Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Adz, Caulk, and Rivets: A History of Ship Building along Ohio's Northern Shore, 1963, 2017, p. 58

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Black River. However, the towns usually were referred to as Black River. They were connected to Elyria by a plank toll road. The area surrounding the present steel mills, in south Lorain, was called Globeville. The area was not named Lorain until it was incorporated on April 6, 1874. Charleston was slow to grow because of the undrained marshland along the river. It provided a natural breeding place for diseases such as malaria and typhoid, especially in the hot summers. The village lacked public sanitation and, as late as 1849, had no doctor nor jail. The "fever" drove people away in the summer and the shipyards were hard-pressed to operate for lack of men.72 The first shipbuilding done at Black River was in 1819 with the launching of the sloop General Huntington. She was built by James Day and Fairbanks Church. Augustus Jones and Enoch Murdock (See Editor's notes at end of this section) also helped in her construction. They were the first professional ship carpenters to build along Ohio's northern shore. Day and Jones operated shipyards in the New London, Connecticut area, but were burned out by the British in the War of 1812. They were given grants of land by the government in compensation for their losses. They arrived at Black River in the fall or early winter of 1818. James Day was born June 7, 1780, in Sheffield, Massachusetts, but had married and settled in the New London area. He built three vessels in Black River, the General Huntington mentioned above, the others being the schooners Ann (1821) and Young Amaranth (1825). How much longer he stayed in Ohio is not known, for he died in 1851 on the Alabama plantation of his daughter and son-in-law, Abby and John Brown.73 Fairbanks Church was the master carpenter for Day in the yard, located on the west bank where the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad coal dock is today. "He (Church) was a young man just out of his apprenticeship, full of energy, whose whole life was spent at his chosen avocation, and was a successful builder."74 He later went to Huron were he established a shipyard and became very well-known on the Great Lakes. Enoch Murdock was the brother-in-law of Augustus Jones. He eventually returned to Westbrook, Connecticut, where he died in 1866. Augustus Jones, who married Saba Murdock, was born on August 28, 1782, in Essex, Connecticut. Jones was acknowledged to be one of the best, if not the best, shipbuilder of his time. All five of his sons became shipbuilders, and all owned their own yards. This one family had more influence on the era of wooden ships on the Great Lakes than any other individual or family, and together they built more vessels than any other 45

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