Ohio History Journal

A ROCK WITH A HISTORY.

 

 

BASIL MEEK, FREMONT.

The accompanying cut represents a large granitic boulder,

believed to be the largest in Sandusky County, and which pos-

sesses local historic associations worthy to be published for pres-

ervation with other interesting facts connected with the early his-

tory of the Sandusky river region.

It is located in the north and south road on the line dividing

Sections 14 and 15 between the farms of W. J. Havens and Hugh

Havens in Jackson township, 7 miles south-west from the City of

Fremont.

There is a general, and what seems to be an undisputed,

tradition, that during his campaigns in the Sandusky and Mau-

mee river valleys, in the War of 1812, Gen. William Henry Har-

rison, with his military staff, at one time dined upon this boulder

as a table.

There was an Indian trail leading from  Lower Sandusky

(Fremont), through what is now Spiegel Grove, the grounds of

the late President R. B. Hayes, passing thence west of the San-

dusky river, in a southwesterly direction and intersecting at a

point not far east of this rock a similar one from the site of Fort

Seneca, and thus becoming united into one trail, which passed

near the rock in a northwesterly direction to Fort Meigs, on the

Maumee river.

This trail became known as the " Harrison trail," because in

his military movements between Lower Sandusky and Fort Sen-

eca on the Sandusky river, and Fort Meigs on the Maumee, Gen.

Harrison made use of it as a military road. While passing along

the same, according to tradition, he and his military family

partook of the repast mentioned upon this substantial table in the

then wilderness.

The Messrs. Havens who have owned these farms for fifty

years, well remember traces of this trail and pointed out to the

writer the ground along which it ran. They remember and speak

of it as the " Harrison trail."

(328)

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A Rock with a History.              329 In the field notes of the government survey, 1820, of said sections 14 and 15, it is mentioned as the " Road to Fort Meigs," and its location shown to be near the spot where the boulder lies. In size, the boulder is 12 feet in length, with a slightly con- vex top surface containing 80 square feet; its circumference at the ground is 37 feet, and near the top 32 feet; it rises 3 1-2 feet above ground, and as nearly as can be ascertained, lies embedded in the earth about the same number of feet it rises above; which would make it contain 500 cubic feet and weigh 40 tons.

It has been regarded by some as merely an obstruction in the highway, and occasional threats have been made to destroy it, but thus far the better sentiment favoring its preservation, has prevailed. If this article shall aid in promoting still further this senti- ment, and result in the preservation of this historic rock which may appropriately be named " Harrison Rock," and which is suggested as a name for it, the object of the writer will have been accomplished.

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