Osborne (Seventh Ward) School

October 2, 2016, 6:00 am

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According to the book Treasure by the Bay, by Ellie Damm, the SeventhWardSchool in Sandusky was built in the Romanesque Revival style by George Feick in 1890. Many of the students who attended this school were the children of railroad workers, as the LakeShoreand Michigan Southern Railway depot was not far from this school. In 1908 the school was enlarged, with an addition that doubled its size. In the fall of 1912, the name of the SeventhWardSchoolwas changed to OsborneSchool.

Pictured below are several teachers from OsborneSchool about 1912.

Though not everyone in the picture has been identified, notes with the original picture state that these individuals are included in the photo: Emma Schleicher, Myrtle Coles, Edna Becker, Hattie Ehrhard, principal Winifred Light, Stella Horn, Lucy Day and Marie Weier. Miss Winifred Light was principal of OsborneSchoolfor twenty nine years.

Visit the SanduskyLibraryArchivesResearchCenterto read more about the history of schools in Sandusky.

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A Sanduskian at World War I Flag Raising at Angouleme, France

October 4, 2016, 8:00 am

≫ Next: Samuel Facer, Original Owner of the Building at 279 East Market Street

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Capt. Ira C. Krupp is one of the individuals pictured in this photograph of a flag raising at Angouleme, France on October 4, 1918 during World War I. Capt. Krupp, who was with the 4^thCorps Artillery, reported that it was a great ceremony, with a parade in which local residents and U.S. Soldiers participated. The United States entered the Great War on April 6, 1917. By May of 1918, over one million U.S. troops were stationed in France. You can see a picture of Capt. Krupp, along with many other soldiers, officials, and local community leaders in the commemorative book, Honor Roll of Ohio, Erie County Edition.

During the 1900 U.S. Census, Ira C. Krupp was 18 years old and resided with his family on Wayne Street, at what is now the Follett House Museum. Ira’s father and grandfather, John and Charles J. Krupp, were in the furniture and undertaking business in Sandusky for many years.

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Samuel Facer, Original Owner of the Building at 279 East Market Street

October 7, 2016, 6:00 am

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The building at 279 East Market Street, now home to Mabel and Ethel’s Quilt Shop, was built by Samuel Facer in 1883-1884. Facer had several business ventures in Sandusky, including a blacksmith shop and a hack and omnibus business. After he sold his hack business to the Goosmanfamily, Mr. Facer carried mail for the U.S. Post Office, before the Post Office owned their own vehicles. In the 1880s, he leased the space on the street level of the building at the northwest corner of Market and Hancock Streets for a store, and he and his wife lived upstairs.

Ellie Damm wrote in her book Treasure by the Bay that the building was built in the Italianate style, with an intricate system of cast iron columns and sandstone beams. On the east side of the building is a cast iron balcony.

Facer’s former store building has been named to the National Register of Historic Places.

A wide variety of businesses and organizations have been in operation at 279 East Market Street through the years, including grocery stores, a bicycle shop, a pool hall, dry cleaners, and an antique store. In the 1980s, Grace Church had their thrift shop at this location, and for a time the Maritime Museum was here.

In 1892 Samuel Facer worked to protect land along the waterfront, and Facer Park was created. In 2007 the “Path to Freedom” sculpture was dedicated in Facer Park.

A portrait of Samuel Facer is on display at the Follett House Museum.

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Charles E. Fleming, Sandusky High School Chemistry Teacher

October 10, 2016, 6:00 am

≫ Next: Walking in the Footsteps of Mary Cooke

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Born on October 2, 1887 in Adams Mills, Ohio to J.D. and Alice Fleming, Charles E. Fleming was a graduate of DenisonUniversity and the University of Chicago. He moved to Sanduskyin 1908, and was an instructor of chemistry at SanduskyHigh Schoolfrom 1909 until the early 1940s. Mr. Fleming taught chemistry at SanduskyHigh School during the senior year of Norbert A. Lange,who would go on to become a chemistry professor at the Case Institute of Technology (now a part of CaseWestern ReserveUniversity), and is still well known for writing the classic text Handbook of Chemistry.

From 1909 to 1913, Mr. Fleming also coached the SanduskyHigh Schoolfootball team. In an article in the May 28, 1955 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News, it was recalled that Mr. Fleming often told the story that one time SHS quarterback Leland Spore played almost an entire game with a broken arm.

