Letter to Private Lehnhard Winkler in 1864

On her fifty-third birthday, September 26, 1864, Mrs. Justina Winkler of Sandusky, Ohio wrote a letter to her son, who was serving in Company I of the Third Ohio Cavalry. Mrs. Winkler told her son Lehnhard (sometimes spelled Lenhart; later he was called Leonard) about a recent plot to free some prisoner’s at the Johnson’s Island prison. She told her son how the Winkler home was saddened without Lehnhard’s presence, and that she and the family wished him well. John Schwab, another Civil War soldier who had recently returned home from war, also sent greetings to Lehnhard.  The Winklers’ neighbor’s son was unable to adapt to the rigors of life in military service. Mrs. Winkler assures Lehnhard that the family back home was well, and she was most anxious to be re-united with her son.

Dr. Norbert A. Lange translated Justina Winkler’s letter to her son from the German:

Private Winkler did return safely from the Civil War. He was discharged from the service on August 4, 1865. He brought home with him a photograph album which contained several tintypes of soldiers that he had met.

In 1871 Leonard Winkler married Theresa Weber.

Mrs. Justina Winkler passed away in 1877. She was buried at St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery. Her son Leonard died on May 29, 1893, and the G.A.R. conducted burial services for him at Oakland Cemetery. Theresa Weber Winkler lived well into her 80’s; she died on January 5, 1935 and was buried in the Winkler family lot in Block 76 of Oakland Cemetery. Leonard and Theresa (Weber) Winkler named one of their daughters Justina, in honor of Leonard’s mother.

A Photographic Postcard from the Perry Centennial

This photographic postcard was taken at the time of the Perry's Victory Centennial which commemorated the one hundredth anniversary of Oliver Hazard Perry’s victory at the Battle of Lake Erie. Sandusky’s celebration took place on September 8 and 9, 1913. Columbus Avenue was decorated with flags, lights, banners, and patriotic bunting. Visitors to the Perry Centennial arrived by the interurban electric railway and automobiles, and then boarded boats to travel Put in Bay on South Bass Island.

On the west side of Columbus Avenue, one of the shops on the street level of the West House hotel hung a banner promoting their services for the developing of Kodak camera prints.

A café and restaurant on the east side of the street were open for business to serve meals to the many visitors to Sandusky and the Lake Erie Islands region.

The Lake Shore Electric Railway Co. transported people to Sandusky from all points on the system, which included Cleveland, Lorain, Elyria, Norwalk, Bellevue, Fremont, Toledo, and many stops in between, while the steamer Arrow made two trips daily to Put in Bay, Lakeside, Kelleys Island, and Middle Bass. 

Taking a closer look at this postcard allows us to see the energy and excitement that was associated with the celebration of this historic event. To learn more about the event, view the Official Souvenir Program of the Perry’s Victory Centennial, available online at the Internet Archive.

Funeral Notice for David Adams

The funeral notice for David Adams invites friends of the young man’s parents, Thomas P. and Eliza Hurst Adams, to his funeral, to be held at the Adams residence on September 8, 1853.

At the top of the notice is an image of a tombstone next to a willow tree. Bertram S. Puckle wrote in his book Funeral Customs: Their Origin and Development that: “The weeping willow, by reason of its form trailing and bowed in grief, as its name suggests, caused it to be frequently planted in such a position where it might overhang a favoured tomb, like some perpetual mourner.”

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas P. Adams may not have lived  in Erie County, or lived here only briefly, as their name does not appear in the 1850 or 1860 U.S. Census for Erie County. Unfortunately, we do not know the location of the David Adams residence.

Bouncing Owl Club on a Boat in the Bay

Several men and women were on a small boat near Meigs Street in Sandusky on September 20, 1908. The picture was entitled “Bouncing Owl Club.” What this club was and who its members were is unknown. In the background, the city water works plant is visible. (It appears that the water works plant was having some work done to the roof.) At this time, Theodore Roosevelt was nearing the end of his term as President of the United States. Sandusky had almost 20,000 residents, while Perkins was home to about 3500 people. Looking at the microfilmed copy of the Sandusky Register for September 20, 1908, the weather was fair on this date. The new Herb and Myers store announced its grand opening, and both Jessie Meenan and Carrie Freyensee advertised that their stores had recently received shipments of their new fall hats. Baseball games were being played at League Park, and members of the Shamrocks Baseball Club were going on an excursion to Leamington, Canada.

But we don't know anything about the Bouncing Owl Club. Do you?

Convention of the Erie County Women’s Christian Temperance Union in Sandusky

The ninth annual convention of the Erie County Women’s Christian Temperance Union was held on Wednesday, September 20, 1916 at the Congregational Church in Sandusky, Ohio.

The History of Erie County (1889), edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich, states that a number of well known ladies of Sandusky met to organize a temperance league in 1879. Their object of the society was: “combating intemperance and kindred vices through Christian influences and Christian work.”  By 1928, during the Prohibition era, there were several area groups of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in the various communities of Erie County, which were under the leadership of a Union Board.

Mrs. Imogene Dauch, sister in law of J. J. Dauch, was active in the W.C.T.U. from 1911 through the 1930s, often serving as an officer of the West Huron chapter. She was the Erie County delegate to the Ohio W.C.T.U. Convention in 1929, held at Findlay. At the local convention of the Erie County W.C.T.U. in 1916, Mrs. Dauch opened the convention with prayer and Bible reading, and gave a welcoming address as well as the annual President’s message. Her daughter, Cynthia Aulda Dauch presented a piano solo to the attendees. Cynthia A. Dauch would later become the executive director of the Visiting Nurse Association of Los Angeles. 

