Visitors to the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home

 

Now the Ohio Veterans Home, the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home in Erie County, Ohio, was established in the late 1880s to provide homes for honorably discharged Veterans. Its earliest residents served in the Civil War. Through the years several notable persons have visited the home.

In 1890 and 1892, former President Rutherford B. Hayes visited Manning Force, the first Commandant of the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home.

R.B. Hayes and Manning F. Force were lifelong friends. Hayes and his wife  Lucy named their youngest son after him. Born in 1873, young Manning Force Hayes died as an infant in 1874.

In February 1894, William Henry Gibson, a former Civil War General, gave an address at the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home in commemoration of George Washington’s Birthday.

Known as the “Silver Tongued Orator,” General Gibson spoke about George Washington’s leadership, President Abraham Lincoln’s accomplishments, and he recalled several of his own experiences in the Civil War. The Sandusky Register of February 23, 1894 printed highlights of General Gibson’s speech.

In 1908 future president William Howard Taft visited Sandusky. He spent the night at the home of Edward H. Marsh, and visited the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home, where he gave a speech of a non-political nature.

In November of 1912,  the editor of the National Tribune, J.M. McElroy spoke at the Home. Between 500 and 600 veterans listened as McElroy encouraged all to vote for President Taft in the upcoming election. Of course, Woodrow Wilson went on to win the election for the presidency in 1912.

Happenings at the Home have been covered by the local newspapers for many years.  Below is a portion of the “Soldiers’ Home News” from the Sandusky Register of January 29, 1913.

The Graham Block

 

The image above is from an 1894 publication, Art Work of Huron and Erie Counties. According to volume 11 of the Firelands Pioneer, John A. Graham had the Graham Block built in the late 1870s. He was also known for having established the first drug store in Sandusky, on the corner of Columbus Avenue and Water Street, where Daly’s Pub is now located. 

Stores on the street level in the picture above are George Knopf and Sons, a men’s store; the Quinn and Whitworth grocery store; and Henry Dehnel’s jewelry store. To the south of the Graham Block was the Sloane House hotel (slightly visible on the left), and the old Post Office was to the north (at the corner of Columbus and Market). An advertisement for diamonds at the Dehnel store appears on the side of the building. The Graham Block was in the 200 block of Columbus Avenue. 

In the image below, from 1949, you can see the Graham Block as a sign was being placed on the new Lasalle’s store. Byer Brothers and the Caryl Crane store are on the lower level of the Graham Building. Further down the block are J.C. Penney, Montgomery Ward, and Gray’s Drug Store.

Today the property where the Graham Block once stood is occupied by the Erie County Building and parking garage. This block in downtown Sandusky continues to play a vital role in the lives of the residents of Sandusky and Erie County, Ohio.

Charles L. Wagner, Pioneer in the Natural Ice Industry

Charles L. Wagner was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1852, to German-born parents, Mr. and Mrs. Julius Wagner. As a young man, he was a clerk in several different stores in Sandusky, Ohio, and later was associated with the company Wagner, Powers and Brodbeck. In 1885, he founded the Wagner Brothers Wholesale and Retail Ice Company, later known as the Wagner Lake Ice Company, serving as president and general manager. In 1907, the Wagner Lake Ice Company became a part of the Interstate Ice Company.

In 1913 the City Ice & Fuel Company acquired the Interstate Ice Company. C.L. Wagner was the wholesale manager of this business at the time of his death in 1921.

Charles L. Wagner had interests in several businesses during his long career in Sandusky.  At one time he was the manager of the Sloane Hotel. He was listed as one of the incorporators of the Sandusky Portland Cement Company, along with Arthur St. John Newberry, Spencer B. Newberry and F.D. White. This company was later known as the Medusa Cement Company. Wagner Avenue, which leads north from Barrett Road in Bay Bridge, Ohio, next to Clemons Boats, was named for him.

When Mr. Wagner died in 1921, his obituary appeared on the front page of the August 6, 1921 issue of the Sandusky Register.

C.L. Wagner was buried in Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery in the family plot.

When City Hall Was on Market and Decatur Streets

From 1888 to 1913, a stone structure near the intersection of Market and Decatur Streets was home to a public marketplace. Sandusky’s City Hall occupied the upper floors of the market building. The 1905 Sanborn Map indicates that the city building was long and narrow.

In February of 1888, there was still much debate as to whether City Hall should occupy the upper level of the marketplace. In fact, in 1885 a ballot measure to build a new city hall and jail was rejected by 2489 votes to 920. However, in 1887, the city approved the construction of a marketplace on the West Market land. For some reason, a second floor office space was included in the design; eventually the city council approved the use of the second floor space as a city hall. Despite some opposition, the city won a lawsuit attempting to stop the use of the building for city government, and the second floor became city hall in June 1888.

During the litigation of the case, a reporter from the Sandusky Register interviewed leading citizens to get their opinion on this action: 

Randall Schuck was in favor of City Hall being on the upper level of the market building, but H.C. Huntington said the location was “a very inconvenient place for city offices.” Adam Stoll said that the Council was an intelligent body of men who would take satisfactory action. Ultimately City Hall did occupy the second floor of the marketplace for several years.

This historical post card shows a slightly different view of the former City Hall:

Sadly, during the same week in March of 1913 in which floods ravaged the state of Ohio (most seriously in Dayton), the City Hall building was destroyed by fire. A front page article in the Sandusky Register of March 26, 1913 reported on the flooding in Ohio and the fire that destroyed City Hall.

By 1915, City Hall was on the south side of Market Street between Columbus Avenue and Jackson Street, in a building originally intended as a joint Police and Fire Department headquarters. 

The City Building on W. Market St., shortly before its demolition in 1957

You can read more about former City Hall buildings in Sandusky at the website of the Erie County Historical Society.

Mrs. Caroline Curtis Moss Wilcox

Caroline Curtis was born in Massachusetts in 1871 to Myron B. Curtis and the former Georgette Ainsworth. After her father died in 1880, Caroline moved to Sandusky, Ohio, and married Augustus L. Moss, of a family of bankers, in 1891. According to Hewson Peeke’s book, A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio (Lewis Publishing, 1916), Mr. Moss “had the advantages of being reared in a home of culture and wealth." A.L. and Caroline Moss had one child, Wolcott Griswold Moss; sadly, Wolcott died in an auto accident in 1915 at the age of 22. Mr. A.L. Moss died in 1917, and some believe that the loss of his only son contributed to his early death.

In 1921, Caroline Curtis Moss married Clinton B. Wilcox, a Sandusky businessman and veteran of the Ohio National Guard, who had become a widower in 1909. A newspaper article in the September 13, 1933 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that Mr. and Mrs. C.B. Wilcox had just returned to their home on Wayne Street, after spending the summer at their home on the Cedar Point Chausee.

Caroline became a widow again, when Clinton B. Wilcox died in 1933.

Caroline Curtis Moss Wilcox suffered a great deal of loss in her life, but she kept busy with community organizations. She was an early member of the Board of Trustees of the Sandusky Library Association, as well as the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Nineteenth Century Club. 

Caroline Wilcox died on March 15, 1944. She was buried in Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.

You may recall from previous posts that in 1899, Caroline’s mother in law, Mrs. J.O. Moss, was successful in securing funds from Andrew Carnegie to go towards the building of a public library in Sandusky, Ohio.