Sandusky County, Ohio

Founding: April 1, 1820
Parent county: Huron

Namesake: A Wyandot word (perhaps meaning "water" or "cold water")
Seat: Fremont (1820–)

Land area: 408 square miles

Population (2010): 60,944

Population (historic): 2,851 (1830); 21,429 (1860); 34,311 (1900); 39,731 (1930)

Periods of population growth: 1820–1880; 1890s; 1940–1960

Subdivisions: Three cities; seven villages; six CDPs; 12 townships

National Register listings: 12

Income (per capita): $22,286

Income (median household): $48,056
Business establishments: 1,305 (46.7 people per business)
Pre-1939 residences (estimated): 8,292 (31.5%)
Vacant houses: 2,462 (9.4%)
Sources of settlement: Germany, Pennsylvania, and New York

Fremont

Namesake: John C. Frémont (1813–1890), Republican politician

Founding: Pre-1821 (as Lower Sandusky); 1800 (post office)

Population (2010): 16,734

Population (historic): 351 (1830); 1,464 (1850); 8,440 (1880); 13,422 (1930)

Periods of population growth: 1830–1880; 1890–1960
Typology: Grid (irregular)

First Courthouse

Drawing from the collection of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center.

Location: Fremont

Construction: 1823–1826

Years of service: 1826–1843

Typology: Side-gabled, double-pile; braced-frame (?); two-story

Style: None

Builder: Thomas Hawkins

Cost: $2,450 ($50,881 in 2017 dollars)

Status: Razed

Features of note: Four-bay facade; twelve-over-eight (?) windows; interior gable-end chimneys. The building measured 36' by 24'. Sources describe the courthouse as frame, but the above sketch clearly shows a log structure.

Second Courthouse

Location: 100 North Park Avenue (Fremont)

Construction: 1840–1844 / 1870 / 1936

Years of service: 1844–

Typology: Monumental (altered, irregular); brick; two-story

Style: Greek Revival

Architects: Cyrus Williams / C.H. Shively

Cost: $6,550 ($163,353 in 2017 dollars)

Status: Extant; functional

Features of note: Rooftop tower with octagonal cupola, denticulate entablature, balustrade, pilasters, fluted trim, corner blocks, and Ionic colonettes; massive sandstone entablature; bulging Doric columns; rectangular lintels and sills; nine-over-six windows.

More photos.


Sources: Wikipedia; Courthouse History; United States Census Bureau; Twentieth-Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens (Richmond–Arnold, 1909).