Miss Rose Ball, Graduate of Providence School of Nursing

Miss Rose Ball was born May 4, 1877 in Reed Township, Seneca County, Ohio. An article in the February 20, 1926 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal stated that Rose Ball was a well-known nurse, having graduated from Providence Hospital School of Nursing. U.S. Census Records list Rose’s occupation as a nurse in 1910, 1920 and 1930. She resided in Sandusky, Ohio during these years. In October of 1933, Rose Ball was on the featured speakers at the banquet of the Nurses’ Alumnae Association of Providence Hospital, which was held at the Hotel Rieger. After having been in poor health for several years, Miss Rose Ball died on September 6, 1956 in Tiffin, Ohio. Though we do not know the exact year of Rose’s graduation from nursing school, this is how Providence Hospital looked in 1910. The facility formerly known as Providence Hospital is now the South Campus of Firelands Regional Medical Center. 

Books about Birds by Alice E. Ball

In the Local Authors Collection of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center are two books about birds by Alice E. Ball.

Alice E. Ball was an 1886 graduate of Sandusky High School. She was the daughter of Flamen Ball and Katharine Follett Ball, and a granddaughter of Oran and Eliza Follett. A Year with the Birds was published in 1916 by Gibbs and Van Vleck in New York City. Artist Robert Bruce Horsfall illustrated the book with 56 colored plates. Several species of birds were pictured, accompanied by poems. Alice E. Ball composed many of the poems, but some were by other poets.

On pages 60 and 61 is a poem by Alice E. Ball entitled “Robin Redbreast.” She described how she and her siblings left food for a family of robins outside the window pane. The same robin family came back every spring for four years,  much to the Ball family’s joy. In 1923 Alice E. Ball wrote another book about birds, also illustrated by Robert Bruce Horsfall.

This book was an introduction to over one hundred common birds of the eastern United States. Pictured below is a brief description of the song sparrow, accompanied with a color plate by Mr. Horsfall.

Alice E. Ball taught school for a year in Sandusky, and then she moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where she taught for twenty nine years in public and private schools. She died in New York City on April 24, 1948. Funeral services were held at the Riverdale Presbyterian Church in Riverdale, New York, and burial was at Cleveland’s Lake View Cemetery.

Miss Ball compiled a family history entitled Sketches of the Ball and Follett Families, which was privately published by the Vermont Printing Company in 1939. A copy of this title is found in the Family History section of genealogical books at the Sandusky Library. Touching tributes to both Oran and Eliza Follett are found in the book, helping readers learn personal details about these prominent early residents of Sandusky, Ohio.  Alice had fond memories of spending time in Sandusky with her maternal grandparents.

Genealogical Research with High School Alumni Publications

High School alumni directories can be very helpful in genealogical research. The page below shows both the maiden names and married names of female graduates. Since the directory was current to 1909, by searching the 1910 United States Census, more details about the graduates can be gleaned, such as place of birth, occupation, and the names of children and spouse. (U.S. Census records are available at the Archives Research Center on microfilm, as well as through the databases Ancestry Library Edition and Heritage Quest. See the Reference Staff for assistance.)
Laura Beattie married the Rev. Charles Dinsmore, and moved to Waterbury, Connecticut. Evelina Ball had become Mrs. George W. Perkins. Charles Henry Arndt had become a minister serving a church in Germantown, Pennsylvania. A. J. Weis was employed by the Keystone Fish Company in Erie, Pennsylvania.

The listings in the directory will provide the names of the classmates of your ancestors. By then searching through the appropriate Sandusky High School “Fram,” you can view photographs of various clubs, teams, and organizations, which give further details about the students of Sandusky High School throughout several decades. Yearbooks from St. Mary’s Central High School and Perkins High School can also be found at the Archives Research Center.

In 1994, the Sandusky High School Alumni Association published an Alumni Directory, which is shelved immediately after the collection of high school yearbooks from Sandusky High School. The Alumni Directory serves as an index to the yearbooks, giving the year of graduation, and providing the maiden name of females. An address that was current in 1994 is also listed. At yearly class reunions, current addresses of living graduates are usually proved in a pamphlet given to attendees.
Alice Reber Johnson is just one of the many persons whose names are listed in the “Complete List of Living Graduates of Sandusky High School from 1855 to 1909.”

Sandusky High School Class of 1884

Through the generous donation of local donors, the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library has a complete set of photographs of the Sandusky High School graduating class of 1884. The students’ photographs were taken by the studio of Bishop & Veitch. Willard A. Bishop and James H. Veitch had a photography studio opposite the Post Office in the Stone Block.

Charles F. Selkirk was the son of Clerk of Courts George O. Selkirk. When Charles passed away April 1931, his obituary was headlined with the words “Poet and Friend of Poets.” Charles F. Selkirk wrote many poems, some of which were published in the Sandusky Register by the pen name of “Solkirke.” You can read more about Charles F. Selkirk in Helen Hansen’s book AT HOME IN EARLY SANDUSKY, available at the Sandusky Library.

Sarah Howard was the first African American female graduate of Sandusky High School. She was born in Perkins Township to John and Abby Howard. Sarah taught school in Kentucky and Texas for seventeen years. She married Thomas Lawson and they moved to Ontario, Canada. Sarah died in Windsor at the age of 54, survived by her husband Thomas and son Clarence. You can read Sarah Lawson’s obituary in the Sandusky Star Journal of September 26, 1917.

Evelina Ball was the daughter of Katharine Follett Ball and Flamen Ball III, and the granddaughter of Oran and Eliza Follett. She married George Walbridge Perkins, a partner of J. P. Morgan. In 1903 G. W. Perkins purchased the Wave Hill House, a former summer home of the Theodore Roosevelt family. Wave Hill House is now part of a botanical garden in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx. Evelina was born at The Follett House in 1865, and lived in Sandusky while she attended Sandusky High School. When Katharine Follett Ball was dying in 1909, news of Evelina rushing to be near her mother’s side was printed in the New York Times.

James M. French was a very successful businessman in Sandusky, active in the insurance business, real estate, the local Red Cross, and many other civic activities. Mr. French’s obituary is found in the 1922 Obituary Notebook, located in the Archives Research Center. The community was greatly saddened at the death of James M. French. Classmate Charles F. Selkirk was an honorary pallbearer at his funeral, as was Congressman James T. Begg. There were so many attendees at the funeral that the First Congregational Church could not hold them all. The African American Boy Scout troop, which Mr. French helped to organize, stood at attention as the casket was taken to the hearse.

These are just a few profiles of the many graduates of Sandusky High School. Visit the Sandusky Library to learn more about early residents of our community.