A Teacher's Notebook

Lora A. Bing, who resided at 804 Mills Street in the early twentieth century, was a teacher in the Perkins and Margaretta Schools in 1901 and 1902. (Her brother was George J. Bing, a carriage maker in Sandusky in the early 1900s, the subject of a previous blog post.) In the Schools Collection of the Follett House Museum, is a notebook that Miss Bing used at that time. Most likely she taught a variety of subjects to her students. 

Here is a page from Miss Bing’s notebook which covers highlights of the various Presidents of the United States. Her notes end with the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, the current President at the time of her writing.

This description of a “Peculiar Sunset” was dated September 15, 1902:

This page has prompts for students, which provided the youngsters with suggestions for their writing assignment.

In this “tense tree,” the teacher describes various examples of past, present and future tense.

After Lora Bing married Paul Retzke in 1907, the couple moved to Toledo, Ohio, where she became a teacher in the Toledo Public Schools. 

Alonzo W. and Jane Hendry

 

According to the book History of Erie County, Ohio, edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich (Mason & Co., 1889), Alonzo W. Hendry was born in Erie County, New York. He moved to Lorain County, Ohio in 1834, and he was admitted to the bar in 1842. Mr. Hendry moved to Sandusky in 1843. He married Jane Penfield in Lorain County on August 4, 1848. Jane Penfield had been born in Penfield Township of Lorain County. The township was named for her father’s family, who had been early settlers there. She was a graduate of the Ladies Course of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute in 1847. 

Alonzo Hendry was vehemently opposed to slavery. In an article in the abolitionist newspaper, the Michigan Liberty Press, on April 21, 1848, Alonzo W. Hendry was on a committee that prepared several proclamations relating to keeping “free soil.”  The second resolution read in part:

“As free sons of a free soil and a free Government, we make the cause our own, and in the majesty and strength of justice, of truth, and right, proclaim to the world our unalterable opposition to extending the blighting curse of slavery over one foot of soil now free.”

In 1878, Mr. Hendry published an article in the Firelands Pioneer about the settlement of "Africa," on the edge of Sandusky, where free African Americans resided in the 1830s and 1840s (before the advent of the Fugitive Slave Act). 

A.W. Hendry’s name appeared in the listings of attorneys in Sandusky in the Daily Sanduskian of October 27, 1849. His office was in the upper level of the West block in downtown Sandusky.

The first child born to Mr. and Mrs. Hendry was a daughter, Maria, who was born on July 11, 1849, while Sandusky was in the midst of a deadly cholera epidemic. They had a total of seven children, including a set of twins. 

Alonzo’s recollections of Sandusky during the cholera epidemic of 1849 appeared in Hewson Peeke’s History of Erie County, Ohio (Lewis, 1916), in the chapter, “The Three Cholera Years.”  His description of Sandusky at that time read:

 "The railroad connection between Sandusky and Cincinnati had just been completed and the large amount of travel and traffic over its line was unprecedented in the West.  Large shops, docks and warehouses at Sandusky became a necessity, laborers with their families were crowded into small buildings with insufficient accommodations and it often happened that several families would occupy a small building hardly sufficient in size for one.  Temporary cabins and boarding houses were hastily erected and soon crowded to overflowing.  When the visitation of cholera came the city was wholly unprepared.  There were no hospital accommodations and the force of local physicians was wholly insufficient for the emergency.  Hospitals had to be improvised and physicians like the good Samaritan of old came in from the neighboring cities.  The first death from the cholera was Mrs. Allen, July second.  Three prominent ministers of the gospel passed away - Rev. N. W. Fisher, pastor of the Congregational Church; Rev. H. P. Ward, of the Methodist Church and Rev. T. C. Cooper in charge of the Bethel Church.  They are buried side by side in Oakland Cemetery near the city.  A single marble shaft bearing the names of each was erected by kind friends as a monument to mark their last resting place.  The cholera again visited Sandusky in 1852 and 1854 but in a mild form compared with 1849."

From 1848 to 1852, Mr. Hendry served as the Erie County Prosecuting Attorney. He served as Erie County Probate Judge from 1863 to 1869. After the death of his wife in 1881, he moved to Shawnee, Oklahoma. 

Alonzo W. Hendry died in Oklahoma on April 15, 1901. His remains were returned to Sandusky, for burial in Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. An obituary for Mr. Hendry, which appeared in the April 19, 1901 issue of the Sandusky Star reported that he had been a “prominent and highly respected resident of Sandusky.”  To read more about former Judge Hendry and many other of Erie County’s elected officials, see the book, Elected to Serve, by Patty Pascoe.

The Other Kerber Grocery

Many people in Sandusky are familiar with Kerber Marine Grocery located on Tiffin Avenue, but not many people know there was another Kerber grocery business on the east side of town.

Albert Kerber was born in 1861 in Ehrenstten, Baden near the city of Freiburg. His parents were Anton Kerber and Cecelia Bauman. Anton Kerber’s brother Vincent Kerber immigrated to Sandusky in 1849 and ran several well-known businesses. He was a masonry contractor whose projects included the Water Works, Barker School, Standard Wheel Company, and several social halls. Later in life Vincent collaborated with his sons in a number of businesses including Consumer Ice Company and a grain and feed business on Water Street.

