Biographies S
William H.H. Sandusky
William H.H. Sandusky was born October 22, 1837, in New Geneva, Fayette Co., Penn., and is the only child of James and Nancy (Dunum) Sandusky, who were born and reared in Fayette County, Penn. James Sandusky was a son of Jacob Sandusky, who married Sallie Way. They were natives of Washington County, Ky., and Manchester, Penn., respectively. Jacob was by occupation a stonecutter and farmer; was in the Indian wars in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana; was a brother of Gen. Sandusky and a son of Nathaniel Sandusky, who came from Poland with nine children (original name Sowdosko); he was president of a fur-trading company.
Subject's great-grandfather settled in Sandusky City, Ohio, while a fur-trader. The mother of our subject was the daughter of Abraham Dunum, a son of Col. Dunum, of Revolutionary fame.
William H.H. Sandusky, at the age of ten, commenced steam-boating on the Monongahela River. In 1848, he attended bar for his uncle, in the fall of 1848, went to New Orleans; thence to Louisville, St. Louis and to Boonville, Mo., from which place he started across the plains with an ox-team to Salt Lake City. At Ogden, in the winter of 1849-50, he joined the Hudson Bay Fur Company. In the spring of 1850, he went to Fort Hall, and remained there until 1851; thence to American Falls on Snake River; thence to Salmon River, where the summer was spent in trading. While there he carried the private mail to Oregon City. He spent the winter in Salt Lake City, and in 1852, he made the first whiskey in the Mormon city. August 4, 1854, he was wagon master when Albert Sidney Johnson crossed Jordan River into Salt Lake City.
In 1854 he returned to the States; first to St. Louis and then to Cairo. While at Cairo, he transferred the government mail for one year. Then engaged at steam-boating until the war broke out, when he engaged in steam-boating for the government; was a scout for Gen. Lew Wallace; was pilot of the steamboat “Chancellor, No. 2,” at Belmont. He landed the first transport at Birds Point, Mo.; assisted in towing the pontoon bridge under Gen. Fremont; was pilot of dispatch boat to Gen. Oglesby at Norfolk, Mo.; was on “Lake Era, No. 2,” carrying dispatches from Cairo to Paducah; went on steamboat, “United States,” and towed gun-boats to the battle of Ft. Henry; thence to Shiloh or Pittsburgh Landing.
He carried dispatches for Gen. Grant up the Tennessee River, and while thus engaged found the body of George Denney, of Wisconsin; was on a transfer at Cairo, and carried all government stores to Columbus, Ky., also supplies to army on Island No. 10; was in a guerrilla fight, when Gen. Faulkner was captured at Reel Foot Lake. Mr. Sandusky continued thus in the government employ until the close of the war. He was in Memphis during Forrest's raid into that city, and was severely wounded by having a pile of cartridtes thrown upon him.
Mr. Sandusky has led an eventful life, and has all the orders he received from numerous generals carefully preserved. At the close of the war he went to Cairo, and engaged in steam-boating; in 1878, he moved to Central City, Ky., where he has been engaged in the hotel business, and is now building one of the finest hotels between Louisville and Paducah.
In 1858 he married Katie Maugin, of Cairo, a native of Belfast, Ireland; to them was born one child, Alonzo (deceased). Mrs. Sandusky died in 1864, and Mr. S., in 1876, married Miss F.A. Logan, of Marion, Ky., and a daughter of J.B. and Lucy (Payne) Logan. To this union one child was born, Geneva. Mr. Sandusky is a member of the K. of H.
Source: Battle, J.H., W.H. Perrin, and G.C. Kniffen. Kentucky: A History of the State. Louisville, KY: F.A. Battey, 1885. Page 922-923.
Updated September 24, 2019