The Harrison Trail, Sandusky County, Ohio by
Alan Borer
If you visit Fremont, Ohio, in Sandusky County, you will
likely see the home, museum, and estate of Rutherford B. Hayes, the nineteenth
president. It is a beautiful home, an
interesting museum, and on a nice day, a pleasant park. President Hayes inherited the parkland from
his uncle, Sardis Birchard, who had named the woodland “Spiegel Grove.” “Spiegel” is the German word for “mirror,” so
named because rain puddles in the grove were thought to have a curiously
reflective quality. Hayes, incidentally,
reflected on and was fascinated by the history of northwestern Ohio, and his
museum is full of artifacts.
One artifact, the focus of this essay, is not a cannon
ball, an Indian arrowhead, or a china teacup.
It is a road. The road that winds
through Spiegel Grove was once part of a trail that ran all the way across Ohio
from Port Clinton in the north to Portsmouth in the south. At the entrance to Spiegel Grove you will see
the remnant trail marked as the “Harrison Trail,” named after General William
Henry Harrison. Harrison’s army did use
the trail during the War of 1812, but they were not the only ones. More properly, the road is also remembered as
the Sandusky-Scioto Trail.
General Harrison was only one of many users of the trail. The trail started as a Native American
pathway. We sometimes think of our
Indian forbears as limited to a small geographic area, but many tribes were
extremely mobile, following woodland trails and paths to follow game. Sometimes road use was seasonal, or separated
into hunting men and garden-tending women.
Thus we cannot attach a specific date to when the trail came into use.
The trail ran generally north/south, although not in a
straight line. “U.S. Route 33 follows the route of the Scioto Trail from
the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers to State Route 161, where
U.S. Route 33 becomes State Route 257. The Scioto Trail extended from the mouth
of the Scioto River at Portsmouth (also known as Shawnee Town) to Sandusky Bay
and connected the Shawnee's hunting grounds in Kentucky with Lake Erie. The
trail ran along the Scioto River, the Little Scioto River, and the Sandusky
River with a portage between the Little Scioto and Sandusky rivers in Crawford
County. The Scioto Trail, used for warfare, trade, and migration, was one of
the most important trails in the Old Northwest.”[i]
British, Indian, and American forces used the trail. It saw use in Pontiac’s War of 1764-65,
Colonel Crawford’s disastrous massacre in 1782, and the British attempt to
capture Fort Stephenson (modern Fremont) in 1813. Harrison, knowing he was fighting a frontier
war, built several forts along the Sandusky River, connected by the
Sandusky-Scioto Trail. South of Fort
Stephenson came Fort Seneca, then Fort Ball (modern Tiffin) and Fort Feree
(Upper Sandusky). Sandusky River petered
out in Crawford County, where travelers walked overland to the headwaters of
Scioto River. There they could put their
canoes back in the water and travel on to the south. Rarely an easy trip, any number of skirmishes
and accidents occurred along the trail. Colonel
James V. Ball, whose name went to Fort Ball, was ambushed by Native tribesman,
while travelling from Fort Stephenson to Fort Ball. Ball was able to avoid casualties, but
seventeen tribesmen were not so lucky.
Spiegel Grove was bought by Sardis Birchard in 1845. Presumably the trail was still obvious
then. As a busy lawyer, Hayes delayed
building a home there until fifteen years later. Service as a general, governor, and president
meant irregular residence in Fremont, but Hayes retired there in 1881. When his son, Webb Hayes, deeded the property
to the state of Ohio in 1909-10, he specifically instructed that the Harrison
Trail be preserved as a drive through the park.
Written into the deed, the trail survives to this day.[ii]
Postally, this postcard is interesting for the message,
if not for the markings. A nice clear
strike by the Gibsonburg post office. Figure
2] The card was mailed to Helena, so sender, receiver, and picture on the
reverse all are in Sandusky County. The
message, however, is distinctive:
Dear
Neva – Mother has bought a little lard at the store. But if your folks have any to spare she would
like to have it. Tell your mother to
come whenever she can and when she comes to bring some “grease” along. If she has 5 gal. we can use that.” - Beulah.
That’s a good deal of grease! Neva Klotz was 15 when this card was written,
and living on a farm with her parents, Samuel and Mary Klotz. Neva lived to be 91, spending the whole of
her days in Helena. Growing up on a farm
early in the twentieth century, she likely did have grease to spare. And while Beulah did not sign her last name,
the only Beulah in the census of the right age is Beulah Spangler. Her father ran the water-works in Gibsonburg,
confirming that her family would have to get along with store-bought lard.
[i]
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3XCY_Scioto_Trail_Upper_Arlington_Ohio
[ii] LUCY ELLIOT KEELER, THE CENTENARY CELEBRATION OF THE BIRTH OF RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES AT SPIEGEL GROVE, FREMONT, OHIO (http://resources.ohiohistory.org/hayes/results.php)
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