dollars an acre then, was dearer at that price than it is today if valued at two thousand dollars an acre. Twenty-seven years ago, there were two frame houses on the island. Our Christmas dinner table was spread in the best one.( The other was the school house.) This year, there are fifty. The poorest of them, better then the best was then and our dinner table was was sat in the best house in 1865. A great change for the better, is also noticeable in our transportation to and from the island. Then, we were at the mercy of the winds or some stray boat going by; now , we have at our service, almost as good a boat as any that were on the lake in 1837. Our roads on the island were then mere paths winding about in the woods; so muddy and rough that the horses and wagons were of no account, as they would stand a trip to the north side and back, and no one would think of making the trip except from necessity. Now what a change; it is nothing but fun to ride over the island. The exports of the Island twenty-seven years ago would not exceed 3,000 dollars, now it will exceed 400 thousand dollars. Will the physical condition change as much the next twenty-seven years as the last twenty-seven years. What a change there has been in our whole country. In 1838 there was not a foot of railroad in the State of Ohio. Now there is over three thousand miles of railroad in Ohio." In its prospectus. published in the seventh number of Vol. VI of the Islander, Feb. 1865, the following argument was made for the creation of this company. As it gives an insight into the grape industry at that time, this extract is given verbatum. " The islands have a reputation that is getting to be national, for excellant quality of grapes that they are capable of producing; and as a consequence of good grapes---good wines and brandies. The latter have not as yet acquired the celebrity that the grapes have and why? We have allowed Cleveland, Sandusky, Cincinnati,St. Louis and other manufacturers to do business that we should have done ourselves. From the excellant grapes, we have manufactured the American Wine Company's best advertisement for the present and future sale of their wines. A reputation that should have legitimately been kept at home and which is yet within our contol . If these manufacturers of wine who do their business from ten to five hundred miles from here, can purchase boxes, transport the grapes a long distance, bear the expense of an agent for 5 to 6 weeks in purchasing, stand the loss by leakage and molding and after all this at the same expense in manufacuring and make a large profit on the grapes they buy here, why does not--nay who can be so blind as not to see that it must be a great deal more profitably done here? " In the first number of Volume VII of the Islander, under the date of December 15th,1865 we find the following items in the local page; " The Company has been fully organized and is now in good condition. The company has rented Mr. Carpenter's wine cellar for a period of five years as a temporary place to make and store wine until it can build another cellar that shall answer the purpose better. The Company has also secured the services of Chas. Farciot to superintend the manufacturing department. He comes directly from the American Wine Company of St. Louis, with good recommendation from the officers of said company. They have bought a little over a hundred tons of grapes which are this year unusully rich in saccharin, the average price being 6 1/2 cents, the range being from 2c to 71/2 c according to quality. A small quanity was secured from the Peninsula and the neighboring islands but for the most part, the grapes were produced on Kelley's Island. The Capitol Stock of $100,000.00 has been nearly all subscribed, there remaining only 25 shares unsold. ( It was later increased to $200,000.00 ). " Mr. Carpenter leased his dock to the Wine Company in 1866 and they built a boarding house on the dock for the convenience of its men engaged in constructing the New wine cellars. This building was destroyed by fire in 1872, and here we must temporarily abandon the chronological order of general events and follow the logical order of the wine industry. The difficulties and vexations of the grape and wine industry now started to take place. The price over the supply and demand did not give enough profit to warrent the difficulties that the company encountered. California came into the market with wine made from grapes with a lower percentage going towards maintanance of the growing and having reduced freight by rail, putting down the price for wine, which yielded good returns to both producer, manufacturer, and jobber.According to the account in the Islander it stated that if there are any dividends made from the earlier years business, not much could be made from " Still wine". ("Still" not sparkling like champagne.) He also stated that grapes were imported onto the island from Put-in-Bay, North Bass and the peninsula because they could be obtained at better prices or terms than some of the island growers were willing to accept.About the time a company was formed, according to Mr.P.Howlets, to build the wine cellar, quite a number of persons who owned presses and had casks and cellars sufficient to store their own wine, were induced to sell their presses and abandon wine making. Thus it is with grape growing. Nothing certain, Nothing sure. He advised all growers to make their own wine and not depend on the wine company in the future. There was a curious circular in the form of a letter written by "John" to his friend "Jim" and as it throws considerable light on the wine company subject, I give extracts from it. The account is disguised under an account of suppositious ammunition factory, a thing which never existed on the island, and is in part follows; Kelley's Island, August 8, 1878---- " Friend Jim: " Yours of the 10th ult. just received, and now as to your inquiry as to how we are getting along on the island since you left. Many stock companies have been organized about here since you left. Sandusky Wine Company, Put-in-Bay Wine Company, Kelley's Island Wine Co., also the large manufacturing firm of Wehrle,Werk,&Son of Middle Bass. I believe they are all doing well, Mr. Wehrle is doing a profitable business and is spoken of as a capitalist. Shortly after you left, we organized a company for the manufacture of ammunition,firearms,etc. Some eight years ago we increased our stock to two hundred thousand dollars, and have just received a Nichols and Lefevre gun,a thing that has troubled a few citizens along the south shore of the island, but the gun will be mounted on wheels and will at all times be fired north, so that none of the heavy stockholders living along the south shore will in any way be injured. We have an elegant building were our gun and all our other machinery necssary to run such a company are kept, it is a very fine structure built entirely out of stone and cost us upwards of $65,000.00. We made money like fun, while we were doing business in the old building. Our Superintendant is a hard worked and a shrewed fellow and a "Natural Chemist," but somehow or other his chemistry did not work as well whereas it did in the old country, where he learned the trade. So he began to experiment on refining our 'powder' as soon as the new building was put up but for two or three years he could not make the thing work. Great quantities of ' powder' were returned to us damaged or spoiled and that on hand in our vaults turned blue or molded and would not go off, and consequently the large amount of powder thus spoiled by his trying to refine it, cost the company not less than twenty thousand dollars. The old machinery was discarded and the finest there could be found in New york was bought. This machine was gold and knickle plated and a French professor of chemistry was sent for, and our superintendant went on with his work and this too turned out to be a failure, after enormous expense to the company. His attention was also called to the refining of our ' shot' and a large machine was bought in Buffalo for the purpose of making our shot more effective. so that it would kill whatever it penetrated. This too, was a failure. There is a government tax on all manufactured goods. The revenue officer got after us for not refining as much shot as the capacity of the machine required and we then disposed of the machine as soon as possible, but with a trifling loss to the company of but four or five thousand dollars. So you see with all three drawbacks and high salaries, the company has run into debt, although we had a capital of one hundred and eighty-seven thousand five hundred dollars paid up. I presume we could not get today, over twenty cents on the dollar for the stock, but in the past year or two our machinery has been discarded, and all our powder, and shot is now hand made, as the term goes. "Yours & c', " John." (For powder, red wine) ( For shot,red brandy or champagne ) It has been conjectured that this curious publication is the work of Titus Hamiliton and Uri L. Ward in collaboration. When the eightenth ammendment to the constitution became effective, the wine companies on the island, as elsewhere, were obliged to close and at first this seemed an overwelming calamity to the island grape grower. But the demand for grapes for private consumption created such a market that the price of grapes rose above what had been prevailing for some years before the prohibition law went into effect and the grapes of the island found ready sale. It is true that the acreage of grapes had been gradually diminishing. Grape root borer and other diseases hae reduced the productivity of the older vineyards and together with the prohibition law discouraged the grower from setting out new vines.