Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-12-05
SANpusKr. Nov. 2s. 1sG


). SASDUsKY, Nov. %, 1865.
The remarkably fine November weathe
3 has enabled the vine growers to secur
their large grape crop in good condition
The last shipment of some ninety tons wa
made the present week Without going
into particulars as to ownership of vine
yards, etc, we present the following infor.
nation and statistics in regard to- the grape
interest on the main land in the vicinity
of Sandusky.
Included within range of five miles
on the shore and one and half in the in
terior, embracing seven and a half square
miles, or forty-eight hundred acres of
land, is the legitimately recognized main
land grape region. 1t extends two miles
to the east or southeast, and three miles to
the west from the centre of the city of San
dusky. There are now planted to grapes
within this region about one-fourth of the
land, or, nearer to exactness, eleven hun
dred and fifty acres, of which there were
about three hundred and fifty acres in
bearing this season, yielding probably not
less than six hundred tons first yea
bearing vineyards yielding about one ton
to the acre, older ones from two to five
tons OF this six hundred tons of grapes
about one hundred tons were shipped-the
remaining five hundred made into wine
and brandy. Estimating twelve pounds of
grapes to the gallon of wine, gives
about eighty-three thousand gallons of
wine made here. The quantity of brandy
made from pomace is more difficult to esti-
mate
There will be not far from nine hundred
acres of vineyards in bearing on the main
land in the vicinity of Sandusky next
season. 1t is estimated that there are one
thousand acres more of land included in
the range stated, equally as well adapted
TO the cultivation of the grape as that al
ready planted These lands are valued at
from two hundred to five hundred collars
per acre. Vineyards in bearing are val
ued and sell at from one thousand to ff-
teen hundred dollars per acre, according
to location and condition.
The Catawba is the principal grape
grown here, though the Isabella is culti-
waited to some extent and has thus far
proved quite as profitable as the Catawba.
The Delaware, Diana, Concord, Norton's
Virginia, Ives Madeira, and few other
varieties have been planted to some ex-
tent, though not to exceed fifty acres ofall
varieties, other than Catawba and Isa-
bella.
Farther TO the westward from Sandusky
than the boundary given, near the Bay
shore, there may be from fifty to one hun
dred acres of grapes planted. The adapta-
bility of the soil is under trial, and by
some is still thought questionable. To the
eastward of the city, on the slate forma-
tion between Pipe Creek and the village
of Huron, many are experimenting in
grape culture, and the clay portions of the
land may prove satisfactory and profitable
for vineyards Land in that locality sells
for about one hundred dollars per acre.
There are perhaps from one to two hun
dred acres set to grapes on the Lake shore
east of Huron, and in the vicinity of Yer
million are quito extensive vineyards,
some of them in bearing. On Johnson's |
Island, in Sandusky Bay, vineyard of |
about a dozen acres, put out by Mr.. John
son, proprietor of the Island, and which
would have borne the first crop this sea-
son has been destroyed by the Govern
ment use of the property for the eonfne-
ment of rebel prisoners. There are over
two hundred acres of fine grape land on
the Island.
Sandusky and vicinity have an inter
esting local history running way back into
Indian and French traditions. Sah-un-
dus-kee, a Wyandot word, means ''still
clear water"-a name at once descriptive
of the beautiful Bay so richly tinted and
mellowed by Indian Summer haze and
sunset. According to Wyandot tradition,
a century or so before the whites first Wis
tied Sandusky, a great famine among the
Ol lue Ju6 w All
dots to cross the Lake by way of the
Islands in pursuit of subsistence. This
they found plentiful in the luxuriant San
dusky valley. They established their
chief town at Upper Sandusky, and small
er ones in various parts of their territory.
When the French began to trade at San
dusky in 1908, the Wyandot was the most
powerful tribe on the southern shore of
Lake Erie. The French enjoyed monop-
oily of the trade at Slndusky until l744,
by which time they had formed a small
settlement there. That year the Wyan-
dots found that better bargains could be
made with the English traders on the Up
per Ohio, feuds with the French followed,
1--WE of the latter were killed and the rest of
the settlenent escaped to Detroit. In 1T4y
peace was restored between the French
and Wyandots, and French traders again
visited Sandusky. By 1855 the English
traders had become somewhat numerous
ut Sandusky, and in the year of the
"French War"-waged between France
and England for dominion in North Amer
ca-the Wyandots massacred the English
10 please the French traders; and from
1855 to 1765 the French were the only
white people at Sandusky. The French
War closed by the complete triumph of
British arms in I76l, yet the Indian allies
Of the French kept up hostilities against
.he western English colonists until Pont-
iac's defeat in l765.
Soon after the Revolutionary War some
twenty families from the French settle
ments on the Detroit River and Lake st.
Clair immigrated to the Peninsula under
the protection of the Indian chief 0gontz.
In 1909, Mr.. Wolcott and Mr.. Bull, of
Danbury Connecticut, also settled with
their families on the Peninsula. In the
War of 1872 they, with the other settlers,
had to fee from their homes. The French
went to Canada The Woleott's and Bulls
found safety at Newburgh, CuyahOga
county. There Mr.. Bull died, and Mrs.
B. and her children went back to Connec-
lieut.. When Gen. Harrison had driven
the British and their savage allies into Can
ada, Mr.. Wolcott returned to his PENN
sula home. In 1905 the agents of the Fire
Lands Company made a treaty with the
two tribes of Ottawas living on and near
the present site of the city of Sandusky,
but 0gontz did not lead his people back to
Canada, where the greater portion of the
Ottawa nation dwelt, until 1911. The 10
cality of his cabin is still pointed out, near
the centre of the pleasant Bay City.
Sandusky developed great energy and
enterprise in the early struggle with