Starr & Dewitt, Dealer in Boots and Shoes

The owners and staff of Starr and Dewitt, dealers in boots and shoes are pictured in front of their business at 130 Columbus Avenue in downtown Sandusky about 1882. The proprietors of the business were Merrill L. Starr and Edward W. Dewitt. Mr. Dewitt later was active as a real estate agent in Sandusky.

Before entering into the shoe and business, Merrill L. Starr served as Erie County Sheriff from 1876 until 1880. He was also a veteran of the Civil War, having been with Company E of the 8^th Ohio Infantry. In the 1884 Sandusky City Directory, M.L. Starr was in business with Howard C. Frederick at 130 Columbus Avenue. At this time the listing stated that Starr & Frederick manufactured and sold boots and shoes.

See our previous blogpost to learn more about Columbus Avenue, which has been home to a variety of businesses in Sandusky throughout its entire history.

Christopher Reeve’s Connection to Sandusky

Most of us remember Christopher Reeve as the not-quite-original movie Superman. But what's more interesting from our perspective is his "relationship" to Sandusky: Christopher Reeve’s maternal grandfather was a native-born Sanduskian. Horace R. Lamb, was born in Sandusky in 1892, the son of Burt I. Lamb and Harriet “Hattie” Davis Lamb. Before he married, Horace Lamb lived in Huron County for several years, eventually settling in Connecticut.

In the late 1890’s Burt I. Lamb advertised his tailoring business in the Sandusky Register.

Mr. and Mrs. Burt I. Lamb are buried in the North Ridge of Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.

Hattie Davis Lamb was the daughter of Ira T. Davis and Eunice Woolsey Davis Lamb.

Ira T. Davis came to Sandusky in 1852. He had a grocery store on Columbus Avenue and later was involved in the real estate and limestone business. He married Eunice Woolsey in 1856, and the couple had five children born and raised in Sandusky. Mr. & Mrs. Davis are also buried in Oakland Cemetery. You can read more about the family in Article 30 of Helen Hansen’s At Home in Early Sandusky and in Hewson Peeke’s Standard History of Erie County.

Christopher Reeve mentioned Sandusky in his biography Still Me: A Life. He wrote about his grandfather Horace Lamb’s roots from a working class family in Sandusky.

Visit the Sandusky Library’s Archives Research Center to learn more about Christopher Reeve’s Sandusky ancestors, and perhaps your own ancestors as well.

Printers in Sandusky in 1900

An unidentified print shop, probably early 20th century

 Listed in the 1900-1901 Sandusky City Directory are eight businesses under the heading “Printers, Book and Job.” They are:

Alvord –Peters Company, at the northwest corner of Water Street and Columbus Avenue

C. C. Bittner at 622 Market Street

C.E. Chaney at 513 Market Street

I.F. Mack and Brother at 626 Water Street

Sandusky Printing Company, at 618 Water Street

W. & W.F. Senn at 742 Water Street

Star Publishing Company at 602 Market Street

Several of these print shops published newspaper as their primary business.

A.J. Peters and F.E. Alvord would go on to own and publish the Sandusky-Star Journal, which was a merger of three newspapers: the Sandusky Journal, the Sandusky Local, and the Sandusky Star. When A. J. Peters died in 1929, employees of the Star-Journal served as active pallbearers at his funeral.

In 1900, C. C. Bittner was the publisher and proprietor of the Sandusky Daily and Weekly Journal and Local. C.E. Chaney and the Sandusky Printing Company were primarily job printers. The Sandusky Star was published by the Star Publishing Co. in 1900, whose officers were Charles Bang, President, and E. C. Tierney, Secretary.

I.F. and John T. Mack were the proprietors of the Sandusky Register, but the company also did printing jobs, binding, and sold stationery. I.F. Mack was associated with the Register from 1869 until 1909, when his brother John T. Mack took over as the editor and publisher. 

(In 1972 Charles E. Frohman chronicled I.F. Mack’s years as editor in the book, Sandusky's Editor: Isaac Foster Mack's Blazing Forty Years as Editor of the Sandusky Register.)

Philip Buerkle and William F. Senn published the Sandusky Demokrat, the last German language newspaper in Sandusky.

To read more about newspapers in Sandusky, see the chapter about Erie County Newspapers in Hewson L. Peeke’s book A Standard History of Erie County.  Also available at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center is a bound copy of the Twin Anniversary Celebration edition of the Sandusky Register-Star News, from November 24, 1917, which features an article about the history of newspapers in Sandusky, beginning from David Campbell and the Sandusky Clarion and continuing through 1947. Ask at the Reference Services desk to view this item.

C. L. Derby & Company

Chauncey Lyman Derby was the youngest of four Derby brothers involved in nineteenth century book publishing. Born in central New York state (probably in the 1820s), by 1850, he ran the C. L. Derby & Co. bookstore in Sandusky, Ohio, in the Phoenix Block, the recently-demolished building on the 100 block of East Water Street. According to a 1948 article in the University of Rochester Library Bulletin, he sold pianofortes and melodeons along with books and stationery at the shop. C. L. Derby was also closely associated with the Cosmopolitan Art Association. Subscribers received a periodical subscription, as well as a chance to win an art object through a yearly lottery.

