John Jay McKelvey, First Editor of the Harvard Law Review

John Jay McKelvey was born in 1863 to John McKelvey and his wife the former Jane Huntington. The elder John McKelvey and his wife were pioneer residents of Sandusky. McKelvey and Huntington Streets in Sandusky were named after his ancestors. John Jay McKelvey graduated with high honors from Sandusky High School in 1880, from Oberlin College in 1884, and he earned his law degree from Harvard University in 1887; he was one of the co-founders of the Harvard Law Review, serving as its first editor.

In an article which appeared in the Sandusky Star Journal of April 23, 1937, J.J. McKelvey answered those who thought the Harvard Law Review to be “dry, uninteresting, and unleavened with humor.” He said to the critics, “Who would be likely to resort to a legal periodical for its humor? Certainly not a lawyer or judge…the Law Review is the vehicle of thought between legal scholars and the practitioners and judges.”

McKelvey wrote several books on the law, including the Handbook of the Law of Evidence (West Publishing Co., 1907).

As an attorney, his work was in corporate law. He was counsel for the National Wholesale Lumber Dealers Association and the Columbus and Sandusky Short Line, which later merged into the Columbus, Sandusky and Hocking Railroad.

John Jay McKelvey died on October 14, 1947. Here is a portion of an article reporting on his death, from the November 3, 1947 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News:

In April 2022, Mr. McKelvey was honored for his preservation efforts in the Spuyten Duyvil section of The Bronx.

James Ross, Educator and Author

From 1916 to 1933, James Ross was a history teacher at Sandusky High School. For several of those years, he also served as the faculty treasurer of the athletic department. Prior to moving to Sandusky, Ohio, Mr. Ross had been an educational administrator at West Chester Schools, Adams Township Schools in Champaign County, and Fort Recovery Schools in Mercer County, Ohio. An excerpt from History of Mercer County, Ohio (Biographical Publishing Co., 1907) had the following description:

Mr. Ross is not only a superintendent of marked executive ability and good judgment, but a teacher of force and power. He makes no radical change but lays a firm foundation and then progresses. Unassuming in his ways he has the ability, by his devoted, unselfish interest in his pupils, to inspire them with noble ideals and to keep them firmly as friends of the school, and through the pupils he seldom fails to reach the parent. He is an educator in the highest sense of the word.

An article in the December 21, 1940 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal stated that it was largely through the efforts of Mr. Ross that when Sandusky High played Findlay High School’s football team on Thanksgiving Day in 1925, it was the largest crowd that ever attended an SHS football game up to that point in the school’s history. 

In 1930, Mr. Ross wrote a book, The Heart of Democracy: The American Public Schools. An autographed copy of this title is now in the collections of the Follett House Museum.

The Sandusky Register of February 15, 1931 published excerpts of several positive reviews of the book, which had gained national attention. E.J. Jensen, field secretary of Adelbert College, said “It’s the first ‘meaty’ book on education that I have read with a feeling of intense enjoyment instead of from a sense of duty. Its style is so lucid and entertaining that it should have a very widespread appeal.” 

After his retirement in 1933, Mr. Ross and his wife Winnie moved to Brooklyn, New York, living with a son. Mr. Ross died on December 14, 1940. Funeral services were held at a Brooklyn crematory, and his ashes were taken to Fort Recovery, Ohio for burial.

Castalia, by Burton Frye

Born in Huron, Ohio in 1920, from the age of nine, Burton Frye lived in Castalia, Ohio with his parents Roy and Mary Frye and his older sister Bernetta. He graduated from Margaretta High School, served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and was a graduate of Miami University.  He worked in the literary field as a writer, publisher, and a book reviewer.

Most of the books Burton Frye wrote were works of poetry, although his thesis on file at Miami University Libraries was a book of short stories, titled Stories of Soldiers and Italy. On February 12, 1949, The Book Shop, at 115 West Monroe Street in Sandusky, gave an autograph party in his honor.  Mr. Frye signed copies of his book, Castalia, a book of poetry. Although he had connections to Castalia, Ohio, he titled he book Castalia for the celebrated fountain in Greece. It is said that the waters found at the Castalian Spring inspired those who drank of them with poetic power.

The first poem in Castalia reads:

Who’s afraid to turn a word 

Into a scarlet-breasted bird,

Or bounce a statement quick as light

Into the brawl of wrong and right.

