[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 68 (Thursday, April 26, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E546]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             CELEBRATING THE BICENTENNIAL OF SANDUSKY, OHIO

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 26, 2018

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize an important milestone 
in the life of one of the communities in my district. Sandusky Ohio 
celebrates it's bicentennial in the coming days, highlighted by a ball 
on Saturday April 28, 2018.
  Founded two hundred years ago in 1818, Sandusky was developed near 
the town of Portland, which it soon overtook. According to history, 
part of the city was built on ``land formerly occupied by a Native 
American man named Ogontz. Thus, the city is said to have been built 
upon `Ogontz' place.' '' The name ``Sandusky'' was taken from the 
Native American Wyandot word for ``water.'' In fact, Sandusky sits on 
the Western Basin of Lake Erie. As a result of its location on the 
Lake, Sandusky's population grew quickly. It was one of Ohio's first 
major ports and was ``an original terminus for the Mad River and Lake 
Erie Railroad. Chartered by the state legislature in 1832 and 
envisioned to run between Sandusky and Dayton to the southwest, the Mad 
River and Lake Erie Railroad was the first rail line located entirely 
in Ohio'' when Sandusky was the site of its ground breaking on 
September 17, 1835.
  The State of Ohio established Erie County in 1838 and set Sandusky as 
the county seat. Charles Dickens, who visited Sandusky in 1842, wrote 
this about the city in his travelogue American Notes: ``At two o'clock 
we took the railroad; the travelling-on which was very slow, its 
construction being indifferent, and the ground wet and marshy; and 
arrived at Sandusky in time to dine that evening. We put up at a 
comfortable little hotel on the brink of Lake Erie, lay there that 
night, and had no choice but to wait there next day, until a steamboat 
bound for Buffalo appeared. The town, which was sluggish and 
uninteresting enough, was something like the back of an English 
watering-place out of the season.''
  However, the town soon grew and by 1846 Sandusky had become an 
economic hub, with its port and two railroads. According to the 
history, about three thousand people lived in Sandusky and were served 
by ``numerous stores, two printing offices, two machine shops, two 
banks, six churches, one high school, and several iron furnaces.'' The 
city's downtown was laid out similar to the pattern in our nation's 
Capital.
  Sandusky was a critical stop on the Underground Railroad. Many 
fugitive slaves who sought freedom in Canada boarded a boat in Sandusky 
to cross Lake Erie into Ontario. They were assisted in their journeys 
by a strong network of residents.
  The history notes that by 1880, ``Sandusky's population had reached 
almost sixteen thousand residents. This much larger population resulted 
in an increasing number of social institutions, including twenty 
churches and three newspapers. The community also became more 
economically diverse, with at least twenty-nine businesses with ten or 
more employees. Among the items that Sandusky businesses produced were 
lime, railroad locomotives and cars, carriages, wheels, crayons, chalk, 
beer, paper, baskets, and tools. In 1886, residents boasted that they 
were the leading manufacturers of wooden wheels in the United States. 
That same year, Sandusky was home to the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' 
Home and the Ohio State Fish Hatchery.''
  Sandusky continued to grow and develop through the Twentieth Century. 
Today, Sandusky is known for its tourism: its beaches, boating and 
fishing, parkland and Cedar Point. It is home for higher education for 
adults of all ages at the Firelands Campus of Bowling Green State 
University, a thriving arts community and the MerryGoRound Museum, the 
active Sanduky Chapter of the NAACP, historic religious institutions 
and many thriving businesses. The. Ohio Veterans Home--one of only two 
in the state--continues to serve veterans. Its nearly 30,000 residents 
are members of a town that proudly celebrates its history while looking 
toward its future.

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