Records show Albert immigrated in 1880. He was listed in the 1880 census as living with his uncle Vincent on Ogontz Street. Albert then settled on Middle Bass Island and worked for the Golden Eagle Wine Cellars.

While on Middle Bass he met Augusta Kubach who was born in Sandusky in 1865. Augusta’s father John Kubach was born on the Steamer Albany during the family’s immigration to the United States. Albert and Augusta were married in July 1884.

Albert and Augusta moved to Sandusky in 1887. They built a store and residence at the corner of First and McEwen Streets in the east end, near Alberts’s uncle and cousins. The photo below was taken around 1891 and shows Albert and his brother-in-law Andrew Kubach in front of the store. One sign in the window advertises a steamer trip to Cleveland on Thursday June 25, 1891, for fifty cents. The other sign advertises Arbuckle’s Coffee.

Albert’s brother Lawrence (Lorenz) Kerber was born in 1862. In 1888 he founded Kerber Marine Grocery. Lawrence unfortunately died young at just the age of 30 in 1892.

Sometime around 1900 Albert expanded the grocery store to include a saloon. The picture below taken around 1905 shows the store and saloon. Standing in front of the store are Alberts’s sons, Millard and Carlisle and another brother-in-law, Clyde Kubach.

Like many businesses of the era, the saloon issued tokens. Shown below are the two sides of a 5-cent token.

Albert was active in the community and there were numerous listings in the Sandusky Register about hosting social events, sponsoring visiting musicians and travels to visit friends and relatives. One brief article in the Register noted “A young son of Albert Kerber, the Huron Ave and McEwen Street grocer, was struck by an automobile in Huron Ave, Thursday night but escaped serious injury.” The article implies there was a second grocery on Huron Ave, but no records were available.

Albert died on March 13, 1911. His obituary indicates funeral was conducted by Sandusky Lodge No. 669 International Order of Odd Fellows. Burial was in Oakland Cemetery.

The building at the corner of First and McEwen Streets stands today as shown below.

Prominent Sanduskians

The image below is of a group of prominent Sandusky men, taken sometime between 1910 and 1920. The picture was anonymously mailed to the Sandusky Register and then was forwarded to Wilbert Ohlemacher, who wrote The Elderlies column for the Register for several years.

Back row: Fred Emmons, Mr. H. Squire, C. Webb Sadler, Dr. J.T. Haynes, F. P. Zollinger, Dr. J.F. Douglas, Mr. Feick, William Seitz, Dr. C. B. Bliss, Sidney Frohman, unknown, and Mr. Bruce

Front row: Mr. Feick, C.B. Lockwood, William Sumser, Lawrence Morton, T. T. Morton

 

Fred Emmons was the secretary and assistant treasurer of the Hinde and Dauch Paper Company; Mr. H. Squire owned Squire Electric Company; C. Webb Sadler was the father of city manager Webb Sadler; Dr. J. T. Haynes was the physician at the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home; F. P. Zollinger was the president of the Third National Bank; Dr. J.F. Douglas had a dental office on Columbus Avenue for many years; Mr. Feick was a local builder; William Seitz was a merchant tailor, Dr. C.B. Bliss was an ophthalmologist; and Sidney Frohman was the president and general manger of the Hinde and Dauch Paper Company. In the front row was another member of the Feick family of builders. C. B. Lockwood and William Sumser were associated with the Standard Box Company; Lawrence Morton was the sales manager of the Threading Machine Company; and T. T. Morgan was the treasurer and general manager of the Brown Clutch Company.

We do not know the occasion for this gathering, but you can read Mr. Ohlemacher’s newspaper article about this picture in the March 27, 1983 issue of the Sandusky Register, available on microfilm at the Sandusky Archives Research Center, or online via the Sandusky Library's website.

A St. Patrick's Day Celebration

In honor of St. Patrick's Day we are reposting this article from 2014.

On the evening of St. Patrick’s Day, most likely in the 1880s or 1890s, a program of entertainment was held at Biemiller’s Opera House in Sandusky, Ohio.

Though the church was not identified, the evening began and closed with selections from a church choir. Judge A.E. Merrill gave the introduction, followed by a lecture on the Land League by Rev. P. F. Quigley, a Catholic priest. Several musical numbers were performed. Mr. Buyer, Mr. Farrell, Mr. Dempsey, and another Mr. Farrell sang a serenade. While we do not know precisely which members of the Dempsey and Farrell families sang the Serenade, Helen Hansen wrote about the William Farrell and Thomas Dempsey in Supplement 13 of At Home in Early Sandusky. Both gentlemen were Irish immigrants, and they lived at 525 and 527 Columbus Avenue for many years.

Immediately before I. F. Mack gave remarks, Miss Kate Farrell sang “When I Left My Home in Erin,” by William Shakespeare Hays. You can view the sheet music to this song at the Musicfor the Nation exhibit of the Library of Congress. A midi version of the song can be found online as well.