Charles E. Fleming is the person on the left in the back row.

In the SanduskyHigh School faculty picture below, most likely taken in the 1930s, Charles E. Fleming can be seen on the far right in the back row.

He was active in the Masonic lodge and a member of the First Congregational Church.On May 5, 1942, Charles E. Fleming passed away at Good Samaritan Hospital, after having been ill for some time. Funeral services for Mr. Fleming were held at the Charles J. Andres’ Sons Funeral Home, and burial was in the CastaliaCemetery. He was survived by his wife, the former Catherine Winters (married in 1915), and a daughter, Mrs. R.E. Willison of Kentucky

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Walking in the Footsteps of Mary Cooke

October 13, 2016, 6:00 am

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Though we do not have a photograph of Mary Elizabeth Cooke (1857-1951), her life has been well documented in resources available at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. She was the youngest daughter of Pitt Cooke and his wife, the former Mary Elizabeth Townsend. She was the granddaughter of Sandusky’s first lawyer, Eleutheros Cooke, and a niece of Civil War financier Jay Cooke. Mary E. Cooke’s maternal grandparents, William and Mary Townsend, were pioneer residents of Sandusky. After the Townsends died in the cholera epidemic of 1849, Pitt and Mary (Townsend) Cooke took in the orphaned Townsend children and raised them with their own six children.

In the 1860s and 1870s, the Pitt Cooke family resided in New York, where Pitt worked with his brother Jay Cooke in the banking business. Helen Hansen wrote in At Home in Early Sandusky that the Pitt Cooke family kept the former Townsend home at 515 West Washington Street as a summer residence.

Mary E. Cooke was age 22 at the time of the 1880 U.S. Census and was living in the large family home on Washington Street, along with her mother, cousin, aunt, siblings and two servants. By this time, her father Pitt had died. From 1919 until her death in 1951, she lived at 904 Wayne Street. Locally, her home was known fondly as “the house of a hundred windows.”

On the occasion of her 93^rdbirthday, Sandusky Register Star News reporter, Harry Van Stack, recalled that Miss Cooke delighted telling others of how she once shook hands with President Grant. An article in the June 21, 1929 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal stated that Mary Cooke recalled seeing the Gibraltar Island home of her uncle Jay Cooke being built.

Miss Cooke was an active member of Grace Episcopal Church. In March of 1934, she held a Recital-Tea at her home during the Lenten season. Wesley Hartung was the accompanist for several sacred musical numbers that were presented at the program.

On August 15, 1951, Mary E. Cooke passed away at the age of 93. Funeral services were held at Grace Episcopal Church, with her nephew, the Rev. Rush R. Sloane officiating. Burial was at Oakland Cemetery. An article in the October 12, 1951 Sandusky Register Star News which reported on her estate sale declared that Miss Cooke was “the last link between early Sandusky and present Sandusky.” During the nine decades of her life, Miss Cooke saw the development of many technological advances and changes in her hometown.

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The Barker Family Left Its Mark on Sandusky

October 17, 2016, 6:30 am

≫ Next: Light’s Golden Jubilee in 1929

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If you have ever seen Barker School (now a Day Care Center) or driven down Barker Street on Sandusky’s west side, then you are familiar with the surname of a family whose many members have made contributions to the development of the city of Sandusky. Zenas Ward Barker, who served in the War of 1812, moved his family from Buffalo, New York to Sandusky, Ohio in 1834. He was one of several individuals who helped organize Grace Episcopal Church in Sandusky in 1835. He was Erie County Clerk in 1838-1839. In the early 1840s, he was one of the directors of Sandusky’s public schools, and was Sandusky’s Mayor in 1846. This Zenas W. Barker died in Sandusky in 1879. His father, also named Zenas Ward Barker (1765-1834) was a pioneer settler of Buffalo, New York. One of the sons of Zenas W. Barker (1818-1879) also named Zenas W. Barker (1834-1861), became a First Sergeant in Company E of the Ohio 8^th Volunteer Infantry. He lost his life during military service on August 28, 1861.

Another son of Zenas Ward Barker, the former Sandusky Mayor, was Jacob A. Barker.

