When Sandusky Businesses Made Home Deliveries

Before the advent of automobiles and supermarkets, several businesses in Sandusky delivered their products to the homes of area residents. The E.C. Sprau grocery store had a horse and wagon that made deliveries, seen in the picture above, taken about 1908. A young man and child, with a horse and wagon from the Lewis Neill, Jr. Dairy were parked at the rear of St. Mary’s Church in Sandusky in 1910.

               

Employees of several local bakeries made deliveries to both homes and businesses throughout the years. Mrs. C. Frank’s bakery was first located on Tiffin Avenue, and moved to Columbus Avenue near Neil Street by 1902.

               

Below is the wagon fleet of the H and S Modern Bakery on Hancock Street in 1920.

            

Esmond Dairy started making dairy deliveries by horse drawn vehicles, but eventually the company switched to refrigerated trucks. The Esmond Dairy began in 1907, and ceased operations in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

        

In the 1930s and 1940s, both ice and coal were delivered by the City Ice & Fuel Company.

Before there were electric refrigerators, Sandusky residents ordered ice from the ice man. Customers put a card in their window, indicating how many pounds of ice they needed for the ice box. This ice card from the City Ice & Fuel Company, now in the Industry Room at the Follett House Museum, allowed customers to indicate whether they wanted 25, 50, 75, or 100 pounds of ice.

The popularity of online shopping has actually increased home delivery of consumer goods in recent years, but of course, it is a very different method of sales and delivery. Now, you don't see your sales person, and the money you spent leaves your community. Amazon, Ebay, and many other online retail sites display their products on a computer or mobile device, and with a credit card, ordering is quick and easy. 

Early Twentieth Century Views of Stone’s Block

According to the Ohio Historic Inventory for Erie County, Stone’s Block was built around 1870 in the High Victorian style. The building features ornate cornices and ornamentation on the centered gable, and the windows have cut stone lintels. The building is located on the southeast corner of Columbus Avenue and Market Street. From the 1880s until 1908, the M. and A. Lebensburger men’s clothing store was in business at the street level of Stone’s block. From about 1910 to 1919, the Lake Shore Electric Railway had offices at the Stone Block. The postcard below refers to the Interurban Station in the building.

Here is a view of Stone’s Block and Market Street on a cold day about 1905.

From 1921 to 1964, the S.S. Kresge store was in business in the Stone’s Block, and the Jupiter store was there from about 1965 to 1985. Later businesses at Stone’s Block were Bourbon Street and Cabana Jack’s. A new business venture, the Small City Taphouse, is about to open in the building at 202 Columbus Avenue. The Stone’s Block has been a vital part of downtown Sandusky for over a century.

N.J. Abele and Charles A. Bogert

From about 1915 through the 1930s, Nicholas J. Abele and Charles A. Bogert shared a building at 205 West Market Street in downtown Sandusky. Nicholas J. Abele was a photographer and photo finisher. Nicholas J. Abele continued in the photography business in Sandusky until 1949.  An advertisement in the July 1, 1916 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal stated that customers would be delighted when Nick Abele was finished with their pictures.

These postcards of Sandusky area basketball teams were created by Nicholas J. Abele during the winter of 1912-1913. The first postcard features the Holzaepfels basketball team.

This postcard shows the basketball team from the Sandusky Business College in 1912-1913.

Although the handwritten note on the postcard reads 1922-23, a closer look at the markings on the basketball reveals that the image is from 1912-13.)

 Charles A. Bogert operated a jewelry store at 205 West Market Street. Later, Mr. Bogert was the proprietor of the Sandusky Recreation Center. He was a nationally known trapshooter. For a time he managed the Camp Perry National Rifle matches during the summer months. Mr. Bogert died in 1945, and Nicholas J. Abele passed away in 1953. Both men were well known and respected in Sandusky’s business circles.

