(5269) JESSE SMITH OLMSTED, Lower Sandusky, Ohio. b. Dec. 24, 1792; d. at Fremont, Ohio, Nov. 9, 1860; m. Jan. 1, 1821, Azuba Ferguson; ...
Jesse S. Olmsted was born in Ridgefield, Conn. When he was quite young his father removed to Albany, N.Y., where young Olmsted was placed for awhile under the instruction of Dr. Knott. When quite a young man he was employed as bookkeeper in a large mercantile establishment in his native city. Here he became a thorough accountant and took his first lessons in mercantile transactions. In the fall of 1817 Mr. Olmsted, in company with his brother, Geo. G., brought from Albany, N.Y., to Lower Sandusky, 0., the first stock of goods that rose to the dignity of a mercantile transaction. It consisted of a general assortment of dry goods, groceries, hardware, crockery, liquors and wines and amounted upon the invoices at Albany to the handsome sum of $27,000. This firm of brothers also brought with them carpenters to build a store and coopers to make barrels to be used at the fisheries located in that place.
The workmen — eleven in all — together with nails, glass and the hardware necessary for their intended building were transported from Albany to Buffalo by land, thence by water to Sandusky. The pine lumber was brought from Buffalo by water. The amount paid for transportation of the stock of merchandise was $4,400. Immediately upon their arrival the brothers commenced the erection of their store. It was the second frame structure built in Lower Sandusky. Its dimensions were 60 by 30 feet, two stories high, with dormer windows and projecting beams with pulley blocks attached in front for raising goods. It was considered a mammoth building and for many years was a kind of commercial emporium, the stock of goods in it being greater than any between Detroit and Cleveland and Urbana and the Lake.
Mr. Olmsted's first trade was chiefly with the Indians of the Wyandotte, Seneca, and Ottawa tribes. Soon after he and his brother opened business, they received in trade and shipped in one season 20,000 muskrat skins worth 25 cents apiece, 8,000 coon skins worth 50 cents each, 200 bear skins at $5.00 each, 2,000 deer skins at 50 cents each and 150 otter skins at $5.00 each. In 1820 the Olmsted Bros, sent the first pork from Sandusky eastward. It consisted of 150 barrels and was marketed at Montreal. The cost here was $2,000 for the lot but was sold for considerably less.
In 1825 the firm dissolved and Mr. Olmsted went into business at Tymochter but in 3 years returned to Lower Sandusky where he remained the rest of his life. The first wheat shipped East from this point (a lot of 600 bushels) was sent by Mr. Olmsted in the year 1830. It cost him 40 cents per bushel in Lower Sandusky and sold in Buffalo at 60 cents. Transportation was then so high that this advance of 20 cents per bushel was consumed in expenses. He made nothing, therefore, by the operation.
His marriage license was the second issued after the organization of the county. He held for a time the position of County Treasurer, also that of Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, all the duties of which offices he performed to the entire satisfaction of the people.
