Sanborn Maps, An Invaluable Historical Resource

 

The Sanborn Map Company published maps between 1867 and 1970 to help fire insurance companies determine potential risks for buildings in American cities. While their value for insurance policies has long ended, these maps serve a new purpose for historians and family history researchers. Precise locations of buildings and streets are included on the maps, as well as the types of construction materials used, water sources available, and how buildings were heated, among other information. While individual property owners are not usually given, researchers can find out the location of the homes and places of employment of their ancestors. 

At the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center, Sanborn Maps can be accessed in a variety of formats. There are physical copies of the 1886 and 1905 atlases stored in the Archives, another atlas, with revisions into the 1950s, is also available for viewing. Microfilm roll 6885 contains copies of the 1886, 1893, and 1905 Sanborn Maps for Sandusky. And a digital collection of 40,000 Sanborn Maps of Ohio cities is accessible to Ohio library users through OPLIN Databases. This digital collection can be accessed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to holders of Ohio library cards. Some examples from this collection are below.

The J. Kuebeler and Company Brewery was located on the west side of Sandusky in 1886, on Tiffin Avenue.

This 1886 Sanborn Map shows locations of the Kuebeler brewery’s malt storage, fermenting unit and ice houses, along with many other details about the facility.

The Sandusky Library appeared on page 25 of the 1905 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map.

In the original library building, the reading room in the east wing of the Carnegie building had a skylight, and a music hall was in the west wing, complete with an area for storing scenery. Notes indicate that the library was heated with steam heat.

The street names and house numbers found on the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps seem to come alive when one can locate photographs taken of a specific location. Below is a section of the 1893 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map which shows the corner of Monroe and Hancock Streets.

William Brehm had a dry goods store at 631 Hancock Street in 1893. The front window of Mr. Brehm’s store is visible in the picture below which also shows car number 9 of the Sandusky, Milan and Norwalk Electric Railway in 1893.

Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to learn more about the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Sandusky.

Women's History Month Wrap-Up: Finding Information about Your Female Ancestors in Erie County

March is Women’s History Month, and in honor of the women of our area, here are some tips on how you can locate information about your female ancestors in Sandusky and Erie County. 

For the earliest settlers in Erie County, you can check the index of the Firelands Pioneer. There is a general index arranged by surname, and a separate index for obituaries. In the June 1865 issue of the Firelands Pioneer, Truman Taylor recounts his grandmother’s account of  how several families moved from Glastonbury, Connecticut to Perkins Township in Erie County, Ohio in 1815, by oxen train.

The women had to wash clothes along the way, sometimes hanging the wet laundry on a brush pile to dry. The families camped at night, stopping in a location with pastures for the cattle and horse. They took provisions along with them, consisting of bacon, bread, butter and cheese. Once they settled in Erie County, the pioneers had to clear the land, build cabins, and till the tough prairie sod.

Two sources that provide information are Mothers of Erie County, by Marjorie Cherry Loomis, and Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve, edited by Mrs. Gertrude Van Ressselaer Wickham. These books are anecdotal in nature, and provide biographical information about the earliest female residents of Erie County. The Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve was originally written in five parts, and is housed in a bound two volume set, shelved in the genealogical section of books in the lower level of the Sandusky Library.  The pages devoted to women from Sandusky are found in Part 1, pages 158 to 164. Mrs. Jane Hartshorn, daughter of William Kelly, recalled that when her family settled in Sandusky in 1818, there were only five frame houses in Sandusky at that time. All the rest were built of logs. The family stayed in a small log house that had been used as a cabin for fishermen. It had no fireplace, just a stone hearth, and very little furniture or dishes. Though times were difficult, she remembered those early days with fondness. Jay Cooke remembered his mother, Martha Simpson Carswell Cooke, working at her spinning wheel, to prepare material for the children’s clothing and stockings. When Martha’s husband, Eleutheros, brought back cans of oysters from the east, she shared liberally with her neighbors. Jay Cooke recalled that his mother had wise counsel and unfailing Christian love. There are indexes in the back of volume two of Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve arranged by the surname of the pioneer women, as well as an index to towns and counties.

For genealogical information about your female ancestors, the Sandusky Library has access to Ancestry Library Edition and Heritage Quest. An outstanding online resource, available to anyone with computer access, is FamilySearch.org. This database is particularly strong in Ohio information, such as birth, marriage, and death records and some census data.  Sources available inside the Sandusky Library include school yearbooks, Sandusky city directories, Erie County directories and histories, obituaries in the microfilmed copies of the Sandusky Register, and church records, also on microfilm. Hundreds of historical photographs are housed at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. Inquire at the Sandusky Library for more information.

A fun way to learn a bit more about women from Sandusky and Erie County, search for  women ​in the Labels list to the left. In these links, you can read, for example, about women working for the war effort in World War II.

Sarah Howard was the first African-American female to graduate from Sandusky High School.

The Woman’s Endeavor was a newspaper published by Sandusky women in 1908. In 1920, there was an all-women jury in a courtroom at the Erie County Courthouse. Dr. Carrie Chase Davis was one of the first female physicians in Sandusky, and was also known for her active involvement in women’s rights.

Two other notable Sandusky women we cannot forget are Marie Brehm, the first legally qualified female candidate to run for the vice-presidency of the U.S., and Jackie Mayer, Miss America of 1963, now a motivational speaker. Jackie Mayer speaks about her recovery from a near-fatal stroke when she was 28.

The Woman's Endeavor

(March is Women's History Month.)

A gift from Charles E. Frohman, the newspaper entitled The Woman’s Endeavor was published on Saturday, March 21, 1908, selling for ten cents. The proceeds from the sale of The Woman’s Endeavor were designated to be used for the equipping and maintaining of a Women’s Rest Room and its associated activities.
Featured in the newspaper were articles about pioneers of Sandusky, the Underground Railroad, and histories of several area organizations, including the first Children’s Home, the Erie County Humane Society, and the first ladies literary society. Poems and jokes, as well as articles about fashion, cooking, and household hints, were also included.

Several local business owners purchased advertisements in The Woman’s Endeavor. Besides the many male doctors, dentists, and other businessmen who purchased ads, there were two advertisements placed by women business owners. Jessie Meenan ran a millinery shop in the Sloane block of Washington Row, and Marie Bruckner had a corset shop at 204 Columbus Avenue.

Three members of the editorial staff of The Woman’s Endeavor, Mrs. J. F. Hertlein, Mrs. J. T. Mack, and Mrs. T. M. Sloane, went on to serve on the first female jury in Erie County in 1920. Two female physicians were associated with this newspaper: Dr. Emily Blakeslee had an advertisement, and Dr. Carrie Chase Davis wrote a feature article in this publication.

Many women of Sandusky were active in the Women’s Suffrage movement. In 1903, a state suffrage convention was held in Sandusky. Marie C. Brehm, born in Sandusky in 1859, was a suffragette, and also the first legally qualified female candidate to run for the vice-presidency of the United States. She ran on the Prohibition ticket in 1924, with Herman P. Faris.