Jacob A. Barker began working at the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad in 1846. He eventually became the freight agent for the railroad. From the early 1860s until he retired in 1891, he was the local agent for the United States Express Company. He was a member of the Sandusky City Council, the Board of Education of Sandusky City Schools, and he was a senior warden of Calvary Episcopal Church for several years. An article in volume 14 of the Firelands Pioneer said of him: “He was possessed of a generous, kind disposition and many instances of his generosity will be gratefully remembered by the recipients.” Jacob A. Barker died on December 22, 1898, and he was buried in the family lot at Oakland Cemetery. He was survived by his wife, the former Mary E. Paterson, and four sons.

The son of Jacob A. and Mary Paterson Barker was George P. Barker:

He was born in Sandusky in May of 1852, and was associated with the United States Express Company in Sandusky for over forty years. From 1915 to 1929 Mr. Barker was storekeeper at the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home. During the Spanish American War, he rose to the rank of Major. He began with Company B of the Sixteenth Infantry, and mustered out with the Sixth Infantry. For four months Major Barker held the position of military governor of the district of Santa Clara in Cuba. On January 24, 1930 George P. Barker died as a result of heart disease. Funeral services for Major Barker were held on January 27 at Grace Episcopal Church, and burial was at Oakland Cemetery following a military salute at the gravesite. Many other members of the Barker family are also buried in the family lot in the North Ridge section of Oakland Cemetery.

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Light’s Golden Jubilee in 1929

October 21, 2016, 6:00 am

≫ Next: Certificate of Citizenship of Balthasar Kranz

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While Patent Number 223,898 was issued to Thomas A. Edison on January 27, 1880, the experiments done by Edison and his team in October of 1879 enabled the first practical commercial incandescent light bulb to become a reality. On October 21, 1929, Light’s Golden Jubilee was held in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Thomas A. Edison’s improvements to the incandescent light bulb.

Sandusky’s Division Manager of the Ohio Public Service Company, C. B. Wilcox, pictured above, announced in the July 23, 1929 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal, that Sandusky would pay tribute to the work of Thomas A. Edison by illuminating the fountain in Washington Park with a display of brightly colored lights. (This was before the Boy with the Boot made its home in Washington Park.) Employees of the Ohio Public Service Company were to install the special lighting display, which was to continue throughout the summer and fall months.

A floral mound in the park also paid honor to Thomas A. Edison in 1929.

The Sandusky Star Journal of October 22, 1929 reported that hundreds of Sandusky residents sat at home by candle light or gas light, as they listened to the radio program in which Thomas A. Edison recreated his electric light over NBC Radio, at Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, where the Edison laboratory had been re-created. The reception during the program was exceptionally clear that October evening.

U.S. President and Mrs. Herbert Hoover as well as Henry Ford all took part in the Golden Jubilee of Light Celebration. Read more about Light’s Golden Jubilee at the websites of the Henry Ford Museum and the Library of Congress.

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Certificate of Citizenship of Balthasar Kranz

October 25, 2016, 8:24 am

≫ Next: Norman and Abby Hills

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In the biographical files of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center is the certificate of citizenship for Balthasar Kranz, who settled in Sandusky in 1848.

On this document, Kranz, a native of Germany, stated his intention to become a citizen of the United States. It was signed by Horace H. Bill, Clerk of Courts.

Brief facts about Balthasar Kranz are found on page 263 of Sandusky Then and Now. Born in Wiesbaden, Nassau, Germany, he settled in Erie County, Ohio in 1848, and died in 1867, He married Elise Hassloch in 1825. Mrs. Elise Hassloch Kranz was born on June 22, 1801 and died on February 8, 1882. Oakland Cemetery records record the name of Balthasar Kranz simply as Mr. Kranz. He was buried in Block 59.

Immigration records accessed at Ancestry Library Edition show that the Kranz family came to the U.S. aboard the ship Calcutta and arrived at New York on May 12, 1848. Several children in the Kranz family made the long trip over the ocean.

Dorothea Kranz would marry Dr. Philip Graefe, a prominent Sandusky physician. Susan married Cornelius Schnaitter, a well-known local businessman and musician. Fred Kranz started a plumbing and gas fitting business. Marie/Mary Kranz married Henry Appell, and Catherine Kranz married Henry Brohl. The sons of Mary Kranz Appell and Catherine Kranz Brohl founded the firm Brohl & Appell, which has been in operation for over one hundred years. Balthasar Kranz’s decision to take his family to America would lead to his children growing up and marrying, and ultimately becoming a part of the business, social and cultural life of Sandusky.

