The Sandusky Telegram

On July 29, 1872, J.C. Loveland began publishing a weekly newspaper called the Sandusky Telegram. Loveland’s office was at 195 Water Street, opposite Barney & Ferris. According to Roswell’s American Newspaper Directory, the Sandusky Telegram was Sandusky’s only Democratic newspaper in 1872. Circulation was 700, and the annual subscription rate was $2.00. In the October 19, 1872 issue of the Sandusky Telegram, Loveland strongly endorsed Horace Greeley as the presidential candidate. (President Grant was re-elected in 1872.) The front page of the October 19 Sandusky Telegram carried several articles that were critical of Rush Sloane, who had just lost the election as a candidate for U.S. Congress.

A brief Telegram article was critical of I. F. Mack’s coverage of recent candidates in the Sandusky Register. Loveland stated about the Register’s editor, “the editor has stepped beyond the limits of journalism.” Interestingly, in Charles E. Frohman’s book about I.F. Mack, entitled Sandusky's Editor, there is no mention of J.C. Loveland or the Sandusky Telegram.

To view the 1872 issue of the Sandusky Telegram, or read the book Sandusky's Editor, visit the Sandusky Library, and ask for assistance at the Reference Services desk.

Aerial View of Cleveland Road from 1955

This aerial image was taken by photographer and pilot Tom Root in October of 1955. Several houses can be seen on Avondale Street, south of Cleveland Road. What is now the Sandusky Inn and Suites at 1530 Cleveland Road was the Siesta Motel in 1955. Right across the street from the Siesta Motel was Foster Chevrolet, Inc. Lake Erie Gifts & Décor is now located at the site of the former Foster Chevrolet location. Awnings can be seen on the front of the Pfefferkorn Awning Co., located at 1610 Cleveland Rd. (Several businesses are located at the site of the former Pfefferkorn Awning Co. today.) To the east of Pfefferkorn Awning was the Hickory Barbecue, at 1616 Cleveland Road, which no longer stands.

Thomas F. Root, a self taught photographer from Plymouth, Ohio, took aerial photographs in northwest Ohio for more than sixty years. After renting a plane for several years, Mr. Root purchased his own plane in 1968. Root would open the window of the airplane, bank the plane, and take the photographs out of the side of the plane. Tom Root retired in 2001, and in 2008, he transferred a portion of his collection to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

Sandusky of To-Day Full Text

Recently added to the Sandusky Library website: The full text of the 1888 publication, Sandusky of To-Day. The book provides an interesting snapshot of business and commerce in nineteenth-century Sandusky, and is an invaluable resource for historians and genealogists. We hope that this will be the first of several historical publications to go online. You'll find the link in the Follett House Museum area of the library's website, under Multimedia.

Giffe Babcock Follett, Mother of Oran Follett

The graphic above is a daguerreotype of an image (possibly a painting) of Mrs. Giffe Babcock Follett, the mother of well known Sanduskians Oran and Foster M. Follett. Oran Follett was in the publishing business, and published the Lincoln-Douglas Debates with his partner Frank Foster. Foster M. Follett was the Erie County Auditor from 1850 to 1852, and 1856-1860. He also was an early Mayor of Sandusky, and worked tirelessly during the cholera epidemic. Mrs. Giffe Babcock Follett’s daguerreotype was a gift to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center from descendants of Oran and Eliza Follett.

Major George P. Barker

George Putnam Barker was the son of Jacob A. and Mary (Paterson) Barker, and grandson of former Mayor of Sandusky, Zenas W. 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, George P. Barker 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. His wife, the former Alice Lyman, had predeceased him in 1925. Funeral services for Major Barker were held on January 27 at Grace Episcopal Church, and burial was at Oakland Cemetery. A military salute was fired at the grave, and taps were played. The honorary pallbearers for Major Barker were Gen. Perry Null, Dr. J.T. Haynes, Edward McCune, A.V. Brown, Roy T. Rogers, and Alva S. Humiston. Active pallbearers were members of the Spanish American War Veterans, including John Bamberl, George Schiller, A.C. Schultz, John Wunder, Thomas Schwank, and Ralph Stockdale. Obituaries for George P. Barker are found in the 1930 Obituary Notebook at Sandusky Library.

