Erie County African American Soldiers in the First World War

 The book Honor Roll of Ohio: Erie County Edition is a compilation of Erie County residents who served in military or civilian activity during World War I. Soldiers and sailors who served during the war are listed in the book, with photographs, brief personal information, and service summaries included for each man. 

As in the service itself, the African American servicemen were segregated from the rest of the men into two pages of the book. Those pages are shown here.

 Although we do not have additional information for all of the soldiers depicted here, we are able to gather brief biographical data on some of these men. 

Reading the descriptions, you will notice that two of these men died in overseas service. Corporal Clarence Howard was featured in a previous blog post. He was noted as a star pitcher for the Sandusky Crescents baseball team before the war. He was killed by an accidental weapon discharge on October 12, 1918.

Private Robert Adkerson died in service in France on October 22, 1918, at age 25. He was initially buried in France, but in 1921 his remains were returned to his native Tennessee for reburial.

Three sons of William and Mary Alexander performed military service during the war. Sergeant Robert Alexander served overseas with Co. H of the 802nd Pioneer Infantry. Private Charles Alexander was in France with Co. L of the 365th Infantry, 92nd Division. The youngest brother, Private Earl Alexander, served in the Student Army Training Corps at the Ohio State University, beginning September 1918.

The Honor Roll of Ohio is available in the Genealogy book collection at the Sandusky Library.

Isaac Curtis Brewer III and IV

A portrait of Isaac Curtis Brewer III is among the many photographs taken by Willard A. Bishop of prominent Sandusky men from the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries. This Mr. Brewer was the husband of the former Sarah Morton, and was well known as a civil engineer. He was born in Massachusetts in 1824, but moved to Conneaut, Ohio by 1870. In 1872 he bought a home in Sandusky, at 519 Huron Avenue. From 1864 to 1887, he worked for the Lake Shore Railroad. Mr. Brewer died on June 5, 1896, and he was buried in Conneaut, Ohio following Masonic services. 

Isaac Curtis Brewer IV was born on January 29, 1868. The younger Mr. Brewer worked as an assistant engineer in the city engineer’s office, but by 1900, he was the superintendent of the Jarecki Chemical Company, which made fertilizer from the byproducts of fish. Isaac C. Brewer IV is pictured below, with other employees of the Jarecki Chemical Company, next to a load of fish. He is the second man from the right.

The first marriage of Isaac Curtis Brewer IV, to Annette Fitch, ended in divorce. Following the divorce, Annette Fitch Brewer left Sandusky with her young son, Isaac Curtis Brewer V. She wrote a book chronicling her cross country adventure, as well as the child custody dispute. By 1920 Isaac Curtis Brewer, IV had married Martha Anthony. 

On June 29, 1933, I.C. Brewer IV fell to his death in Sandusky Bay, near Battery Park. Dr. John Yochem reported that Mr. Brewer, who had a history of heart trouble, had either suffered a stroke and fell into the bay, or possibly he had slipped and fallen into the bay to his death. Funeral arrangements were handled by the Charles J. Andres Sons' Funeral Home, and burial was at Oakland Cemetery

A page from the Brewer family Bible, now in the collections of the Sandusky History Archives Research Center lists the birth of Isaac Curtis Brewer V as August 14, 1899 in Ashtabula, Ohio. He attended college at Kenyon College, and served in the U.S. Army during World War I, he later married and moved to Iowa.

Picnickers at Cedar Point in the Early Years

A group of family and friends gathered for this group photograph while at a picnic at Cedar Point in the 1890s. It was probably taken in a photo studio on the park grounds. The names of the individuals in the picture were listed on notes with the original item. In the first row are: Lee A. Woolsey, Jessie Anthony, Louise Alvord and Charles Schuck. In the second row are: Frank Sawyer, Ida Woolsey, Minnie Sawyer, Martha Anthony, and M. Scranton. In the third row are:  Jessie Jay, J.L. Anthony, Elsie K. and Lydia Scranton. After looking through several genealogical databases and obituaries, we have determined that Ida Woolsey, Minnie Sawyer, Martha Anthony, and J.L. Anthony are all children of Lorenzo Dow Anthony, the first commandant of the Sandusky Yacht Club. Most likely the individuals not related to members of the Anthony family are close family friends. Though this picture is not of perfect quality, it is interesting to see a group of people gathered together from an era long ago.

The picture above (taken circa 1906) probably represents a typical picnic scene at Cedar Point during that era. The people in this photo are unidentified.

A Wading Party at Bay Point

On October 1, 1916, a group of Sandusky residents had a picnic on the Sand Beach at Bay Point, in Ottawa County, Ohio. Below is a key which identifies the people in the picture.

Willard A. Bishop was a longtime Sandusky photographer. Phil Beery was a broker in Sandusky for over twenty years. Among the group were four sisters: Martha Anthony Brewer, Ida Anthony Woolsey, Jessie E. Anthony, and Minnie Sawyer, all daughters of pioneer Sandusky residents Mr. and Mrs. Lorenzo Dow Anthony. At the time of this gathering the Sandusky Bay Bridge had not yet been built, so it is likely that the group traveled from Sandusky to Bay Point aboard a steamer. Ferries traveled back and forth between Sandusky and Bay Point, where a rail connection to Toledo was available.