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Norman and Abby Hills

October 28, 2016, 6:00 am

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Norman Edwin Hills, born January 4, 1868, was the son of William Darwin Hills and his wife, the former Laura Kelley. He was also the grandson of Irad Kelley, one of the co-owners of Kelleys Island. Norman E. Hills was considered an authority on the geology and history of Kelleys Island. In 1925 he authored a book entitled A History of Kelleys Island, Ohio, which was reprinted in 1982 by the Kelleys Island Historical Association.

This article appeared in the Sandusky Register on January 15, 1933:

Norman E. Hills passed away on December 20, 1944, and he was buried in Willoughby Village Cemetery. The first wife of Norman E. Hills was Abby Cleaveland McEwen, whom he married about 1895. Below is a picture of Abby McEwen Hills and the first child of Norman and Abby Hills. Baby Helen Hills was age 3 months and 4 days at the time this picture was taken. These pictures are now in the Kurt Boker Collection of Kelleys Island History, in the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

Visit the Sandusky Library and its Archives Research Center to learn more about the history of Erie County, Ohio.

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Political Campaign Buttons

October 31, 2016, 6:00 am

≫ Next: The Liberty Party in Erie County

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The Sandusky Library owns a collection of political campaign buttons, which are housed in the Archives Research Center and the Follett House Museum. Here is a sample of some of them.

William Jennings Bryan ran unsuccessfully for U.S. President three times. Pictured above is a campaign button from his 1900 run against President William McKinley.

Amos H. Jackson was elected as Representative to the 58^th U.S. Congress, from March 4, 1903 to March 3, 1905. A.H. Jackson is also known for being the founder of the A.H. Jackson Manufacturing Company, which began in Fremont, Ohio, and had a division in Sandusky in the early 1900s.

Jay J. Perry served as Erie County Sheriff from 1898-1902 and from 1917-1920. The campaign button featuring an image of Jay J. Perry is most likely from his first campaign.

Republican Warren G. Harding, a former newspaper man from Marion, Ohio, defeated Democratic candidate James M. Cox for U.S. President in 1920.

This classic red, white, and blue pin promoted Dwight D. Eisenhower and his vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon. This team ran in both the 1950 and 1956 presidential campaigns. Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson in both elections.

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The Liberty Party in Erie County

November 3, 2016, 6:30 am

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According to the Firelands Pioneer, attorney F.D. Parish was the unsuccessful candidate for the Liberty Party in the 1844 Election. He had hoped to be elected to the 28^th U.S. Congress. Hewson L. Peeke wrote in his book Standard History of Erie County, I (Lewis Pub. Co., 1916) that Parish helped to organize the Liberty Party in Erie County. This announcement appeared in the Sandusky Clarion on September 26, 1845. “Liberty men” were instructed to assemble at Berlin Center on October 10, 1845, for the purpose of renewing and increasing the efforts to redeem the country from “the disgrace of the system of American slavery, and to extend the blessings of liberty to all the people of the land.”

The names of the members of the Liberty Party in Erie County were listed in the May 28, 1849 issue of the Sandusky Clarion. They were:

M. Farwell F.D. Parish

W.S. Mills G,.Osborne

Charles Cochrane H. Curtis

L.S. Beecher John Hughes

P.M. Ring H.J. Childs

F.T. Barney John Everitt

O. McKnight Wm. Dildine

H.P. Radcliffe G. Hughes

Wm.A. Bill Thomas Porter

S.E. Hitchcock J. Neal

Wm. P. Chapman J.B. Hughes

Wm. St. John Samuel Hughes

Thos. Hughes Thomas McFall

Edwin Forman Jacob M. Colver

W.A. Simpson S. DeWitt

John Wheeler J.N. Davidson

C. Hadley John Irvine

S.M. Barber Alexander Boyd

H. Johnson John Barr

A.H. Barber Henry B. Green

Jas. D. Whitney John Carson

Horatio Osborn J.M. Goodman

D.C. Henderson W.H. Clark

E.G. Ross John McEldowney

L.P. Clark H.H. Jennings

S. Ross W.C. Pettibone

Samuel Cochrane Johan D. Whitney

J.H. Graham P.B. Berry

E.P. Jones J.C. Mitchell

George Morris G.W. Prichard

H.F. Merry Josiah Fowler

Several of the individuals whose names were listed as members of the Liberty Party in Erie County were also active participants in the Underground Railroad, the loosely knit network of people who assisted fugitive slaves to reach freedom in Canada

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Sandusky High School Football

November 8, 2016, 12:32 pm

≫ Next: Captain David H. James, Ohio 72nd Volunteer Infantry

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The football team at Sandusky High School is having a successful season this year -- just a few days from a second-round playoff game, at the time this was published. This has been one of many good years for SHS football over the past 120 or so years.

