OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 4

************************************************************************
USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE
     Copyright.  All rights reserved.  
     http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the 
contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US 
Copyright Laws and Regulations.

In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, 
these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research.  They 
may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and 
submitter information is included.

These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit.

Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission 
from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites.

The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the 
file permanently for free access.

http://www.usgenwebarchives.org     
**************************************************************************
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
January 30, 2005
**************************************************************************
Historical Collections of Ohio
And They Went West
S.L. Kelly diaries
Series of Articles
by Darlene E. Kelley
Tid Bits - part 4.
**************************************************************************

Lake Erie Islands
 
Scattered across the Western Basin, the Lake Erie Islands carry some
unusual names; 

Snake Island -- historians argue about its namesake for this 85 acre
island. Some say it was named because the island was covered with
rattlesnakes. Others say the island was named because the two tiny
islands of its western tip look like rattles.
This island is located 2 miles northwest of Put-in-Bay, past Gibraltar
Island. This island is privately owned.

West Sister Island-- Looking in a westerly direction, 15 miles distant,
is West Sister Island. It is currently a National Wildlife Refuge and a
haven for many species of shore birds. It is near West Sister that the
Battle of Lake Erie came to an end, and the American control of
Michigan, northern Ohio, and the Old Northwest was assured.

The East Sister Island and Middle Sister Islands as well as the Hen and
Chicken Islands are all in Canadian waters. The Middle sister was used
by Perry as a stop over when transporting General Henry Harrison's army
prior to the capture of Fort Malden and the Battle of the Thames on
Canadian mainland.  

Starve Island -- sometimes called Gull Island, is a tiny 2 acre island
off the southern shore of South Bass. Is a site where a sailor once
starved to death after having been shipwrecked and stranded there. How
and when this occurred though is unknown. Starve is also is known as
Gull Island as it is a favorite nesting ground for the local species of
Sea Gull.

Ballast Island -- During the Battle of Lake Erie, Commodore Oliver
Hazard Perry was said to have stopped to collect stones along the
shoreline to use as ballast. 

Gibralter Island -- named because it resembles the famous British
fortress at the west entrance of the Mediterranean Sea. This Island has
its own castle.  [Owned by the Ohio State University] The castle was
built in 1865 by a Civil War financier, Jay Cooke. Cooke entertained
frequently while visiting the island from his estate in Philadelphia.
Some of the names on the guest lists include Presidents Rutherford B.
Hayes, Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harris. [ The island is now used as
a research laboratory and classroom setting for the university. They are
consistantly restoring and renovating the castle back to its original
grandeur.]

Bass Islands -- are collectively known as the Bass Islands, Middle Bass,
South Bass, and North Bass, so named because the waters surrounding them
are teeming with bass. [ more on these islands will be in another
article.]

Mouse Island -- just off the tip of Catawba and the east of the
ferrydock. Mouse Island is named because of its petite size, It once
beonged to President Rutherford B. Hayes. It now belongs to a private
corporation.

More Islands-- To the left, just off the western tip of South Bass, is
Green Island. Lighthouses on Green have guided vessels through the
islands for decades. Green Island is owned by the State of Ohio.

Inside Sandusky Bay, off the south shore off Marblehead is Johnson's
Island. In October 1861, Johnson's Island was designated a Confederate
prisoner of war camp and by 1863, when in full operation, as many as
2,600 Confederate officers and men were imprisoned there. 

Pelee Island, just 10 miles from Kelley's Island to the Northeast is
also in Canadian waters. It is a 36 square mile island and by far the
largest in Lake Erie. 
Pelee is primarily farming land, but also a famous fishing resort,
having been patronized by Presidents Cleveland, Harding and Taft.

I have just about given you a complete
cycle with a capsule history and a birde-eye view of the Lake Erie
Island's. Many changes, some good and some bad, have taken place since
the days the Indians first visited and Oliver Hazard Perry's fleet
navigated these waters. They are part of Ohio's important history.
Further history will appear in further articles.   

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

                 Puddin Bay

Located in the shallow western end of Lake Erie is a group of 20 or more
islands. One of these, Put-in-Bay or South Bass, served as a base of
operations for Oliver Hazard Perry. It was from the harbor called
Put-in-Bay that Perry sailed to defeat the British fleet under Robert H.
Barclay during the war of1812. The American victory in the battle of
Lake Erie gave the country and the United States Navy a memorable slogan
of positive accomplishments, " We have met the enemy and they are
ours.... " [ today there stands at Put-in-Bay a beautiful Greek Boric
column, the Perry's Victory and International Memorial.] The 3,987 mile
boundary between the United States and Canada is the longest unguarded
international frontier in the world.

Historians are not sure of the origins of the name, the lone villiage on
South Bass Island may have received its name from ship captains who "
put into bay " for a safe harbor from Lake Erie storms. Another idea is
that the shape of the bay resembles an early pudding bag, thus the name
became Puddin Bay, later shortened to Put-in-Bay.  Regardless of its
origins, one thing is for certain, the island has had a long,
fascinating, colorful history.

The earliest visitors were the American Indians. Many Indian arrowheads,
stone axes, and other impliments of blue and white flints were turned up
during construction. Indians visited Put-in-Bay when ice conditions
allowed the crossing to hunt raccoons and other animals.

The French explorer an fur trader Louis Jolliet was the first white man
to travel on Lake Erie. An unidentified group of explorers sailed among
the islands in July of 1784. They made charts of the islands, naming one
of them Pudding Bay because of the shape of the harbor, claiming it
resembled a pudding bag. Other log books referred to the harbor as Puden
Bay. The Lake Erie Islands were included in the tract of land claimed by
Connecticut and became known as the Western Reserve. The earliest white
inhabitants known to have occupied the islands were French.

