The Letter

I have 7 letters from the early 1800s that my cousin Janel sent me in email.  The first thing I noticed is that they were all typed.  That is really unfortunate because I think the originals must have been hand written.  This means someone transcribed the letters and that can lead to misinterpretations or mistakes as I will show below.  

 

The reason I got into such detail is that I really wanted to understand and follow a similar path on my journey, so a little research was needed.

 

Yes, this is the letter that shows up on the home page.  But as I describe it below, it would be easier to have it on this page.

Issue #1: “Lower Sandusky”.  When I first saw this, I figured he was referring to the South side of Sandusky, Ohio.  I’m very familiar with that town since the Cedar Point Amusement Park is located there and I have been many times.  But that’s not at all the Lower Sandusky.  This was a real easy Google search that showed that name no longer exists and the town is now called Fremont. As you will see in my route to New Jersey, this was one of the towns I wanted to stay at or go through on my way.

 

Issue #2: “Dufferin Rivers.”  I looked at old maps, new maps, and Google searches but could not find the Dufferin Rivers; singular or plural.  I did find a Dufferin County in Ontario, Northwest of Dundas. After some contemplation, I think this was a mistake in transcribing. The person who typed this letter was from Canada and most likely familiar with Dufferin County but not familiar with Michigan or Ohio rivers.  It would make much more sense if the original letter said “different rivers.”  GW Howell traveled up (past) the different rivers on his return North through Michigan on his way back to Detroit and then into Ontario.


Issue #3: “Mannie Raison and Huron.”  These are 3 separate rivers. 1) Maumee River: This river runs through Toledo, Ohio.  At least now it does.  Back in 1816, the “Toledo Strip” was 468 acres of contested territory between Michigan and Ohio. This is a fascinating story that can be found here: The Toledo War. Basically, President Andrew Jackson had to step in to resolve the dispute by giving Toledo to Ohio and Michigan got Statehood and the Upper Peninsula. The Maumee River starts in Fort Wayne Indiana and travels 137 miles through Ohio to Lake Erie. 

2) Raison River.  This is actually called the River Raisin.  It comes from the French-Canadian settlers that called it “Riviere aux Raisins”, due to the wild grapes growing on the banks of the river. It is 139 miles long and runs through Monroe County, Michigan on the way to Lake Erie.

3) Huron River.  Whew!  Got one correct.  Named for the Huron Indians, this river is 130 miles long and runs South-West from Oakland County into Livingston County where I live, and then South-East at the border of Wayne and Monroe counties to Lake Erie.


Issue #4: The Date!  There are 3 people in this letter and the known genealogy seems to work, except for how old they are:

1) J.T. and W.B. Howell are sons of Samson and Mary Howell who moved from Sussex, NJ to Dundas, ON in 1806. This is where the letter is addressed. John Triller (J.T.) was born about 1800 and William Boyd (W.B.) was born about 1803.  At the time this letter was written in 1816, they were just 16 and 13 years old. Totally plausible since they didn’t do the traveling, but the letter seems like it is written by an adult to adults.  Maybe kids just grew up early back then. 

2) G.W. Howell is a son of Levi Howell, Jr., brother of Samson mentioned above.  George W. was born in 1812 in New Jersey and lived there his whole life until 1879.  I either have the wrong G.W. Howell or he was 4 years old when he rode 1300 miles on horseback around Lake Erie.  When I brought this up to Janel, she mentioned that we may be missing a G.W. in the family tree. 


For now, there is a bit of mystery to who wrote the letter but nonetheless, somebody took this trip and it has inspired me to take mine.

By Dennis

Ninth generation Howell in North America

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