Imogene Dauch died in Sandusky in 1975 at the age of 92. Besides her work in the W.C.T.U., she was also a member of Trinity United Methodist Church, the Daughters of 1812, the National Order of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Huron Grange.

To read more about temperance activities in Sandusky, see this previous blog post.

Photographic Postcards of the Sandusky High School Football Team of 1920

Several postcards in the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center feature the 1920 Sandusky High School football team. The team is pictured above outside the former Sandusky High School, which later became Adams Junior High. Below are eleven key players for the 1920 team.

In the back are, left to right: Abe Cohen, Joe Dise, Jim Kelley, Ray Baker. In the front are: Matt Lauber, Arden Krebs, Hank Krebs, H. Dean, unidentified, Carl Borders, and Axline Dewitt. 

Matt Lauber was the team’s captain.

       

The Sandusky High School Fram of January 1921 stated that the Sandusky High School football team in the fall of 1920 was not very successful. In league play, Sandusky won two and lost three games. An article in the October 24, 1920 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that though Lorain beat Sandusky on October 23 by a score of 7 to 0, many people felt that referee Tommy Neill had made a bad call during the game, which gave Lorain its only touchdown. Sandusky’s Coach Mackey felt that if a protest were to be made, it would not be in the best interest of the league, so no formal protest was initiated.  

To learn more about Sandusky High School's football rivalry with Fremont Ross, look for Vince Guerrieri's book, The Blue Streaks and Little Giants: More Than a Century of Sandusky and Fremont Ross Football, which covers the long standing football rivalry between the Sandusky Blue Streaks and the Fremont Little Giants; it is available for check-out at the Sandusky Library.

Sandusky Boosters: 100,000 in 1920

In 1912 two men from Cleveland spoke to a group of fourteen Sandusky businessmen. Charles F. Laughlin and Stanley L. McMichael, president and secretary of the Cleveland Real Estate Board, were in Sandusky on the evening of September 19, 1912. They encouraged the local men to consider the possibility of trying to increase the population of Sandusky to 100,000 by the time of the next U.S. Census, in 1920. According to a Sandusky Register article, Mr. Laughlin stated in part, “You people in Sandusky must anticipate the time when you will have 100,000 or 200,000 population. You will not always remain a small town. You are too geographically well located. You have the greatest prospects of any town in the state.”  The speakers felt that by Sandusky men becoming affiliated with the Ohio Association of Real Estate Exchanges that the community could experience significant growth.

The men who committed to starting a new organization to promote growth in Sandusky were:

Philip Buerkle, A. C. Lermann, A. C. Close, C. C. Bittner, T. E. Risk, D. E. Weichel, James Flynn, Jr., C. W. Sadler, H. J. Schiller, Lawrence Frandsen, C. H. Stubig, and J. C. Hauser.

While Sandusky’s population did not achieve the goal of the population reaching 100,000 by 1920, at the celebration of the 100^th Anniversary of the Incorporation of the City of Sandusky, Ohio, held in the August of 1924, a poem entitled “Boost” appeared on the title page of the Official Souvenir Program. (Figures from the U.S. Census indicate that the population of Sandusky in 1920 was 22, 897.)

The Ladies Fair Show Comes to Cedar Point in 1951

In conjunction with Erie County’s Fall Festival, two performances of the “Ladies Fair Show” took place at Cedar Point on September 7, 1951. Tom Moore, a radio personality with the Mutual Broadcasting System, was the host of the show. Tickets were sold for $1.00 and $1.50. The “Ladies Fair Show” was a radio program that was broadcast during the morning hours by the Mutual Broadcasting System in the early 1950s. The program featured music, games, and quizzes for the ladies in the audience. When the “Ladies Fair Show” came to Sandusky, two thousand dollars worth of prizes were awarded during the program. The Fall Festival was held in Sandusky, Ohio from September 6 to September 9, 1951. The festival featured a beauty pageant, band concert, square dancing, marksmanship show, and a steer auction.

Honorable Discharge of a Squirrel Hunter

In September of 1862, General Lewis Wallace (of Ben-Hur fame) was ordered to prepare to defend Covington, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio, following the capture of Lexington, Kentucky by Confederate forces.  Martial law was declared in Cincinnati, and local civilians were called in to help defend the city against an attack. Governor David Tod ordered the Adjutant-General of Ohio to send any available troops. Several counties around the state offered to send civilians to Cincinnati. Only men who had their own weapons were to respond, and the railroad was to provide transportation to the volunteers at no cost to the men. Eventually these men became known as “Squirrel Hunters.” 

One of the men who answered the call to go to Cincinnati was John McCardle, from Erie County.  In 1863, he received an honorable discharge by Governor Tod. The document was also signed by Charles W. Hill, the Adjutant-General of Ohio, and Malcolm McDowell, Major and acting Aide de Camp. In 1908 Ohio legislators passed a resolution to pay each surviving Squirrel Hunter a sum of thirteen dollars, as pay for serving as an Ohio militia man. You can read more about Ohio’s “Squirrel Hunters” in an online newsletter from the Oberlin Heritage Center.

Sandusky High School Students Circa 1939

Pictured above are Sandusky High School students about 1939. Social Studies teacher John R. Kahler can be seen in the center of the group. Notes on the back of the original photograph have identified most of the people in the picture.

Many of these students were graduates in June of 1940. Student Jay Leibach would go on to become the chief engineer at WLEC Radio. His obituary in 1986 stated that Jay Leibach was responsible for getting WLEC on the air on December 7, 1947. Mr. Kahler eventually left the education field, and he had another long career with Sandusky Foundry and Machine (now MetalTek); he also served as Sandusky’s ex-officio Mayor in 1948-1949.