Seth Done brought a number of laborers who cleared over 100 acres of
land and 
planted wheat in the summer and fall of 1811. He also imported 400 sheep
and 150 hogs to graze on the acorn and hickory nuts which were abundant
on the island. The first effort to settle on Put-in-Bay ended with the
coming of the war of 1812. The workers were busy threshing grain when
the British soldiers drove them off in the fall of 1812 and destroyed
the remainder of the crop.

Put-in-Bay Harbor was used by Perry as a base of operations. From the
Bass Islands he could quickly sail to Sandusky Bay for conferences with
Harrison or scout the British forces at Fort Malden  (Amherstburg,
Ontario ), in the Detroit River. When the men and ships were not so
engaged , there were training duties such as preparing the ships for
actions and gunnery practice. The American fleet had sailed from Erie,
Pennsylvania on 12 August 1813 and arrived off Sandusky Bay on the
sixteenth. Perry conferred with Generals Harrison and Lewis Cass
regarding the next step to take in prosecuting the campaign. The British
fleet under Captain Robert H. Barclay was sighted by a lookout in the
masthead of Perry's flagship, the brig Lawrence at 5:00
a.m., Friday, 10 September 1813. The Battle of Lake Erie began at 11:45
a.m. and ended a few minutes after 3:00 p.m..
British supremacy on the lake came to an end with the capture of the
entire enemy fleet of six vessels. The conflict began eight miles
northwest of Put-in-Bay and reached its climax at West Sister Island
fourteen miles away. The triumphant American Captain dashed off a short
note on the back of an old letter to Willam Henry Harrison.

After the war of 1812, Aschell ( Shell ) Johnson lived on Put-in-Bay for
three years. The next settlers were Henry and Sally Hyde who came in
1818. The Hydes brought 500 head of sheep to the Island. A.P. Edwards
then began to develop Put-in-Bay bringing laborers to erect the
necessary buildings. John Pierpoint built a dock in the harbor and
another one known as the West Dock.

The first permanent settler to come to Put-in-Bay was Philip Vroman in
1843. He settled on the island and remained until his death 68 years
later. In 1845, Gibralter Island in the harbor was occupied by a group
of government surveyors and engineers who were engaged in makng charts
of the lake. They found it necessary
to cut a strip 45 feet wide running through the woods of Put-in-Bay so
they could site their instruments properly. The strip was used as a road
by the islanders and they called it " Sight Road."

In 1854 a Spanish merchant named Joseph de Rivera bought South Bass,
Middle Bass, Sugar, Gibralter, Ballast, and Starve Islands for a price
of $ 44,000.
He began to develop the islands, building
a saw mill and at Starve Island a mill in the fall of 1854. He had the
county engineer survey the area in 10 acre lots. In the first ten years,
de Rivera sold 42 parcels of land in South and Middle Bass.
He sold a quarter acre of land to the South Bass Board of Education for
a dollar. Hence the growth of Puddin Bay.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

                Johnson Island

Johnson's Island was origionally named Bull's Island and was a part of a
tract of land owned by Epaproditus Bull. He and his family left
Connecticut and settled on the Marblehead peninsula in May of 1809. In
1812, Bull and his family fled to Cleveland, Ohio because of Indian
attacks. In the autumn of 1812, Bull died there, a victim of disease.
His family then returned to the penninsula and retained ownership of
Johnson Island until 1852.

Leonard B. Johnson purchased the island in 1852 and renamed it Johnson's
Island. He cleared several acres of the Island for farming. In the fall
of 1816, the U.S. Army leased 40 acres of the island from Johnson to
establish a Prisoner of War Depot.

The Island itself is one mile long and one and a half miles wide and is
located at the mouth of Sandusky Bay near Sandusky, Ohio. Reasons for
this site selecion by the U.S. Army included a relatively wooded land,
and the proximity to Sandusky, Ohio for labor and supplies, which
allowed for an early completion date.

The camp, thirteen barracks, was completed in February 1862 at a cost of
$30,000. Twelve of the barracks were used as living quarters by the
Prisoners and one acted as a hospital.

William Pierson, lawyer and mayor of Sandusky, was selected as the first
commanding officer of the camp and was given the rank of Lieutenant
Colonel. He was replaced by Brigadier General H.D. Terry on January
14,1864, who in turn was replaced by Charles W.Hill inMay 1865.

The history of the camp can be divided into two periods During the first
period, lasting until December 1863 food and money were plentiful and
the camp was not crowded. The second period, ending with the disbandment
of the camp in August 1865, saw a great influx of prisoners with
resulting crowded living conditions, scarcity of food, and the enactment
and enforcement of stricter regulations.

The prisoners were allowed to earn money and/or have money sent to them.
However, the money and a record of it was kept by the camp commander and
transferred when necessary. The prisoners used this money to buy
supplies from camp sutler ( seller of provisions ) who also kept an
account of all transactions. 

The last prisoner left the camp in August 1865. The island cemetery
accounts for the 201 soldiers who died there.

The folowing year, the Army auctioned off all of the surplus equipment
and materials, the buildings, and the stockade walls. Most of the lumber
was salvaged, and some of the smaller buildings were moved across
Sandusky Bay to Marblehead when the Bay was completely frozen with thick
ice. ( More later about the Civil War episode to come later.) 

>From 1866 to 1894, the island was primarily used for agricultural
purposes. Fruit trees were planted along with general crops. The site of
the Prisoner
of War Depot was plowed under to raise crops. A small number of private
lots were sold to individuals during this period.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

continued in tid bits -- part 5