Happy Sweetest Day

Did you miss Sweetest Day? It's Saturday, October 17 (today as posted) this year, and it has a nearly century-long history with northern Ohio roots.

On October 7, 1921, the Sandusky Register and the Sandusky Star Journal both featured several articles and advertisements to promote “National Candy Day,” which was celebrated in Northern Ohio on October 8, 1921.  This event later became known as Sweetest Day, now celebrated on the third Saturday in October. Sweetest Day was begun in Cleveland in the early 1920s when a group of local businessmen provided thousands of orphans and elderly residents with boxes of candy. Silent film star Theda Bara assisted in the distribution of candy in Cleveland.

According to the 1921 Sandusky City Directory, at that time Sandusky had two candy manufacturers, two candy wholesalers, and thirteen retail confectioners. All these businesses sold or distributed candy and other sweet treats. The Catawba Candy Company, located at southwest corner of Decatur and Water Streets, was known for its “Catawba kisses.”

Fred A. Martin was the proprietor of Martin’s Confectionery, which dealt both in wholesale and retails confections, ice cream, and baked goods.

Several Sandusky drugstores and groceries also carried a wide variety of candy to help Sanduskians celebrate the sweetest day or the year in 1921.

Promotion at N. R. Holzaepfel Confectionery

In 1916 Norman R. Holzaepfel operated a confectionery at the corner of Madison Street and Columbus Avenue in Sandusky. His shop sold cigars, candy, newspapers and magazines. The March 23, 1916 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal featured a small ad that stated that every customer who made a purchase on Saturday, March 25, 1916, would be given a free copy of the Saturday Evening Post. Here a group of news carriers hold copies of the magazine in front of the store. In 1919 Norman Holzaepfel ran a newsstand at the West House hotel.

Mr. Norman R. Holzepfel’s obituary, which appeared in the October 20, 1970 issue of the Sandusky Register, indicated that Mr. Holzaepfel had been a concessionaire in the Sandusky area for fifty years.