Opening Day at Cedar Point, 1968

This picture, from the Thomas F. Root collection of aerial photographs, taken between 1949 and 2000, shows a view of the Midway at Cedar Point on May 25, 1968. For opening day, four thousand high school band members marched through the Midway. The New Christy Minstrels performed, and there was a fireworks display after dark. You can see the Mill Race and Turnpike Cars on the left side of the picture, and the Coliseum and Kiddie Land on the right side of the picture. 

A Look Back at Sandusky Library Staff Members in the Twentieth Century

In the historic photograph collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center are several vintage pictures of staff members of the Sandusky Library throughout the years. Pictured above are several employees of the library standing on the steps in front of the Adams Street entrance in 1914. In the undated picture below, staff members are enjoying a picnic outside the library.

In the picture below, three young women are reading books on the back of a truck on Adams Street, in front of the Sandusky Library, around 1926. They may be promoting reading for a community event.

This  picture of Sandusky Library employees in the 1940s included notes that listed their names.

In the front row are: Marjorie Owings, Esther Moreland (Rowland), Barbara Pitcher, Mary Zeitzheim (Tone.)  In the back are: Susan Stoffler, Eleanor Millott, Mary McCann, Ruth Schaefer, and Jane Murschel Andersen.

Below, Miss Mary McCann, longtime director of the Sandusky Library, is checking out books in the library’s Bookmobile in the 1940s or 1950s.

Today Sandusky Library patrons are able to download ebooks, music, and access movies on a computer or mobile device, and the Sandusky Library’s Facebook team  posts pictures from library events on the Library’s Facebook page. Visit the home page of the Sandusky Library to learn more about our many services.

Mrs. Rosa Ruemmele, Army Widow

In the historical collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center, is a carte de visite of Mrs. Rosa Ruemmele, taken by R.E. Weeks, a very early Sandusky photographer. According to her death certificate, Rosa Senn Ruemmele was born in Switzerland on November 1, 1846. Her father’s last name was Senn, and her mother’s maiden name was Verna Rule. U.S. Census records indicate that Rosa emigrated to the United States in 1854. Records on file at Erie County Probate Court list November 14, 1867 as the date of Rosa Senn’s marriage to Joseph Ruemmele. The chapter about the “German Element” in the History of Erie County, Ohio, edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich, (D. Mason, 1889) stated that members of both the Ruemmele and Senn families were associated with the publishing of German newspapers in Erie County, Ohio. During the Civil War, Joseph Ruemmele was a musician in Company H of the 72^nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  Sadly, Joseph Ruemmele died on November 5, 1871 at the age of 28 years and 9 months. He was buried at Oakland Cemetery. He left behind his widow Rosa, and their young son.

For several years, Rosa and her son resided in Sandusky with her brother, John Senn. Civil War Pension records, available at FamilySearch show that Rosa Ruemmele received a widow’s pension, based on her husband’s military service during the Civil War.

Mrs. Rosa Ruemmele passed away on August 28, 1929, at the age of 82. She was survived by a son, a grandchild, and four great grandchildren. Mrs. Ruemmele was buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Sandusky. Her obituary, which appeared in the August 29, 1929 issue of the Sandusky Register, stated that Rosa Ruemmele had been a faithful member of St. Mary’s Church, and the Mother and Altar Society of that parish. Rosa left her native Switzerland and made a new home in the United States. She showed courage in the face of adversity, as she faced widowhood at a very young age and life in her adopted country as a single woman.

Program Announcement: Land of the Free? Home of the Brave! Community Reaction to the Creation of the Plum Brook Ordnance Works, 1940-41

Saturday, May 10, 2PM in the Library Program Room; video presentation and discussion

In a video he produced and directed, Bill Lucht will discuss the effects that the establishment of the Plum Brook Ordnance Works had on the more than 150 families who, along with their farms and businesses, were displaced from the land on which the plant was built.