Elementary School Children in Sandusky, 1883

Walter Ritter donated this picture of an elementary school class taken on the steps of the old Sandusky High School (later Adams Junior High School) in 1883.  Martha Anthony (later Mrs. I.C. Brewer), number 16 in the picture, was the original owner of the photograph. 

Listed as number 40 is Allen Stroud, the son of Dr. C. Eugene Stroud. Allen Stroud became a mail carrier in Sandusky, and he also owned the Stroud Gardens that were adjacent to his home on Milan Road.

Edward W. Altstaetter, number 46 on the picture, once served as Sandusky’s Mayor. When he passed away in 1970 at the age of 91, he was the oldest insurance agent in the city of Sandusky. Young Mr. Altstaetter is the second boy from the left in the image below.

To view hundreds of historic images related to Sandusky and Erie County, see the Past Perfect Local History Archives online.

The Stone House on East Perkins Avenue

The old stone house at 1338 East Perkins Avenue has a very rich and interesting history. An undated paper in the historical files at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center provides many details about this structure. In Sheila Gockstetter's paper, “The Stone House: Ever a Refuge,” the author explains that Aaron Whipple and his nephew Allen Remington designed and built this limestone home around the shell of a small log cabin that was near the site of the former settlement of African Americans known as Africa. For many months, the men dug out huge limestone blocks from the quarry in Perkins Township. They used buggies and sleds, drawn by horses to transport the stones to the intersection of what is now East Perkins Avenue and Remington Avenue, on a plot of land that was twelve acres. 

In this closer view, you can see details of how some of the stones were assembled to build the house

By 1863, Allen Remington had purchased the land and stone house from his uncle. He brought his bride, the former Quintrilla Hand, to live at the stone house with him. You can see the name A. Remington on this portion of a historic map of Section 2 of Perkins Township, dated about 1900.

Map courtesy Erie County Auditor’s Office

Allen Remington was known for the excellent cider that he pressed in an outbuilding located east of the main stone house. Farmers from all around Erie County brought him apples, and he made the apples into cider and vinegar. 

Allen and Quintrilla Remington had seven children. After Cora Belle Remington Anthony lost her husband, McDowell Anthony, at a young age, she moved back to the stone house as a widow with her two young children. Besides making cider at the stone house, Allen Remington had an interest in a line of fishing boats, along with Lorenzo Dow Anthony, Cora Belle’s father-in-law. It is believed that in the days of the Underground Railroad, Mr. Remington and Mr. Anthony harbored slaves in the fruit cellars of the stone house, and saw that they got transported to fishing boats headed to Canada in the darkness of the night. 

Allen Remington died in 1911. His son, named Allen Hand Remington, lived in the stone house with his wife and children after the death of his father. The younger Allen Remington passed away in 1944.

From the late 1940s through the late 1980s, the Stone House became a popular restaurant with several different proprietors, including Frank Mulheran, Gil Rossman and Bud Linton.  From 1977 through the 1980s, the Baxter family owned the Stone House. Since about 1990, the historic building at 1338 East Perkins Avenue has been commercial property, having been home to a variety of businesses. In the spring of 2017, a financial office, legal office and Piccolo’s Wine Cellar are all housed in the historic Stone House building.

Lorenzo Dow Anthony

Lorenzo Dow Anthony was born on April 10, 1827 at Watertown, New York to Nathan and Esther Finch Anthony. The family moved to Sandusky, Ohio in 1837. As a young man, Mr. Anthony was in the fish business and later he was in the wholesale grocery business.

During his many years spent in Sandusky, he saw many significant events take place. Hewson Peeke wrote in his book, A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio, about the time that Lorenzo Dow Anthony met Charles Dickens when the author visited Sandusky in 1842. In other memorable experiences, Mr. Anthony was only 22 years old when cholera swept through the city, killing hundreds of Sandusky residents, and he was a member of an early local militia group, the Bay City Guards, which was commanded by Dr. R.R. McMeens. Karl Kurtz wrote in an article in the July 9, 1977 Sandusky Register that during the 1924 tornado, the Anthony home, at the northwest corner of Perry and Meigs Streets, was severely damaged. The tornado ripped a photograph of the sailing ship “The Dawn” off the wall, and dropped it in Lorain. Since the back of the picture had the name and address of the Anthony family written on it, residents of Lorain returned the picture to Mr. Anthony.

Lorenzo Dow Anthony was the first commodore of the Sandusky Yacht Club, from 1894 to 1899. He died on December 9, 1922 at the age of 95. Commodore Anthony was survived by his wife, the former Martha McDowell, who he married in 1852, and five daughters. Burial was at Oakland Cemetery. Pallbearers for Mr. Anthony were H.L. Peeke, John F. Hertlein, W. A. Wehrle and A. H. Klotz.