Woodlawn Golf Course in Sandusky in the 1930s

The Woodlawn Golf Course opened at the corner of Camp Street and Perkins Avenue on May 30, 1931. The clubhouse was built by Miller Brothers, of Venice, Ohio. The firm of Opfer and Faber ran thousands of feet of tile, to provide adequate drainage for the golf course. Green fees were $1.00 for weekdays, and $1.25 on Sundays and holidays. On opening day, there were exhibition matches between Ed Windisch and Mel Carrier, and between Miss Polly Smith and Mrs. Cecil Laird. Pictured above are Mrs. Locke, Harley Hane, and Mel Carrier, the golf pro at Woodlawn. 

Several advertisements and announcements about the opening of the Woodlawn Golf Course appeared in the Sandusky Register of May 30, 1931.

The Manhattan store in Sandusky sold clothes that would make golfers “dress well” for the sport. Holzaepfel’s ran special sales on golf balls and golf clubs. 

In the snapshot below are: Mr. John Rheinegger, owner; Boyd Hamrick; and Chester Bohn, greenskeeper.

This is the Number 4 Fairway:

In the Spring of 1936, Charles Stamm took over the Woodlawn Golf Course as the manager and golf pro. During this economically-troubled era business declined, so that by 1938 and 1939 circuses were held on the grounds of the former golf course. This ad for the Parker and Watts Circus was featured in the Sandusky Star Journal of May 22, 1939.

Eventually, with the help of the Depression-era WPA, a new municipal golf course was created on the west side of Sandusky. An article in the May 20, 1940 issue of the Sandusky Register announced the dedication of the Mills Creek Golf Course. (The name is derived from the Honorable Isaac Mills, one of the founders of Sandusky.)

Dan Rice's Circus in Sandusky

The Sandusky Register of August 17, 1872 reported that while the afternoon crowd was not very large for Dan Rice’s Circus, every seat was filled at the evening performance. One of the favorite parts of the circus was when Frank Gardner did a double somersault over ten horses. Dan Rice kept the audience entertained with his “lively witticisms.” A blind horse named Excelsior, Jr. was also very much admired by the audience. Prof. Menter’s band was “the best we have seen in connection with any circus.” 

Dan Rice had a long and interesting career in traveling entertainment. After he died on February 22, 1900, a lengthy article about him appeared in the February 27, 1900 issue of the Sandusky Star. The article reported that he had been a frequent visitor to Sandusky, Ohio. Born Daniel McLaren in New York City in 1823, his father nicknamed him “Dan Rice” after a well-known Irish clown. The new Dan Rice made his own way in the world as a young man. After working for a time in Pittsburgh as a stable boy and a hack driver, he began traveling around the Midwest with his trained pig. In 1845 he began performing with the Seth B. Howes Circus. Eventually he became known as the “Shakespearean Clown,” as he performed dramatic readings while with the circus. It is said that Dan Rice was the first person to train and perform with a trained rhinoceros. After traveling with several entertainment shows and circuses, he created his own traveling show. Though he achieved great prominence, he earned and lost three fortunes during his long career, and he died a poor man. A blog post from the New York Times stated that some believe Dan Rice was the model for “Uncle Sam.” To read more about Dan Rice, borrow the book Dan Rice:The Most Famous Man You’ve Never Heard Of, by David Carlyon available through the ClevNet system

Sandusky Youngsters go to the Circus

While we do not know the exact date of the photograph above, the local Kiwanis Club often provided fun activities for Sandusky’s children. The June 15, 1930 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that the fifty of Sandusky’s youngsters were the guests of the Kiwanis Club at a matinee performance of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus. Members of the committee for the event were: Earl Zolman, Wentworth Graham, C. A. Thornbaugh, B. T. Gagen, George J. Doerzbach and M. J. McCabe. Sandusky’s Kiwanis Club was very civic minded, as they hosted a Christmas party for forty-five children from the Erie County Children’s Home on December 21, 1926.

Famed Circus Performer Clyde Beatty at the M. Hommel Wine Company

On May 26, 1937, Clyde and Harriet Beatty, along with several other individuals associated with the Cole Brothers Circus, visited the M. Hommel Wine Company and signed the guest book.

Clyde Beatty, a native Ohioan, was well known as a lion tamer and circus owner. Three special trains brought the Cole Brothers Circus to Sandusky on May 25, 1937, where a performance was given at the corner of Campbell and Pierce Streets.

Several guest registers from the M. Hommel Wine Company are now in the historical collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. The oldest guest register is from the M. Hommel Wine Company exhibit at the Pan American Exposition which was held in Buffalo, New York from June to October of 1901.  There was a guest register from the company’s display at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 -1905. The M. Hommel Wine Company also kept guest registers at its facilities in Sandusky, one dating from 1898-1917, and another from 1917 to 1967. An article which appeared in the July 1, 1963 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that Buffalo Bill and former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt had also visited the M. Hommel Wine Company and signed the guest register.

Michael Hommel was born in France in 1844. He learned how to make wine in the French town of Epernay which is known for its fine champagne wines. He came to Sandusky in 1871, where he worked for Mr. W. H. Mills, a local winemaker. In 1878 Hommel established a winery and residence at the northeast corner of Clinton and Pearl Streets. Here is a picture of the M. Hommel Wine Company, at 1422 Clinton Street, taken in March of 1955:

It soon became a thriving business. The M. Hommel Winery specialized in naturally fermented champagnes derived from grapes grown in the Lake Erie Islands region. The Hommel wine cellars were carved out of limestone, and maintained a constant temperature of fifty degrees all year round. After Michael Hommel’s death in 1903, his son William H. Hommel took over the business. The Hommel Wine Company acquired the Diamond Wine Company in 1906. This gift package was distributed by the Hommel Wine Company in the 1930s.

