I inadvertently skipped the year 1816 in my last posting showing an early U.S. coin matched with Northwest Ohio history. So now, I'm posting a photo of a large cent from 1816. This is the first year that this particular design appeared, and it is often referred to as the "Matron Head" large cent, since Lady Liberty looks a bit older and more matronly on this issue than on previous types of large cents. This coin is not perfect and has some minor patches of verdigris (light mineralization or corrosion in the copper) on the reverse, but it has some really nice eye appeal in its totally original (never cleaned) appearance and its dark mahogany and lighter reddish copper coloration... almost a "black and tan" two-tone look. In the opinions of many early copper collectors, this look is very desirable, but of course this is subjective. Matron Head large cents are historical, fun, and easy to collect due to their relative abundance and cheap prices, especially in lower grade conditions.
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| 1816 Matron Head Large Cent obverse |
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| 1816 Matron Head Large Cent reverse |
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| Plat of Perrysburg, Ohio, April 26, 1816 |
An interesting tie-in of this coin's year, 1816, to the Great Black Swamp region, is the platting of the town of Perrysburg, Ohio, by Pierre Charles L'Enfant. In May and August of 1813, General William Henry Harrison held off the British and their Indian allies in two separate sieges of Fort Meigs, which is located just a few miles from present day Perrysburg. In 1816, the U.S. government sent Pierre L'Enfant, the French-born American architect, civil engineer, and Revolutionary War combat veteran best known for designing the layout of the streets of Washington, D.C., to plat (lay out) the town of Perrysburg, Ohio. Perrysburg was therefore only the only town other than Washington, D.C. so created in the United States. It was named in honor of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who led an American naval force to victory over the British in 1813 in the Battle of Lake Erie near Put-in-Bay.
With the opening of the Northwest Territory to settlers, many settlers passed through the area around Perrysburg, crossing the Maumee river at the first opportunity upstream from Lake Erie, the ford at the Foot of the Rapids, and continuing their journeys north or west into the newly acquired lands of the expanding United States. Since Perrysburg was located on the northern rim of the Great Black Swamp, which was nearly impassable until the swamp had been largely drained in the late 1800's, early transportation into and out of Perrysburg was essentially restricted to the Maumee River. In time Perrysburg became a major lake port and shipbuilding center—second only to Cleveland and Buffalo in goods shipped. As the Great Black Swamp was very gradually drained, huge forests of virgin timber became available and untold millions of board feet of logs and lumber sawed in Perrysburg were floated or shipped down river, across the lake and on to domestic and foreign markets.
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 Angleles, 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.
ReplyDeleteHello Gary,
DeleteThank you for stopping by my blog, and especially for setting the record straight on this important part of our history. I'm honored that someone who knows the facts took the time to correct me, and I thank you for the time in your comment, which I found very interesting (I love history, and especially the timeframe from the Revolution through about 1840). I will try in the near future, when time permits, to correct the post accordingly.
You've shed light on some really interesting topics, and I had not known that L'Enfant was fired from the project of platting D.C. for refusing to modify his plat plans to fit the budget. The list of towns you mentioned as being platted by the Federal Government is of great interest also, and I will have to look up the BLM Records you cited (is it available on the internet?). I wonder why the Federal Gov't platted Croghansville (modern-day Fremont) and Upper Sandusky, but skipped Tiffin (Fort Ball), my home town, at the time circa 1817. Was the platting of Sandusky, OH (not Upper Sandusky) also a Federal Government survey? I've heard about the Kilbourn plat and the street layout/design that has a Masonic square and compass imposed on the plat, but I didn't know if this was also a Federal survey. Thanks in advance if you're able to answer these questions.