Sleighing in 1855

          Most of us who spent our childhoods in Ohio have had varying degrees of experience with snow transportation. Skis, sleds of numerous designs, toboggans, even the right sized piece of cardboard, can send you racing over snow.  Harness one or more horses to a sled and you have a sleigh, as the song “Jingle Bells” reminds us.  My grandfather could remember when snow was shoveled onto the road, rather than off the road, to benefit the many travelers by sleigh.

           A Westerville correspondent, writing in March of 1855, confirmed the local use of sleighs in the era of horsepower:

We have had a real northern winter.  Three or four weeks sleighing & some keen weather.

 The writer, one R. M. Walker, was corresponding with a “brother,” George A. Griswold of Kinsman, Ohio, way up in Trumbull County, east of Cleveland.  Griswold (1814-1910) was a well-known resident of Kinsman.  Born in

Connecticut, he migrated with his family to the Western Reserve.  As an adult, he farmed, engaged in politics, and was a vigorous opponent of slavery.  “His home was a place always supplied with good literature, music and a kindly atmosphere.”[1]

           The mention of a sleigh brings up any number of images, the preponderant one being of the Currier & Ives sort.  Sleighs, however, were often a workman’s tool.  They gathered ice cut from frozen ponds, delivered children to and from school, carried luggage, etc.   Anything that needed transport in snowy weather, the sleigh could manage.  Sleighs were a common wintertime mode of transport in Westerville, and were mentioned frequently in the Cornell Diaries in 1855 and other years[2]

  The letter between Walker and Griswold was, mostly, about land, and whether Walker was willing to sell his and move to Trumbull County.  No other letters survive, but Walker did not sound very enthusiastic about leaving Westerville.  He mentioned that Westerville was, if not exactly a boom town, at least growing:

 There is quite a start in the building way in Westerville.  There are five houses I can think of under way this spring…

           Westerville was not platted until 1856, and incorporated until 1858, when the population officially stood at 275 people.  Mr. Walker wrote his letter a couple of years before incorporation, but even inexact figures confirm that Westerville was a tiny village.  Thus, the addition of five new homes was truly a sign of growth.

           The sleigh has been relegated to novelty status since the horse gave way to the automobile after 1900.  Statistics suggest that there has been less snowfall in the last fifty years, making a sleigh doubly redundant.[3]  The nearest sleigh rides for people desperate to live out the “Jingle Bells” experience may be The Rutherford B. Hayes Museum in Fremont, but carriages are substituted for sleighs when snowfall is uncooperative.[4]  But we can all dream of sleigh rides any time we see the motif.

Alan Borer

 [The Walker/Griswold letter is in the author's personal collection.  See the link for images of central Ohio sleigh rides: ]

https://richlandcountyhistory.com/2019/07/30/the-richland-album-sleigh-rides/

[1] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/38049331/george-abraham-griswold

[2] https://digitalcommons.otterbein.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=cornell_diaries

[3] https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/snowfall-trends-2024

[4] https://www.rbhayes.org/events/2025/12/27/events/horse-drawn-sleigh-and-trolley-rides-through-spiegel-g rove/