Ebenezer B. Sadler: A Judge Who Lived Without an Enemy

Judge Ebenezer B. Sadler was born at Grafton, Mass., on Nov. 16, 1808, and died March 25, 1888 in Rochester, New York. His mother died in Geneva, New York when Judge Sadler was not yet ten years old. He first studied law in the office of Hon. John Dickson, of West Bloomfield, New York.

In the summer of 1835, at age 26, E.B. Sadler took a stagecoach to Buffalo, and from there embarked for Sandusky. Soon after reaching Sandusky, he was admitted to the bar, and in 1836 formed a law partnership with F.D. Parish, which continued for eleven years.

He married Emily Webb, of West Bloomfield, New York, in 1843. Mrs. Sadler died of cholera in 1849, and Judge Sadler never re-married. His only child was C. Webb Sadler.

In 1844-1845 E. B. Sadler was mayor of Sandusky, and in 1847 he was appointed presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the 13th Judicial Circuit, then embracing the counties of Erie, Huron, Sandusky, Ottawa, Lucas, Wood and Henry. He served in this capacity for five years. In 1852 he was the Whig candidate for Congress. In the years 1866-1867 he was State Senator from this district. He was the Sandusky Postmaster from 1869 to 1871. After the Civil War, E. B. Sadler was involved in several area railroads.

His obituary in the Sandusky Register March 27, 1888, indicates that E.B. Sadler was in politics originally an anti-slavery Whig. He became a Republican at the birth of that party. The obituary continues to say that Judge Sadler “was the friend of every good work, broad, liberal and charitable in his views, and ever ready to do others a kind turn even at the cost of his own comfort." In the HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY, edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich, it is stated that Ebenezer B. Sadler lived without an enemy.

Judge E.B. Sadler’s Memories in Rhyme

The Honorable Ebenezer Brown Sadler was Erie County Common Pleas Judge from 1845 to 1851, and he also served as Mayor and Postmaster of Sandusky, Ohio during his long years of public service.

In the Sunday February 14, 1885 edition of the Sandusky Register there appeared a poem by Judge Sadler entitled “Memories in Rhyme.”

Judge Sadler married Emily Webb in 1843 in West Bloomfield, New York. Mrs. Emily Webb Sadler died of cholera in 1849, and Judge Sadler never re-married. By reading Judge Sadler’s poem, it is clear that his love for Emily did not wane, though she died after they had been married for only a few years. A transcription of “Memories in Rhyme” reads:

Memories in Rhyme – Judge Sadler

Between Bloomfield and Lima, there flows a small stream.

Along a deep valley, from Lake Honeyeye [sic];

I remember the time when ‘twas like a sweet dream,

In its waters to bathe, when I was a boy.

I remember full well, the Hutchinson mill,

With all its surroundings, its bridge, and its race;

And oft do I wonder, it is standing there still;

Or have other structures been raised in its place.

Then there’s old Jockey Hill I can never forget.

Nor the beautiful maiden I there made my bride:

In my dreams, I oft fancy I see her there still,

Lovingly smiling, sitting close by my side.

She departed long since, through the shadowy vale,

The messenger, Death, having claimed her his own:

She ascended to Heaven, where joys never fail,

And left me to travel life’s journey alone.

The dear friends of my childhood have all passed away,

And left me alone in the twilight of years;

Then why should I linger, wishing longer to stay,

To drag out a life in this valley of tears.

Dear friend, please excuse this sorrowful strain,

So foreign to nature, so gloomy in tone;

But I often indulge in a mournful refrain,

When sitting and musing in my office alone.

I have passed through life’s journey with my share of bliss,

And thankful that I’ve ‘scaped its troubles so well;

Will my life in the next world be pleasant as this,

I ask myself often, but no mortal can tell.

My journey of life will soon come to an end,

Its pleasures and sorrows will soon pass away;

There is much in my life I would gladly commend,

And some to condemn, I am sorry to say.

Our progress through life is midst trouble and care;

And God’s Golden Rule should be well understood.

If the greatest enjoyment in life we would share,

We must strive to do right and seek to be good.

Judge E.B. Sadler passed away on March 25, 1888, just a few years after he penned this rhyme. He was buried in Oakland Cemetery, next to his beloved wife Emily.

A Business Letter from E.B. Sadler to J.J. Dauch

On August 2, 1882, Sandusky attorney E.B. Sadler wrote a letter to J.J. Dauch, regarding a debt that Mr. Dauch owed him. A transcription of the letter reads:

J.J. Hinde, Esq.

