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Eleven miles west from Port Clinton, at the mouth of the Toussaint River, Lewis Jackson built the schooners J. H. Magruder (1869), Oak Leaf (1869), and Bertha H. Winne (1871). In 1867 Eber B. Ward purchased 8,177 acres of timber land near the mouth of Crane Creek, from J. B. Kilbreth, for $14,996, and 320 acres from H. D. Cornwall, for $1,950.10 This was in Jerusalem Township, about thirteen miles east of Toledo. The land was covered with oak, walnut, hickory-ash, and maple. Ward sent Mr. Lyons, a timber expert, and Lyons' son, Charles, to develop the timber opportunities and to build a shipyard and sawmill. Ward was born in Rutland, Vermont, and came to Belle River, which empties into the St. Clair River, in 1822, along with his uncle, Captain Samuel Ward. Eber and Samuel made a fortune in lake shipping. Eber B. Ward later became president of the Flint and Pere Marquette Railway, operated sawmills at Ludington, Michigan, developed iron ore properties in the Lake Superior region, and built rolling mills at Wyandotte, Michigan, Chicago, and Milwaukee. Big projects were nothing new to him. A canal called Ward's Canal was built in 1870, with piers extending through the marshland bordering the lake. The canal was two and three-fourths miles long, and connected Cedar Creek with the lake. It ran along the north side of Jerusalem Road, and had a depth of fifteen feet. A shipyard, blacksmith shop, and sawmill were built. About 100 men were employed in the industries, bringing into existence the village of Shepherdsville and New Jerusalem. The canal served a double purpose, that of permitting steamers to enter with supplies and haul timber out, and that of draining the land, making it possible to obtain more timber. A double plank road was constructed to haul lumber by wagons to the shipyard. The shipyard was located about a mile north of the village of Bono, on Cedar Creek. Despite the prosperous sound of these activities, only a few vessels were built here. A. McLeod ran the shipyard. Vessels built by the Ward interests were the schooners Mercury (1871), Mars (1872), Uranus (1873), and Herschel (1873), and the propeller Leland (1873). Grover T. Shepherd, after whose father the village of Shepherdsville was named, remembers: I recall being taken to the Ward shipyard to see a boat launched and that most of the timber was taken out and goods brought in by two schooners run by Lew Floro and Capt. Reuben Grant.11 85