Mr. and Mrs. William V. Latham

 

These oil paintings of Mr. and Mrs. William V. Latham are on display in the second floor hallway of the Follett House Museum. Both natives of Connecticut, William V. Latham and Mary A. Bouton were married in Erie County, Ohio in May of 1856. From the 1850s until 1895, Mr. Latham was a merchant tailor in Sandusky, Ohio. In 1854, he operated a business with H.S. Adams on Columbus Avenue, a few doors down from Water Street.

Soon after, he became a sole proprietor, and by 1886, was in business at 212 Columbus Avenue. By the 1870s, Mr. Latham's brother in law, Charles E. Bouton, became a partner at W.V. Latham and Company. (Mr. Bouton became Sandusky’s Mayor in 1895.)  This photographic portrait of W.V. Latham was taken in the late 1800s by Sandusky photographer W.A. Bishop.

On December 18, 1895, William V. Latham died at the age of 72. A lengthy obituary in the Sandusky Register of December 21, 1898 read in part, “The middle aged and older men of this city knew the late W.V. Latham as a man of upright life and pure impulses. Loyal to his friends, faithful to his family, generous in an unostentious [sic] way, he went about the business of life from his youth up without creating frictions or arousing antagonisms. He had no use for shame, despised hypocrisy and never pretended to be other than he was. An honest, well disposed gentleman…The useful business of life of life is in the hands of the quiet and unassuming, and of such was this unpretentious gentleman, who has crossed the divide and is now at rest where physical pain and mental sorrow cannot reach him.” 

Funeral services took place at the Latham residence on Adams Street. He was buried at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. Mrs. W.V. Latham survived until 1927, when she passed away at the age of 88.

A German Edition of an American Periodical

The Sandusky Library has an issue of the German edition of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, dated October 22, 1881, in the historical files of the Archives Research Center.

The cover of this issue featured the 100 year anniversary of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. The German text was easy for local residents of German descent to read. The German-born population of Sandusky in the 1880s was about 25% of the total population, so German was a prominent second language in the city at that time.

The item was donated by Mrs. Louis Duennisch, who was both the daughter and wife of men who had been born in Germany.

Her father, Conrad Ebert, was born in 1824 in Bavaria, where he learned the trade of cabinetmaking. Mrs. Duennisch was the second wife of Louis Duennisch, who was born in Ostheim, Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach in 1847. He emigrated to the U.S. with his widowed mother in 1857. Louis Duennisch worked at the Sandusky Sash, Door & Blind Company, where he eventually became foreman of the shop. He continued at that firm as well as its successors, for over thirty five years. At the time of his retirement, the business was known as George R. Butler and Company. Mr. and Mrs. Duennisch traveled extensively, both in the United States and abroad; the library has a photograph album of their travels from 1895 to the early twentieth century. Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to learn more about the former residents and businesses of Sandusky and Erie County, Ohio.

Online Local History Resources

We know it's not always easy to get to the library for your local history research, but thanks to the internet, dedicated volunteers, and the public domain, you can use a variety of historical publications to conduct research from home, or wherever you are with your internet access. 

The Internet Archive and Google Books are just two online resources which provide full text editions of  historical books and publications. Here is a listing of some online editions of  books relating to the history of Sandusky and Erie County. To get to the online book, click on the title, and you will be directed to the site.

 

• History of Erie County, Ohio, edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich.

(D. Mason & Company, 1889.)

 

• Peeke, Hewson L.  A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio, Volume one.

(Lewis Publishing Company, 1916.) 

 

• Peeke, Hewson L.  A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio, Volume two.

(Lewis Publishing Company, 1916.) 

 

• Sandusky in 1855: City Guide and Directory (Steam Press of Bill Cooke and Co., 1855.)

 

• McKelvey's Sandusky Directory for 1867-68. (Kinney Brothers, 1867)

 

• Sandusky Directory, 1876-1877, (R. C. Hellrigle and Co., 1876.)

• Von Schulenberg, Ernst. Sandusky “Einst und Jetzt." (Druck des deutschen  Verlagshauses, 1889.) *Text is in German.

 

• Williams, W.W. History of the Fire Lands. (Leader Printing Company, 1879.)

Miss Agnes Stankard, Business Owner

 

In the early twentieth century, Miss Agnes Stankard operated a hairdressing  manicuring salon on Washington Row, next to the Beecher House. In early 1905, she placed an advertisement in the program of a theatrical performance at the Grand Opera House (later known as the Sandusky Theater). 

In the ad she stated that she was an Artist Graduate in manicuring, and she made a specialty of scalp treatments and face massage. She claimed that scalp irritations, nervous headaches and neuralgia could be cured by her treatments. 

An advertisement in the September 18, 1905 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal was aimed at the ladies of Sandusky. The ad said that ladies desiring manicuring and facial treatments would “receive prompt attention by competent workmen.”  

After residing in Sandusky for several years, sometime around 1924 Miss Stankard moved to Van Wert, Ohio where she worked as a housekeeper for the Rev. M.J. Smith, who had once been a priest at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Sandusky. She passed away in Van Wert on March 29, 1935 and was buried at the St. Mary’s Cemetery in her hometown of Clyde, Ohio.