366 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
memory of heroic deeds and he urged each
citizen to appreciate
the value of such a gift and let it be
an inspiration to learn
more of the history of the county and
this locality.
The singing of the Star Spangled Banner
concluded the
exercises at the site of Ball's
battlefield.
The children who participated in the
program were: little
Misses Gertrude Hafford, Betsy Bell
Brown, Jessie and Alice
Childs, Mary Elizabeth Truesdall, Jane Phillips
and Helen Wrig-
ley, Masters Harold Fangboner, Hiram Moe
Datesman, Richard
Thatcher, William Haynes and John
Walters.
The exercises which followed at the rock
known as the
Harrison mess table, six miles west of
Fremont on the Greens-
burg pike, were equally as imposing and
patriotic.
Miss Lucy Keeler spoke briefly on the
history of the stone,
and in closing her remarks invited the
two guests of the chapter,
Mrs. Kellogg. of Toledo, regent of the
Ursula Wolcott chapter,
and Mrs. John Mack, of Sandusky, to
remove the table cloth
of red, white and blue, which covered
the stone.
Mr. Basil Meek, whose knowledge of local
history is so ex-
tensive, gave the following interesting
paper on the history and
traditions connected with the Harrison
mess table.
MR. MEEK'S ADDRESS.
The story of the lives and deeds of the
soldiers of the war of 1812,
in their relation to our Lower Sandusky
Valley, is more than a "twice-
told tale," for it has been told
and retold many times, by the pioneer and
historian, but seems not to grow old or
stale by repetition as the years
go by, and, as is believed, interest in
local history increases. It is,
therefore, no new story that is brought
before us today, but acts to
commemorate the old in order that the
same may be preserved and
handed down to succeeding generations.
Commodore Perry's victory on Lake Erie
September 10, 1813, was
a notable event in the War of 1812.
While the British held control of
the waters of the lakes no successful
advance of our army into the
enemy's territory, in Canada, could be
made to attack and destroy the
army of Proctor. The Americans must
submit to be on the defensive.
The gallant and successful defense of
Fort Stephenson by the brave
Major Croghan and his comrades on August
2, was the preparatory step
to Perry's naval battle. It cleared the
landway to the lakes and the
brilliant achievement of Perry opened
the waterway to Canada and
made possible its invasion, which soon
followed, resulting, as we know,
The Harrison Table Rock and Ball's
Battlefield. 367
in the disastrous defeat and flight of
Proctor at the Battle of the Thames
and death of the warrior Tecumseh, the
ruling spirit in the great
uprising of the Indian savages against
our people in the Northwest.
The power of our enemies, both British
and Indian, was now broken
and permanent peace to our harassed
frontier inhabitants assured.
The famous message from Commodore Perry
to General Harrison,
at Fort Seneca, announcing his victory:
"We have met the enemy
and they are ours--two ships, two brigs,
one schooner and a sloop,"
was, on its way, read at Lower Sandusky,
and Captain McAfee in his
history says: "This exhilarating
news set Lower Sandusky and Camp
Seneca in an uproar of tumultuous
joy." He further relates that Gen-
eral Harrison immediately proceeded to
Lower Sandusky and issued
orders for the movement of troops and
transportation of military stores
to the margin of the lake preparatory to
their embarkation for Canada.
It is, therefore, fitting that the
patriotic women of Colonel George
Croghan Chapter, Daughters of the
American Revolution,, residents of
the immediate locality, of events
occurring therein or directly associated
therewith or near by, should, on this
97th anniversary day and year,
of these events, permanently mark some
of the spots connected with
such events, or with the history of the
heroes of the same.
The large boulder before us known as
"Harrison Rock," and thus
appropriately named, by permission of
the Havens family, is in the
north and south public road dividing the
farms of Hugh Havens and
the late W. J. Havens, on the line
between sections 14 and 15 in Jackson
Township, about seven miles
southwesterly from the City of Fremont.
The size of the boulder is nearly 13
feet long, 10 feet average width,
and 31/2 feet out of ground and about
the same beneath the surface,
making it about 7 feet thick, which
would make it contain about 1000
cubic feet and weigh about 80 tons, as
estimated by Prof. Wright, the
eminent geologist, who, by request of
the Secretary of the Sandusky
County Pioneer and Historical
Association, visited it two years ago.