Sandusky students played their first football games in the 1890s, but it appears that these teams were at more of a club-level rather than varsity, playing whatever nearby teams were available; records of those games are not readily available. What we might call varsity football began in 1901, when the team pictured above defeated Norwalk and Cleveland West High Schools, while losing to Toledo Scott in a three-game season. Judging from the picture, they may have been a somewhat disorganized bunch, with no standard uniforms.

Sandusky's first undefeated football season was in 1906, when the team won five games without allowing a single point!

The 1930s was a great time for Sandusky football, with winning records every year, including five undefeated seasons. The remodeled and expanded stadium (Strobel Field) was dedicated in 1936.

Many still remember the "Sensational 60's," when Sandusky football seemed nearly unbeatable, and produced future stars in both the playing and coaching ranks, as well as politics and other professions.

Do you recognize number 75 in the picture below? He is Sandusky's Pro Football Hall of Famer Orlando Pace, with his 1991 Junior Varsity squad.

Good luck to the Sandusky High School football team!

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Captain David H. James, Ohio 72nd Volunteer Infantry

November 11, 2016, 5:00 am

≫ Next: Biemiller’s Cove

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David H. James was the son of Thomas and Frances James, early settlers of Bloomingville in Oxford Township of Erie County, Ohio. In the Fall of 1861, after civil war had broken out in the nation, he enlisted in Company G of the Ohio 72^nd Volunteer Infantry, reaching the rank of First Sergeant in his unit. He was discharged from the Army in August of 1862 on a Surgeon's Certificate of Disability. A Civil War pension card indicates that by May 28, 1863, he was considered an invalid.

After he had recovered, Sergeant James enlisted in Company G of the 145^th Ohio Infantry on May 12, 1864, and was named a Captain. He mustered out of the 145^th on August 24, 1864. Sadly, he died in early September of 1864, when he was not yet thirty years of age. Capt. James was buried in the Bloomingville Cemetery.

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Biemiller’s Cove

November 14, 2016, 6:00 am

≫ Next: Lake Erie Kist Beverages

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Now a part of Cedar Point and the Causeway, Biemiller’s Cove used to be a popular fishing spot for area residents. Charles E. Frohman wrote in Sandusky's Yesterdays that small cottages were built along the cove, and were accessible by sailboat or rowboat in the late 1800s. In 1882 the steamer R.B. Hayestransported people from Biemiller’s Cove to Cedar Point. Pictured below are two rowboats in the cove.

Charles Schuck took this photograph of men net fishing at Biemiller’s Cove in the early twentieth century.

To read more about Biemiller’s Cove, see Sandusky's Yesterdays by Charles E. Frohman, or E.L. Moseley’s article on Sandusky Bay and Cedar Point. Inquire at the Reference Services Desk at the Sandusky Library to see these items.

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Lake Erie Kist Beverages

November 17, 2016, 6:00 am

≫ Next: Menu from the Townsend House from 1850

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From about 1947 to 1958, Lake Erie Kist Beverages was in business in Sandusky, Ohio. Most of the time that the franchise was in town, it was located at 1401 Sycamore Line, where the Sandusky Paint Company is now located. In November of 1947, Kist Beverages was among the many sponsors of the Amvets Hour on Sandusky’s new radio station, WLEC. Auditions for the program, which featured amateur performers, were held on November 15, 1947 at the auditorium of Sandusky High School, now known as Adams Junior High.