Pictured below is an advertisement from Derby’s column in The Daily Sanduskian, a predecessor to the Register newspaper, published by David Campbell & Son.

The advertisement features a person reading a book entitled C. L. Derby & Co. Booksellers & Stationers. Another book entitled Sandusky, O., is below the open book. This poem also appears in the ad:

This books can do-nor this alone; they give

New views to life, and teach us how to live:

They sooth the grieved, the stubborn they chastise,

Fools they admonish, and confirm the wise.

Crabbe.

Derby’s column contained several small ads for specific book titles he was selling at his shop. Titles included: The Great Harmonia!, Laugh and Grow Fat, When Doctors Disagree, and Hearts & Homes.

Advertisement for Miss K. Fox Company

 

This stylish ad for Miss K. Fox Co. appeared in the Official Illustrated Guide and Souvenir of the Islands and Sandusky (Register Press, 1901). Katherine Fox was the daughter of John M. Fox and his wife, the former Pauline Rheinegger. From about 1898 until 1906, Katherine ran a shop that sold millinery, dry goods, linens and fancy goods. The store was located at 730 Hancock Street in Sandusky. This advertisement suggested that when ladies read this ad, the staff at Miss K. Fox Co. was busy at work trimming hats for them. Another advertisement which appeared in the September 13, 1900 issue of the Sandusky Register stated that Miss Fox sold dry goods and millinery at the “lowest prices ever heard of” at her shop. 

On August 1, 1901, Katherine Fox married George C. Thomas at the residence of Father Joseph Widmann. The occupation of the groom was machinist, and the occupation of the bride was listed as “proprietress of the Hancock Street millinery parlors.” Sadly, Mrs. Katherine Fox Thomas died at the age of thirty on August 4, 1906. After Katherine’s death, her mother and sisters ran the business on Hancock Street for several years.

Poems of Eternal Value by Elizabeth Browning Kelham

 

Elizabeth Browning Kelham was born in 1893 to William and Sarah (Durkee) Kelham of Sandusky, Ohio. She graduated from Sandusky High School in 1913. Miss Kelham was a teacher with the Sandusky City Schools for thirty-seven years. In the 1930s, Miss Kelham taught classes for visually impaired students at Barker School. She made soup or cocoa for the students to have with their lunches during the cold weather months, according to an article in the Sandusky Star Journal.

In 1939 she wrote a book entitled Poems of Eternal Value. It was dedicated to her mother Sarah D. Kelham, and in memory of her father, William R. Kelham. The small book was printed by the Stutz Printing Co. of Sandusky, Ohio. The poems were inspirational, with topics such as faith, peace, friendship, and prayer.

Miss Elizabeth B. Kelham lived until the age of 90. She died in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, and was buried at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. Below is a picture of the Sandusky High School Bible Class from 1911-1912, of which Elizabeth Kelham was a member.

The Vincent Kerber Family

Vincent Kerber came from Germany to the United States in 1849. For a number of years he worked as a building contractor in Sandusky. Later he worked with his sons in the ice business, as well as a flour and feed business. Pictured below is V. Kerber & Sons feed and flour store, located at 619 Water Street around 1890. Some of the brands they carried were Pillbury’s Best and Gold Dust Flour. Vincent’s sons Edward and John Kerber continued in the ice business for several years.

Vincent Kerber and Constantina (Eckert) Kerber had a large family of four sons and two daughters. Mrs. Kerber died in Germany in 1889. After Constantina died, he married again, during a trip to his homeland in Baden, Germany. Vincent Kerber died in September 1898.

Peeke’s A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio contains biographies of John and Edward Kerber. Vincent Kerber’s obituary is found in the September 18, 1898 issue of the Sandusky Daily Register. The article says that he was “one of the best known and most highly respected of Sandusky’s residents.” It continues “his works, in and about the city, bear silent testimony of his skill and the thoroughness with which he did whatever he undertook.”

At St. Mary’s Cemetery, an angel adorns the monument in memory of Louise Kerber and Pauline Kerber Heiberger, the two daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Kerber.

The Acme Bolster Roll from Hinde and Dauch

The advertisement above appeared in the book What: Souvenir of Sandusky, Ohio and the Islands of Lake Erie, published by Hill & Dolly, and printed by I.F. Mack and Brother in 1903. The illustrations at the top of the page are for the Acme Bolster Roll, which was a popular item manufactured by Hinde and Dauch in the first decade of the twentieth century. Made of corrugated jute board and weighing only four pounds, it was used a decorating item. It could be covered with fabric to match the bedspread, and gave a neat appearance to the bedroom during the daytime. In another ad from Everybody’s Magazine, Hinde and Dauch offered a free 88 page booklet with hints on home furnishing using the Acme Bolster Roll.