There is a generally accepted and well
founded tradition, that on
one occasion and probably others during
his campaigns in the Sandusky
and Maumee River Valleys, in the War of
1812, General William Henry
Harrison with his military staff partook
of a meal on the surface of
this boulder as a mess-table. That he
must have frequently passed
along by the same is very certain, we
believe. There was an Indian
trail leading from Lower Sandusky,
southwesterly, passing through what
is now Spiegel Grove, the home of the
late President Rutherford B.
Hayes, passing thence southwesterly on
the west side of the Sandusky
River, and at a point about two miles
southeast of the boulder, inter-
secting a similar trail leading from the
site of Fort Seneca, on the
Sandusky River. The two trails here seem
to have united, forming one
continuous trail to Fort Meigs, on the
Maumee River. This became
known as the "Harrison
Trail" for the reason that General Harrison,
368 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
in his military movements between Lower
Sandusky, Fort Seneca and
Fort Meigs, traveled this route, as his
military road between the points
named.
These farms on either side of the rock
have been in the Havens
family for 55 years; the venerable Hugh
Havens says that he well
remembers traces of this trail known
then as the Harrison Trail,
by the strip of timber cut out to form a
passageway for military
vehicles, and that these traces were
plainly to be seen near to the spot
where the boulder lies.
In the field notes of the government
survey in the year 1820
this trail is noted as a "road to
Fort Meigs," in the surveyors' division
of section 14 and 15, the notation
placing the same at a point bringing
the trail or "road to Fort
Meigs," near to the spot where the rock lies,
and therefore making the same a
convenient and certainly a most sub-
stantial mess-table for the brave general
and staff in the then dreary wild-
erness, abounding as it did with the
savage enemy. We may say that it
was to him really something more than
the "shadow of a great rock in a
weary land;" it was more literally
a "table prepared for him in the
presence of his enemies."
Our boulder is certainly not native to
Sandusky County. It is
undoubtedly what we may call an
"immigrant" from some other region.
There is nowhere in Ohio where any
outcrop of bed rock of the forma-
tion like our boulder, can be found. Prof.
Orton says that no drill has
ever penetrated deep enough in Ohio to
reach down to such granitic
bed rock. Where did it and others of its
kind, called hardheads or nigger-
heads, which lie thickly scattered in
portions of the county, come from?
Their generally rounded and smoothed
surface would indicate that
they have been transported from a
distance and been rolled (bowled)
and polished in their transportation
hither. The nearest ledges to this
region of outcrops of granitic bed rock
are in northern New York and
Canada. From one of these regions, most
likely Canada, this boulder
came, that region being more directly
north from us. How and when
did it reach this, to it, a foreign
land? Geology furnishes the only true
answer. Many thousands of years ago,
there was a great ice period,
during which this entire northern region
was covered with glacial ice
to a very great depth, having its origin
in and moving down from the
far north, southward at the very slow
rate of but a few feet each day,
but with such resistless force as to
change the whole surface of the
earth over which it passed, filling
valleys, piling up ridges, damming
up and changing water courses, forming
lakes, creating water falls,
even that of the stupendous Niagara.
It is reasonable, from geological
authority to state that this rock
was taken from its native ledge in the
north and being clasped in the
frozen embrace of this mighty glacial
ice stream was transported in its
tedious and dreary voyage of hundreds of
miles to its present position,
The Harrison Table Rock and Ball's Battlefield. 369
probably requiring more than a century of years to accomplish the journey; and finally when the springtime to this long glacial winter of thousands of years came, the ice melted, the waters ran off and our large boulder was dumped and left a stranger in a strange land, where it now lies, a monumental evidence of the great ice period claimed by geologists to have once existed. Could this rock audibly speak to us today what a romantic story it could tell! It might speak of its native home in the far north, of the interminable snows there falling, which shoved it therefrom; of its journey to its present and final abiding place; of the vicissitudes attending its passage thither; of the long glacial winter, lasting here, before any summer came; of the final change of seasons and coming of summertime and growth of the great forests; of the abounding wild animal life, of the coming of man, the red man first who in his roaming life probably found at times a resting place on this very rock; of the coming of the white man and what we all see about the spot today, the wilderness subdued, the beautiful farms surrounding it on all sides, and the homes of a happy and prosperous people. The rock by natural phenomena is a monument to the glacial age, and now it is by the act of today, dedicated a monument to the heroes who availed themselves of its ample surface for refreshment in their toilsome march in the service of their country. The tablet was then dedicated by the national salute fired by the Company K squad. |
|
Vol. XIX.- 24. |