The Tragic Life and Death of George Scudder

 

According to an article in the August 11, 1884 issue of the Sandusky Register, George T. Scudder took his own life on August 9, 1884. The article states that George shot himself on Friday evening, and died early Saturday morning. He left a letter, but according to the Register, it was “too sacred to be published in full.” In the letter he left his property to his sisters and bid them good bye. 

In the 1880 U.S. Census, George was age 16, and lived with his widowed mother, and his older brother and sisters Sandusky, Ohio. The 1867 Sandusky City Directory listed the occupation of George's father, William H. Scudder, as a grape grower. William Scudder died in 1874; his wife Louise died in 1880. By 1884, with both parents deceased, George and his brother Arthur R. Scudder were working as clerks at the B & O Railroad freight office on Water Street. They resided at 1115 Washington Street with their sisters Minnie (Mary) and Kate (Katherine). 

This bill for the tombstone of George Scudder is on file in the historical collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. His sister Minnie Scudder bought the stone from A. Hornig of the Sandusky Steam Marble and Granite Works on Columbus Avenue and Campbell Street, at a total cost of $16.50 ($539 in present value).

The Scudder family monument is located at Block 26 at Sandusky's Oakland Cemetery.

The names of George's parents, William H. Scudder, who died on February 12, 1874 and Louise Russell Scudder, who died on December 28, 1880 appear together on the side of the monument that faces west. The names of George's sisters, Mary Louise Scudder and Katherine S. Scudder appear together on the side of the Scudder family monument which faces east. The name of a member of the Russell family, Mary A. Russell (1802-1883) is on the side of the monument which faces north. George T. Scudder’s name appears on the side of the monument which faces south (seen above). While we know that M. L. Scudder purchased a tombstone in 1885 in honor of George T. Scudder, it seems likely that the family monument presently at Oakland Cemetery, along with several separate stones in memory of individual Scudder and Russell family members, were purchased at a later date.