In the winter of 1950 Mr. Frye lectured at several schools in Erie County. He spoke on “Ballads and Ballad Makers” and “Modern Poetry: For or Against Us.” In his presentations, Mr. Frye sang ballads in both English and Italian, and recited lyric poetry. In an article in the February 17, 1955 issue of the New Orleans State newspaper, he was described as a "troubadour," who was performing in the city during Mardi Gras season.

Burton Frye passed away June 10, 1982 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He was survived by his wife, the former Virginia Chapin. 

Amy Ruth Kelly, Biographer of Eleanor of Aquitane

An article about Amy R. Kelly appeared in the June 9, 1911 issue of the Sandusky Register. While on faculty at Wellesley College, she and Laura E. Lockwood edited the book, Letters That Live.

Over one hundred fifty letters appeared in the book, representing seventy authors, including Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll and Emily Dickinson. The New York Times covered the book in its “Review of Books” section on May 7, 1911.

Miss Kelly is best known for her book, Eleanor of Aquitane and the Four Kings, published in 1950 by the Harvard University Press.  It was the first New York Times bestseller for that publisher. Even though it was written over fifty years ago, many maintain that Miss Kelly’s book it is still the best written biography about Eleanor, mother of Richard the Lionhearted; it has been republished multiple times through the 1990s, and remains in print.  While doing research for the book, Amy Kelly made six trips to Europe to retrace Eleanor’s steps. Her research was meticulous. Time Magazine carried an article about the book in an article “The Greatest Frenchwoman” published in June, 1950.

Amy Ruth Kelly was born in Port Clinton, the daughter of Judge Malcolm Kelly. Judge Kelly was a judge of Erie County Common Pleas Court from 1892 to 1897. He also had served in several offices in Ottawa County (including a term as Mayor of Port Clinton), and was held in high esteem by the Bar Association. (He was a grandson of William Kelly, builder of the Marblehead Lighthouse.) Amy’s mother was active in women’s suffrage activities in Erie County; she donated this “Let Ohio Women Vote” poster to the historical collections of the Sandusky Library.

Amy Kelly lived the last years of her life with her sister Elizabeth “Bessie” Kelly  in Miami, Florida, where she died in February of 1962.

Corydon Whitten Bell, Author and Artist

On July 16, 1894, Corydon Whitten Bell was born in Tiffin, Ohio to Mr. and Mrs. Alvin J. Bell. The Bell family moved to Sandusky around 1910.  Corydon graduated from Sandusky High School in 1913, where he had been active in the high school orchestra under Eugene Ackley.  In the picture below, a copy of the Fram can be seen on the table beside his desk.

Corydon Bell attended the University of Michigan and Western Reserve University before entering Army Medical School. During World War I he served as a bacteriologist and instructor. In 1921 he married Thelma Harrington. They both worked in advertising in Cleveland, but later both husband and wife became writers. Often Thelma wrote the text of the book and Corydon did the illustrations. In 1944 the Bells moved to North Carolina where they lived on an old farm in the mountains, and enjoyed being away from the pressures of the business world. Bell says “Immersed in undiluted nature on our remote mountain, I evolved the idea of writing about some of the fundamental aspects of natural science.”  A few titles that he authored are: The Wonder of Snow; Thunderstorm; and The Riddle of Time. Corydon Bell’s works are featured in libraries throughout the U.S., the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Ohioana Collection of Ohio Authors.

On page 22 of the June 1913 issue of the Fram is a piece entitled “The Class Motto.”  The names of several members of the graduating class are listed, with specific letters in bold that spell out Ready For All Things. Corydon Bell’s name is the fifth in the list.

Charles Merz, Editor of the New York Times, 1938-1961

Charles Merz was born in Erie County, Ohio on February 23, 1893, to Dr. Charles H. Merz and Sakie (Prout) Merz. While at Sandusky High School, Charles Merz worked on the school’s yearbook, the Fram. During the summers, he was a cub reporter for the Sandusky Register and the Star Journal. He graduated from Sandusky High School in 1911. The younger Charles Merz is pictured below with the Debating Team at Sandusky High School.

