The Worthington Nims Homestead in Groton Township

According to the book Pioneers’ Progress: The First 25 Years of Lyme Township and Strongs Ridge, by Adeline Wright(written for the Historic Lyme Church Association), Worthington Nims was one of three brothers who came from Massachusetts to the Strong Ridge area of Lyme Township in Erie County, Ohio in the Spring of 1826. By that fall their father Asa Nims moved to Ohio as well. 

On September 21, 1827, Worthington Nims traveled back to his Massachusetts to marry Betsy Barnard. The newlyweds’ trip back to Ohio took a total of seventeen days, several of them spent traveling on the Erie Canal. During their first winter in Ohio, Mr. and Mrs. Worthington Nims lived in a covered wagon, between the log houses of other Nims families. 

On the occasion of their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1877, a Bellevue newspaper wrote about the couple: “By industry and wise management on the part of both, Mr. and Mrs. Nims are rightly regarded as wealthy farmers.” The etching of the Nims residence which is pictured above appeared on page 36 of the Combination Atlas Map of Erie County, published in 1874 by Stewart & Page. A home, several outbuildings, and livestock and equipment can be seen in the drawing. 

You can view a copy of the 1874 historical atlas at the Sandusky Library, where you also can find histories of several Ohio towns and counties, including three titles about the history of Lyme Township.

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.