Lockwood

The Lockwood farm, now East Harbor State Park, was home to Edward Jared Lockwood and Lydia Ramsdell Lockwood, who are buried there in graves maintained by the State of Ohio. Edward Jared Lockwood was born on August 17, 1813, in Albany, New York, and died on November 14, 1897, in Port Clinton, Ohio; he was the son of Col. Samuel Mills Lockwood, who came from Albany to the Peninsula region, settled along Sandusky Bay, founded Plasterbed, Ohio, now Gypsum, discovered gypsum rock, began the industry that survives there, and served as Ohio State Senator from Erie County in the 1830's. Lydia Ramsdell Lockwood was born on January 3, 1819, in Danbury, Ohio, and died there on March 21, 1890; she was the granddaughter of Joseph Ramsdell, who came from Oswego, New York, to this site in 1811 as part of the second family to settle on the Peninsula of the Firelands. Ramsdell family lands stretched between East Harbor, West Harbor, and Lake Erie, including Middle Harbor, in the area long known as the Point 'Tween the Harbors; these harbors were the delta of the Portage River before it was later diverted into the lake at Port Clinton. At the beginning of the War of 1812, the Ramsdells left for Bloomingville, Ohio, out of fear of Indians, and Valentine Ramsdell was killed by Indians at the First Battle Site on the Peninsula on September 29, 1812. Lydia Ramsdell returned to marry Edward Jared Lockwood on February 17, 1839, and together they established a farm centered primarily on peach orchards. After their daughter Laura Lockwood married William Kelly on March 27, 1859, the property became known as the Kelly farm. William Kelly was the grandson of the builder of the Marblehead Lighthouse and the great-grandson of the lighthouse's first keeper, Benajah Wolcott. The farm remained in the Lockwood, Kelly, and Moon families, as Lydia Kelly and Orville Presley Moon raised three generations there, until the property was lost in the Great Depression, after which the State of Ohio acquired it nearly intact.

Ohio · United States