Warner Brothers Movie News

The movie Tarzan the Ape Man, starring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan, was playing at the State Theater in Sandusky, Ohio during the week of May 7, 1932. The Warner Brothers Movie News for that week listed several upcoming attractions for both the State and the Plaza Theaters. Local advertisements also appeared on the inside pages of the small newsletter.

It appears that Warner Brothers were the proprietors of both the State and Plaza Theaters in Sandusky in 1932. (Before a Supreme Court antitrust case in 1948 outlawed the practice, it was common for Hollywood movie studios to own theaters around the country, where only their own movies were shown.) The Plaza Theater, which opened in 1914 as the Ivonhoe, was located at 221-223 Jackson Street, adjacent to the Star-Journal building, now home of the Sandusky Register. (The theater was razed in the 1960s.) 

You can read the word Warner’s on the State Theater sign in this 1931 view of Columbus Avenue.

 Visit the Sandusky Library to learn more about the history of the residents and businesses of Sandusky and Erie County. The Archives Research Center has in its holdings thousands of vintage photographs, city directories, and many local history and family history books.

Gertrude Victor’s Tribute to the Month of May

The essay below was a tribute to the month of May by Gertrude Victor. Gertrude Victor, born Gertrude Nash, was the wife of Sandusky tavern keeper, Henry Victor. She was the mother of author and editor, Orville James Victor. Gertrude Nash Victor died in 1882, and she is buried in Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. 

Hail lovely maid!

We thy fond even passions

now before thee with humble reverence bearing flowers we approach

thee for they are first emblems of your own freshness and bloom; yet although

at present like these, we fondly hope that your fate may not be as evenot ___

& transient as theirs – for the evening sun shining on them, their tints &

colors will be fading’ wilst the morrow’s sun will see them with

ired and dead forever – but for you, fondly do we hope that the future may

but add new grasses to the changes of the present and that the fruit

may e’en be fairer than the flower. With faces bedecked with smiles

and wreathed with flowers we salute thee our melody created sovereign.

True sovereign of our hearts, for thou art the sovereign of our love. Isle

among sovereigns dost thou sustain they power, and by force but by the

soft voice of kindness & charity which, as the warm rays of the sun do

melt by their soft and genial influence, the icy mounts which but presented

a firmer & more solid frost, as the ____ of North writing blast razed in

___ jury against them, but which, losing their rugged temper before the

mild & insinuating embraces of the genial sun, repent, after and dissolve

themselves into tears of sorrow for their own ungovernable temper, penetrate

and instill into our hearts the soothing feelings of love’s youth is the

season of flowers and with us all is gaiety and joy. The dark clouds of adieu

____ may in the future lower over our paths – but even so why trouble the

happiness of the present with dark forebodings of the future – why dim the

mirror of childhood with the shadow of age – Nay! Nay! Far from us let us drive

all such chilling thoughts for in nature also it is the season of happiness

and bloom. Removed alike from the chilling frosts of winter and

the arid beats of summer nature himself is bedecked and wreathed with

flowering smiles; - and the earth sends up her flowery messengers to

welcome the advent of spring in as she comes tripping along

thousands of perfumed harebells & primroses & daisies spring forth

to catch our glance of her bewitching eye, and to inhale the cheering

incense of her fragrant breath. Thus in the season of Nature’s

bloom, have met to enjoy our innocent pleasures and to

check our queen of May- Then bend your head sweet maid

and on our your fair brows, I will place in the name of my companions,

a flowery crown, that which there are none less weights &

less free of care, and which we fondly hope will be as it

has been in the past & present, the emblem of your future life – and thus crown

thee queen of May –

            Salute, dear friends, our beauteous queen,

            The fairest I know that e’er we’ve seen:

            Crowned with flowers and wreathed with smiles

The ___ of Nture the fairest child.

May the bloom in thy cheek n’er fade

May sorrow n’er visit the dear Maid

But as the sparkling rays of a sunny day

So mays’t they future be, the Queen of May!

                                                G.H. Victor