An article in the November 9, 1956 issue of the Sandusky Register Star Newsstated that Kist beverages came in twenty different flavors, including orange, root beer, cream soda, strawberry and grape. John Routh, Jr. was the president of the company, which was franchised nationally. In 1956, over two thousand bottles were processed at the Sandusky bottling facility, and were transported to 492 customers in an eleven-county region in Ohio. Lake Erie Kist Beverages sponsored an athletic scholarhip, a marbles champion, and a bowling team. A sign on the company read “Get Kist for a nickel.” This slogan was also printed on a bottle opener that was given away by Kist, now in the collections of the Follett House Museum.

A Kist beverage bottle is among the several vintage soda bottles in the Industry Room at the Follett House Museum.

Lots of small grocery stores in Erie County carried Kist beverages in the 1950s. Kist collectibles are popular today on online auction sites.

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Menu from the Townsend House from 1850

November 20, 2016, 7:00 am

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Pictured above is the “bill of fare” from the Townsend House for the evening of November 20, 1850. At this time, E.A. Huntley was the proprietor of the hotel, which was located at the northwest corner of Market and Decatur Streets. Roasts at this meal included spiced round of beef, boned turkey, roast turkey and larded chicken. Four different types of cake were offered for dessert, along with a variety of fruit. The menu was printed on cloth by Campbell’s Press.

The Townsend House, which opened in Sandusky in the 1840s, had several different proprietors and names throughout the years. Though the Townsend House suffered a fire in 1864, it did open again. In 1876 a notice the Sandusky City Directory stated that the hotel formerly known as the Townsend House would now be known as the Wiedemann House.

From the 1930s through the 1950s, the hotel was known as the Chittenden House. The hotel building was razed in 1961 by the Sandusky Foundry.

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First Anniversary of the Buckeye Business and Telegraph College

November 27, 2016, 7:00 am

≫ Next: When Sandusky’s City Building was on Market Street

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A lengthy article in the November 27, 1867 issue of the Sandusky Registerreported on the first anniversary celebration of the Buckeye Business and Telegraph College. The school was founded in Sandusky by Professor E. A. Hall, and began as the Buckeye and Great Western Business College. Eventually the name was changed to Sandusky Business College. In the 1860s the school was located at Union Hall, on Columbus Avenue, between Water and Market Streets. The first anniversary celebration was held at Donahoe’s Block, with the Great Western Band providing musical entertainment. A.C. Van Tine, proprietor of the college, called the audience to attention. M.F. Cowdery, the superintendent of Sandusky City Schools, gave an address.

The Register article summarized his remarks: “He said that next to religion, morality and intelligence must be ranked the claims of trade and commerce of the world. He referred to the effects of commerce in settling new countries, opening seaports and stimulating enterprise. He alluded to the fact that our American Independence was achieved in a war begun on account of commercial oppression, and closed by discussing the importance and value of a strict and unyielding integrity in all the walks of a business life. He paid a very handsome tribute to the energy and enterprise of the proprietors of the Buckeye College, and foresaw for it a career of great usefulness to the young of our city.”

During the evening’s program business students presented Professor Jarrett with a Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. Lieutenant Governor John Lee spoke to the audience, advising them: “You do well to patronize and encourage an enterprise so fraught with good to the youth of your city.” Mr. John Delamater presented a gold-headed cane to Professor S.P. Hare. Rev. W.D. Godman of Cleveland told the audience that education was important not only for business, but for any vocation to which one is called. Judge Taylor pointed out that the prospects for the winter term were promising, as a large number of students had already enrolled. The evening concluded with the presentation of the engraving “Irving and His Friends” to Mr. A.C. Van Tine.

The college had a variety of locations and proprietors throughout its existence. The last proprietor of the Sandusky Business College, then located in the former residence of Rush Sloane on Adams Street, was William O. Loudenslagel. The college closed in 1949, due to declining enrollment.

J.J. Dauch

J.J. Dauch, co-founder of the Hinde and Dauch paper company, graduated from Sandusky Business College, and at one time owned the college. Hinde and Dauch was known for hiring graduates of the local school. For over eighty years, The Sandusky Business College and its predecessors played an important role in training young people for their careers in banking, finance, and many manufacturers in Sandusky.

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When Sandusky’s City Building was on Market Street

November 30, 2016, 6:14 am

≫ Next: Rev. Jacob Dornbirer, Pastor of Zion Lutheran Church

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The building which began as Sandusky's Central Police and Fire Station building in 1890 served as Sandusky's CityBuildingfrom 1915 until 1958. Local photographer Robert E. Frank took several pictures of the former CityBuilding before it was razed in 1958. In the picture below, several businesses along West Market Streetare visible, including Gray Drugs, Weber's Men's Wear, and Herman's Jewelers.

