An invitation to the Harrison Ball of 1840 is on file at the
Archives Research Center
of the Sandusky Library. The ball was to be held at H. Victor’s Assembly Room
on Thursday, December 31 at 5 p.m. This New Year's Eve festivity was in honor of William Henry Harrison, a fellow Ohioan, elected President earlier that year.
The managers of the ball were:
Maj. John G. Camp Henry
D. Ward
Dr. Daniel Tilden Ebenezer
B. Sadler
Josiah W. Hollister Wm.
Durbin, Jr.
Freeland T. Barney John
M. Boalt
Sidney S. Hosmer Jno.
G. Poole
Henry P Radcliff Theodore
Hosmer
Dewitt C. Henderson Jno.
G. Camp, Jr.
Wm. A. Simpson Joseph
B. Higbee
The list of names of people serving as managers of the
Harrison Ball reads like a “Who’s Who” of early Sandusky . Major John G. Camp, Sr. fought in
the War of 1812, and was active in the early years of Sandusky . Helen Hansen wrote in her book At Home in Early Sandusky, that Major Camp, along with Isaac Mills, Thomas Neill,
and William Reese, laid out the addition known as “Southwark,” which was south
of Monroe Street
and west of Sycamore Line. John G. Camp, Jr. was an attorney in Sandusky , and he
devoted a great deal of time negotiating plans for early railroad
transportation in Ohio .
Dr. Daniel Tilden was a local physician who also was
involved in the Underground Railroad:
Sidney S. Hosmer was an early Sandusky merchant, while his
son Theodore Hosmer went west and
became the first mayor of Tacoma Washington.
Oran Follett was a prominent publisher in New York and Ohio, and
his former home is now The Follett House Museum:
Lester S. Hubbard was
a banker and prosperous businessman in Sandusky . Henry Clay Victor, whose Assembly Room was the location of the ball,
was the father of Orville James Victor,
author and editor.
To learn more about these and many other early residents of Sandusky and Erie
County , visit the Archives Research
Center . Here you will
find county histories, historical journal and newspaper articles, and finding
aids to the many archival resources available at the Sandusky Library.