The M. Hommel Company stayed in the Hommel family until 1945, when it was sold to outside interests. In 1971 a fire destroyed the Clinton Street buildings that had once housed the M. Hommel Wine Company. An apartment complex is now located at the site of the former winery. An unopened bottle of extra dry American champagne, produced and bottled by the M. Hommel Wine Company, is displayed in the Industry Room of the Follett House Museum.

Indoor Circuses Held at Jackson Junior High

From 1940 through 1958, the Sandusky Industrial Union Council sponsored an annual indoor circus, which was held at Jackson Junior High School. The event was sponsored by . The November 1940 performance by the Patterson Brothers included trained horses, trapeze artists, clowns, and comical dogs and monkeys. A feature of the 1940 indoor circus was a trained pony that kicked footballs into the stands. In the 1941 Indoor Circus, Buck Owens appeared with his horse Goldie.

Buck Owens was a native Sanduskian. He was born Max Geis, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Geis, who lived on Clinton Street in the 1940s. 

Below is an advertisement for the indoor circus held on March 17, 1949, which appeared in the March 12 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News. School age children could attend the event for forty cents.

The indoor circus of 1953 featured the Lehmback family from Fort Wayne, who performed balancing, juggling and acrobatics. Captain Walcott also brought trained dogs and ponies to entertain the crowds. In 1958, aerialist named “Miss Consuelo” performed. Area residents recalled her last appearance in Sandusky when she was featured during the halftime show of the Harlem Globetrotters game. 

While the indoor circus was not as large as a traditional circus, the Junior High provided a convenient location for most area residents.

Frank Shepherd Trapeze Artist

In the biographical files of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center is an undated promotional item for Frank Shepherd, who was listed as “America’s Premier Single Trapeze Artist.” An article in the April 8, 1937 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal reported that Shepherd began his circus career when he was only fourteen years of age. He performed with the Cole Brothers Circus, Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus, and several smaller circuses. Mr. Shepherd was born in 1893 in Huron, Ohio, and his family lived in Sandusky, Ohio for several years. The Sandusky Register of June 5, 1938 reported that he was known for his appearances as the guest artist at the popular gym circuses held by Sandusky City Schools.

In 1936, Mr. Shepherd was seriously injured in an accident in Des Moines, Iowa. He missed a connection on a double flip with heel catch, and was hospitalized with two broken legs and two broken arms. He returned to the circus, but in 1943, he again was injured in a fall during a circus performance in Akron, Ohio. That injury also was serious, and kept him in a wheelchair for several years. 

P.T. Barnum's "Greatest Show on Earth" Visits Sandusky

P. T. Barnum was one of America’s most well known showmen and entrepreneurs. He is probably best known for his association with the Barnum and Bailey Circus. In 1881, he merged his show with competitor James Bailey, to form the Barnum & Bailey’s Circus, which would later become the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
On Friday, July 19, 1878, P. T. Barnum’s “Greatest Show on Earth” visited Sandusky, following a show in Cleveland, Ohio. The Sandusky Register carried a lengthy article on July 20, 1878, which gave details about the event. Railroads brought carloads of people to Sandusky, as did steamboats. The steamship Hayes brought two hundred sixty visitors to Sandusky to see Barnum’s exhibit. The reporter wrote, “There is a magnetic power about the name of Barnum that draws like a gigantic mustard plaster. The simple announcement that his show is coming creates a fever of excitement among the juveniles and stirs up the more sluggish blood of grown persons, for all realize that when Barnum comes they will have an opportunity of witnessing a more imposing street parade, viewing the animal wonders of a more extensive menagerie, and attending a grander arenic display than any other manager can afford delight his patrons with..”

Fred Lawrence, press agent for P. T. Barnum, gave a representative of the Sandusky Register a tour of the stables, museum, and pavilions before the opening of the show. The stables held not only the performing stallions, but also large animals used to transfer the tents, baggage, and chariots between the railroad station and the show grounds. Four hundred persons had their meals in the large canvas dining hall, though The West House did serve one hundred members of the Barnum troops on July 19. The first exhibition tent was the Museum, which contained automatic figures, sea monsters, and preserved snakes and birds. The next tent featured a wide selection of animals, a group larger than any other traveling show in the country.

“Captain Costentenus” was a major attraction in the 1878 “Greatest Show on Earth.” He was a person of Greek heritage who was tattooed from head to foot, as a punishment when he was imprisoned by the Chinese Tartary. Another person who traveled with the Barnum show as an exhibit was Col. Goshen, a giant who stood eight feet tall in his stocking feet. The last tent was the “ring,” where daring equestrian feats were performed by a fearless riders and trained stallions. An estimated twelve thousand people attended the Barnum shows the afternoon and evening of July 19, 1878. The Register reporter stated that “the horses seem almost endowed with human intelligence.” The writer concluded with the statement that all who witnessed the performances felt that Mr. Barnum “can justly lay claim to having the ‘Greatest Show on Earth’”

Next to the Register’s feature article about Barnum’s circus was a small article about two pickpockets from Cleveland, named “Papes” and “Mollie Matches.” They followed the Barnum show to Sandusky, but after being alerted by authorities in Cleveland, Marshal Berrigan ordered the two would-be thieves out of town.

The core exhibit of the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut features the life of P. T. Barnum. Visit the museum’s website to learn more about P.T. Barnum and his many accomplishments.