History
Legally, since colonial times, the Lake Erie Islands were part of the Firelands Section of the Connecticut Land Company's western reserve.
Put-in-Bay was a strategic location during the War of 1812, when Oliver Hazard Perry - Commodore of the United States fleet on Lake Erie - rendezvoused with General William Henry Harrison at Sandusky Bay, and following discussions concerning the upcoming campaign the commanders selected Put-in-Bay harbor for the American naval base. From this strategic location Perry was able to observe British fleet movements, and eventually engaged and defeated them. Perry's victory gave the Americans control of Lake Erie and a relative calm prevailed amongst the islands.
In 1854, Abigail Dunning of Hartford, Connecticut, sold Rattlesnake Island to Horace Kelley of Cleveland, Ohio. Soon thereafter, post offices were established on South Bass Island (1860), North Bass Island (1864), and Middle Bass Island (1864). Rattlesnake Island was largely uninhabited at the time and on June 22, 1861 Rattlesnake Island became a part of Put-In-Bay Township.
Read more about this topic: Rattlesnake Island (Lake Erie)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)
“This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation, because as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger, infinitely.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)
“History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.”
—Henry Ford (1863–1947)