Wilhelm: County commissioner elections go back 200 years
Among the things that voters will decide Tuesday is a spot on the Sandusky County Board of Commissioners.
That’s a little more than 200 years after the first board of commissioners was elected. It consisted of Morris A. Newman, Jeremiah Everett and Moses Nichols. They were elected April 3, 1820, with 14 different men receiving votes — six of them recorded as receiving only one vote.
The first session of the county’s first commissioners was held April 8, 1820, in Newman’s house. During that meeting, commissioners granted Newman a tavern license for $15 for his business in Croghansville.
Newman was a member of the Kentucky Company that made the first town plat of Sandusky (the west side of the river … later Lower Sandusky and eventually Fremont). He had been appointed postmaster of Lower Sandusky Township on July 2, 1814.
Sandusky County was part of a huge region of Ohio initially
Before there was a Sandusky County — Lower Sandusky Township — was organized, it was a huge area, including all lands from the west line of Huron to the east line of what is now Hancock, Wood and Lucas counties and all north from what is now the south line of Seneca County to Lake Erie. Newman had been elected one of two “overseers of the poor” in the township at the election of Aug. 15, 1815.
He also earned a spot in our remembrances of local history because he built the famous Dickinson house which was moved from the east side of the river to the northwest corner of Arch and State and got stuck on the open bridge across the river. A hole had to be cut in the house to let people pass through.
Jeremiah Everett traversed the area taking mail to Fort Meigs
Jeremiah Everett, according to Meek’s “History of Sandusky County,” had carried the mail on the route “from Lower Sandusky down the river by the Whitaker place to Muscallonge Creek; thence up the creek about two miles; thence to Portage River, where Elmore now stands and thence to Fort Meigs. Indians then still prowled through the woods.” From two to three days and often four were required to perform the trip, and then he had to camp out between the Portage River and the Maumee. He sometimes used a fallen sycamore tree for protection there.
The father of local historian Homer Everett, Jeremiah built a log house on the northeast corner of Arch and Ewing in 1815. Jeremiah was an active supporter and planner of the early roads. Eventually, he played a key role while a member of the state general assembly in getting action on the Maumee and Western Reserve turnpike.
Before becoming commissioner, Everett also was one of the first trustees of Lower Sandusky Township. He apparently was elected commissioner by one vote, 63 to 62 over Asa B. Gavitt. Newman was the leading vote-getter with 75 votes and Moses Nichols had 65.
Nichols came to the township in 1820. He constructed a tannery on the river road just outside the limits of the two-mile square reservation.
Next week: After the first election, what?
Roy Wilhelm started a 40-year career at The News-Messenger in 1965 as a reporter. Now retired, he writes a column for both The News-Messenger and News Herald.
This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Wilhelm: Over 200 years ago voters elected first county commissioners