Hinde and Dauch also made gummed security mailing envelopes in the early 1900s, as well as double corrugated paper fillers. The Hinde and Dauch Champion Bottle Wrapper was patented in 1896. The wrapper was used in the shipping of wine and liquor bottles, helping to keep the bottles from breaking during shipment. 

The Hinde and Dauch Company employed many area residents in the first half of the twentieth century.  Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to read more about the historic businesses and residents of Sandusky and Erie County.

Charles Cross, Mayor of Sandusky 1853-56

Charles Cross was born in England in 1812. In July 1830 he, along with Dr. I. B. Ward and several other families, sailed on the packet ship Hudson from Portsmouth, England to New York. Dr .Ward went on to settle in Zanesville, but Charles Cross remained in Sandusky.

On St. Patrick’s Day in 1844 Mr. Cross was on a committee which promoted celebrating the holiday according to the principles of temperance. He was very active in the Roman Catholic Church in Sandusky. In 1853, he was elected Mayor of Sandusky, and served through 1856.  He also served as councilman, city clerk, secretary of the Board of Water Works, and Justice of the Peace. In 1874 he was the magistrate for two cases involving Rush Sloane, another Sandusky Mayor.

Mr. Cross had been widowed while a young man. One son, also named Charles Cross, became a photographer in Sandusky.

His grandson, Nicholas Charles Cross, became “Brother Sulpicius” in the Xaverian Order of the Catholic Church, having started out as a catechist at Sandusky’s Holy Angels parish.

On November 18, 1889, Charles Cross, Sr. died suddenly from heart disease. His obituary in the Sandusky Daily Register stated that “it can truthfully be said that he did not rob the public nor use office to multiply fees and increase the burden of taxes.”  He was interred in St. Joseph’s Cemetery.

To read more about Charles Cross’s trip to America, see the article “An English Colony” by Hudson C. Ward in the Sandusky Daily Register of December 3, 1889, on microfilm in the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library, or via the Newspaper Archive online database, available through the library's website.

The Sandusky High School Orchestra in 1904

 

Mr. George Johnston donated this photograph of the 1904 Sandusky High School Orchestra to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.  Pictured are: Bottom row: Verna Murphy and Edna Becker; Middle row: George Lehrer, Bess Lawrence, Theresa Winkler, and Mr. Cornelius Schnaitter, director; Top row: Maude Claus, Ralph Scherz, and Marguerite Andrews.

Edna Becker and Bess Lawrence went on to become longtime teachers with the Sandusky Public School system. Dr. Ralph Scherz was a leading physician on Cleveland’s west side for over fifty years. George J. Lehrer, who was son of a Mayor of Sandusky with the same name, was a charter member of the Actors Equity Association, and was nationally known as an actor and director.  Locally, Mr. Lehrer was associated with the Lloyd-George Studios for the production of stage scenery and costumes. A biographical sketch of Cornelius Schnaitter is found in volume two of Hewson L. Peeke’s A Standard History of Erie County; Mr. Schnaitter was a prosperous merchant tailor in Sandusky for many years, in addition to being a noted musician. Theresa Winkler, who later became Mrs. Norman Jessen, donated several historical items from the Winkler family to the Follett House Museum and the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

Rollin B. Hubbard, Pioneer Citizen of Sandusky

Rollin B. Hubbard was a pioneer in the lumber industry in both Ohio and Michigan. He was born in Connecticut in 1817 to John Mills Hubbard, and his wife, the former Mabel Barnard. As a young man, Rollin made his way from Connecticut to Ohio, and he settled in Sandusky. 

In the 1840s, he purchased timber land in what is now Sanilac County, Michigan. He operated saw mills in Michigan. Later he went into business with his cousins Langdon Hubbard and Watson Hubbard. They operated R.B. Hubbard and Company, a large lumber business on the waterfront in Sandusky, Ohio. By 1886, the company had become known as R.B. Hubbard and Son. The 1886 Sanborn Map shows the lumber yard south of Water Street, between Lawrence and Fulton Streets, and the planing mill was located on the north side of Water Street.

R.B. Hubbard once served as president of the Second National Bank, and he served for several years on the Board of Education. Mr. Hubbard was very active in Grace Episcopal Church, where he served as a vestryman. Mr. Hubbard’s first wife was Anne Massey, who died in 1871; he married Dorothea Hoffman in 1881. 

Rollin B. Hubbard died on May 18, 1904, after a lengthy illness. An obituary for R.B. Hubbard, which appeared in the May 19, 1904 issue of the Sandusky Register, read in part, “A man of fine presence and bearing; a gentleman of the old school in all that means in high character and intelligence; wise in counsel, charitable in judgment; closely identified through a long and successful career with the commercial and educational interests of Sandusky, Rollin B. Hubbard has left his impress on this community and it is an impress for good.” You can read much more about the history of the Hubbard family in the book One Thousand Years of Hubbard History, compiled by Edward Warren Day (Harlan Page Hubbard, 1895) available at the Internet Archive.

R.B. Hubbard was buried next to his first wife in the Hubbard family lot at Oakland Cemetery.