My Dear Sir,

It is right and proper that you should be fully informed as to your matters in my hands. I have spent nearly two days in drawing off and adding up your accounts and enclosed send you a copy from my books, which you can examine at your leisure. You will perceive that I have received and paid out within the last two years over $36,000. I also send you a memorandum of the notes, mortgages and of yours I have in my hands. You ought to possess this information and I therefore send it to you. I know you put the greatest confidence in me and I mean to deserve, but you and I both may die and those who come after us will wish to and should know how matters stand with us.

Most kindly

Yours

E.B. Sadler

Hudson paid up his interest to day $326.74 and I deposited it to your credit.

($36,000 is equivalent to almost a million dollars today.)

In 1882, Ebenezer B. Sadler was a seasoned attorney, and a former judge aged 74; J.J. Dauch, a young 25, was a partner in a wholesale lake ice business, as well as one of the proprietors of the Buckeye Business and Telegraph College, later the Sandusky Business College. J.J. Dauch would go on to be one of the founders of the Hinde and Dauch Paper Company.

We do not have records that indicate if or when Mr. Dauch settled his account with E.B. Sadler, but both men went down in local history as being well respected in their fields. This letter suggests that  Dauch called upon Sadler for financial assistance in his early business ventures. 

E.B. Sadler died on March 25, 1888, and J.J. Dauch was killed in an automobile accident on August 15, 1918. The final resting place of both of these former Sandusky leaders is Oakland Cemetery.

Harrison Ball, 1840

An invitation to the Harrison Ball of 1840 is on file at the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library. The ball was to be held at H. Victor’s Assembly Room on Thursday, December 31 at 5 p.m. This New Year's Eve festivity was in honor of William Henry Harrison, a fellow Ohioan, elected President earlier that year.

The managers of the ball were:

Maj. John G. Camp                 Henry D. Ward

Dr. Daniel Tilden                    Ebenezer B. Sadler

Oran Follett                             Charles Barney

Josiah W. Hollister                  Wm. Durbin, Jr.

Freeland T. Barney                 John M. Boalt

Sidney S. Hosmer                   Jno. G. Poole

Marshall Burton                      Lester S. Hubbard

Henry P Radcliff                    Theodore Hosmer

Davis Miller                            Alex. A. Camp

Dewitt C. Henderson              Jno. G. Camp, Jr.

Wm. A. Simpson                     Joseph B. Higbee

The list of names of people serving as managers of the Harrison Ball reads like a “Who’s Who” of early Sandusky. Major John G. Camp, Sr. fought in the War of 1812, and was active in the early years of Sandusky. Helen Hansen wrote in her book At Home in Early Sandusky, that Major Camp, along with Isaac Mills, Thomas Neill, and William Reese, laid out the addition known as “Southwark,” which was south of Monroe Street and west of Sycamore Line. John G. Camp, Jr. was an attorney in Sandusky, and he devoted a great deal of time negotiating plans for early railroad transportation in Ohio.

Dr. Daniel Tilden was a local physician who also was involved in the Underground Railroad:

Sidney S. Hosmer was an early Sandusky merchant, while his son Theodore Hosmer went west and became the first mayor of Tacoma Washington. 

Oran Follett was a prominent publisher in New York and Ohio, and his former home is now The Follett House Museum:

Ebenezer B. Sadler was a well liked early judge in Erie County:

Lester S.  Hubbard was a banker and prosperous businessman in Sandusky. Henry Clay Victor, whose Assembly Room was the location of the ball, was the father of Orville James Victor, author and editor.

To learn more about these and many other early residents of Sandusky and Erie County, visit the Archives Research Center. Here you will find county histories, historical journal and newspaper articles, and finding aids to the many archival resources available at the Sandusky Library.

Cotillion Soiree Held in 1850

At the top of the invitation to the Cotillion Soiree held on December 11, 1850 at the Townsend House in Sandusky is a portion of a poem by Milton.  It reads:

Come, and trip it as you go,

On the light fantastic toe.

(From this poem, to “trip the light fantastic” became a way of describing dancing.)  

The Townsend House, which opened in the 1840s, was at the northwest corner of Market and Decatur Streets.

A young Rush R. Sloane was one of the floor managers of the Cotillion Soiree. He would later go on to build the Sloane House hotel, and serve as Mayor of Sandusky. He was also known for his bold abolitionist views and actions during the time of the Underground Railroad.

image from the Internet Archive

Other floor managers of the Soiree were: John W. Wetherell and G.J. Francisco. Honorary managers were Ebenezer B. Sadler, E.S. Flint, Pitt Cooke, J.G. Camp, Jr., J.E. Follett, and Theodore Hosmer. These were some of the earliest and best known pioneer residents of Sandusky. Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research to learn more about the history of Sandusky and Erie County, Ohio.