Seven Mile House

The Seven Mile House was situated in the extreme northeast corner of Groton Township, Erie County, Ohio, along the old Columbus-Sandusky Pike, close to the intersection of Mason Road and Route 4. John Powell built the Seven Mile House about 1831. This early hotel got its name from its location, which was seven miles south of the city of Sandusky. An early stage coach route passed by the building. During the time of the Underground Railroad, fugitive slaves were transported from the old Omar Tavern in Seneca County to the Seven Mile House, on their way to Lake Erie, where they could cross over the lake to freedom in Canada. In his memoirs, detective John Wilson Murray wrote that Charles H. Cole met with fellow conspirators at the Seven Mile House, to make plans for an attempt to free Confederate prisoners from the prison camp at Johnson's Island. In 1870 the house hosted a United States Post Office.

According to an article in the issue of the March 4, 1899 issue of the Sandusky Star, Charles Linder operated a butcher shop and saloon in the building. Three of the Linder children came down with smallpox in March of 1899.

 This advertisement for dancing at the Seven Mile House appeared in the Sandusky Star Journal on December 3, 1920. The Seven Mile House served as a tavern in the same location for a number of years.

 A bookstore has recently occupied the intersection near the site of the old Seven Mile House. When you travel by automobile from Sandusky to Columbus, you will drive by the spot where weary travelers once found rest and food in years gone by.

Letters to George Anderson

Dr. George Anderson was Sandusky’s first physician and its second mayor, serving in the years 1829 and 1830. Dr. Anderson was active in the medical field as well as in local politics. He was active in the development of the Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike Company, as well as in the creation of the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad. Dr. Marjorie Anderson, the great-granddaughter of Dr. George Anderson, donated several of Dr. Anderson’s letters, legal and educational documents to the Sandusky Library in 1937.

Senator Benjamin Ruggles wrote the following letter to Dr. George Anderson on February 9, 1827.
Transcription:

Washington Feb. 9, 1827

Dear Sir

Your letter dated January the 21st enclosing a petition praying that congress would grant a portion of the public lands to aid in making a turnpike road from Columbus to the city of Sandusky, has been read. The petition will be presented and laid before the Senate.

Some weeks since a bill was reported in the Senate agreeable to the prayer of a petition, which was forewarded last winter and signed by all the members of the Legislature. Gen. Harrison and myself will make use of every exertion to have the object of your wishes accomplished.

Very respectfully
Your obt. Sevt.
Benj. Ruggles


Benjamin Ruggles was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1815; was re-elected in 1821, and again in 1827. He was known as the “Wheel Horse of the Senate,” due to his deep work ethic.

Dr. Anderson received the following letter from Eleutheros Cooke, while Cooke was a member of Congress, on March 15, 1832. Eleutheros Cooke, father of Jay Cooke, was Sandusky’s first lawyer. House Rep. March 15, 1832

Dear Sir

I shall apply as soon as I can get an audience with our excellent friend Gov. Cass for a detachment of the U.S. Engineer corp. to make a survey and estimate on our Railroad. The increased hostility prevailing at head quarters on the subject of internal improvement is rather discouraging. Yet I not abandon the hope that Cass will act independently of this spirit and treat our road as a measure of national importance in a commercial military a& mail transportation point of view – I will give you the earliest information of the result of my application.

In great haste
very respectfully
your friend
E. Cooke

Both of Dr. Anderson’s transportation goals for Sandusky did become successful. A brief history of the Sandusky and Columbus Turnpike is found in an earlier blog post. Ground was broken for the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad on September 17, 1835. Through Dr. Anderson’s letters, we can get a glimpse into Sandusky’s past. Dr. Anderson died in 1834, after treating patients in a cholera epidemic. He is buried at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery

The Columbus & Sandusky Pike

In the early days of Ohio statehood, one of the primary missions of the state government was to sponsor the development of transportation systems, such as roads and canals, throughout the state. One of the early highways in Ohio was the Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike, created via legislation of the General Assembly of the State of Ohio in 1826. The road followed a route that is roughly the same as routes 4 and 23 today.


James Kilbourne, Ohio Pioneer, surveyed and laid out the several towns and one hundred miles of roadway for the Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike. It took almost eight years to construct the 106 mile long roadway, which consisted primarily of wood planks or logs laid cross-wise directly on the ground (commonly called a "corduroy road"). Henry Howe stated that for many years the Columbus and Sandusky Pike was “the great thoroughfare of the State from the river to the lakes.” It is believed that Charles Dickens travelled along this road in his travels through America, described in his book, American Notes. (He was not very pleased with this corduroy road however: "The very slightest of the jolts with which this ponderous carriage fell from log to log, was enough, it seemed, to have dislocated all the bones in the human body.")



In Seneca County the Columbus and Sandusky Pike was the main route for the Underground Railroad. Many runaway slaves were hidden in the Omar Tavern until nightfall, when they were transported to the Seven Mile House in Erie County.

In Erie County the Pike was also known as Hayes Avenue. Charles Frohman tells us in Sandusky's Third Dimension that “upon no road in the city was there more travel.” Many businesses, churches, and hospitals were located on Hayes Avenue. The Schweinfurth Brothers grocery store is an example of business along the Pike in Sandusky. The store was on the southwest corner of Hayes Avenue and West Park Street, from about 1898 to 1923.



By 1873 conditions on the Columbus and Sandusky Pike had deteriorated. (Although the road had many critics, other than Dickens, from its early days -- some believed the road was constructed shoddily, using inadequate materials.) It was hazardous to drive on the road at night because of the dangerously deep ditches. When it rained the road was referred to as the “mud pike.” Eventually the portion of the Columbus and Sandusky Pike in the city of Sandusky was transferred to the city, so necessary improvements could be made.

To learn more about life in early Sandusky, visit the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library where you will find many books, files, newspapers and other resources about local history.