Program Announcement: Brown Bag Lunch Series: Sandusky Bookshelf - Sandusky of To-Day

The next Brown Bag Lunch will be held on Wednesday, July 20, from 12:00-1:00 p.m. in the Library Program Room. The topic will be: Sandusky Bookshelf: Sandusky of Today. Join us as we inaugurate our Sandusky Bookshelf Series. In this occasional series, we will share with you books written about Sandusky, primarily during the Nineteenth Century, to promote the growing city. Sandusky of Today was written in 1888 and touts all that the city had to offer in industry, natural resources, transportation, and more. This slender volume preserves a slice of Sandusky in the final quarter of the Nineteenth Century. This program will be presented by Maggie Marconi, Museum Administrator. Registration is requested.

Sandusky Library’s Reading for Fun Club

In the 1940’s and 1950’s, the Sandusky Library sponsored the Reading for Fun Club. Elementary school age children read and reported on ten books during the summer months. The Junior Reading for Fun Club was for first and second graders. Below are some bookmarks and bookplates from past summer reading programs. Martha Luscombe created this bookmark using the linocut print technique.

The Fourth Year Reading for Fun Award bookplate was also a linocut made by Marsha Luscombe.

The Reading for Fun bookmark below features the Sandusky Library’s original Carnegie building. It was created by Helen Zube.

Visit the website of the Sandusky Library to read about current Sandusky Library summer programs, with the theme One World, Many Stories.

Election Handbill in German

 

The handbill above was donated to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center by Dr. Norbert Lange, who also provided the English translation:

German Fellow Citizens!

Do not neglect to vote for the

school candidates on the Volks-Ticket:

For members of the Board of Education:

Jacob A. Barker

Cornelius Schnaitter

The election will be held in the court house on

Tuesday the 9. of  July 1872.

Polls open until 5 o’clock in the evening.

In 1872 there were many German social groups which met in Sandusky, and it is most likely that when they met, this handbill was distributed just prior to the July 1872 election. According to the 1893 Annual Report of the Board of Education of City of Sandusky, Cornelius Schnaitter served on the Board of Education for the Sandusky City Schools from 1872 through 1876, while Jacob A. Barker was on the Board of Education from 1872 through 1878.

Program Announcement: Sanduskians Around the World: Stories of Travel by Early Erie County Residents

Join us in the library program room on Wednesday, July 13 at noon, as Archives Librarian Ron Davidson shares travel stories gleaned from the historical collections of the library. Using travel scrapbooks from the nineteenth- and twentieth centuries, historical photographs, letters, notebooks, and other artifacts, we will observe the recollections of early travelers who called Sandusky their home. Share their experiences of hardships and pleasures, and maybe see some souvenirs, too.

Lake Shore Tire Company July 4th Parade Float

 

The float pictured above was sponsored by the Lake Shore Tire Company for a parade in Sandusky on July 4, 1918. Men are dressed in World War I military uniforms, some bearing weapons. A simulated cannon on the float appears to be made of tires carried by the Lake Shore Tire Company. Lake Shore Tire Company was in operation in Sandusky from about 1915 to 1931, and was run by Fred Brobst and J. Leroy Weier.

The Lake Shore Tire Company sponsored the float below in the 1919 Fourth of July parade in Sandusky.

Names of deceased local servicemen from World War I are listed on a tablet in the back of the truck.

Floral urns, similar to those still found in Washington Park are found in the four corners of the truck bed. An article in the July 5, 1919 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal, reported that the Lake Shore Tire Company’s float was one of the most beautiful floats in the parade. 

As the parade passed at West Monroe and Jackson Streets, the band played “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Area men who had served in the war marched directly behind the band. Over 150 soldiers and sailors, along with two Marines, participated in the parade. Following the parade, Ohio Congressman Randolph Walton, gave a speech in front of the Erie County Courthouse. He said, in part, “The boys of Erie County are deserving of all the honors that can be given them. The outstanding characteristics of the American fighter were cheerfulness and unselfishness.”