Abner Lyman, Portland Township Justice of the Peace

 

On September 11, 1830, Abner Lyman was appointed Justice of the Peace for the township of Portland, in Huron County, Ohio. (Portland Township and the city of Sandusky were effectively the same at that time; Erie County was not formed until 1838.) The certificate was signed by Allen Trimble, Governor of Ohio.

Abner Lyman settled in the Sandusky area in 1818. Lyman Coleman in his 1872 Genealogy of the Lyman Family in Great Britain and America wrote that Abner Lyman was “a worthy, estimable man, who enjoyed the respect and confidence of all who knew him.”  He worked as a millwright and carpenter, and had been both a captain and a major in the Ohio Militia. During the War of 1812, he was a private and participated in the battle at Sackett’s Harbor.  Mr. Lyman’s wife was the former Eunice Wheeler. They had four children, including Hiram A. Lyman, who was Keeper of the Cedar Point Lighthouse for nearly thirty years.

You might wonder whether the Abner Lyman family is related to that of Bernard Lyman, founder of Lyman Boat Works, a well-regarded boat manufacturer in twentieth-century Sandusky. To date, no connection has been found between Abner Lyman and Bernard Lyman.

Nope, not the same Lymans

D. C. Richmond’s Justice of the Peace Docket, Perkins Township

Former Sandusky Library Board member, Mrs. Sakie Merz, donated her grandfather’s Justice of the Peace Docket to the historical collections of the Sandusky Library. The entries were recorded in the 1840s in Perkins Township of Erie County.

The first entry, dated November 18, 1844 was an assault and battery case. Horace J. Bell took an oath and stated that Thomas McGee unlawfully assaulted him. At first Mr. McGee pleaded Not Guilty, but later he pleaded Guilty and was fined six dollars.

The docket contains several other assault and battery cases, as well as cases dealing with perjury, attempted rape, and cases involving goods and chattel. Many lists of witnesses and bail payments are also on record in the Docket.

Half of the Mr. Richmond’s ledger contains the Minutes of the Proceedings of the 4^th Regiment, 2^nd Brigade, 11^th Division of the Ohio Militia, from 1838 through 1843.

Below is a page from the Militia Minutes which shows that William D. Lindsley was chosen to be the Colonel of the Militia, and H. J. Carpender selected as Lieutenant Colonel, on January 12, 1839.

David Chester Richmond was born in Connecticut on January 21, 1815. He moved to Erie County, Ohio in 1837, and married Sarah Burr in 1838. He died on February 17, 1888. Mr. Richmond was active in the Ohio State Board of Agriculture and the State Horticultural Society. He served in the Ohio General Assembly from 1872-1876. The Cyclopedia of American Horticulture concludes its biographical sketch about D. C. Richmond with this statement:  “Colonel Richmond was a conspicuous example of the influence which a man of ability and enthusiasm may exert in the uplifting of agricultural conditions in his neighborhood and in the states.”