Charles E. Frohman Collections

(Description ID: 594210)

Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums

Zalman Wildman

FR-6

Introduction
Biographical Sketch
Scope and Content
Inventory

Introduction
The Zalman Wildman Papers are a part of the Charles E. Frohman Collection. For more information about the early development of Sandusky, Ohio, see the John G. Camp Collection (FR-3) and the John Gardiner Collection (LH-287).

Biographical Sketch
Born in Danbury, Connecticut, February 16, 1775, Zalman (also spelled Zalmon) Wildman became a manufacturer of hats, the occupation of numerous family members. He established the first hat stores in Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, in 1802. He served as Danbury’s postmaster from 1805 until his death in 1835. In 1818, Wildman became a member of the state house of representatives. Speculating in the undeveloped lands of the Ohio Firelands, Wildman purchased in several thousand acres of Canon Township (later Richmond Township) and Perkins Township in what was to become Erie County, Ohio. At the close of the War of 1812, Wildman platted his land and laid out city lots near the center of his tract. He named the port of entry "Portland." The following year he erected the first building within the "city tract." Sandusky, Ohio, was eventually established on the Wildman lands. In 1824, Wildman became the first president of the Danbury National Bank. In early March of 1835, Wildman was elected to the Twenty-fourth United States Congress and served until his death on December 10, 1835. He is buried in the Wooster Cemetery at Danbury, Connecticut.

Wildman, along with other early land speculators, worked to develop transportation, through efforts to build a turnpike, a shipping canal, and railroads that would encourage business and increase the value of their land investments.

Scope and Content
The collection consists primarily of correspondence of Wildman family members, chiefly incoming letters, dating from 1810 to 1876. The correspondence pertains to the founding and development of Sandusky and Erie County, Ohio, including county organization and politics; churches; schools; social life; newspapers; health conditions (ague, typhus fever, cholera, etc.); banks; land surveys and sales; construction of homes, roads, and routes from the East; establishment of a naval base; a penitentiary; a steamboat wharf at Sandusky; the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad Co.; the Columbus & Sandusky Turnpike Co.; Canal Bill; and the conduct of the War of 1812. Other letters focus on crops, early mills, commodity prices, and local businesses and trade.

The bulk of the collection, some 200 items, is photocopies of the Wildman Papers held by the Ohio Historical Society, while the remainder consists of approximately forty original letters. The inventory provides a listing of the correspondence by folder. A chronological list of the correspondence gives the date, names of correspondents, and subject matter of each letter.

Inventory
Ac. 1822
½ linear ft.

1. Inventory Sheets
2. Transcriptions of Correspondence
3. Correspondence 1810 - 1839 Originals
4. Correspondence 1839 - 1876 Originals
5. Correspondence Jly. 1805 - Dec. 1812 Photocopies
6. Correspondence Jan. 1813 - Dec. 1820 Photocopies
7. Correspondence Oct. 1821 - Dec. 1828 Photocopies
8. Correspondence Apr. 1829 - Dec. 1832 Photocopies
9. Correspondence Nov. 1834 - Dec. 1836 Photocopies
10. Correspondence Jan. 1838 - Aug. 1846 Photocopies
11. Correspondence Sept. 1846 - Nov. 1848 Photocopies
12. Correspondence Feb. 1849 - Oct. 1861 Photocopies
13. B. Lockwood and Others v. Wildman, Mills, and Others [13 Ohio 430]

Chronological Inventory of Correspondence