Charles Merz graduated from Yale in 1915 and moved to New York to work at Harper’s Weekly, eventually being named editor of the magazine. In 1916, he became the Washington correspondent for the New Republic, with a brief hiatus during World War I, when he worked in military intelligence. He and Walter Lippmann compiled a survey on the press coverage of the Russian Revolution, and were very critical of the coverage by the New York Times.  

In 1931 Charles Merz went to work for the New York Times, where he served as editor from 1938 to 1961.  During the McCarthy era, Merz was known for his opposition to Senator Joseph McCarthy in his editorials. He also wrote several books, including: The Great American Bandwagon, The Dry Decade, And Then Came Ford, and Centerville, U.S.A.  It is believed that Centerville, U.S.A. was based primarily on Merz’s upbringing in Sandusky, Ohio. 

Charles Merz passed away on August 31, 1977. He is still remembered for his long career in journalism and his devotion to the principles of American democracy.

Books by Hudson and Emma Tuttle

This small paperback book from the Lyceum Series was written in 1874 by Hudson and Emma Tuttle, who lived on a farm in Berlin Heights. Hudson Tuttle and his wife, the former Emma Rood, were authors who were also very active in Spiritualism. In the story “How an Acorn Becomes an Oak,” the Tuttles point out that from one small acorn, a huge tree eventually grows, and it not only withstands the winds of storms, but it provides food and shelter to birds and small animals. In “The Beautiful Lady” a young girl learns how a caterpillar transforms into a lovely butterfly. A review of the book which appeared in The Lyceum Stage stated that the book was “an elegant little volume to put into the hands of the young.” The book was nonsectarian, and sold for twenty five cents. 

An engraving of Mr. and Mrs. Tuttle is found on page 487 of The History of the Fire Lands, by W. W. Williams (Leader Printing Co., 1879.)

Several books by Hudson Tuttle are available full-text online at the Internet Archive. In 1907, the Tuttles published A Golden Sheaf, which was a souvenir of their golden wedding anniversary.

Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to view the book written by Hudson and Emma Rood Tuttle. Hewson L. Peeke provides biographical information about Mr. and Mrs. Hudson Tuttle on pages 1048-1051 in his book A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio.

Zenia the Vestal, by Margaret B. Peeke

Margaret Bloodgood Peeke was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Garry Peck. She was born in Mechanicsville, New York on April 8, 1908. In 1860, Margaret married Rev. George H. Peeke, a Protestant minister. Rev. and Mrs. Peeke settled in Sandusky in 1883, where George served as the minister of the Congregational Church. Rev. Peeke later served a congregation in Cleveland as well. Rev. and Mrs. Peeke had six children, one of whom was well known Sandusky lawyer and local history author, Hewson L. Peeke. Hewson L. Peeke wrote in his book, A Standard History of Erie County, about his mother, “She had a remarkably bright mind and wonderful conversational ability.”

Robert H. Stockman wrote in his book The Baha'i Faith in America, that while Margaret B. Peeke had been raised as a strong Protestant church member, her interests changed, and she became a Martinist. Martinism is a form of mystical Christianity. Margaret was the author of Born of Flame, Numbers and Letters: or The Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom, and Zenia the Vestal.

A book reviewer stated that Zenia the Vestal was a book which embodied “the occult laws of spiritual development, as given by the wise men of other lands…”

An advertisement for two of Mrs. Peeke’s books appeared in The Metaphysical Magazine in 1901.

According to Ohio Authors and Their Books, Margaret Bloodgood Peeke traveled widely, teaching Hermetic philosophy, with her largest following in the northern Ohio area. Margaret Bloodgood Peeke died on November 2, 1908. She is buried in Pomona, Tennessee near her daughter Grace Peeke. Grace Carew Sheldon wrote in an article in the Columbus Medical Journal shortly after Margaret’s death, that “The loss to her myriads of friends in every part of the world testifies to her international value, for she was beloved both at home and abroad.”

A copy of Zenia the Vestal is located in the local authors collection of the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library. The book contains an inscription from Rev. George H. Peeke to Miss Hazel Maud Morgan, the daughter of local Sandusky businessman, T. T. Morgan. The inscription reads:

Wisdom is the principal thing

Therefore get wisdom. –Proverb

Laura Cooke Barker

Laura Elizabeth Cooke was the daughter of Pitt Cooke and Mary Townsend Cooke. (Pitt Cooke was the brother of Jay Cooke, the Civil War financier.) Laura is pictured above in her wedding dress on December 8, 1886. Laura’s groom, Franklin S. Barker, was a photographer in business with Mr. W. A. Bishop at the time of his wedding. Later Frank worked as an accountant in Sandusky.

