Friday, February 17, 2012
Perrysburg, Ohio
I had to go down to a customer site in Ohio today. On the way back home, I decided to go through Toledo to grab a late lunch and take some pictures. The way I took to get to Toledo took me through Perrysburg, Ohio. I've been kind of meaning to head down to Toledo and area for a while and this gave me an excuse.
The American history of Perrysburg started with the establishment of Fort Meigs in 1813. The Fort was built on a bluff overlooking the Maumee River. You can go to a replica of the Fort and I think I'll have to head back down to Toledo to do that very thing.
Perrysburg was surveyed and platted on April 26, 1816 by Charles L'Enfant (the guy who laid out Washington D.C.). The town soon became a center of shipbuilding and commerce for Lake Erie.
In 1854, a cholera epidemic decimated the population but the town came back.
I think this was part of the Perrysburg Water Works. It is now the boat club.
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Contrary to the "conventional wisdom", Charles Pierre L'Enfant did NOT plat the town of Perrysburg, OH. The survey was performed ca. July 1816 by Joseph Wampler and William Brookfield, Deputy United States Surveyors. The location was chosen by Alexander Bourne, through his appointment by Edward Tiffin, Surveyor General of the United States. At this time, L'Enfant was a professor at West Point (NY), was NOT a US Deputy Surveyor, and there is no known documentation to support the claim that he platted Perrysburg. In addition, the Federal Government surveyed many more towns than just two; e.g., Shawneetown, IL; Port Angeles, WA; Juneau, AK; Anchorage, AK; Fort Washington, OH; Upper Sandusky, OH; Croghansville, OH; and many more as documented in the Records of the Bureau of Land Management Section 49.3.6 Records of Surveying Division. L'Enfant was fired from the project of platting Washington DC by the US Congress after refusing to modify it to fit the budget. US Deputy Surveyor Andrew Ellicott was then hired to complete the work of surveying the city and modifying L'Enfant's original design which he had to do from memory as L'Enfant refused to give his plans to the commissioners.
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