In a closer view, you can see the words "CityBuilding" above the large doors on the street level. The lower level of the building originally housed horse-drawn vehicles for the city’s police and fire departments.

You can see the old city building in this picture postcard, which was taken from West Market Streetlooking east.

An image of Sandusky's former city building graces the cover of the Old House Guild's Downtown Architectural Walking Tour of Sandusky.

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Rev. Jacob Dornbirer, Pastor of Zion Lutheran Church

December 3, 2016, 6:30 am

≫ Next: The Former Home of W.W. Wetherell

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Jacob Dornbirer was born in Switzerland on July 31, 1825. He came to the United States in 1855, where he settled in Fremont, Ohio. For a time he worked at the June Engine Works, where he met the Rev. Henry Lang. Rev. Lang encouraged him to enter the Lutheran ministry. In 1858, Rev. Jacob Dornbirer was ordained as a Lutheran minister, and in the same year he married Elizabeth Trott. In his early ministry, Rev. Dornbirer served at churches in Thompson Township, Bellevue, Venice, and Loudonville.

From 1879 until his death in 1891, Rev. Dornbirer was the pastor at Sandusky’s Zion Lutheran Church. While he was pastor, the church met in the former Beatty Church in Washington Square.

According to an article in the Lutheran Standard of May 2, 1891, during his years in the ministry, Rev. Dornbirer preached over one thousand sermons, baptized 1217 infants, confirmed 530 young people, married 315 couples, and officiated at 397 funerals.

In April of 1891, Rev. Jacob Dornbirer suffered serious injuries when he was thrown from his buggy, by the falling of his horse. He died on April 12, 1891. Funeral services for Rev. Jacob Dornbirer were held at Zion Lutheran Church in April 16, 1891. There was such a large turnout for the services, that only a portion of those who wished to attend could be accommodated in the church. At the time of his death, Rev. Dornbirer was survived by twelve children; he had lost both an infant son and his wife Elizabeth in 1883.

Two of Rev. Dornbirer's sons became Lutheran pastors, and four of his daughters married Lutheran pastors. He was the maternal grandfather of Rev. Theodore Stellhorn, Jr., who served in the Lutheran ministry for over sixty years. Rev. Stellhorn was assistant pastor of Zion Lutheran Church from 1928 – 1949, main pastor from 1949 – 1955, and senior pastor of Zion from 1956 – 1969.

Rev. Jacob Dornbirer was buried at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery, next to his wife Elizabeth.

To learn more about the history of Zion Lutheran Church, as well as several area churches, visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

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The Former Home of W.W. Wetherell

December 6, 2016, 6:00 am

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Razed in 1997, the building that once stood at 507 Wayne Street had many different purposes throughout the many years of its existence. William W. Wetherell, the former proprietor of the Fulton Car Works built this red brick house about 1850. The Fulton Car Works was a business which manufactured wooden railroad cars for the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad and other railroads. W.W. Wetherell was an early church leader and a strong opponent of slavery. He served as Mayor of Sandusky in the mid-1840s and was City Clerk in his later years; he died on March 4, 1884 at the age of 72, and was buried in Oakland Cemetery.

The Samuel Butler family lived here from about 1859 to 1876. George A. Marsh lived here through the rest of the 1890s. After Mrs. Marsh died in 1905, the house became the home of the H.W. Parsons family. Mr. Parsons was with the American Banking and Trust Company, and the Vim Motor Company.

From about 1910 through the mid-1930s, the property at 507 Wayne Street was the property of the Sunyendeand Club, a men’s social club made up of prominent Sandusky residents.

From 1939 and into the early 1940s, the International School of Art leased this property. In an article that appeared in the April 30, 1977 issue of the Sandusky Register, a former Sandusky resident recalled her memories of the School of Art. She said that Elma Pratt filled the rooms with wall hangings, ceramics and art objects from all over the world. At the same time Elmer Franktaught music classes to a number of students. In the early days of the Sandusky Choral Society, the group rehearsed in the ballroom upstairs. In 1944, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Sharpe operated a nursing home in the building. Through the years, several different nursing homes were in business here. The building at 507 Wayne Street was razed on April 30, 1977.

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