Laura Cooke Barker wrote several books . Her first book was entitled A Strange Experiment, published in 1897 by the Philosopher Press of Wisconsin.

Laura’s book of poems, Mezzotints, was also published by the Philosopher Press. The Sandusky Register reported in its April 29, 1900 issue that Laura’s poems were “especially interesting from a psychological standpoint, showing how the mind of the woman of strict orthodox training refines and interprets human desires.” Society Silhouettes, a collection of short stories, was published in Cleveland, Ohio in 1898.

Two of Laura’s later books were published by the Roycrofters, a small handicraft community with a publishing company in East Aurora, New York. Looking Upward was a collection of inspirational verse, published in 1928. The Immutable Law was published in 1921, shortly after the death of Laura’s husband. According to an article which appeared in the October 30, 1921 Sandusky Register, The Immutable Law was “a study of contrasted temperaments upon which play fires of avarice, sorrow, hatred, love, cynicism and lesser passions.” The dedication of this title read: “In undying remembrance of my well beloved husband, Franklin Sydnor Barker, born in spirit and his inheritance of ecstasy eternal on April 3, 1920.” Accompanying this dedication was the Biblical verse, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away, and he that overcometh shall inherit all things.” It appears that Laura devoted herself to her writing, following the death of her beloved husband Franklin.

Mrs. Laura Cooke Barker died on April 30, 1927, following a lengthy illness. She was survived by her sister, Mary Cooke. Laura was buried next to her husband in the North Ridge section of Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.

Sandusky High School Class of 1913

Philip Weisberg is pictured below. Mr. Weisberg graduated from Sandusky High School
in 1913. He was an avid patron of the arts. Today, in the library, you will find his collection of art books, which he donated to the Sandusky Library. The Weisberg collection is shelved in the Lower Level of the library.

Two classmates of Philip Weisberg became authors. Corydon W. Bell authored several books, including The Wonder of Snow, Thunderstorm, and The Riddle of Time. In 1937 Emeline Baumeister was the co-author of a fourth grade reader entitled The King's Drum. A copy of this book is located in the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library.

In 1916 three members of the Sandusky High School class of 1913 were attending the University of Michigan.
In this picture of the Sandusky Club at the University of Michigan, circa 1916, Philip Weisberg is number 8; Wilbur Schoepfle is number 10; and Elmer Wirth is number 13. (Norbert Lange, who translated Sandusky Then and Now is number 15.)

In the early 1950’s the Class of 1913 had a reunion at Cedar Point. Pictured below are three members of the class, identified only by their first names: Gertrude, Verna, and Miriam, with their former teacher Miss Taylor.
The Sandusky High School Alumni Directory lists the maiden names of these 1913 graduates as: Gertrude Sartoris, Verna Payne, and Miriam Fitz.

Emily St. John Bouton, Educator and Journalist

Emily St. John Bouton was the daughter of Daniel Bouton and Almina St. John. Born in Connecticut in 1837, Emily moved with her family to Sandusky as a young girl. Her brother Charles would one day become Mayor of Sandusky. Emily was in the very first graduating class of Sandusky High School in 1855. (She went by the first name of Emma at the time of her graduation.)
After graduation Emily taught school in Milan, Tiffin, and Toledo. From 1879 to 1907, she was the literary and household editor of the Toledo Blade. She contributed a waffle recipe to The Woman Suffrage Cook Book. In the late nineteenth century, Emily S. Bouton wrote books about etiquette, health and beauty. She was well respected as a writer and literary critic. Her works are in the Ohioana Collection and several university libraries. In a collective biography entitled American Women the authors wrote that Emily S. Bouton had “an almost unlimited capacity for work.”

Emily S. Bouton’s obituary appeared in the February 10, 1927 issue of the Sandusky Register. At the time of her death, she had been the oldest living graduate of Sandusky High School.
See Ohio Authors and Their Books to read brief sketches about Emily S. Bouton and hundreds of Ohio noteworthy authors.

For similar stories about Sandusky authors, come to the library's program, Sandusky's 19th and early 20th Century authors, on Saturday, April 19, at 2PM.