The Lamb Brothers and Their Many Businesses

The business ventures of three Lamb brothers graced the cover of the 1880-81 Sandusky City Directory. G.W. C. Lamb stated that he was a consulting engineer and a mechanical expert. He was proprietor of the Lamb Steam Plow and Company. A Lamb mower took first premium at the Sandusky County Fair in 1877, according to an article in the Ohio Practical Farmer from October, 1877. In the late 1890s, G.W. C. was instrumental in designing several steam canal boats for use on the Miami Canal, between Cincinnati and Toledo. 

Brothers Anson C. Lamb and Virgil M. Lamb advertised their sign painting and decorating business, also on the cover of the 1880-81 Sandusky City Directory. The ad stated that the Lamb brothers were sign writers and fresco artists. They also did house painting and paper hanging. 

Anson C. Lamb saved several thousand dollars that he earned while working as a painter and decorator in Sandusky, and eventually became a successful stock broker. Embarking on yet a third career, he served as President of the Federal Casket Company. One of his patents was for a casket that looked like a couch, but when closed, became a fully functional casket. 

He hoped to “avoid, insofar as is reasonably possible, the usual background associated with the presence of death, and to retain with appropriate dignity the normal atmosphere of the household.” 

Anson C. Lamb lived to the age of 93, dying in 1949; he was buried in Riverside Cemetery in Cuyahoga County. Virgil M. Lamb had passed away at the age of 73 in 1933. Though the Lamb brothers did not in Sandusky their entire lives, they were quite productive when did live here. Below you can see the listings for the Lamb surname on page 62 of the 1880- 1881 Sandusky City Directory.