The Battle of Lake Erie Monument Association

On the weekend of July 4, 1852, five companies of the Volunteer Militia of Ohio celebrated the anniversary of American independence by holding a three days’ encampment at Put-in-Bay. A preliminary meeting was held “for the purpose of effecting a monumental organization…in reference to the erection of a monument on Gibraltar Rock, Put-in-Bay, commemorative of Perry’s brilliant victory on Lake Erie, and in honor of the dead who fell in that memorable engagement.”

A book recording the event, An Account of the Organization and Proceedings of the Battle of Lake Erie Monument Association and Celebrations of the 45th Anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie is housed in the historical collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center, and is also available full text at Google Books.

The library has an invitation presented to Horace Newton Bill, a Brigadier General in the Ohio Militia, to the ceremonies of the laying of the cornerstone of the monument to commemorate the naval victory at the Battle of Lake Erie.

While the cornerstone was laid in 1859, the monument was not completed as planned. After purchasing Gibraltar Island in 1864, Jay Cooke built a small monument to Oliver Hazard Perry using the existing base. A photograph of the monument also appears at the Remarkable Ohio website.

After several failed attempts to construct a larger monument to honor Commodore Perry, construction of the Perry Memorial at Put-in-Bay was begun in 1912. Now known as the Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial, the monument opened to the public on June 13, 1915. To learn more about the history of Put in Bay and the Battle of Lake Erie, you could find several books in the Sandusky Library's collections.