Benajah Wolcott House


Benajah Wolcott House (also presently designated as the Keeper's House*) is a stone structure on the Danbury-Marblehead Peninsula on the north side of Sandusky Bay near Marblehead, Ohio. Geo-coordinates ("Wolcott House"): 41.514705, -82.742037 (This "Wolcott House" structure should not be confused with the true "keeper's house" adjacent to the Marblehead Light, which is presently a large wood-frame structure built about 1880, upon the exact site of a former stone structure where Benajah Wolcott is known to have resided from 1822-1832). The present "Wolcott House" stone structure was attributed by 20th-century historians to have been the residence of the Benajah Wolcott family during the 1820s. However, that attribution may have been erroneous.[1]

Origins

The property upon which this stone structure sits, was owned by a man named Seth Steel, until at least 1827 (and possibly until 1831). Therefore, Seth Steel and his own family (many of whom died of cholera in the 1830s, including Seth himself)[2] presumably resided in this structure during that time-period (if, indeed, this structure was built in the year attributed, "1822", and if indeed it was built as a private residence, rather than strictly as a commercial structure as its original "2-front-doors" design perhaps suggests). It is now questionable that Benajah Wolcott ever resided in this stone structure — although, beginning in the early-1830s, other members of the Wolcott family seem to have later purchased this land from Seth Steel. However, Benajah Wolcott, himself, was never its owner, according to official property-records.[3]

This stone "house" sits approximately in the center of original "Lot 15".[4] But Benajah Wolcott's own property, here, was always, and only, within original "Lot 17", beginning in the year 1808. ( Benajah Wolcott had later, 1819–1821, resided in the City of Sandusky,[5] but moved into the true "keeper's house" very near the base of the Marblehead Light, in 1822, where Wolcott resided until his death in 1832. Wolcott also continued to own his city-lot in Sandusky City,[6] which may have been his Winter home, between shipping-seasons.) Therefore, the present designation of "Keeper's House", for this existing "Wolcott House" stone structure, approx. 2 miles distant ( or, approx. 3 miles via present roadway) from the lighthouse, may also be inaccurate, and certainly misleading. [ This original Lot "15" had formerly been owned by Epaphras* W. Bull, who had sold it to George Bishop ( but Bishop was murdered in 1819 by two Native-American-Indians). It may have been Bull or Bishop who actually constructed this "house", depending upon its true date of construction. (*Note: many later historians erroneously reported his name as "Epaproditus" [7] Bull.)]

Several disproved myths have also been associated with this specific land (original "Lot 15"). Some prior local-historians have erroneously suggested that this property was the former site of the first "log cabin" of Benajah Wolcott — and therefore they theorized that it was within Wolcott's log-cabin where several-dozen Ohio soldiers and local-citizens, sought refuge during a "skirmish with Indians" in Sept., 1812. However, although this 'location' was probably accurate — but this log-cabin was instead that of a man named "Patterson", not Wolcott.[8] (And — notwithstanding the fact that this specific "skirmish site" was never Wolcott's property — but, according to Benajah Wolcott himself, his own first home in this area was not a "log-cabin", but was instead apparently a true frame-structure house, and which was burned-to-the-ground by Native Americans or the British military, at the beginning of the War-of-1812.)[9]

Another myth promulgated by local-historians, was that Benajah Wolcott walked the entire distance (almost 2 miles) from this property, to the Marblehead lighthouse, every night, to 'light' the warning-beacon, there. But Wolcott actually is recorded to have instead resided within a different stone house — the true original, stone "keeper's house" ( which was formerly located immediately adjacent to that lighthouse, from about 1821 until 1880, when that original stone "keeper's house" was torn down and replaced with a new wooden frame-structure "keeper's house", and which still exists at that same site); and therefore, in truth, the farthest distance that Benajah walked from the true "keeper's house" to the lighthouse, was merely a few hundred feet, to light that beacon.

Another misconception, is that the nearby "Wolcott Cemetery" is also located on this original "Lot 15"; however, it is only the modern access driveway leading to that cemetery, which is on original "lot 15". The actual cemetery, itself, is on original "Lot 17" ( and which corresponds to Benajah Wolcott's ownership of that "Lot 17" at the time of his death).


References

  1. ↑ The Fire Lands Pioneer (series); Firelands Historical Society, 1858-1878
  2. ↑ Huron County (Ohio) Probate Records, 1809-1838, publ. by FamilySearch.org (online)
  3. ↑ Huron County (Ohio) property deed-records, 1809-1838, publ. by FamilySearch.org (online)
  4. ↑ Ottawa County (Ohio) Auditor, tax-maps
  5. ↑ History of the Fire Lands (Ohio), by Williams 1879. p.432
  6. ↑ Huron County (Ohio) Tax Records, 1824-1832, publ. by FamilySearch.org (online)
  7. ↑ History of Ottawa County (Ohio) 175 years; Patty O'Keeffe, 2016
  8. ↑ Ruggles-Doolittle map; original 1809 print-copy appended/annotated 1812; transcribed/redrawn by Jerry Deinzer, 1974 (copy, Firelands Historical Soc.)
  9. ↑ United States Congressional serial set. 178. (1828)
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