Sloane

John Nelson Sloan, born on 6 December 1795 in Bridgewater, New York, emigrated to Abbott's Corner (Avery) in Huron County Ohio via horseback during the summer of 1815. Sloan attended the first court proceedings in Huron County at Camp Avery in August 1815, taught at a New Haven school during the winter of 1816, and in 1818 married Cynthia Strong at Lyme (Stone's Ridge). Three years later the couple relocated to Sandusky, Ohio, with John posting advertisements in the Clarion as a watchmaker and silversmith in 1823. By many accounts during the early 1820s, John Sloan worked as a jeweler in Sandusky.

In 1831, John Sloan served as vice president of the First Association for the Promotion of Temperance, and a year later accepted commission as the Lieutenant Colonel of the First Light Infantry Battalion, Second Brigade, Third Division. After completing his studies in 1840, he passed the Ohio bar in 1842, which coincided with his election as mayor of Sandusky from 1839 to 1843. After playing a pivotal role in Sandusky's mid-century socio-economic development (specifically with the turnpike to Columbus, the organization of the Mad River Railroad, and numerous commercial enterprises) John Sloan accepted a government position in Washington D.C. in 1857 and relocated to Waterloo, Indiana with Cynthia in 1861. Cynthia Strong Sloan died in 1873 and John Nelson Sloan died eight years later, both in Waterloo, Indiana.

Rush Richard Sloan, born in Sandusky on 18 September 1828 to John and Cynthia Sloan, played an important and intriguing role in the development of Sandusky during the latter half of the nineteenth century. After attending Sandusky Public Schools and the Old Methodist Seminary (Norwalk Academy), Rush Sloan passed the Ohio bar in Mansfield at the age of twenty-one in 1849 after studying under Francis D. Parish.

The arrest of half a dozen escaped slaves (discrepancies in various accounts claim there were 5, 6, or 7 slaves arrested) from Kentucky on 20 October 1852 catapulted the young Sandusky attorney into local, regional, and national debates surrounding slavery and abolitionist causes. Rush Sloan's voluntary defense and direct role in the release of the slaves following the two "owners" inability to immediately furnish "legal proof of ownership" of the aforementioned arrested slaves ultimately led to two suits against him under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. (Charles M. Gibbon v. R.R. Sloane and Lewis F. Weimer v. R. R. Sloane) Receipt of the judgments against R.R. Sloan in the amount of $3,000 is included within this collection.

In 1853, Rush married Sarah E. Morrison of Rochester New York; they had two sons - Frank G. Sloan and Thomas M. Sloan. From 1855-57 Rush Sloan served as city clerk in Sandusky and as Probate Judge of Erie County from 1857 until his appointment as a general agent in the Post Office Department by President Lincoln in March 1861. He also served as a delegate at the 1856 Pittsburgh Convention, which established the Republican Party and nominated Charles Fremont as its presidential candidate. During these pivotal years, Rush Sloan identified unquestionably with the emerging Republican Party. In both 1864 and in 1868 Rush Sloan received votes from Sandusky Republicans as the district's candidate for Congress. The popular Sandusky Republican played an important role in the election of J.D. Cox as Governor Ohio by serving as Chairman of the Republican State Central Committee in 1865-66.

Following these political successes, Sloan became President of the Cincinnati, Sandusky, and Cleveland Railroad (formerly the Sandusky, Dayton, Cincinnati, and Cleveland Railroad) in 1866. Rush Sloan's first wife died on 23 August 1870, and by 1871, he married Hannah Marshal of Sandusky, who died on 1 December 1872. Rush Sloan's support of Liberal-Republican candidates within the fractious Republican Party during the latter years of President Grant's first term (specifically Horace Greeley during the 1872 Presidential election) forever altered his socio-political standing in the Sandusky area. [Liberal-Republicans consisted of a faction within the Republican party dissatisfied with the Grant administration's endemic corruption, and socio-political issues associated with Reconstruction polices.]

Sloan's support for Greeley and the Liberal Republicans led to his appointment as Chairman of the Democratic Central Committee for Erie County in 1872, and to his nomination as the Democratic Congressional candidate during the same year. Drawing the ire of Isaac Foster Mack, Jr., prominent editor of the staunchly Republican Sandusky Register, Rush Sloan lost the 1872 Congressional race to Charles Foster. [Note, Isaac Foster Mack, Jr. indicates in a 24 August 1872 editorial that Rush Sloan started to add an "e" to the end of his surname, Sloan(e).]

During October 1873, Rush Sloan(e) resigned as President of the Cincinnati, Sandusky, and Cleveland Railroad (C.S.C.). Between 6 November 1873 and 19 February 1874, the C.S.C. Railroad filed seven (7) separate lawsuits against their former President in the Common Pleas Court of Erie County. On 13 February 1874, officials arrested Sloane on seventeen (17) counts of embezzlement, but he was soon released following Lewis Moss' and John McKelvey's posting of $46,000 for his bail. Sloane's decision not appear in court, which forfeited his bail, and to flee to Antwerp, Belgium with his third wife (Miss Nellie Hall of Elyria, Ohio) further exacerbated the precarious situation.

After remaining abroad for nearly three years, Rush Sloane returned to Sandusky during the fall of 1876. On 9 December of the same year the indicted former President of the C.S.C. Railroad walked out of court a free man after outgoing Prosecutor B.F. Lee informed the court "the state has no cause of action and strikes the counts." Such a reversal of fortunes did not quell Sloane's desire to direct the C.S.C. Railroad, in fact he controlled the Railroad via his son Thomas M. Sloane as General Manager.

Rush Sloane remained active in Sandusky politics following his return from Europe, with Sanduskians electing him mayor on the Democratic ticket from 1879-1881. As mayor, Sloane started constructing the Sloane Hotel in 1879 along Columbus Avenue-Washington Row. Opening in 1881, the opulent structure included guest rooms with private baths on the forth and third floors, offices on the second floor, and storefronts and a lobby on the first floor. In 1882 Mayor Sloane lost his re-election campaign to Dr. Wm. B. Hunt. Rush R. Sloane, erudite attorney, abolitionist, founding member of the Republican Party, President of the Cincinnati, Sandusky, and Cleveland Railroad, Democratic Mayor of Sandusky, and thrice married local entrepreneur died on 21 December 1908.

From the guide to the Rush R. Sloane Collection, 1842-1993, 1848-1874, (Sandusky Library)