The Dorastus Snow Family and a Wartime Raid in Margaretta Township

 According to the September 1860 Firelands Pioneer, Dorastus P. Snow was the first white settler in Margaretta Township. He built a log house and also constructed a grist mill on Cold Creek. In 1813, there were three families living in the area of Cold Creek, those of Dorastus P. Snow, and the families of Mr. Butler and Mr. Putnam.

A copy of the map of Dorastus Snow's property along Cold Creek in 1823

In June of 1813, while the men were in the fields, the women and children of the families were attacked by sixteen Odawa (Ottawa) men allied with the British who controlled Fort Detroit during the War of 1812. The women were told they would be taken to Detroit. Mrs. Hannah Snow, however, was physically unable to travel due to an illness (or pregnancy), so she and three of the children were killed, while the rest of the group was taken to Detroit and given over to the British agent named Ironside. All the survivors were eventually returned to safety by the Fall of the same year, when United States forces established contact with the British in Detroit.

After life returned to normal at the end of the war, Dorastus Snow married Anna Faulk in 1818, and they had a son named Charles Snow. (After Mr. Snow’s death in 1824, Anna married Philip Cowell, and they had several children.) The Firelands Pioneer lists the children of Dorastus Snow from his first marriage as: Henry, Alanson, Willard, Electa, and Laura. 

Charles and Willard Snow are both buried in the Castalia Cemetery of Margaretta Township.  The inscription on Willard Snow's tombstone (pictured below) is in memory of his mother and brother who were murdered in 1813. (Though the stone reads 1812, all other sources indicate that the killings took place in 1813.) Willard Snow died on January 22, 1875. He was a Veteran of the Civil War, having served in the 40^th Illinois Volunteer Infantry.

 

There are several accounts of the Snow Massacre. You can read about it in Lewis Cass Aldrich’s A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio, as well as The History of the Firelands, by W. W. Williams, both available at the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library.

The Tragic Life and Death of George Scudder

 

According to an article in the August 11, 1884 issue of the Sandusky Register, George T. Scudder took his own life on August 9, 1884. The article states that George shot himself on Friday evening, and died early Saturday morning. He left a letter, but according to the Register, it was “too sacred to be published in full.” In the letter he left his property to his sisters and bid them good bye. 

In the 1880 U.S. Census, George was age 16, and lived with his widowed mother, and his older brother and sisters Sandusky, Ohio. The 1867 Sandusky City Directory listed the occupation of George's father, William H. Scudder, as a grape grower. William Scudder died in 1874; his wife Louise died in 1880. By 1884, with both parents deceased, George and his brother Arthur R. Scudder were working as clerks at the B & O Railroad freight office on Water Street. They resided at 1115 Washington Street with their sisters Minnie (Mary) and Kate (Katherine). 

This bill for the tombstone of George Scudder is on file in the historical collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. His sister Minnie Scudder bought the stone from A. Hornig of the Sandusky Steam Marble and Granite Works on Columbus Avenue and Campbell Street, at a total cost of $16.50 ($539 in present value).

The Scudder family monument is located at Block 26 at Sandusky's Oakland Cemetery.

The names of George's parents, William H. Scudder, who died on February 12, 1874 and Louise Russell Scudder, who died on December 28, 1880 appear together on the side of the monument that faces west. The names of George's sisters, Mary Louise Scudder and Katherine S. Scudder appear together on the side of the Scudder family monument which faces east. The name of a member of the Russell family, Mary A. Russell (1802-1883) is on the side of the monument which faces north. George T. Scudder’s name appears on the side of the monument which faces south (seen above). While we know that M. L. Scudder purchased a tombstone in 1885 in honor of George T. Scudder, it seems likely that the family monument presently at Oakland Cemetery, along with several separate stones in memory of individual Scudder and Russell family members, were purchased at a later date.

School Children 100+ Years Ago

 

Pictured above is a group of children from classes 3-A and 4-B at Sycamore School in 1919. Most of the young people look very serious. While the students have not been identified, we know that Polly Smith is among the children in the picture. Sycamore School was built in 1876, and hosted students for more than 100 years, until the building was repurposed into apartments in 1984.

The four young men above were on the second team of the Eagles basketball team in 1920. (We don't have information about the team, but it may have been in a recreational/intramural league.) The surnames of the boys were listed on the back of the original picture. From left to right are: Meinzer, Schemenaur, Stephens, and Pusateri.

The students above were in class 3-B from Campbell School in 1919. There are 45 children in the group, but only one person has been identified. Thomas Rotsinger, the donor of the photograph, is the fourth person from the left, second row from bottom.

The Eighth Ward School, later known as Campbell School, was built in 1885 by Adam Feick and brothers and designed by J.C. Johnson. The building is now home to Nehemiah Partners of Sandusky, a nonprofit group that serves area youth.

The students above were in the first grade class at Monroe School (Ninth Ward) in 1911. The Monroe School was built in 1894 to serve the students of what was then the Ninth Ward of Sandusky.