"Bathing Beauties" in Sandusky

In the 1940s Vera Jean Curtis, Elizabeth Hitchcock, Grace Pietschman, and Mary Brohl posed on the S. S. Goodtime, bound for Cedar Point.

Beryl Starr, a young man, and the pilot pose on a "flying boat" airplane in Sandusky Bay in the 1920s.

Cedar Point’s sandy beach has been attracting swimmers for more than a century.

Weldon B. Cooke, Aviation Pioneer

Weldon B. Cooke was born in California in 1884. After attending the College of Engineering at the University of California, he became interested in the automobile. He worked for a livery service in San Francisco, and eventually he became a race car driver. In 1911 amateur aviation enthusiasts L.B. Maupin and Bernard Lanteri hired Cooke to fly the airplane that they had built. He made numerous flights in California during the years 1911 and 1912 in the plane, known as the Black Diamond, and won a $7,000 prize for flight endurance  at the Los Angeles International Air Meet held at Dominguez Field in January of 1912.  In the picture below, L.B. Maupin is the fourth man on the right, and he is standing beside W.B. Cooke.

Charles E. Frohman wrote in his book Sandusky’s Yesterdays (Ohio Historical Society, 1968), that at the end of 1912, Cooke moved to Sandusky so he could build planes. Soon he formed the Weldon B. Cooke Aeroplane Company, along with E.W. Roberts, Frank Frey, James Flynn, Sr. and James Flynn, Jr. The company used space within the Roberts Motor Company. Cooke wrote a testimonial which praised the Roberts Motor Company, in a 1912 issue of the journal Aero and Hydro.

Cooke was especially interested in building hydroplanes. Perhaps his best known hydroplane was the Irene. Weldon Cooke is seen below in front of the ship Irene which was being converted into a hydroplane. The hull had been constructed at the Davis Boat Works in Sandusky.

Ernst Niebergall took this picture of Weldon Cooke and his hydroplane in Sandusky Bay.

Unfortunately the Irene was not successful. Cooke left Sandusky in 1914, and he died in a plane crash in Pueblo, Colorado on September 6, 1914. 

You can read more about the Black Diamond, the plane flown by Cooke in 1911 and 1912, at the website of the Hiller Aviation Museum, where it is now on display. Several photographs of Weldon B. Cooke are housed at Lake Erie’s Yesterdays. (Search for Weldon Cooke in the search box at the bottom of the page.) Several early Ohio aviators, including Weldon B. Cooke,  are honored on this historic marker at Sandusky’s Battery Park.

John W. Parker, The Flying Sheriff

A newspaper article in the November 18, 1930 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal, reported on Sheriff John W. Parker’s flight from Sandusky to the State Penitentiary. On November 17 Sheriff Parker transported two prisoners from Erie County to the penitentiary aboard a Stinson four passenger airplane. John W. Parker served as Erie County Sheriff from 1928 to 1932.  While he was still the sheriff-elect, Parker stated that he would only use one of his planes when it was deemed necessary in the line of duty in the Sheriff’s office. In 1924, John W. Parker and his brother Lucius G. “Lute” Parker started an airplane club in Sandusky. They started a flying school in 1928, and they were instrumental in starting Sandusky’s first airport. From the 1950s through the 1970s, John W. Parker was the Commandant of the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home, now known as the Ohio Veterans Home. John W. Parker died on December 7, 1987. He was a veteran of both World War I and World War II. Mr. Parker was survived by his wife, three daughters, a son, and several grandchildren and great grandchildren. To learn more about Erie County’s elected officials, see Patty Pascoe’s book, Elected to Serve, available at the Sandusky Library.

Santa in a Plane at the Reinhardt Ausmus Residence

The unique Christmas decoration featuring Santa Claus as the pilot of an airplane once appeared on the roof of the home of Reinhardt Ausmus. While we do not know the exact date of the picture, Sandusky City Directories indicate that the Ausmus family resided at 1102 Buckingham Street in Sandusky, Ohio for over forty years, arriving in Sandusky in 1915. "Reiny" (as he was known by his friends) built and flew his first airplane at the age of 16. He went on to become a flight instructor during World War I, and he continued to teach after the war.

In 2007, Reinhardt Ausmus was inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame. He was recognized for his "distinctive contribution to the progress of early aviation" as well as for his services contributing "to the well being of veterans and other citizens of the Sandusky area."